USA > Massachusetts > Biographical history of Massachussetts; biographies and autobiographies of the leading men in the state, 1911, vol 7 > Part 11
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25
There are few men so fortunate as to attain to their highest ambition, and to leave life at a good and ripe age but with unabated powers. Such was the happy fate of Mr. Justice Gray. Life had held many honors and joys for him but the last years were the best.
On the fourth of June, 1889, he married Jane, daughter of Justice Stanley Matthews, one of his associates in the Supreme Court.
Hon. George Frisbie Hoar said of him:
"I am sure there can be no exaggeration when I say what so
HORACE GRAY
many men of the first excellence, who know whereof they speak, men eminent upon the bench and at the bar of the United States and of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, have said since his death. He took his place easily among the great judges of the world. He so bore himself in his great office as to command the approbation of his countrymen of all sections and of all parties. He was every inch a judge. He maintained the dignity of his office everywhere. He endeared himself to a large circle of friends at the national capital and at home in Massachusetts by his elegant and gracious hospitality. His life certainly was fortunate. The desire of his youth was fulfilled. From the time when, more than fifty years ago, he devoted himself to his profession, until his death, there was no moment when he did not regard the office of a Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States as not only the most attractive but also the loftiest of human occupations. He devoted himself to that with a single purpose. He sought no pop- ularity or fame by any other path. Certainly, certainly, his life was fortunate. It lasted to a good old age. But the summons came for him when his eye was not dimmed nor his natural force abated. He drank of the cup of the waters of life while it was sweetest and clearest, and was not left to drink it to the dregs. He was fortunate also, almost beyond the lot of humanity, in that by a rare felicity the greatest joy of youth came to him in an advanced age. Everything that can make life honorable, everything that can make life happy-honor, success, the consciousness of useful- ness, the regard of his countrymen, and the supremest delight of family life-all were his. His countrymen take leave of him as another of the great and stately figures in the long and venerable procession of American judges."
JOHN CHIPMAN GRAY
J OHN CHIPMAN GRAY was born at Nonatum Hill, Brigh- ton, Massachusetts, July 14, 1839. He died at his house in Boston, February 25, 1915. He was a son of Horace and Sarah Russell (Gardner) Gray, and his paternal grandparents were William and Elizabeth (Chipman) Gray. William Gray, who died in 1825, was a merchant and amassed a considerable for- tune, owning at one time some sixty square-rigged vessels which he employed in the carrying trade. He was a prominent citizen of Salem and Boston, a State Senator and served as Lieutenant-Gov- ernor of Massachusetts 1810-11. His wife, Elizabeth Chipman, was noted and beloved because of her generosity and her efforts to better the condition of the poor.
John Chipman Gray's father, Horace Gray, was a man of wealth and culture. He graduated at Harvard College in 1819, and was a zealous and active advocate of whatever tended to advance the public good. He died in 1873. His two older brothers, Francis Calley Gray, Harvard 1809 (died 1856), and John Chipman Gray, Harvard 1811 (died 1881), made generous gifts and bequests to Harvard College and one of the College buildings was named Gray's Hall in their honor. Horace Gray's wife was the daughter of Samuel Pickering Gardner, a graduate of Harvard in the class of 1786. He died in 1843.
John Chipman Gray graduated with honors at Harvard in 1859, and entered the Harvard Law School, receiving his LL.B. in 1861. He was admitted to the Suffolk Bar, September 18, 1862. A little later he enlisted as a Second Lieutenant in the 41st Mass- achusetts Volunteer Infantry and served until the close of the war. He was aide-de-camp on the staff of Major-General George H. Gordon, and in 1864 was appointed Major and Judge Advocate, serving on the staffs of Major-Generals John G. Foster and Quincy A. Gilmore. Resigning his commission at the close of the war, he returned to Boston and began the active practice of law, having as partner John Codman Ropes.
John Chipman Gray's broad and comprehensive legal knowledge and his ability to impart it to students were early recognized by his Alma Mater, and he had been in active practice only four years before Harvard called him to lecture at the Law School. He was lecturer there during the academic year 1869-70 and also from
John C Gray 0
JOHN CHIPMAN GRAY
1871 to 1874. In 1875 he was appointed Story Professor of Law at the Harvard Law School and held the position eight years. In 1883 he was promoted to the Royall professorship where he served for nearly twenty years, resigning the chair in January, 1913, because of ill health and advancing years. At a meeting of the President and Fellows of Harvard College, January 13, 1913, the resignation of John Chipman Gray as Royall Professor of Law, to take effect February 1, 1913, was received and accepted, and the following vote of appreciation was passed : "Voted to appoint John Chipman Gray, Royall Professor of Law, Emeritus, from February 1, 1913."
