Residence of A. Webster, Topsfield, Mass.

Abstract

Albert Webster was born in Ipswich on 16 March 1824. Both of his parents died when he was still very young, and so at age seven he was bound out at Topsfield. He remained in Topsfield for seven years before running away at age fourteen, apparently having been treated cruelly. He made his way to Boston where he began working at a candy store. By the time he was twenty, he had purchased the business at which he had been working. In 1861 he moved the store to a new location and established himself as the first exclusive confectioner. In addition to being a candy entrepreneur, Webster was also a member of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company from the age of twenty-two until his death, and a thirty-second degree Mason in the Massachusetts Consistory. After retiring from the candy business in 1890, Webster lived out the last twelve years of his life at his farm in Topsfield with his family. He had three daughters and one son with his first wife, Catherine Falvey. His son was engaged to Una Hawthorne, daughter of Nathaniel Hawthorne. Before they could be married, however, the younger Webster drowned in Honolulu.