Albert Charles Houghton (April 13, 1844 – August 11, 1914) was an American businessman and politician who served as the first mayor of North Adams, Massachusetts.

Biography

Albert Charles Houghton was born April 13, 1844, in Stamford, Vermont, to James and Chloe Houghton. He was the youngest son in a family of nine children. Houghton married Cordelia J. Smith of Stamford in 1866. They had four children, all of whom studied in

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. Houghton died as a result of injuries 11 days after a car accident that also killed his daughter Mary and her friend Sybil Cady Hutton. The

chauffeur A chauffeur is a person employed to drive a passenger motor vehicle, especially a luxury vehicle such as a large sedan or limousine. Originally, such drivers were often personal employees of the vehicle owner, but this has changed to speciali ...

, John Widders, killed himself the next morning.

Businesses

Houghton was engaged in various business dealings. Before he was 21, he founded the Houghton Chemical Works of Stamford with his brother J.R. Houghton. By 1868, he was doing work in real estate and operating the Parker Mill in North Adams, Massachusetts. Houghton and his family moved to North Adams permanently in 1870. Houghton owned the North Pownal Manufacturing Company in North Pownal, Vermont. He became president of the Arnold Print Works in 1881. He was president and owner of the A.J. Houghton Brewing Company of

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, upon the death of founder A.J. Houghton in 1892. In 1877, he bought the Williamstown Manufacturing Company. In 1878 he bought the Eclipse Mill and Beaver Mill, both cotton manufacturing mills. In 1895 he became director of the

Boston & Albany Railroad The Boston and Albany Railroad was a railroad connecting Boston, Massachusetts to Albany, New York, later becoming part of the New York Central Railroad system, Conrail, and CSX Transportation. The line is currently used by CSX for freight. Pa ...

. He was also a trustee of

Williams College Williams College is a Private college, private liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Williamstown, Massachusetts. It was established as a men's college in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim Williams, a col ...

and sat on the boards of various banks. Five days prior to his death in 1914, Houghton purchased the

Mausert Block The Mausert Block is a historic commercial building at 19—25 Park Street in Adams, Massachusetts. Built in 1900-01, it is a prominent local example of Romanesque Revival architecture. It is one of the four brick buildings on Park Street along ...

Adams, Massachusetts Adams is a town in northern Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States. It is part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 8,166 at the 2020 census. History Nathan Jones purchased the township of ...

Politics

In 1868, Houghton was a member of the

state legislature A state legislature is a legislative branch or body of a political subdivision in a federal system. Two federations literally use the term "state legislature": * The legislative branches of each of the fifty state governments of the United Sta ...

in Vermont, representing his hometown of Searsburg.Vermont Personals
The Burlington Free Press (Burlington, Vermont) 23 Jul 1892, page 4, accessed at Newspapers.com When North Adams was incorporated as a city in 1895, Houghton was nominated by "all parties" and elected its first mayor.

Notes

1844 births Mayors of North Adams, Massachusetts Road incident deaths in Massachusetts Businesspeople from Massachusetts 1914 deaths 19th-century American politicians 19th-century American businesspeople People from Stamford, Vermont {{US-business-bio-1840s-stub