USA > Massachusetts > Biographical history of Massachussetts; biographies and autobiographies of the leading men in the state, 1911, vol 7 > Part 8
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ALEXANDER COCHRANE
the committee on the Phillips Brooks memorial statue (which was recently unveiled). He served as chairman of the committee of Boston Merchants, which raised the money for the present structure of the Boston Young Men's Christian Association building in 1882, and was also on the building committee.
In all these offices he has rendered a useful service which has brought him the high esteem of his associates.
Mr. Cochrane is a member of the Thursday Evening Club; the Somerset Club; the Union Club, of which he was a vice-president; the Country Club; the Long Point Shooting Club; the Canaveral Club, and the Restigouche Salmon Club. He has been abroad many times and has thus gained a large knowledge of men and measures. His relaxation from the stress and strain of business has also been found in fishing, shooting, and golf, as shown by his membership in the associations mentioned.
His favorite room in his house is his library, and his greatest pleasure in leisure hours, to peruse its contents. His chosen authors are Macaulay, Froude, Gibbon, Scott, Thackeray, and Dumas. Art has always interested him and his purchases decorate his city house - designed by McKim, Mead, and White.
In political faith he is a Republican, though no political shackles are permitted to control his vote or compel his assent to that which his judgment disapproves. He voted for Grover Cleveland at his first election to the presidency of the United States.
On March 24, 1869, Mr. Cochrane married Mary Lynde, daughter of Dr. John Langdon and Mary (Lynde) Sullivan, a descendant of Governor James Sullivan of Massachusetts. Eight children have blessed their home, of whom there are now living: Alexander Lynde Cochrane, Charlotte Blake Loring, Hester Sullivan Fearing, Francis Douglas Cochrane, Marjorie (Cochrane) Forbes, James Sullivan Cochrane, and Ethel (Cochrane) Cushing.
Mr. Cochrane has always regarded business as a means and not the chief aim of life, and offers this suggestion to young people: "Make yourself master of some occupation by personal application, and whatever your calling, pursue it with sincerity."
JOHN CRAWFORD CROSBY
J OHN CRAWFORD CROSBY was born in Sheffield, Berk- shire County, Massachusetts, June 15, 1859.
His father, John Crosby (February 15, 1829, to Decem- ber 17, 1902), was the son of John (1799) and Hannah (Curtis) Crosby. He was a town and city official, selectman, deputy sheriff, and sheriff of Berkshire County for nine years.
John Crawford Crosby's mother was Margaret (Crawford) Crosby, the daughter of Andrew (1801) and Annie (McIndoe) Crawford. His ancestors came to this country from England, Scotland, and Ireland.
He attended the public schools of Pittsfield, and the Law School of Boston University. He received the degree of LL.B. from Boston University in 1882, and began the practice of law in the office of U. S. Senator Henry L. Dawes upon his admission to the bar in July, 1882.
Mr. Crosby soon became a very busy lawyer and took high standing at the Bar. He has appeared in most of the important litigation in his section and has been for many years the adviser of the largest business interests. Tireless in energy and thorough in the preparation of his cases, he unites to legal learning the address of the polished advocate. He is learned in the deep under- lying principles of the law and familiar with the decisions of our courts. He is warm-hearted, unselfish, kindly in manner, and charitable in his deeds and estimates of men. He has always had a gift of reasonableness which has kept him clear of factions and conflicts. He has a fraternal feeling for the profession to which he belongs and a pride in the maintenance of its standards.
He was a member of the School Committee of Pittsfield, from 1884 to 1890; of the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1886 and 1887; of the Massachusetts Senate in 1888 and 1889; of the Fifty-second United States Congress, elected in 1890. He was
John belevody
JOHN CRAWFORD CROSBY
Mayor of Pittsfield 1894 and 1895. He was six years City Solic- itor for Pittsfield. He was also the Democratic Candidate for At- torney-General of Massachusetts and in 1904 was the Democratic candidate for Lieutenant-Governor. He was appointed a Justice of the Superior Court of Massachusetts, on January 18, 1905, and on December 24, 1913, was advanced to the position of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts.
He is a member of the Union Club, the St. Botolph Club and the University Club all of Boston, and the Country Club, the Mon- day Evening Club, and the Park Club, all of Pittsfield. He is a Democrat in politics, and finds recreation in horseback riding and in walking.
On February 4, 1897, he married Henrietta, daughter of Cap- tain Nathan and Hannah Richards, a descendant from English colonists who were active in the Revolutionary War.
His watchword for young Americans is-"Honesty, Integrity, and Industry."