On the law of real property Professor Gray was regarded as the leading authority in the United States, and his knowledge of the subject of perpetuities was unrivalled. His well-trained mind, good judgment, literary talent, intellectuality, and ceaseless in- dustry, combined with his profound legal knowledge and unswerv- ing integrity and loyalty, made him invaluable, not only as a teacher, but also as a counsellor and advocate, and placed him in the front rank of the most able and eminent members of the Bos- ton Bar. Both Harvard and Yale paid homage to his worth by confirming upon him the degree of LL.D .; Yale College in 1894, and Harvard in 1895.
In January, 1912, his name was added to that list of brilliant and eminent sons of Harvard who have served their Alma Mater as President of the Harvard Alumni Association. He was elected by the directors of the Association, January 18, 1912, and served during the year.
Professor Gray's literary ability was well known, especially to the legal profession. The American Law Review was edited by him and his partner, John C. Ropes, during the first four years of its existence; and besides many valuable articles in legal maga- zines he was the author of three standard law works, published between 1883 and 1892: "Restraints on Alienation of Prop- erty" (1883), "The Rule Against Perpetuities" (1886), and "Col- lections of Select Cases on Property" (1888-1892), in six vol- umes. In 1895 he revised and republished his work "Restraints on Alienation." A series of lectures on Jurisprudence delivered at the Columbia Law School were published by Columbia in 1909 un- der the title "Nature and Sources of the Law." He completed his third edition of "The Rule Against Perpetuities," just before his death.
JOHN CHIPMAN GRAY
John Chipman Gray married, June 4, 1873, Anna S. L. Mason, daughter of Rev. Charles Mason, D.D., and granddaughter of Hon. Jeremiah Mason. They had two children: a daughter, Eleanor L. Gray, married to Henry D. Tudor; and a son, Roland Gray, who graduated at Harvard in 1895 and from the Law School in 1898, and is now a member of the firm of Ropes, Gray, Gorham and Perkins.
In addition to the large amount of literary work Professor Gray accomplished, and the manifold and arduous duties he performed as counsellor, advocate, and teacher, Mr. Gray filled positions of honor and trust in the business world, as follows: Director of the Boston and Providence Railroad, Vice-President of the Provident Institution for Savings, Vice-President of the Massachusetts Hos- pital Life Insurance Company, Trustee of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, and member of the corporations of the Boston Ath- enæum and the Social Law Library.
He was a member of the Massachusetts Historical Society, the American Academy (of which he had been a Vice-President), the Massachusetts Military Historical Society of Boston, the Military Order of the Loyal Legion, the American Bar Association, and the Bar Association of the City of Boston.
The quality that contributed much to Mr. Gray's ability as a teacher was his power to inspire in countless students such en- thusiasm for their work that many of them are grateful to him to this day. In all of his relationships, as citizen, as lawyer, as teacher, he was a wise friend and an able adviser. Among the many tributes to his memory Major Henry L. Higginson said of him at the time of his funeral :
"How peaceful and soothing is the farewell service over a man who has lived his life well and for the good of his fellows- a man who from his early years has sought and found the truth, has spoken it firmly and kindly, and has won his clear vision by seeking the really great objects and forgetting himself. In this man the world has a jewel of the first water.
"Such was John Gray. In his death our country has met a great loss, and in his memory has kept a real treasure. He was a brilliant scholar, gifted with a mind which was large, clear, keen, receptive, and which was well trained in his college days. He read widely, and to the end of his life remembered accurately what he had read. Added to these qualities he had very unusual com-
JOHN CHIPMAN GRAY
mon sense, and also a kindly feeling towards mankind. It was a very well-balanced nature.
"In the Civil War he had a varied and excellent record as an army officer, and was noticed as such by General Sherman. After the war he, with John Ropes, took up the practice of the law, and as years went on his standing at the bar became high- none higher. It is to be noted that the best lawyers looked up to him and prized him highly. He taught generations of young men at the Harvard Law School, and drew into his office one stu- dent after another as partner. When, through ill health, he was forced to give up his lectures at Cambridge, the school felt his loss keenly; but his wealth of knowledge and his power of impart- ing this knowledge, together with his courteous ways towards his fellows and his students, have left their mark.
