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Bartlett, George F. The business reputation of the firm of this name has extended to, practically, all points
where shipping is an interest; and the name itself was of prominence in the business life of New Bedford for over
half a century. Ivory Hovey Bartlett, with his young wife, came to New Bedford in 1819, and established a livery
business. He soon gained a good foothold in the town, which at that time offered high advantages to a man of energy,
and in a few years he started in the grain trade at the foot of Union street, and this, led to his assuming an
interest in shipping, which gradually increased to large proportions. It would be well before proceeding to pay
some tribute to Ivory H. Bartlett, the man. Throughout his entire life he remembered the precept, "The poor
ye have with you always." In the first winter of his residence in New Bedford, when he himself had hardly
gained a start, it is said that he collected over $500 and distributed it personally among the poor, which he continued
to do every winter for about forty years, and later he established soup houses and various like enterprises, in
many instances supporting them largely out of his own pocket When he went to his reward the people realized that
they had suffered a great loss. He was always a firm advocate of temperance and refused to allow the sale of intoxicants
in his buildings, although Lhis course often meant a loss of money. For many years he was an active member of the
North Congregational Church and afterwards of the old Pacific Congregational Church. He died in 1871, having reached
his seventy seventh year. The possession of these qualities did not interfere with the fact that he was essentially
a man of business and his various interests developed rapidly. In 1847 he took his second son, Ivory H. Bartlett,
Jr., into the business and the firm name became I. H. Bartlett & Son, and so continued until 1854, when his
third son, George F. Bartlett, was admitted a partner, and it was changed to I. H. Bartlett & Sons. Two younger
sons, William H. and Robert W., were also connected with the business for many years. His oldest son, Abner Bartlett,
was in charge of the Astor real estate in New York for many years. The commission business of the firm started
in 18:39, when a representative of the London firm of Langton & Bicknall came to New Bedford to secure a representative
at this port to buy oil. He stopped at the Bartlett residence, selected Mr. Bartlett to execute his commissions,
and this was the beginning of a large comniission business, as well as of a fifty years' connection with the house
above mentioned, for which I. H. Bartlett & Sons frequently purchased as many as ten thousand barrels of sperm
oil in a year. After their father's death the sons, I. H. Bartlett, Jr., and George F., continued the business
and later, upon the death of I. H. Bartlett, Jr., in 1880, George F. Bartlett continued under the old name until
1894, when he advertised the dissolution of the firm.
George F. Bartlett, third son of Ivory H. and Betsey (Clark) Bartlett, was born in New Bedford in the old Ricketson
house, at the southwest corner of Acushnet avenue and Union street. He attended the public and high schools of
New Bedford and Phillips Academy at Andover, and, like his brothers, he entered his father's office at an early
age and was trained for the position he was to occupy as partner. He is today one of the best known of the older
business men of the city, but has never held public office, with the exception of six years, 1891-1897, as a member
of the Board of Public Works, and a director in the Merchants' National Bank since 1866. He is an industrious and
enthusiastic student of geneaology and history and has a carefully preserved collection of historical relics, which
will sometime pass into possession of the city. It will be remembered that this firm owned the famous old ship
Progress, which figured in the "Arctic disaster of 1871," sailed with the "Stone Fleet," and
was finally sold by Mr. Bartlett to Henry E. Weaver of Chicago for the World's Columbian Exposition, where it was
exhibited. Mr. Bartlett married, in 1852, G. A, daughter of Gideon Nye of Acushnet, and of their eight children,
only three are now living. The genealogy of the Bartlett family is interesting, the original Bartlett in America,
Robert, by name, having come to Plymouth Colony in 1623, in the ship Anne. He married Mary Warren and thus Joined
the two families. His descendants lived in the vicinity of Plymouth several generations, and Betsey Clark, who
married Ivory H, Bartlett, was also directly descended from Puritan stock, having been the granddaughter of Israel
Clark of Manonset Ponds.
From:
Our county and its people
A descriptive and biographical history of
Bristol County, Massachusetts
Prepaired and published under the auspices of
The Fall River News and The Taunton Gasette
With assistance of Hon. Alanson Borden
The Boston History Company, Publishers, 1899.
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