FLETCHER. FLETCHER 219 dining the summer months being engaged in farming. Mr. Flagg was married in Needham, No- vember 15, 1827, to Eliza, daughter of Ben- jamin and Sarah (Brown) Hall. Mrs. Flagg died April 7, 1S75, aged seventy-three years. Of this union were three children: Charles Henry (deceased), George H. P. and Charles G. Flagg. Mr. Flagg has been honored above most of his fellow-citizens, by being called to occupy every important office in the gift of the town — town clerk thirty-eight years, town treasurer twenty-one years, selectman five years, representative to the General Court two years (1834 and 1S61), assessor twenty years, and member of the school board twenty-eight years. It is largely due to the unostentatious lives of such conscientious, reliable citi- zens that Massachusetts holds her proud pre-eminence in the character and stability of her cherished institutions. FLETCHER, ASA A., son of Nahor and Chloe Fletcher, was born in Mendon, Worcester county, June 23, 1823. He attended district schools from ten to thir- teen weeks in winter until seventeen years old. This, with six months' high school attendance, closed his school life. His first connection in business was as traveling salesman in the boot and shoe interest. He traveled in Ohio, Indiana, and Michigan, carrying his samples on horseback, as was the custom in those days, depending upon horse-teams to dis- tribute merchandise, and taking in payment the produce of the farm, or the paper money of wild-cat banks, with which the country at that time was flooded. The venture was not a success, owing mainly to the heavy exchange on New York, reach- ing at times twenty per cent. Returning home, he found employment in a boot manufactory, where he remained seven years, the last few years as fore- man. Failing health compelled him to change his business. He removed to Uxbridge and engaged in the boarding, hotel, livery stable, and butchering business. After five years of success, he sold out the busi- ness and removed to Franklin; engaged in hotel business five years; sold out again, and spent the three following years in Chicago and Toledo, engaged in the straw business. This, also, was a financial success. Selling out his interest, he returned to Franklin, and again took up hotel business, with which he continued to be successfully identified until 1870, when he engaged in Dean Academy as steward, where he re- mained twelve years. He has been selectman, assessor, and overseer of the poor, holding one or more ASA A. FLETCHER. of those offices continuously for sixteen years, and is more or less engaged in town business, which, with the cultivation of a small farm, makes up his present vocation. He is director and vice-president of the Franklin Savings Bank, director of the Franklin Water Company, and a member of F. & A. M., and I. O. O. F. Mr. Fletcher was married in Manches- ter, Conn., in October, 1S47, to Harriet E., daughter of William and Ede Durkee. Of this union were two children : Austin B. and a daughter, deceased. FLETCHER, DANIEL W., son of Rufus R. and Sarah M. (Whitney) Fletcher, was born in Groton (now Aver), Middlesex county, Feb. 1, 1852. His early education was limited to dis- trict schools. At the age of thirteen, his father needing the aid of his boy's hands to contribute to the family support, he se- cured work in R. T. Bartlett's clothing store. He attended school the following- winter, and the fall and winter of iS66-'67 at Lawrence Academy, Groton, working in the store nights and mornings, and during vacations.