"To his friends who respected and loved him, his death is a heavy blow, for they had always depended on him. If we wanted advice or help in any matter whatsoever, we turned to John Gray, and his counsel was of the best and was final; and his sympathy was as ready as his advice. By the force of his knowledge, of his mind, and of his spirit, he could put an object before his eyes, look at it from all sides, and really see it. Whether asked to con- sider a good or a foolish action, he would listen, and then give his judgment and his help. This power over facts and over us came from a fine mind well stored and working easily, simply, surely, and from a spirit pure and noble.
"All these gifts were his, and when sweetened by a steady, warm affection were a great blessing to his friends.
"John Gray was a delightful companion, and clung to his friends as they did to him. He shrank from public honors and high positions offered to him, for he liked best large, earnest work, and was deeply interested in the real, essential things of life-and he put aside the rest.
"A reader of these words may say, 'You picture your friend as a perfect man.' Perhaps so, but this may well be said of him. He was a true, simple gentleman of the highest quality, such as is rarely seen and never forgotten. Throughout his life we, his friends, have known well our treasure, have loved him, and have watched his contented, quiet life as he faded away. We, too, are content, are deeply grateful for his life and for his happy memory."
CHARLES PRENTISS HALL
G EORGE HALL and his wife Mary migrated from Devonshire, England, in 1635 and settled in Raynham, in Plymouth Colony.
Among their descendants was Seth Hall who moved from Rayn- ham to Westmoreland, New Hampshire, in 1792, where he purchased a large farm which has remained in the Hall family until the present generation. At that time his son Gaius, born in June, 1780, was twelve years of age. He succeeded to the possession of the home- stead, married Lucinda Balch, and died at the age of ninety-four years.
His son, Gaius K. Hall, inherited the ancestral acres; he cared for the old people, as an honest, hard-working Christian yeoman should. He married Mary, daughter of Joseph and Anna (Knight) Fuller. Robert Fuller came from England and became a freeman of Salem colony in 1658. He afterward moved to Rehoboth. Joseph, sixth generation from Robert, was born in Wrentham July 30, 1779, and married Anna Knight of Worcester January 30, 1803. Gaius K. died April 6, 1863.
At this old homestead was born, November 2, 1838, to Gaius K. and Mary (Fuller) Hall, a son whom they named Charles Prentiss, and he is the subject of this sketch.
Nurtured, cared for, and guided by a loved mother, he was led in moral and spiritual ways by influences which had lasting effect in the formation of his habits of life. The boy attended the district school, worked on the farm out of school hours, until he was sixteen years of age, and says that he has been thankful ever since for the training which it gave him. When he became sixteen he undertook to care for and educate himself, and entered the Kimball Union Academy at Meriden, New Hampshire, where he graduated in July, 1859.
He was of studious habit and much interested in literary and historical reading. Preferring to follow teaching as a profession, he
Charles 8 . Hall .
CHARLES PRENTISS HALL
determined to "go west" and emigrated to Southwestern Mis- souri, twenty miles beyond Springfield, in the Ozark range of mountains. Here he secured employment as a teacher, and helped the workmen to finish a new log schoolhouse. For this he con- structed a blackboard, the first the people of that section had ever seen.
The war was approaching, sectional feeling was rampant and the people were suspicious that the "Yankee teacher" was an Abolition- ist, so his school opened with but twelve pupils, but at its close had sixty-five. The next year he had the school at Ozark, the county seat of Christian County. Four of his old boys followed him. As the war spirit increased the people became divided, causing a most trying situation along the border lines.
Soon "Claib" Jackson, governor of Missouri, fled, taking with him all the school money, and on May 17, 1861, Mr. Hall's school of eighty-five pupils was closed. Within four months sixteen of his boys were in the Union army and nine had joined the Confederate forces. When his school closed there was but one other known Union man in the town. The "Yankee teacher" was warned to leave the town within a certain time, but he was detained a few days, and then got an old Rebel friend to secretly convey him to Spring- field, where he could take the stage. On a visit to Ozark after the war, he was told that plans had been laid "to string him up" on the next night after his escape.
