4 8 BAXTER. BEALS. setts for the proposed World's Fair in 1883, of which General U. S. Grant was elected president ; and Mr. Bates was elected as a member of the executive committee from New England- He has been for many years prominently identified with the great manufacturing interests of Massachusetts and New Eng- land, being a director in several large cor- porations, and for several years he has been president of the Corset Manufactur- ers' Association of the United States. He has ever been one of the foremost in any matters relating to the public wel- fare of his native town He was especi- ally interested and largely influential in the founding of the free public library and reading room. He is chairman of the board of trustees of this institution, and for its maintenance, in addition to numerous other contributions, he donated to the town his salary while in both branches of the Legislature. He took a very active part in the early promotion of the North Brookfield Railroad, as clerk and director, which positions he now holds ; and probably the railroad would never have been constructed but for his untiring energy and personal work. He was chair- man of the committee elected by the town to publish the town history of North Brookfield. This work, which is acknowl- edged by the highest authorities to be oi e of the best of its kind ever published, was completed and published in 1SS7, and reflects great credit upon all engaged in its compilation and production. It is a most thorough and critically accurate work ; it was several times rewritten and a large part of it revised and reprinted at great expense, and occupied ten years in its preparation and completion, and it is regarded as a model town history of New England. True to his friends, loyal to his party, ardently devoted to his native town, he has been a conspicuous and faithful mem- ber of that great body of intelligent citi- zens who control the destinies of the State. BAXTER, George Lewis, son of William W. and Ann E. (Weld) Baxter, was born in Quincy, Norfolk county, October 21, 1842. In the public schools of his native town he fitted for Harvard College, where he graduated in 1863, and immediately began to teach in a private school in Boston. From April to December, 1864, he was principal of the Reading high school, and then accepted the position of principal of the high school at Plymouth, which he held till July, 1867, when he became prin- cipal of the high school of Somerville, a position which he still occupies. On the 1 8th of July, 1872, Mr. Baxter was married, in Somerville, to Ida F., daughter of William and Sarah E. L. (Berry) Paul. They have one child, Greg- ory Paul Baxter. Mr. Baxter has been associate corporator and trustee of the Somerville Savings Bank since its incorporation. He is secre- tary of the John Abbot Lodge A. F. & A. M., and of the Somerville Chapter of R. A. Masons. BEALS, ELIAS S., was born in Wey- mouth, Norfolk county, October 20, 1814. He is the son of Lewis and Sarah S. ELIAS S BEALS, (Harding) Beals, and is descended in direct line from John Beal, who came from England in the " Diligent," arriving in Bos- ton, August 10, 163S. Mr. Beals had no early educational ad- vantages other than what the common schools of those days offered. When a boy he worked at masonry with his father, for three years. At eighteen years of age he learned shoe-making, and for a tew years worked at cutting and making shoes for neighboring manufacturers. His first speculative venture was a trading voyage South, with a cargo of boots and shoes consigned to him, or sold him on
