Men of progress one thousand biographical sketches and portraits of leaders in business and professional life in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Part 1

Author: Herndon, Richard; Bacon, Edwin M. (Edwin Monroe), 1844-1916
Publication date: 1896
Publisher: Boston : New England Magazine
Number of Pages: 1036

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MEN OF PROGRESS

ONE

THOUSAND

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES AND PORTRAITS

LEADERS IN BUSINESS AND PROFESSIONAL LIFE

IN THE

Commonwealth of Massachusetts

COMPILED UNDER TIIE SUPERVISION OF RICHARD HERNDON

EDITED BY

EDWIN

M. BACON

BOSTON NEW ENGLAND MAGAZINE IS96

F63 7-533 6. 2

** المصروبح بالم با بال اد شيء 1.TE 11

Social Salice

21/00

1 SOC SCI F-63 ) M532

PRESS OF CEO. H ELLIS, 141 FRANKLIN STREET, BOSTON

MEN OF PROGRESS.

PART I.

ABBOTT, SAMUEL APPLETON BROWNE, presi- dent of the Trustees of the Public Library of the City of Boston, was born in Lowell, March 6, 1846, son of Josiah Gardner and Caroline (Liver- more) Abbott. On both sides he is of early New

S. A. B. ABBOTT.

England ancestry. He is a descendant in the eighth generation of George Abbott, an English Puritan, who came from Yorkshire in 1640, and was one of the settlers of Andover in 1643 ; and, through his paternal grandmother, of the Fletchers, also English Puritans, who came from Devonshire and settled in Concord, and in 1653 in Chelmsford. Both of his paternal great-grand- fathers were in the battle of Bunker Hill, and held commissions in the Continental army. On the maternal side he descends from John Liver- more, who came from England in 1634, settled

first in Watertown, thirty years later removed to Connecticut, and was one of the signers of the fundamental agreement of the colony of New Haven, and, returning to Watertown, died there in 1685. His maternal great-grandfather, Samuel Livermore, was attorney-general for the province of New Hampshire, after the Revolution chief justice of the State (appointed in 1782), a mem- ber of the convocation for the adoption of the Federal Constitution, a representative in the first Congress, and later a senator and president of the Senate pro tem. for nine years; and his maternal grandfather. Edward St. Loe Liver- more, was United States district attorney (ap- pointed by Washington), a justice of the Supreme Court of New Hampshire (appointed in 1798), and a member of Congress for three terms. His father, Judge Josiah G. Abbott, one of the foremost members of the Massachusetts bar, served in the General Court, was a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1853, justice of the Superior Court for the county of Suffolk from 1855 to 1858, when he resigned (and two years later declined a place on the bench of the Su- preme Judicial Court), a representative in Con- gress in 1876-77, and a member of the Electoral Commission of 1877, the leader of the minority of that commission, preparing the address of the minority to the people of the United States, which, though approved, was not issued. Samuel A. B. Abbott was educated in the public schools and at Harvard. His early education was ac- quired in the Lowell public schools and in the Boston Latin School; and he was fitted for col- lege by Professor Lane, of Harvard. He entered Harvard as a sophomore, and graduated in 1866, in 1869 receiving the degree of A.M. In college he was president of the Hasty Pudding Club and of the Med. Fac., also a member of the Porcellian Club, the D. K. E. and the A. D. clubs; and he rowed in the university crews in 1864. After graduating he studied law in the

MEN OF PROGRESS.