During the next year he was upon the old home farm, teaching during the winter in Dublin, New Hampshire. The following August he enlisted in the 14th Regiment of New Hampshire Volunteers. At the request of the governor he took out recruiting papers and took with him into Company A, twenty-eight men. He was elected first lieutenant of the company and served in that capacity until Febru- ary, 1864, when he was promoted to be captain. The first service of the regiment was guarding Maryland from invasion by Mosby's guerrillas. The regiment was ordered into Washington in April, 1863, where for nine months they did guard duty under the military governor. For six months Lieutenant Hall was detailed for special duty as commander of an "Invalid Detachment" consisting of about 650 men in the larger hospitals about the city who were able to do light duty, but not yet ready to be returned to their own regiments, at the front. He was required to make daily reports to the military
CHARLES PRENTISS HALL
governor of his doings, and of the men sent to their regiments when pronounced fit by the surgeons.
In March, 1864, the regiment took steamer in New York for New Orleans, suffering severely in a storm off Cape Hatteras. It was too late to join in the Red River expedition under General Banks, which had been intended, and in July it was returned to Washington and sent to join Sheridan in his famous campaign in the Shenandoah valley. They had their first battle "the Opequan," when Sheridan in an all-day fight sent the enemy "whirling up the valley." The regiment suffered terribly, losing thirteen officers out of twenty in the first half hour's fighting. Captain Hall was in command of the color company and all the officers above him were either killed or wounded and the command of the regiment fell upon him for the rest of the day.
Three days after - September 22 - they defeated the Confed- erates at Fisher's Hill, and followed them nearly to Staunton. Re- turning to Cedar Creek, they defeated Early on the 19th of October, in the battle which began "with Sheridan twenty miles away." Cap- tain Hall led his color company all through this famous campaign.
The following January the regiment was sent to Savannah and on March 5 Captain Hall was sent with a detachment of his regi- ment to take command of Fort Pulaski, guarding the mouth of the Savannah river, where he remained until June, when the regiment prepared to return home, being mustered out at Concord, July 28, 1865. While in command of the fort many important events occurred which required notice-as the surrender of Lee, and the death of Lincoln. Over 2,000 pounds of powder was expended in firing salutes. Two hundred guns were fired on the day of mourn- ing for the lamented president.
One night he was awakened by a sentinel who reported that an officer had arrived with an order from the Secretary of War turning over to his care Confederate Secretary of War Siddons, R. M. T. Hunter, and former U. S. Senator Campbell of Virginia, as prisoners of war. They were given the liberty of the fort in the daytime, but were under guard at night. During this time he was also honored with a call from Secretary Chase of Lincoln's cabinet, who, taking his hand when about to go on board of his steamer, said, "Captain, when you write home, tell them you have had a New Hampshire boy to see you."
CHARLES PRENTISS HALL
During his long experience as teacher and superintendent of schools, Mr. Hall was a prominent participator in teachers' conven- tions, in Illinois, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Massachusetts, and sometimes in other states. He was for a time president of the State Teachers' Association of New Hampshire. He is now Com- mander of the Ozro Miller Grand Army Post, No. 93, at Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts.
He was principal of the high school at Granville, Illinois, from 1865 to 1870; head assistant of the high school at Princeton, Illinois, 1870-1878; principal of the high school at Hinsdale, New Hamp- shire, 1878-1889; superintendent of the schools of Windham county, Vermont, 1889-1891; superintendent at Winchendon, Massachu- setts, 1891-1893; superintendent at Shelburne Falls, Massachu- setts, 1893-1908.
Captain Hall was a Republican in politics and a Congregational- ist in religion. His relaxation from business took the form of work in his garden. He was also librarian of the public library. He married, October 11, 1865, Lucia, daughter of William and Eliza (Dorr) Kimball, granddaughter of Eliphalet and Selinda (Ripley) Kimball, and a descentant of Richard Kimball, who came from Ipswich, England, to Watertown, Massachusetts, in May, 1634.
They had five children, of whom four are living. Jesse F. is manager for the New England Telephone Company, at New Bedford; Edward K. is a member of the law firm of Powers and Hall, in Boston; Howard W. is manager of the Richmond, Va., division of the West- ern Electric Company; Mary Lucia, the only daughter, is a teacher.
Captain Hall recommended to young Americans, " Temperance, honesty, industry, and a moral and religious life."
Captain Hall died at his winter home in Winter Park, Florida, on December 1, 1915.
EDWARD KIMBALL HALL
E DWARD KIMBALL HALL was born in Granville, Illinois, July 9, 1870, the son of Charles Prentiss Hall, born in West- moreland, New Hampshire, November 2, 1838, and Lucia Cotton Kimball, born in Cornish, New Hampshire, September 21, 1836.
