CHARLES FREDERICK MINOTT – The Minotts are an old Massachusetts family who, however unlike most of the original New England settlers, are of predominating Dutch and French origin. To mention only the immediate ancestry we know that the grandfather of Mr. C. F. Minott, of Greenfield, was of French origin, while the grandmother was of Dutch descent. Their children were: 1. Henry. 2. Aaron. 3. Charles. 4. William H. 5. Frank. The grandfather was engaged in the time-honored and old-fashioned trade of welldigging.
William Horatio Minott, father of Charles F. Minott, was a native of Jamestown, New York, born in 1826, and died in Springfield in 1902. As a boy William H. Minott lived in a log cabin with a dirt floor and had to cut logs to bum in the fireplace. As a young man he came to Massachusetts and enlisted in the Civil War in Company F, Twenty-second Connecticut Regiment, for nine months’ service. He drove an eight-mule team, was injured and spent some time in the hospital. He married, in Connecticut, and for a time worked in the carpet mills in Thompsonville, Massachusetts. Later he located in Springfield and accepted work in the United States Armory, at the same time taking up house painting. He followed that trade up to the time of his death. He was a member of the Grand Army of the Republic. His wife, Sarah Jane (Tate) Minott, was born in the North of Ireland, in 1837, and died in 1920. She was of Scotch descent, being a daughter of Mrs. Ann (Cornell) Tate. The children of the marriage are: 1. Charlotte, who died in infancy. 2. Sarah, who died in infancy. 3. Charlotte, who married Charles A. Holmes, of Springfield. 4. Sarah. 5. Effie, who died in infancy. 6. William, who died in 1923. 7. Charles F., of whom further. 8. Annie. 9. Mary, who married F. J. Roos.
Charles Frederick Minott is a native of Springfield, born July 22, 1866. Educated in the public school of Springfield, he learned, after completing his general education, the printer’s trade and accepted work for Curtis B. Wells, remaining with that firm for six years. After this he entered the service of the Springfield Printing & Binding Company, and having continued with them for some time went West and was located in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, for a period of eight years and then returned to the employ of Springfield printers, remaining there for eight years. He then went to Boston. In ipso he came to Greenfield. In 1911 he went into the printing business on his own account. Six months later he incorporated his business under the name of the Minott Printing & Binding Company, Inc., of which Mr. Minott is president and manager, and his son Ivan C. is treasurer. Mr. Minott has a veritable twentieth century establishment, equipped especially for the manufacturer’s needs with the most modem machines and type faces, with all operations performed on the same floor. Among their specialties are all kinds of shop and factory forms, office forms, ruled blanks and record forms, shipping orders, invoices and order blanks, stuffers, booklets, parts catalogs. The products go not only all over Vermont, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts, but also over the Canadian border. Mr. Minott is a big employer of labor and has had charge of men since seventeen years of age.
Mr. Minott married (first), March 14, 1891, Estelle Rich, born in New York State, and died 1901, a daughter of Thomas W. and Mathilda Sylvia (Berry) Rich. Married (second), in September, 1904, Elizabeth Genung, also a native of New York State. The children of the first marriage are: 1. Ivan Charles, born May 1, 1892, in Jesup, Iowa, educated in the public school of Springfield and Medford, is associated with his father in the printing business, and is treasurer of the Minott Printing & Binding Company, Inc. He is a member of Republican Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons, of Greenfield; a Companion of the Royal Arch Chapter of Greenfield; of the Council, the Commandery, Knights Templars, Melha Temple, Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, of Springfield, the Greenfield Club, and the Kiwanis Club. On October 7, 1913, he married Hazel Monteith, of Detroit, Michigan, a daughter of Robert J. and Charlotte (Keatly) Monteith, and with her has children: i. Ivan C., Jr., born August 21, 1914. ii. Russell Joseph, born October 21, 1921. iii. Jacqueline, born December 18, 1923. 2. Irene, born October 20, 1893, at Sycamore, Illinois; married Herbert F. Whitmore, of Bloomfield, New York. 3. Sylvia, born January 16, 1895, at Cedar Rapids, Iowa; married Raymond H. Spencer, of Greenfield, and with him has children, Sylvia Estelle and Verne. The children of the second marriage are: 1. Richard, born January 6, 1907, at Medford 2. Foster, born April 4, 1909, at Medford. 3. Dorothy, born March 27, 1911, at Medford. 4. Roswell, born March 16, 1913, at Greenfield.