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OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE
A
DESCRIPTIVE AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD OF
BRISTOL COUNTY
MASSACHUSETTS
PREPARED AND PUBLISHED UNDER THE AUSPICES OF
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THE
FALL RIVER NEWS
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AND
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THE
TAUNTON GAZETTE
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WITH THE ASSISTANCE OF
HON. ALANSON BORDEN
OF NEW BEDFORD
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THE BOSTON HISTORY COMPANY, PUBLISHERS
1899
PART II
BIOGRAPHICAL.
A. Homer Skinner
A. HOMER SKINNER, lumber merchant, is the second son of Herbert Allen Skinner and
Sarah Chace, his wife, and was born in Fall River, Mass., December 10, 1858. Herber A. Skinner, a native of Mansfield,
Mass., was reared on a farm in Norton, and after coming to Fall River was for many years a leading carpenter and
builder, being the senior member or the firm of Skinner & Freeborn whose shop was located on Pleasant street
in the rear of the Coffee Tavern, where the city scales now stand. He served in the Common Council, was for several
years surveyor-general of lumber of Fall River, and is now associated with his son, A. Homer. He has had four children:
Herbert M. C., of Fall River, formerly superintendent of the New York Locomotive Works at Rome; Minnie, who died
young; and A. Homer and H. Emma. Miller Chace, A. Homer Skinner’s maternal grandfather, was a prominent citizen
of Fall River. He operated a large grist mill near the site of the present Pocasset Mill office, using the waters
of Quequechan River as a motive power. He died at the advanced age of ninety two.
A. Homer Skinner obtained his education in the public schools of his native city, graduating from the Fall River
High School at the age of sixteen. He then took a sea voyage to South .Carolina and Georgia, and upon his return
entered the employ of the Pocasset Coal Company, as an office boy and weigher of coal, at $3 a week. He remained
in this position until 1878, and then became bookkeeper for S. R. Buffinton & Co., serving in that position
three years, when he received an offer to become bookkeeper for Cook Borden & Co., lumber dealers. After three
years of service in that capacity the senior member of the firm transferred him to the yard to teach him the lumber
business, and gave him charge of receiving and assorting the lumber. He was employed with this firm until 1883,
and during the summer of that year assisted his father in surveying lumber as it came into the city. En December,
1883, he leased some land of the Union Cotton Manufacturing Company, at the corner of Pleasant street and Eddy’s
avenue, built some sheds, and began his career in the lumber business. He worked hard and diligently at first,
and by dint of his own perseverance and close attention to business prospered abundantly. In 1888, owing to the
gradual increase of his trade, he was compelled to buy, additional land and secured an acre on Danforth street,
between Maple and Walnut, where he built sheds and laid out the premises for a permanent yard. In 1893 he purchased
the wharf formerly owned by Benjamin Barker, on Davol street. The same year the Union Cotton Mill Company notified
him that he must give up his property on Pleasant street for the site of a new cotton mill. Mr. Skinner then bought
of the Troy Mill Company a tract of 100 rods on Sixth street, where be built offices and sheds, after first removing
six old buildings from the land. These sheds have a capacity of 200,000 feet of seasoned lumber. Mr. Skinner
has three places of business in Fall River, and by his energy, enterprise, and correct business methods has constantly
increased his trade and extended his importance and influence as a lumber merchant in his native city. He keeps
on hand a complete stock of spruce, hemlock, hard wood, white wood, hard pine and pine lumber. He has succeeded
in building up a large trade with a good class of customers who continue to patronize him because of his success
in providing them with the best lumber in the market.
Mr. Skinner is a member of the board of investment of the Union Savings Bank of Fall River, and holds the office
of justice of peace under appointment of Governor Ames. He resides at South Swansea, where he owns an elegant residence
with all the comforts of a perfect home. In 1886 he married Kate B., daughter of Nathaniel A. and Mary Pearce,
of Fall River, and they have one daughter, Bertha Louise.
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