office of his father, and was admitted to the Suffolk bar in 1868. Subsequently, in 1876, he was admitted to the bar of the Supreme Court of the United States. He has practised in Boston since his admission to the bar, and also in the United States courts, circuit, district, and su- preme. He has twice conducted successfully con- tested election cases before Congress,-that of Josiah G. Abbott in 1867 and that of Benjamin Dean against the present Chief Justice Field in 1878. He is president of the Hill Manufacturing Company of Lewiston, Me., succeeding his father in that position, and a director of the Atlantic Cotton Mills at Lawrence, of the Franklin Com- pany of Lewiston, of the Union Water Power Company of Lewiston, of which his father was the principal promoter, and of the Peterborough Railroad. His public service, with the exception of a term on the Board of License Commissioners in Boston in 1877, has been as a trustee of the Boston Public Library, which position he has held since 1879, president of the board since May, 1888. For several years he was acting librarian of the library. He is identified with the construction and embellishment of the new Public Library Building on Copley Square, the whole control of the erection of this monumental edifice having been placed, at the beginning of the work in 1887, in the hands of the trustees. In politics Mr. Abbott is a Democrat. In 1883, when Gen- eral Butler was nominated by the Democratic party the second time for governor of the State, he was nominated for lieutenant governor ; but he declined to run on the same ticket with Butler. In 1862 he was a member of the New England Guards. He is a member of the Suffolk Bar Association, of the Somerset, St. Botolph, and Athletic clubs of Boston, and of the Century, University, and Players' clubs of New York. He was married first, April 21, 1869, to Miss Mary Goddard, of Boston, of which union there were no children; and second, October 15, 1873, to Miss Abby Frances Woods, of Providence, R.l. They have four children : Helen Francis, Mad- eleine Livermore, Ann Francis and Caroline Livermore Abbott. Mr. Abbott's country resi- dence is at Wellesley Hills, and his town house on the Back Bay, Boston.

ADAMS, WILLIAM TAYLOR, author and editor, the most prolific writer of the age of stories for

boys, under the long familiar nom de plume of "Oliver Optic," is a native of Medway, born July 30, 1822, son of Laban and Catharine (Johnson) Adams. His father was also a native of Medway ; and his mother was a Vermonter, born in Chester. His pedigree is traced back to Thomas Ap Adam, who came out of "The Marches of Wales" in the eighth century: from him descended Henry

W. T. ADAMS.

Adams, who, escaping from the "Green Dragon Persecution," came from Devonshire, England, to this country in 1630, with several sons, from one of whom, settled in that part of Braintree now Quincy, came the two Presidents, Samuel Adams, and other worthies, and from another, settled in Medfield (part of which became Med- way), came Laban, "Oliver Optic's" father. Laban Adams was first a farmer, then an inn- keeper, and again a farmer. He was some time landlord of the "Village Hotel " in Medway and of the "Washington Coffee House " in Boston, near where the Transcript newspaper office now stands, and the year of the birth of William T. he kept the famous old "Lamb Tavern " of Bos- ton, dating from 1745, which stood on the site of the present Adams House. Here the boy lived until well into his teens, helping his father about the tavern and attending school, part of the

MEN OF PROGRESS.

time the Adams Grammar School, -- the school- house then on Mason Street, where the Boston School Board's building now is,-and later the private school of Amos Baker, at the head of Har- vard Place, famous in its day. In 1838 the elder Adams leased the "Lamb," which he had pur- chased about the year 1834, and moved his fam- ily to a farm in West Roxbury. William T. went to work on the farm and to public school in the winter, applying himself to both occupations with such enthusiasm and zeal that he soon became an excellent farmer and a fine scholar. In school he led his class in various studies, but especially excelled in composition. His first effort covered eight letter pages, and the schoolmaster pro- nounced it the best composition he had ever looked over; the second covered twenty-five pages ; the third, eighty. He frequently sat up all night in his room, when his parents supposed he was a-bed, with his overcoat and gloves on, writing compositions. In this same school, when he was about eighteen years of age, he was made an assistant teacher, without pay. Subsequently he continued his studies under a private in- structor till he reached twenty. Then he taught a month as a substitute in the school in Dorches- ter now known as the Harris Grammar School, and the following year, 1843, was appointed prin- cipal of the school. In this capacity he served for three years with marked success, the commit- tee in its report commending his school as " one of the best, if not the very best, at present in town." From school-teaching, after a somewhat extensive trip in Northern and Southern States, he re-entered the hotel business, joining his father, under the firm name of L. & W. T. Adams, in the conduct of the first Adams House, which Laban Adams had built in 1844-46 in place of the old Lamb Tavern. But as a hotel-keeper he was not successful, and two years later found him again a school-teacher,- usher in the Boylston Gram- mar School, Fort Hill, Boston. Subsequently he became submaster and in 1860 master of this school. Then he was transferred to the Bowditch School for Girls, and continued at its head till 1865, when he resigned, at the urgent request of Messrs. Lee & Shepard, his publishers, to devote his time entirely to story-writing. Mr. Adams published his first article at nineteen,-an extract from one of his school compositions, printed in the Social Monitor : and before he retired from school-teaching he had written and published