His paternal grandparents were Gaius Keith Hall, born Feb- ruary 10, 1814, died April 15, 1863, and Mary Fuller, born Oc- tober 12, 1814, died July 21, 1858. His mother's parents were William R. Kimball, born March, 1791, and Eliza Dresser Dorr. His father was a captain in the Civil War, serving three years. He taught school twenty-seven years in Illinois and New Hamp- shire, and was a Superintendent of Schools in Massachusetts for eighteen years.
Mr. Hall is in the tenth generation from George and Mary Hall, who came from Devonshire, England, to Taunton, Massachusetts, in 1635, and in the fifth generation from Seth Hall, who moved from Taunton to Westmoreland, New Hampshire, in 1792. Several of the Halls served in the Revolutionary War. He is fifth genera- tion from William and Lydia Ripley, who are descendants of Elder William Brewster through one line, and of Governor William Brad- ford through two lines of descent.
He came east with his parents when he was eight years of age to Hinsdale, New Hampshire. From the Hinsdale High School he went to the St. Johnsbury Academy, from which he was gradu- ated in 1888. Entering Dartmouth College he became interested in all branches of college activity. He was captain of the foot- ball team, of the track athletic team, and a member of the base- ball team, being one of the few athletes who has gained a "D" in all three branches of sport. He was a member of the Delta Kappa Epsilon Fraternity and of the Casque and Gauntlett Senior So- ciety. His standing in scholarship was recognized by election to membership in the Phi Beta Kappa Society.
He was graduated from Dartmouth in 1892 and after two years as an instructor at the University of Illinois, he entered the Law School of Harvard University. Here he was an editor of the Harvard Law Review, and was graduated in 1896. He prac- ticed law in Scranton, Pennsylvania, for one year and a half, when
Et. Hay
EDWARD KIMBALL HALL
he came to Boston to be associated with Samuel L. Powers, Esq. This relationship in the practice of law grew into the firm of Powers, Hall and Jones, and later that of Powers and Hall. In 1912, Mr. Hall was made Vice-President in charge of public rela- tions of the New England Telephone and Telegraph Company.
Mr. Hall was a member of the First Corps of Cadets of Massa- chusetts for three years. He has been actively interested in the civic affairs of the city of Newton, and in 1906 and 1907 served on the Board of Aldermen of that city. He is President of the Berkeley Infirmary, First Vice-President and a member of the Board of Directors of the Boston Chamber of Commerce (1915), a member of the Board of Governors of the Boston City Club, and President of the Dartmouth Alumni Association (1912). In 1898 he became a member of the Dartmouth Alumni Council and has since that time been very active in all matters concerning Dart- mouth athletics. He was President of the Council for several years, retiring in 1910. He was Chairman of the Committee which raised the alumni fund for the erection of the new Gym- nasium at Dartmouth. He is a Trustee of the college.
Mr. Hall became a member of the American Intercollegiate Football Rules Committee at the time when the demand for a re- vision of the rules in the interests of safety became widespread. He served as Secretary of the Committee for three years and later he became its Chairman, which office he now holds (1915). For many years he was an official in the important intercollegiate foot- ball games.
He is an ardent fly fisherman and has a considerable collection of big game trophies. His annual vacation is spent in the woods of Maine.
He is a member of the American Bar Association, the Boston Bar Association, the Economic Club of Boston, the Massachusetts Re- publican Club, the Dartmouth Club of Boston, the Boston Chamber of Commerce, the Camp Fire Club of America, the Brae Burn Country Club, the Tennis and Racquet Club, the Newton Club, the Boston City Club, and the Exchange Club.
He was married July 1, 1902, to Sally Maynard, daughter of Irving Webster Drew and Caroline Hatch Merrill, granddaughter of Amos Webster Drew and Julia Esther Lovering, and of Sher- burne Royal Merrill and Sarah Blackstone Merrill. They have three children : Dorothy, Richard Drew, and Edward Kimball, Jr.
FRANK OSGOOD HARDY
F RANK OSGOOD HARDY was born in Fitchburg, Massa- chusetts, September 13, 1870. His father was William Augustus Hardy, born June 12, 1837; died July 4, 1912; son of Sylvander W. Hardy, born February 25, 1814, and died April 10, 1850. His mother was Harriet Maria Adams, born in Ashburnham, Massachusetts, February 18, 1840; died August 14, 1877; whose father was John Adams, born April 7, 1803, and died January 27, 1881.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.