AS RECORDED IN:
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD OF
TOLLAND AND WINDHAM COUNTIES CONNECTICUT.
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF PROMINENT AND
REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS AND OF MANY OF THE EARLY SETTLED FAMILIES
PUBLISHER: J.H.BEERS & CO., CHICAGO; 1903
P.
1201
WILLIAM EDWIN DEMOND, a
coal and lumber merchant of Stafford Springs, Tolland county, was born March 6,
1855, in Springfield, Mass., the eldest son of Edwin Demond and Frances Taylor,
of Rutland, Mass. His ancestry is to
be traced back through five generations of sturdy New England millwrights and
farmers to Daniel Demond, of Leicester, Mass.
The date of the latter’s birth and the time of his settlement in
Leicester are unknown. From his son,
Elijah, born in Leicester, July 31, 1738, and known as Capt. Elijah Demond, are
descended all of that name in this country.
Capt. Elijah moved to Rutland where his grave can now be found.
His second child was Daniel Demond (2), the great-grandfather of the
subject of our sketch. Daniel’s
third son was Col. Miles Demond, who was prominent in local political circles.
His fifth son was Edwin Demond. This
makes five known generations and in every generation large families were the
rule. The name Demond is probably of
French origin and if certain clues or hints that are known could be followed it
might be possible to trace it to Huguenot refugees who came to this country
through England or Holland in the last years of the 17th century, and
of whom there was a large settlement at Oxford, Massachusetts.
From the beginning the family has been
identified with the Congregational Church.
Edwin
Demond by his first wife had two sons, William E. and Charles Taylor, and by a
second wife, five children. Charles
Taylor Demond, after being educated in the Westfield high school and Boston
University, entered the profession of journalism, working on the Springfield Republican,
Boston Globe, Philadelphia Press, Chicago
Herald, and New York World.
He is now the western manager of the Associated Press, with an office at
Denver. William Edwin was taken to
his grandmother’s in Rutland upon the death of his mother, where he remained
for several years. At the end of
this time, his father having married Mary Bemis, of Paxton, he came to West
Springfield to live with them. There
he was one of the first to enter the old West Springfield high school.
At sixteen, however, he left school to take a place as clerk and
bookkeeper in the office of the Southworth Company.
Two years later he went to North Adams as bookkeeper and paymaster for
the North Adams Manufacturing Company. He
next entered the employ of Chas. Van Benthuysen & Son, of Albany, N.Y., a
firm in the printing and publishing business, as salesman.
After he had held this place for about a year he was invited back to his
old home as paymaster by the Agawam Canal Company, and remained in their employ
until 1886. In connection with the
paymastership of the mill he bought and carried on a coal and trucking business.
This he consolidated in about two years with the trucking business of
William F. Cook, under the firm name of Cook and Demond.
The coal business was operated under the firm name of Demond, Edgarton
& Co.
In
1886 Mr. Demond began a business in Springfield with Henry Newell,
under the firm name of Demond and Newell, wholesale paper-dealers.
After one year this business was closed out.
Mr. Demond then returned to Mittineague, West Springfield, where he built
his home. There he expected to spend
his life but in November, 1888, in partnership with William F. Cook he purchased
the coal and lumber business of Chester J. Holmes in Stafford Springs, Conn.,
and operated the same under the name of W.E. Demond and Company until 1891.
At this time the partnership was dissolved, Mr. Demond taking the
business in Stafford Springs, and Mr. Cook that in West Springfield.
In 1891 Mr. Demond purchased the lumber yard of Mr. T.N. Austin in
Greenfield, Mass., and incorporated the same under the laws of Massachusetts.
He became the president of the company and Mr. W.B. Gaines, of
Greenfield, treasurer and active manager. The
business under the latter’s management has grown and has been extended by the
adding of a branch yard at Northampton. Since
1895 Mr. Demond has been running saw mills at Stafford and Norwich, Connecticut.
Mr.
Demond has always been connected with the Congregational Church and
Sunday-school. In politics he is
independent. He belongs to the
Temple of Honor, Ionic Lodge, No. 110, A.F.& A.M., and Orient Chapter, No.
42, R.A.M.
Mr.
Demond was married May 25, 1882, to Sarah Harrison, of North Adams, a daughter
of Almon Bradford and Eliza (Marsh) Harrison.
To this union were born: Charles
Harrison, born Aug. 16, 1883, at Mittineague;
Maurice, born Jan. 8, 1885, at Mittineague;
Grace Eliza, born April 21, 1886, at the same place, who died Oct. 17, of
the same year; William Malcolm, born
Dec. 20, 1888, in Mittineague, who died July 11, 1889;
Robert Norton, born Oct. 26, 1891, at Stafford Springs;
Miles Elijah, born June 2, 1894, at Stafford Springs; Daniel
Bradford, born September, 1895, at the same place.
Reproduced by:
Linda
D. Pingel – great-great granddaughter of Cyrus White of Rockville, CT.
This page was created by Linda Pingel on
April 7, 2008
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