over eight hundred stories, varying in length from one newspaper column to a serial of seventy col- umns. His first story, a temperance tale, was written while he was a teacher in Dorchester, and quickly followed by a second, both of which ap- peared in the Washingtonian in 1845. His first " pay-matter " was a story entitled " The Marriage Contract," written in six hours, and published in the True Flag in 1852, for which he received $6. His first book was a story called " Hatchie, the Guardian Slave," its scenes laid in New Orleans and on the Mississippi from notes taken during a trip South in 1848, published in 1854, for which he was paid $37.50 ; and the first of his series of books for boys was written in 1854, when he was teaching in the Fort Hill school. His earlier stories, most of which were published in the Truc Flag, appeared over a variety of signatures, - " Irving Brown," appended to the love stories, "Clingman Hunter, M.D.," to sketches of travel, "Oliver Optic" to domestic stories, and " Old Stager," "A Retired Attorney," "Man of the World," and others used indiscriminately, never using his real name. The nom de plume of "Oliver Optic" first appeared in 1851 with an M.I. and "Member of the Mutual Admiration Society" attached, signed to a doggerel poem which he wrote for the Bromfield Lyceum, and subsequently published in the Flag of Our Union. It was suggested by a character under the name of "Dr. Optic," in a new play, "written by a gentleman of Boston," then running at the Boston Museum, which took Mr. Adams's fancy. He added to it the alliterative prefix of "Oliver," and appended it to his short domestic stories, which were produced with great rapidity, and were copied by story papers all over the country. It soon became too popular to drop. The "Oliver Optic " juvenile works, from which Mr. Adams's wide reputation has come, were indirectly the result of the success of his first book, " Hatchie." In 1852 F. Ormond (). J. Bazin, who had been a clerk in the bookstore of B. B. Muzzy & Co., the publishers of " Hatchie," having become a member of the firm of Brown, Bazin & Co., sent a mutual friend to him to say that the writer of that book could furnish the book with which the new firm would be willing to begin business. He suggested a collection of his "Optic " domestic stories, with a few new ones added ; and, this being accepted, in due time " In Doors and Out " appeared, and was a success. Then the firm

I 2

MEN OF PROGRESS.

called for a juvenile book. Mr. Adams at first declared that he could not produce it, having never attempted such work; but he finally yielded to the pressure of the publishers, and " The Boat Club " was the result. The first half of the story went to the type-setters before the last half had been begun by the author, but "copy " was fur- nished as rapidly as it was required. The book was an emphatic success. The next year " All Abroad," the sequel to it, appeared ; and others followed in rapid succession. Frequently Mr. Adams had several series under way at the same time; and during the ten years following the publication of his first juvenile, when he was engaged in his regular duties as a school-teacher and doing his share as a public-spirited citizen, he produced from two to six volumes a year. From the firm of Brown, Bazin & Co., which was not successful, Mr. Adams's books passed to the house of Phillips, Sampson & Co .; and soon after the foundation of the house of Lee & Shepard, in 1862, the latter became his publishers, its first publishing investment being the purchase of the stereotype plates of the "Boat Club" stories (six volumes of them) and the "Riverdale " series, which it reissued in new editions. From that time to the present Lee & Shepard have been the sole publishers of Mr. Adams's volumes. They were also the projectors of Oliver Optic's Magasine, Our Boys and Girls, started in 1867, and continued for nine years under the editorial supervision of Mr. Adams,-his second experi- ence as an editor, having previously, for nearly ten years, had charge of the Student and School- mate. In 18So he became editor of Our Little Ones, that year started, now Our Little Ones and the Nursery ; and since the establishment of the Whole Family, in 1893, he has been juvenile editor of that periodical. Including the bound volumes of the magazines which he has edited, the name of "Oliver Optic " now stands (1894) on the title-pages of one hundred and twenty-five books, and more are under way. The list em- braces the following : 1852, Hatchie and In Doors and Out, domestic stories for adult readers; 1855- Go, The Boat Club Stories, 6 vols. ; 1854-66, Student and Schoolmate (magazine), 9 vols .; 1860, The Riverdale Stories, 12 vols. ; 1865, A Spell- ing-book for Advanced Classes; 1863-66, The Woodville Stories, 6 vols. : 1864-66, The Army and Navy Stories, 6 vols. ; 1866, The Way of the World, a novel for adults ; 1866-69, Young

