SPEARE. SPRAG1 I. 569 Mr. Spaulding was a member of the Sheffield school board one year, of the
esl Stockbridge school board nineteen
years; assessor three years; town clerk fifteen years ; town treasurer fifteen years; has held a commission as justice of the peace since June, 1856, and as trial justice since March, 1861 ; was enrolling officer of the town during the war of the rebellion; postmaster for twenty-three years and eleven months, to April 20, 1886 ; has been treasurer of the Miners' Savings Bank since its organization in 1872 ; a director of the Housatonic National Bank three years ; and clerk of the Congregational society three years. He wrote the history of West Stockbridge, in 1S85, and in November, 18X8, was elected county com- missioner of Berkshire county for three years. Mr. Spaulding traces his ancestry back seven generations to Edward "Spolden," in England. SPEARE, ALDEN, son of Sceva and Jane (Merril) Speare, was born in Chelsea, Orange county, Vt., October 26, 1S25. After a common school education, he prepared for college at Newbury Seminary, Vt., but at the death of his father he was obliged to relinquish his cherished purpose of obtaining a college education. Turning his attention into the channels of a commercial career, he obtained em- ployment as clerk in the dry-goods store of L. Stetson, Jr., Boston. In 1848 he be- came salesman in a wholesale dry-goods establishment in Boston. He worked as salesman for different houses until 185 1, when he went into business with other gentlemen, under the name of Speare, Burke & Co., oils and starch. Mr. Speare is now a special partner in the firm of Alden Speare's Sons & Co., Boston. His residence is Newton. Mr. Speare was married March 1, 1849, to Caroline M., daughter of Lewis and Sarah M. Robinson. Of this union were the following children : Sarah Jane, Her- bert Alden, Emma Caroline, Ella Maria, Lewis Robinson, and Edwin Ray Speare — the first three deceased. Mr. Speare served on the Boston school board nine years. He was mayor of New- ton in 1876 and '77. He was several years director, and in 1857 the president, of the Y. M. C. A., Boston ; has been a member of the board of managers of the Foreign and Home Missionary societies of the Methodist Episcopal church since 1872 ; trustee and vice-president of the Boston University. He was in 1875, '82, 'Si), '87, and '88 president of the Boston Wesleyan Associa- tion, owners of the Wesleyan Building, Bromfield Street, Boston, and publishers of " Zion's Herald." He has been president of the Boston Chamber of Commerce ; president of the Arkansas Valley Town & Land Company, which owns some one hundred and fifty towns in Kansas and Colorado ; is a director of the Connecti- cut cS: Passumpsic River Railroad Company of Vermont, of the Mexican Central Rail- road, and of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe (since 1870), and of twenty-two other roads in Kansas, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and California, that are connected with, or operated by, the Atchi- son, Topeka & Santa Fe R. R. Company. He is a trustee of the Boston Penny Sav- ings Bank, a director in the Commercial National Bank of Boston, and of the Hamilton Woolen Company, Boston. The life of Mr. Speare has been one of uninterrupted activity, of hard, untiring labor, as the schedule of his tasks and the history of his successes will bear witness. He has been an important factor, not only in the business world, but in all the activi- ties of life incident to the career of one who lives not to himself alone. SPRAGUE, Augustus Brown Reed, son of Lee and Lucia (Snow) Sprague, was born in Ware, Hampshire county, March 7, 1827. His ancestors on both sides were of Puritan stock ; his maternal grandmother, Alice Alden, was a lineal descendant in the sixth generation from John Alden of the " Mayflower." He obtained his education in public and private schools ; was employed as a clerk in a dry-goods house in 1842, in Worcester, and engaged in mercantile business for himself from 1846 to '6r. In 1859 and '60 he was a member of the common council, and of the board of alder- men in 1S71 ; city marshal in 1867, and resigned to accept the office of collector of internal revenue for the 8th Massachusetts district, which office he held from March 4, 1S67, to July 1, 1872. He was appointed sheriff for the county of Worcester, July 5, 1 87 1, and has been elected for six suc- cessive terms of three years each. He is still holding the office to the full accept- ance of the county. Ceneral Sprague was an officer in the Massachusetts volunteer militia previous to the civil war, and on the 17th day of April, 186 1, he was elected captain of the Worcester City Guards, company A, 3d battalion rifles, and left for the seat of war,