Judge Crosby's active and useful life has been absolutely free from any attempt to arrest public attention and singularly devoid of ostentation, yet no man in the Commonwealth is better known, more highly respected, or more popular. His entire career has been marked by uprightness; and sincerity of purpose, devotion to duty, and zeal in the public interest have signalized every step in his advance.
He is a man of great legal attainments. The duties of his judicial office have given him a broad field of usefulness and have brought him much distinction and honor.
HENRY HAVELOCK CUMMINGS
H ENRY H. CUMMINGS, inventor and manufacturer, was born in Worcester, Massachusetts, on February 28, 1858, afterwards residing in Boston, Winthrop, Revere, Malden, and Newton.
His father, Elkanah Andrews Cummings, born in 1820, a Bap- tist minister, afterwards a teacher, and later in life, a developer of real estate, was the son of Peter and Sarah (Andrews) Cum- mings, and his mother, who before her marriage was Emily Cleve- land Spicer, daughter of Lyman and Sarah Ann (Savage) Spicer, was a remarkable woman, whose influence upon the character of her son was in every way strong.
Henry was the third child of the family of nine. His strong mechanical bent was revealed at the early age of three years, when he invented and constructed a labor saving device for his mother's convenience in her housework. He constantly sought improved ways of doing things.
As a boy, while he was interested in sports, mechanical pursuits appealed more strongly to him, and he assisted his father at their home, in making shoe heels for manufacturers in Boston and Lynn, and in his later building operations, thereby adding somewhat to the rather scanty income of the family. Through this help at home, which began when he was five years of age, and continued with the other members of the family until he was seventeen years of age, when he went to learn the trade of a machinist, he acquired habits of industry, which have continued all through his life.
When he was eight years old, in 1866, the family moved to Mal- den, and he entered the Maplewood Grammar School, from which he graduated in 1871. This closed his school life, during which he had learned easily and held high rank in his classes.
After graduation, he engaged with his brother in a small print- ing business, and for several years assisted his father in building houses. When he was sixteen, he went to work in a dry goods
Henry H Cummings.
HENRY HAVELOCK CUMMINGS
store in Boston for another year, and in 1875, not altogether with his father's approval, began to learn the trade of a machinist.
In 1881, then 23 years old, he started in business for himself and founded the company since known as the Cummings Machine Works of Boston.
After a year by himself he took in a partner, Mr. A. D. Crombie, whose interest in the business he bought twenty-two years later, and in 1905 the business was incorporated under its present title, the Cummings Machine Works, of which he became President and Treasurer. Long before the establishment of his independent busi- ness, he began his career as an inventor. Among the more than a hundred patents which were granted to him by the United States Government between 1885 and 1915, the more important ones were for button-sewing machines, granted in 1886, seed packing, issued in 1895, for an improved printing press in 1897, for a sub-target gun in 1903, and for an engine-log system in 1914. By this latter invention the speed of a steamship is automatically indicated, the distance that the ship has traveled, the direction of the rotation of each propellor, the total average number of revolutions and the average number per minute, all indicated simultaneously, and with extreme accuracy, a system which excited the keen interest of ma- rine people, both in this country and abroad, and which is now the standard equipment for ships of the United States Navy.
He has also invented various other machines and devices to be used on shipboard in connection with the engines and other parts of a ship's apparatus. One of the most interesting of his inventions is called The Cummings "Dotter," a very simple and scientifically accurate device, by means of which it is said that a person can, without using any ammunition, engage in target practice, either with heavy naval cannon, or with an ordinary rifle or revolver and acquire a higher degree of skill as a marksman in a few weeks than could possibly be attained in the same number of months of practice on the regular out-door range with service ammunition.
Politically, Mr. Cummings has always been a Republican, and is a member of the Massachusetts Republican Club, and in 1894-5 he served as a member of the City Council of Malden. Other or- ganizations with which he is, or has been connected are the High- land Glee Club, the Boston Yacht Club, the Boston Chamber of Commerce, the Bostonian Society, the American Society of Naval
HENRY HAVELOCK CUMMINGS
Engineers, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the Navy League, the Reciprocity Club of America, the United Order of the Golden Cross, the Workmen's Benefit Association, the Aero Club of New England, and the Malden City Government Associa- tion.
His church affiliation is with the Congregational Church, and since his removal to Newton in 1904, he has attended the Congre- gational Church at Newton Highlands. From 1912 to 1915 he was a deacon of that church. He has also been a member of the Con- gregational Club.
His favorite recreation is yachting.