America Abroad, first series, 6 vols. ; 1867-75, Oliver Optic's Magazine, 9 vols. ; 1867-68, The Starry Flag Series, 6 vols. ; 1869, Our Standard Bearer, I vol. : 1869-70, The Lake Shore Series, 6 vols. ; 1870-72, The Onward and Upward Series, 6 vols. ; 1871-77, Young America Abroad, second series, 6 vols. ; 1872-75, The Yacht Club Series, 6 vols .; 1875-81, The Great Western Series, 6 vols. ; 1876, Living Too Fast (for adult readers), i vol. ; 1877, History of Union Lodge, Dorchester, 1 vol. ; 1880-92, Our Little Ones, 13 vols. ; 1882-85, The Boat Builder Series, 6 vols. ; 1889-93, The Blue and Gray Series, Navy; new series, The Blue and Gray, Army, begun 1893, 2 vols. written, but not published ; The All-over- the-World Series, 8 vols., 2 not yet published. For all of his books Mr. Adams's preparation has been most thorough. The voyage of the "Young America " in the "Young America Abroad" series, for instance, was properly drawn out in red ink on the chart of the North Atlantic before the writing of the story was begun ; and, to insure accuracy of description in the twelve books of this series, he made two trips to Europe, visiting every country, and sailing the seas and rivers within its boundaries. Before he wrote the " Lake Shore " series he made a special trip to the lake and surrounding country. For the "Army and Navy " series he consulted old sailors and soldiers. He has been to Europe nine times, twice to Nassau and the south side of Cuba, has visited nearly every State in the United States and the British Provinces, and sailed on the large rivers and great lakes. In the library of his house in the Dorchester District of Boston he has, besides about three thousand books, mostly consulted in his work, large numbers of maps, charts, diagrams, and plans; and, adjoining his house, he has a workshop well stocked with tools and machinery, in which he has himself worked out many of the things described in the "Boat Builder " series and other books. Mr. Adams served one year (1868) in the General Court as a representative for Dorchester, declining a re-elec- tion, and for fourteen years was a member of the school committees, four years of that of Dorches- ter immediately preceding the annexation of the town to Boston ( 1870), and ten years immediately following, of the Boston board. For about twenty years he was either teacher or superintendent of the Sunday-school of the Dorchester First Church. He belongs to the Masonic order, and for three

MEN OF PROGRESS.

years was master of the Union Lodge; and he is a member of the Old Dorchester Club, of the Massachusetts Yacht Club (honorary member, an original member of the Dorchester Yacht Club, which became the Massachusetts Yacht Club), and of the Boston Press Club. In politics he has been a Republican from the origin of the party, with Independent tendencies. His first vote was for Henry Clay, and he was a Whig as long as the party existed. In 1884 he was a " Mug- wump," and supported Cleveland's first term ; but in 1892 he voted the national Republican ticket, and also the Republican ticket in State elections. Mr. Adams was married in October, 1846, to Miss Sarah Jenkins, of Dorchester. She died March 7, 1885. Their children were: Ellen Frances (died at the age of eighteen months), Alice (now the wife of Sol Smith Russell, the comedian), and Emma (wife of George W. White, of the Suffolk bar, died May 25, 1884). With the exception of about six months in Minneapolis (1887), where his daughter, Mrs. Sol Smith Russell, made her home, he has resided in Dorchester since 1843.

