History of Great Barrington, (Berkshire County) Massachusetts United States of America

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Biographies:

William Edward Burghardt Du bois, educator, was born in Great Barrington, Mass., Feb. 23, 1868; son of negro parents. His father was Alfred Du Bois, son of Alexander Du Bois, whose father was a French physician in the West Indies. His mother was Mary S. Burghardt, daughter of Othello Burghardt, whose grandfather, Thomas Burghardt, was a native chieftain, and was brought from Africa as a slave by the Dutch about 1750. He attended Fisk university, Tenn., and was graduated from Harvard in 1890, receiving the degree of A.M. in 1891. For two years he was fellow in sociology in Harvard and in 1892 was sent abroad by the trustees of the John F. Slater fund, to study history and political science, and remained at the University of Berlin for two years. He received the degree of Ph.D. from Harvard in 1895. On his return he became professor of Latin in Wilberforce university, Ohio, resigning the chair in 1896 to become assistant in sociology in the University of Pennsylvania, to take charge of a special investigation into the condition of the negro people in the city of Philadelphia. He was afterward made professor of economics and history in Atlanta university, Atlanta, Ga. He was married, May 12, 1896, to Nina Gomer. He is the author of: The Suppression of the African Slave Trade to the United States of America, 1638-1870 (1896); and the first volume of the Harvard Historical Studies published under the direction of the department of history in Harvard university. He also published: The Study of the Negro Problems (1898); The Philadelphia Negro, A Social Study (1898), and newspaper articles discussing sociological subjects.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

Franklin Leonard Pope, electrician, was born in Great Barrington, Mass., Dec. 2, 1840; son of Ebenezer and Electa Leonard (Wainwright) Pope; grandson of Ebenezer and Keziah (Willard) Pope, and of William and Mary (Leonard) Wainwright, and a descendant of Thomas and Sarah (Jenney) Pope. Thomas Pope emigrated from England to Plymouth, Mass., about 1630, and in 1674 removed to Dartmouth, Mass. Franklin Pope attended the public schools, learned telegraphy in Great Barrington, and was an operator there, in Springfield, Mass., and in Providence, R.I., 1857-62. He assisted in building lines for the American telegraph company, 1862-64, and for the Russo-American telegraph company, from Washington Territory, by way of Behring Straits, to Siberia, 1864-67; the system, which had been partially completed, being abandoned in 1867. While surveying this work he made known to geographers the sources of the Skeena, Stickeen and Yukon rivers. He entered into partnership with Thomas A. Edison in 1867, and with him invented the "ticker," afterward so extensively used in Wall Street and on all stock exchanges in the United States. He also invented in 1872 the rail circuit for automatically controlling electric block signals, and made valuable improvements in telegraph instruments. He was married, Aug. 6, 1878, to Sarah Amelia, daughter of Marquis Fayette and Hannah (Williams) Dickinson of Amherst, Mass. He was patent-attorney for the Western Union telegraph company, and in 1885 was elected president of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers. He edited the Electrical Engineer, 1884-95, and is the author of: Modern Practice of the Electric Telegraph (1871); Life and Work of Joseph Henry (1879). He was killed by a current of 3,000 volts, while superintending the construction of an electric plant at Great Barrington, Mass., Oct. 13, 1895.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor