My Genealogy Hound

HORATIO BISBEE, an extensive real estate owner in Chesterfield, where he is actively engaged in farming, lumbering, and manufacturing, was born in this town, November 20, 1833, son of Orin and Wealthy (Damon) Bisbee, both natives of Chesterfield. Mr. Bisbee is of English descent. Some of his ancestors settled in Plymouth Colony less than twenty years after the landing of the Pilgrims. The names of John Bisbee and his son Gideon appear on the old records of Marshfield, Mass. Gideon Bisbee came to Chesterfield in 1755 and spent one summer, returning in the fall for his family and coming here the following spring just in time to engage in the French and Indian War. He died soon after with the small-pox. His widow, two sons, and two daughters then came to Chesterfield. Jotham Bisbee, son of Gideon, married Lydia, the daughter of Luther Curtis; and their son Elisha, who was one of a family of ten children, was the grandfather of Horatio Bisbee.

Orin Bisbee, son of Elisha, settled on a farm in the neighborhood of his son Horatio’s present residence, and during his lifetime cultivated the soil for family needs, at the same time pursuing other occupations, working as a carpenter and joiner, later at wagon-making, and finally engaging in lumbering. He died July 24, 1887, at the age of eighty. His wife, who is now eighty-five years old, is living at the homestead. They were the parents of the following children: Wealthy, wife of Chandler Macomber, of Chesterfield; Horatio; Mary, who died at the age of twenty-three; Lydia, wife of Joseph Macomber, one of the Selectmen of Chesterfield; Jane Z., widow of Cornelius Van Slike, who resides in Florence, Mass.; a child who died in infancy; and Almarin O., who married Martha Tilden and lives near his brother Horatio.

Horatio Bisbee received a good common-school education. When he was twenty-five years of age he purchased for a home the estate where he now lives, and has since been extensively engaged in general farming and stock-raising. He is sole proprietor of a grist-mill and a saw-mill, known throughout the county as Bisbee’s Mills, which have been in possession of the family seventy-five years, and has the grain trade of the town, with customers also in Williamsburg and a large lumber business. He also has near his farm a whip-butt factory, which has a large output, many of the goods finding market in Westfield. Mr. Bisbee’s real estate in all comprises about seven hundred and fifty acres. He is a man of rare business ability, and is acknowledged as such throughout the county. He has been Vice-President of the Hillside Agricultural Society ever since it was started, except two years, and is a Director in the Williamsburg Creamery Association.

On October 14, 1858, Mr. Bisbee was united in marriage with Louisa L., daughter of Lyman Rice, of Chesterfield, who was born July 6, 1837; and the following children were the fruit of their union: Mary L., who is with her parents; Willard Lyman, who died in early childhood; Charles Allen, who has charge of the grain business in Williamsburg, established by his father; and Homer Rice, who is with his parents. Mr. Bisbee has given to all his children the advantages of a good education.

In politics Mr. Bisbee is a Republican. He is a prominent man in the town, where he has served as Selectman two years; and he is a Trustee of the Haydenville Savings Bank. He and his household attend the Congregational church in Chesterfield and take an active interest in church work. Mr. Bisbee is a member of an old and respected New England family, whose prestige he maintains in a creditable manner, having attained his present state of prosperity through his own enterprising industry. His portrait here given shows a man not afraid of hard work and one not accustomed to squander time, which, as Franklin says, is the stuff that life is made of.