ALGER, ALPHEUS BROWN, member of the bar, mayor of the city of Cambridge for two years, was born in Lowell, October 8, 1854, son of Edwin A. and Amanda (Buswell) Alger. On the paternal side he is descended from Thomas Alger who settled in Bridgewater in 1665. He attended the public schools of Lowell, and was there prepared for college, entering Harvard in 1871, from which he graduated in 1875. The same year he entered the Harvard Law School, and a year later continued his law studies in the office of Judge Josiah G. Abbott, of Boston. He was admitted to the bar in 1877, and began practice in Boston, in association with his father's firm, Brown & Alger, continuing his residence in Cam- bridge, to which city the family had moved during his first year in college. He early took an in- terest in politics. In 1878 he became a member of the Democratic city committee of Cambridge, was made its secretary, and subsequently its chairman ; and his connection with the organiza- tion was continued unbroken until 1891, his first year in the mayoralty. In 1884 he was a member of the Cambridge Board of Aldermen; in 1886 and 1887 a State senator; and in 1891 and 1892 mayor of the city of Cambridge. In the Senate

he was a leader, and served on the important committees on the judiciary, on public service, mercantile affairs (chairman), liquor laws, rules, and bills in the third reading; and as mayor of Cambridge he was re-elected for his second term unanimously, on the record of his first. From 1884 to 1892 he was a member of the Democratic State Committee, its secretary for four years, and on the finance and executive committees ; he served also for some time on the Democratic Con- gressional and county committees ; and in 1888 he was a delegate to the National Democratic

A. B. ALGER.

Convention at St. Louis. He belongs to a num- ber of fraternal orders,- is a member of the Ami- cable Lodge, Free Masons, Boston Commandery ; of the Ponemah Tribe Improved Order of Red Men (of which order he was a great sachem in 1891, and a great representative to the council held in Atlanta, Ga., in 1892); of St. Omer Lodge, Knights of Pythias; of Aleppo Temple, Order of Mystic Shrine; and of the Haymakers. Among the social organizations with which he is connected are the Central Club, of Somerville, the Arlington Boat Club, and the Bay State of Mas- sachusetts (Democratic dining club), of which he is secretary and treasurer. From 1891 to 1892 he was chairman of the Board of Harvard Bridge

MEN OF PROGRESS.

Commissioners, and was a member of the Charles River Improvement Commission, established by act of the Legislature of 1891. He is unmarried.

AMES, FREDERICK LOTHROP, capitalist, dis- tinguished especially in American railroad enter- prises, was born in Easton, June 8, 1835, son of Oliver, 2d, and Sarah (Lothrop) Ames; died Sep- tember 16, 1893. He was a lineal descendant of William Ames, who came to Massachusetts from Bruton, in the shire of Somerset, England, about the year 1635, and settled in Braintree; was great-grandson of Captain John Ames, who began the making of shovels in West Bridgewater about 1773 ; and grandson of Captain John's son Oliver, who learned his trade at his father's forge, and in 1803 established in North Easton the works and firm which in later years attained wide reputation under the name of Oliver Ames & Sons. Of these sons, Oliver, 2d, the father of Frederick L., and Oakes Ames were the best known from their prominence in railroad development and in the building of the Union Pacific. The mother of Frederick L. was the daughter of Hon. Howard Lothrop, of Easton, who had served in the Massa- chusetts Senate, and in various other official posi- tions, and sister of the Hon. George Van Ness Lothrop, United States minister to Russia during the first administration of President Cleveland. Frederick L. Ames received his early education at Concord, was fitted for college at Phillips (Exeter) Academy, and graduated at Harvard in the class of 1854. In his youth he had a strong inclination towards the law, but, in accordance with his father's wishes, soon after graduation he entered the family business at North Easton. Beginning as a clerk in the office, he secured pro- motions from grade to grade, according to the rules which prevailed in the establishment, and after several years' service as a subordinate was placed in charge of the accountant's department, where he displayed marked business ability. In his twenty-eighth year, by the death of his grand- father (1863), he became a member of the firm. In 1876, when the firm was reorganized under the title of the Oliver Ames & Sons Corporation, he was made treasurer, and soon after succeeded his father as the official and actual head of that great manufacturing concern. Before the death of his father, which occurred in 1877, he had invested extensively in Western railroads; and, while he

was still comparatively a young man, he was a director in the Union Pacific, the Chicago & Northwestern, the Missouri Pacific, and the Texas Pacific, and had gradually diverted his in- terest from manufacturing to railroads. Subse- quently, while retaining his interest in the factory of his ancestors and continuing as treasurer of the corporation, he extended and enlarged his rail-

