William Shaw

From the Andover Historical Society Newsletter, Spring 1988

William Shaw, a self-made man, was born in Ballard Vale on February 14, 1860, the fifth of six boys born to George and Sarah Shaw.

At twelve he left school to work in the Bradlee Woolen Mills as a spooler. He worked from half past six in the morning until half past six at night for thirty cents a day.

In August of 1881, at the age of twenty-one, he left home to work in Boston as a carpet salesman where his wages were six dollars a week. He attended evening schools and took a course in public speaking. It was due to this training that he could later speak to audiences of 15,000 or more.

At twenty-six Shaw was elected treasurer of the United Society of Christian Endeavor, a church organization for young people. An uneducated, untrained factory boy, he rose to become a dynamic leader in the World-Wide Christian Endeavor movement of the late 1880s, first as treasurer, then publication manager, general secretary and finally publisher of the Christian Endeavor World, an international publication. Later he received the largest vote ever cast for a Prohibition candidate when he ran for Governor of Massachusetts in 1915.

He married Mary Agnes Holmes, his childhood sweetheart, in 1892. In 1896 he built a home on Andover Street on the hill above the mill. After twenty years of marriage, Mary Agnes died in 1912. In 1914 he married Maude L. Chamberlain of Boston.

With all his church and public duties he remained faithful to his hometown. He was a life-long member of the Union Congregational Church of Ballard Vale where he served as deacon, clerk and superintendent of the Sunday School. He was an organizer and president of the Ballard Vale Village Improvement Society, an organization that accomplished much for the beautification of the village and for providing a center for its civic and social life, an organization that is still active.

He died on December 4, 1941 in Santa Monica, California. As one newspaper put it, "the Roosevelt of Religion has gone to rest."

The Shaw Brothers

Benjamin 1847-1905

Joseph 1849 - 1911

Charles 1852 - 1916

George 1856 -

William 1860 -

David 1862 -

Shaw Home

As printed in the March 21, 1957 issue of The Andover Townsman, “The elegant Smith-Shaw mansion of the “gay nineties”, with nary a face-lifting since the year she was build, will soon go down in a cloud of dust!”

Once an imposing example of the best in residential structure of the period, for an owner not excessively rich but of refined tastes, this dwelling reflected comfort and culture secured. It was built by a distinguished local contractor, William S. Jenkins, expressly for James B. Smith of Andover.

Christmas of 1903, David Shaw of BallardVale acquired the home and together with Mrs. Shaw (Lucy A. M. Hayward) lived there until Mr. Shaw's death on February 18, 1935 at the age of 73. During this span of 32 years the Shaws brought to the home an unusual grace and distinction fondly remembered by many Andover residents today who knew the Shaws and were their close friends.

The beautiful Shaw drawing room was the scene of many pleasant social and musical evenings, for both Mr. and Mrs. Shaw loved company and entertained their circle of friends with ease and grace. Here the South Church Whist Club met - the Shaws, Hollands, Whittemores, Brighams, Holmeses and Frenches. Whist would be played until the fine old clock on the stair landing chimed 12 and a delicious midnight supper finished off the game.

That the town acquired the Shaw property finally in 1944 was not a matter of mere chance. It was rather the evolvement of an oft-expressed desire of the Shaws to make available to the town of Andover their home at a nominal sum so that it might one day be used as a recreational center or be put to other public use.

From 1944 until 1951 the town used the Shaw home as a headquarters for the local chapter of Red Cross and rented a second floor apartment to war veterans. In 1953 a public parking space was built in the rear.

It was razed to provide space for the parking of shoppers' cars. It occupied a commanding position on Main Street, just past the Postoffice.

William Shaw

February 14, 1860 – December 4, 1941

From William Shaw's “In Memoriam” booklet.

William was born in a home where frugal living went hand in hand with high ethical ideals. Obedience, thrift, work well done, faithfulness in every effort, these were the lessons he learned in the little cottage in Ballard Vale, where he was born. But the boy who at twelve years of age was obliged to leave school to become a bread-winner, became in turn publication manager, treasurer and general secretary of the International Society of Christian Endeavor, secretary treasurer of the World’s Christian Endeavor Union, advertising manager and publisher of The Christian Endeavor World, and in 1915 polled the largest vote ever cast for a Prohibition candidate for governor in Massachusetts.

He was twenty-three, and working as a salesman in a carpet house in Boston, when he first met Rev. Francis E. Clark, D.D., the founder of the Christian Endeavor movement. The latter was so impressed with the personality of young Shaw that he persuaded him to join the small group who were interested in this new work for the young people in the churches, a movement that before many years was to girdle the globe. It was a happy coincidence that in Mrs. Clark he was to find a former teacher of his in the grammar school at Ballard Vale.

Next to Dr. and Mrs. Clark, no person has been more instrumental in the spread of Christian Endeavor among the young people of the world than William Shaw. His activities along that line carried him into every state in the union, into Canada and Mexico, and around the world. Possessed with a clear, ringing, forceful voice, every word he uttered could easily be heard in convention halls seating 15,000 people. (This was before the day of amplifiers.) As one reporter expressed it, “The welkin did some ringing when William Shaw of Boston got into action.” With his dynamic personality he was often referred to as “five feet of dynamite.”

In 1914 he was honored by Occidental College, Los Angeles, with the degree of LL.D. (Doctor of Laws). In conferring it, his long-time friend and former associate in Christian Endeavor, President John Willis Baer, said:

“Graduate of the College of Hard Knocks, more at home in your shirt-sleeves than in cap and gown, without academic degree, the world has bestowed upon you the degree of M.S. Master of the Situation. By unanimous vote of Occidental College I have the great pleasure of conferring upon you the degree of Doctor of Laws.”

As one friend said of him, “His college was a factory, but he became a man of wide learning and genuine culture. A great lover of books, all his life he kept in touch with the best in literature. His professional training came in his youth, from the salesroom of a carpet house; but his eloquence has swayed numberless audiences of ten to fifteen thousand thrilled listeners, and he has planned and executed successful world campaigns of evangelism and religious education. With no technical training for journalism, he became a great newspaper manager and brilliant editorial writer. Without ministerial education or theological training, he grew to the stature of a popular and powerful preacher.”

His many-sided interests were shown by the fact that he was a trustee of the Atlanta Theological Seminary, a director of the Massachusetts Bible Society, a corporate member of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, and a life member of the Bostonian Society. Though unable in, late years, on account of ill health, to attend church regularly, he has always kept his membership and personal interest in the Union Congregational Church in his hometown of Ballard Vale, which he joined as a lad of eighteen.