On February 24, 1886, Mr. Cummings was married to Miss Jane Clark Crombie, the daughter of his former partner, Albert D. Crombie, of Malden. Her mother was Sylvia (Greenwood) Crom- bie, and her grandparents were Clark and Lucy (Dane) Crombie and Cyrus and Olive (Kingman) Greenwood. They have had two children, the elder of whom, Sylvia, died at the age of five years. The other daughter, Esther, is still living with her parents.
Asked what suggestions he would give to young Americans which would most help them to attain true success in life, he replied :- "As early as possible one should decide what kind of work he is best fitted to do, and thereafter bend his energies to excel in that line. It is much better to be a good mechanic than a poor doctor. One should not however, allow business matters so to absorb his time that he cannot give a reasonable amount of it to religious, educational and social matters."
William a. Davenport
WILLIAM AIKEN DAVENPORT
W ILLIAM AIKEN DAVENPORT was born October 23, 1869, in Wilmington, Vermont, son of Stephen Tabor and Alice S. (Warner) Davenport. His father was born September, 1844, in Leyden, Massachusetts. He has been for years an esteemed and honored citizen of Brattleboro, Vermont, where he is a prominent attorney, noted for his physical strength and keen mental endowments. Chosen on the Democratic ticket he repre- sented the town of Wilmington in the State Legislature in 1874. The mother of W. A. Davenport was born in the town of Man- chester, Vermont, March 9, 1849. Her teaching had a most valu- able influence on her son's career. Mr. Davenport's grandfather was Calvin N. Davenport, born in 1805 and died in 1847, who mar- ried Lucy White. His maternal grandparents were Milton War- ner, born in 1812, died in 1898, and Olive (Jameson) Warner.
The founder of the family in this country is supposed to have been the famous Rev. John Davenport. The Davenports have long, however, had a decided predilection for the law, and many of them have been able and successful attorneys.
William A. Davenport, in common with a vast number of our most successful men, began life on a farm. There strength of mus- cle and vigor of mind had free play for development. In addition to the farm work he had some experience in lumbering and also worked as a clerk in a store.
After obtaining what education the common schools of his town could grant him, he entered Glenwood Classical Seminary at West Brattleboro, Vermont, from which he graduated in 1889. His edu- cation was not obtained without difficulties, but the very fact that he overcame them endowed him with an added strength of purpose. He was well qualified for teaching, and followed that profession with success in his native State from 1887 to 1892. Following this period of teaching he was connected for a year with the Militia Service of Vermont. From the first, however, he cherished a liking for law, and during the years of teaching, he devoted what leisure time he had to reading law. When the opportunity came he
WILLIAM AIKEN DAVENPORT
entered the law office of Frederick L. Greene of Greenfield, Massachusetts.
He was admitted to the bar of Massachusetts, in July, 1895, and on October first of that year formed a partnership with Mr. Greene which continued till January 1, 1906. '
Mr. Davenport was admitted to practice his profession in the following courts: The United States District Court in 1899, the United States Circuit Court in 1907, the United States Circuit Court of Appeals in 1908, and the United States Supreme Court in 1908.
He was elected to represent Greenfield as a Democrat, in the State Legislature of 1899 and 1900, and served on the Committee on Judiciary.
Recognizing his fitness for public affairs, his townsmen have chosen Mr. Davenport to fill the following positions in rapid suc- cession : member of the School Committee of Greenfield from 1900 to 1908; Park Commissioner, 1903-1906; Trustee under the Smith Will, 1906-1908; Selectman, 1909-1913; chairman of the Selectmen, 1913; School Committee, 1915-1918. He was a member of the Massachusetts Democratic State Committee from 1896 to 1903, and was also a delegate from Massachusetts to the Democratic National Convention of 1908. As may be readily inferred from the foregoing, Mr. Davenport has always been identified with the Democratic party, and a loyal adherent to its principles.
Mr. Davenport is socially inclined and is a member of the Order of Odd Fellows, the Workmen, and the Eagles. He gets very little time for amusements or lengthy vacations, but devotes his time to business affairs. In 1896 he built a large block on Main Street in Greenfield.
Mr. Davenport was married December 20, 1894, to Belle M., daughter of Frank E. and Mila (Marsh) Shearer of Colerain, Massachusetts. Six children have been born to them: Alice G., Herbert S., William L., Isabell O., Marjorie D., and Dorothy N.
Mr. Davenport advises young people who wish to attain true success in life to lay in a good stock of energy, to cultivate industry, practice sobriety, and live honestly.