FRED. L. AMES.

road operations, and became conspicuous among the foremost men of the railroad world. He was universally conceded to be one of the best in- formed men in American railroad business, and one of the best judges of the value, quality, re- sources, and possibilities of railway property. At the time of his death he was vice-president of the Old Colony Railroad, a director in the Old Col- ony Steamboat Company, and director in a great number of other railroad companies in various parts of the country, including the following: the Atchison, Colorado & Pacific; Atchison, Jewell County & Western ; Boulder Valley & Central City Wagon Road ; Carbon Cut-off Company ; Central Branch Union Pacific ; Chicago & North- western ; Colorado Western ; Denver, Leadville & Gunnison ; Denver Union & Terminal ; Echo & Park City; Fall River, Warren & Providence ; the Fitchburg system; Fort Worth & Denver City;

MEN OF PROGRESS.

Gray's Peak, Snake River & Leadville ; Golden, Boulder & Caribou ; Junction City & Fort Kear- ney ; Kansas Central ; Kansas City & Omaha ; Laramie, North Park & Pacific Railroad & Tele- graph Company; Lawrence & Emporia ; Leaven- worth, Topeka & Southwestern ; Loveland Pass Mining & Railroad Tunnel Company ; Manhattan, Alma & Burlingame; Montana Union ; Montana Railway ; North Park & Grand River Valley Rail- road & Telegraph; Omaha & Elkhorn Valley ; Omaha & Republican Valley ; Oregon Railway & Navigation Company ; Oregon Railway Extensions Company ; Oregon Short Line & Utah Northern ; Providence, Warren & Bristol; St. Joseph & Grand Island ; Salina & Southwestern ; Solomon : Union Pacific; Union Pacific, Lincoln & Colo- rado ; Union Pacific, Denver & Gulf ; Washington & Idaho; Walla Walla & Columbia River. He was also largely interested in other important en- terprises and in numerous financial institutions. He was a director of the Western Union Tele- graph Company, the General Electric Company, the New England Trust Company, the Old Colony Trust Company, the Bay State Trust Company, the American Loan & Trust Company, and the Mercantile Trust Company of New York; and president of the Hoosac Tunnel Dock & Elevator Company, of the First National Bank of North Easton, and of the North Easton Savings Bank. He was the largest owner of real estate in Boston, and as a client of the late H. H. Richardson exer- cised a marked influence for improvement upon the business architecture of the city. The most substantial monument of his work in this direc- tion is the lofty tower-like Ames Building, on the corner of Court and Washington Streets, de- signed by Richardson's successors, a rich and original example of the great office structures that now characterize the leading American cities. In his various business operations and great under- takings he neglected no details which ought to occupy his attention, his business habits were most methodical, his judgment was clear, cool, and sound, and his probity unquestioned. Mr. Ames was a liberal patron of the arts as well as an eminent business man, and possessed decided literary and intellectual tastes. In his winter home in Boston he had a superb collection of paintings, including two fine portraits by Rem- brandt, dated 1632, and valuable examples of Millet, Rousseau, Troyon, Diaz, Daubigny, Corot, and others; rich tapestries, jades, and crystals,

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Men of progress one thousand biographical sketches and portraits of leaders in business and professional life in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Part 1

Author: Herndon, Richard; Bacon, Edwin M. (Edwin Monroe), 1844-1916 Publication date: 1896 Publisher: Boston : New England Magazine Number of Pages: 1036

Author: Herndon, Richard; Bacon, Edwin M. (Edwin Monroe), 1844-1916
Publication date: 1896
Publisher: Boston : New England Magazine
Number of Pages: 1036