Copyright USGenNet Inc., 2014 All Rights Reserved USGenNet Data Repository Please read USGenNet Copyright Statement on this page: Transcribed and submitted by Linda Talbott for the USGenNet Data Repository http://www.us-data.org/ ========================================================================= USGenNet Data Repository NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization. Non-commercial organizations desiring to use this material must obtain the consent of the transcriber prior to use. Individuals desiring to use this material in their own research may do so. =========================================================================== Formatted by USGenNet Data Repository Chief Archivist, Linda Talbott All of the above information must remain when copied or downloaded. =========================================================================== Biographical Review of the Leading Citizens of Hampden County, Massachusetts Pub. Biographical Review Publishing Company, Boston - 1895 [14-15] ANDREW GALE, Mayor of the city of Chicopee, and Superintendent of the Belcher & Taylor Agricultural Tool Company of Chicopee Falls, where his services as an inventor are not less valuable than his executive ability as a manager, was born March 8, 1836, at Stanstead, Quebec. The first ancestor of the name in America was RICHARD GALE, an Englishman who settled at Watertown, Mass., in 1640, and there devoted himself to farming. MR. ANDREW GALE'S great-grandparents were ABRAHAM and ESTHER (CUNNINGHAM) GALE, the former of whom was born in Weston, Mass, in 1720, and besides being a farmer, as was his father, was also a blacksmith by trade and occupation. He showed a rarely inventive mind as a boy, and the talent has been handed down through successive generations to the descendent whose name appears at the head of this sketch. The grandfather, ELISHA, was born in Millbury, Mass., and married MARY, daughter of HON. AMOS W. SINGLETERY, who served in the French and Indian War, and also in the war of the Revolution, in the latter struggle holding the rank of Second Lieutenant. ELISHA and MARY GALE, who lived to a green old age, were the parents of ten chil- dren, of whom AMOS C., born in Barre, Vt., November 26, 1793, was the father of ANDREW GALE. He married December 4, 1818, to RHODA ROYCE, who was born November 24, 1797. They were prosperous farm- ers and reared a family of six children - LORENA, WARREN, GEORGE, MARTHA and MARY (who were twins), and ANDREW. The parents led long and happily contented lives, the father reaching his ninety-third year, and the mother attaining "fourscore, by reason of strength." Both were of the Baptist faith. ANDREW GALE acquired his education in the district schools and in the academies at Derby and Barre, and at twenty-one years of age became a travelling salesman, representing firms manufacturing agricultural implements, and having Buffalo as a starting-point from which he radiated. Not long after, he and his brother bought several patents, and had the goods manufactured by the Whitmore & Belcher Company of Chicopee Falls. Buying out his brother's in- terests in these patents, he invested in stock in the Belcher & Taylor manufactory, of which he has been Superintendent for the past quarter of a century. MR. GALE has remodelled various imple- ments manufactured by the company, and by his improvements has given them superior durability, convenience, and finish. Each year he has produced a new invention in the line of farming implements, all of which have immediately found ready sale and gained great popularity. On the 6th of February, 1867, MR. GALE was married to MISS SEMIRA M. THAYER, who was born August 23, 1836, in Westmoreland, N.H. daughter of CARLTON and LOUISA (ALBEE) THAYER, the former a native of Westmoreland, N.H., and the latter of Chester, in the same State. MR. and MRS. THAYER were parents of a prolific family, numbering fifteen, thirteen of whom married, and ten of whom are now living. Each parent lived to be fifty-seven years old. The shadow of an irreparable sorrow has darkened this otherwise happy union, in the deaths of their three promising children -- AMOS R., ANDREW N., and JESSIE; and the handsome residence on Bond Street hears no sound of the childish patter and prattle of child or grandchild. MR. GALE is an active politician, and renders stanch support to the Republican party, to which he is loyally attached. He served as Alderman during 1892 and 1893, and was Chief Engineer of the fire department for several years. He was elected Mayor in December, 1894, which honor testifies to the esteem in which he is held by his fellow townsmen. MRS. GALE is a member of the Congre- gational church. =========================================================================== If you've reached this file through a SEARCH, you can access more of our growing collection of FREE online information by going to the following URL: http://www.us-data.org/ ===========================================================================