U.S. Data Repository http://www.us-data.org/ -- USGenNet Inc. -- Please read the U.S. Data Repository Copyright Statement on the following page: ------------------------------------------------------------------- Collins, David S. (b. 1850) ------------------------------------------------------------------- Men of West Virginia, Volume II Biographical Publishing Company George Richmond, Pres.: C. R. Arnold, Sec'y and Treas. Chicago, Illinois, 1903 Pages 427-429 DAVID S. COLLINS, president of the Collins Lumber Company of Charleston, Kanawha County, West Virginia, and one of the prominent business men of the State, was born October 31, 1850, at Hopkinton, New Hampshire, and is a son of Dr. David O. and Achsah (Moore) Collins. Dr. David O. Collins was for many years a prominent physician at Hopkinton. He was born in England and came to America in boyhood. He graduated in medicine in New England, and gained eminence in the profession in his adopted State. His death took place in 1893, at the age of 86 years. Dr. Collins married Achsah Moore, whose ancestors came from England in the "Mayflower" members of the little band that landed on Plymouth Rock. These ancestors and their immediate descendants located on the Merrimac River where they waxed numerous and wealthy and founded the settlement of Deerfield. The only child born to Dr. and Mrs. Collins was the subject of this sketch. They were Congregationalists in their religious faith. David S. Collins attended the local district school and received academic training at Penacook Academy. Very early, even in boyhood, he displayed a business sense that has in its development made him one of the capitalists of West Virginia at the present day. He commenced work in a mill yard, where his services were required to pile up staves, manufactured for mackerel kits, and his pay was 33 cents a day. He continued at that work long enough to accumulate the sum of $100 and continued to attend the academy during the winter sessions. After three years of that employment, he accepted a clerical position in a general mercantile store and continued the position until 17 years of age. Through a fortunate purchase of timber land about this time, he realized $225, a large enough sum to enable him to extend his business operations. He learned the business of scaling logs and measuring lumber, a knowledge of which, later in life, proved of the greatest value. In 1870 he became bookkeeper for a large lumber and furniture manufacturing company, with which he remained until the age of 22, later becoming one of the salesmen, and still later superintendent of three of the company's mills. Three years later he invested his accumulations and formed a company for the manufacture of clothes pins, erecting a factory and installing the first stationary engine in Hillsboro County, New Hampshire. This venture did not prove as successful as he expected and Mr. Collins again became a lumber and furniture salesman, in this business covering the Northeastern States. He then formed a partnership with George E. Tillinghast in contracting and building, at Providence, Rhode Island, and at Portland, Maine. During his residence at Providence, he was for three years a member of the Board of Agriculture, and for six years secretary and treasurer of the Rhode Island State Fair; manager of the Narragansett Trotting Park and secretary and treasurer of the Rhode Island Horsebreeders' Association. He also served as secretary and manager of the Riding and Polo Club. After removing to Portland he became interested in a new and important enterprise. He purchased stock in and became manager of the Fossil Flour Mining & Milling Company. Later, with a friend, he purchased a controlling interest in the company and became its treasurer, a position he still retains. The plant was then moved to larger and more valuable mines in Nova Scotia, and a mill was built there, now in operation, at a cost of $47,000, the only one for refining tripoli in the world. He is the originator and inventor of the process of refining tripoli. Mr. Collins spent a fortune in experimenting, but finally succeeded in placing the product on the market. The company has a European, as well as a New York, office. The tripoli is an infusorial earth, taken from the bottom of the Northern lakes. Its chief use, in the manufactured form of fossil flour, is with rubber stocks, in the manufacture of rubber. It is described as a hollow, "boat shaped" diatom, practically a silicious sponge. Its uses are many and its value is becoming yearly better known. Mr. Collins came to West Virginia in 1899. He has spent much time in Europe, pushing his many enterprises, but is best known in this State as the very efficient president of the Collins Lumber Company, which exports more lumber to Europe than any other company in the State; and as treasurer of the Elkhurst Planing Mill Company, which owns and controls seven mills on the line of the Charleston, Clendenin & Sutton Railroad. Mr. Collins owns much real estate in Charleston and is engaged in building a number of handsome residences in a pleasant portion of the city. In addition to his other enterprises, Mr. Collins is one of the directors in the Clay County Bank, and is interested in timber lands in Clay County. In 1870 Mr. Collins married Rosalia A. Beard, who was born in New Hampshire. Their one daughter is the wife of Prof. Stephen S. Colvin, of Champaign, Illinois. ------------------------------------------------------------------- 1880 Census, Providence County, Rhode Island ED: 7, Page No. 4 Lines 13-16, Enum-Dwelling #25; Enum-Family #28 COLLINS, David S. (age 30) Hair Dresser, NH-Mass-NH ", Roselia A. (wife, age 26), Housekeeping, NH-Mass-NH ", Eva M. (dau, age 7), at School, NH-NH-NH ", David O. (father, age 75), Ret'd Physician, Mass-Mass-Mass ------------------------------------------------------------------- If you've reached this file through a SEARCH, you can access other biographies for Kanawha County, WV by going to the following URL: http://www.us-data.org/wv/kanawha/bios.html -------------------------------------------------------------------