By his ability and industry Mr. Davenport contributed his full share in building up and sustaining the enviable reputation of the firm of which he was a member.
Ebert. Daher
EBEN SUMNER DRAPER
E BEN SUMNER DRAPER was born at the village of Hope- dale, in the town of Milford, Massachusetts, on the seven- teenth of June, 1858. He died at Greenville, South Caro- lina, April 9, 1914.
The Draper family was established in this country by James Draper, who, with his wife, Miriam Stanfield, emigrated about the year 1648 from Heptonstall, in Yorkshire, England, and settled in Roxbury. His son, James Draper, 2d, took part as a soldier in King Philip's War. His son James 3d was a Captain in the Trained Bands. Another ancestor, Major Abijah Draper, com- manded a body of Minute Men at Roxbury during the Revolution- ary War. Mr. Draper's grandfather, Ira Draper, who was born in 1764 and died at the good old age of eighty-four, remembered being present at the Battle of Lexington and Concord Bridge with his father, who took part in the fighting. Mr. Draper's father, George Draper, who was born in August, 1817, and lived until 1887, married Hannah Brown Thwing, and entered into the manu- facture of cotton machinery at Hopedale, which has been now for more than half a century so intimately associated with the Draper name. His son attended the public schools of his native town, and the Institute of Technology, for which he was fitted at the Allen School at West Newton. As a boy, he was required to engage in mechanical work for a few hours every day during his vacations, and he always considered that the effect of this discipline was good. He was fond of reading and had the advantage of free access to the very best books. Works of biography, history, and fiction espe- cially appealed to him.
His preparation for the active business of life, after the tech- nical training of the Institute, was secured in the machine shops at Hopedale. He got a practical knowledge of the working of cotton machinery in the great mills at Lowell, Manchester, and other
EBEN SUMNER DRAPER
manufacturing centres of New England, and in 1880 became a mem- ber of the firm of George Draper and Sons at Hopedale. Sixteen years later the Draper Company was organized and he was elected selling agent. He was a director in the Boston and Albany Rail- way, of the National Shawmut Bank, the Old Colony Trust Com- pany, the New England Cotton Yarn Company, the Queen City Company, the Milford National Bank; and President of the Man- ville Company of Providence. He was an active member of the Home Market Club of which his father, George Draper, was the originator and founder, and took part in many other financial and mercantile organizations. He was a member of the corporation of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and one of the trustees of the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital Fund. He was chairman of the Massachusetts delegation that went to the Nashville Exposition in 1897. He was one of the trustees of the Milford Hospital and he and Mrs. Draper built and presented to the Milford Hospital Asso- ciation its admirable and complete building. During the Span- ish-American War he was President of the Massachusetts Volunteer Aid Association, having been appointed by Governor Walcott, and there was disbursed by this association some $450,000 of money raised to help the suffering and sick Massachusetts men in that war. The Association also equipped a hospital ship called the Bay State, which brought many of the suffering and sick from Cuba and Porto Rico to this country. This was probably the first hospital ship that was ever furnished in war for such a purpose, and it was purchased and equipped at a cost in the vicinity of $200,000. He was chairman of the Committee which raised and sent to San Francisco in the vicinity of a million dollars at the time of the great earthquake and fire, and he appointed a committee which raised and expended some $400,000 for the suffering people at the time of the great Chelsea fire. For three years he served in the Massachusetts Militia as private in the First Corps Cadets, and he was a veteran of that organization.
He was actively engaged in politics and public service, and was from the beginning of his career a consistent and unswerving mem- ber of the Republican party. In 1892 he was made chairman of the Republican State Committee, and was a member of the Com- mittee for the three ensuing years. In 1896 he was a delegate from Massachusetts to the Republican National Convention at St. Louis,
EBEN SUMNER DRAPER
and was made Chairman of the delegation. He helped to secure the incorporation of the "gold standard" plank in resolutions of the convention. In 1900 he was the Republican elector for the Eleventh Congressional District, and cast his vote for Mckinley and Roosevelt. In 1903 and 1904 he was President of the Repub- lican Club of Massachusetts. After serving three years as Lieu- tenant-Governor of his native State he was elected Governor in 1908, and re-elected for a second term in the autumn election of 1909.
Mr. Draper, by his religious convictions, belonged to the Uni- tarian branch of the Congregational Church, and was vice-president of the American Unitarian Association. He and his brother, George A. Draper, built the beautiful Unitarian Church at Hope- dale as a memorial to their father and mother. It stands in ample grounds at the village centre.
In 1883 Mr. Draper married Nannie, daughter of General Ben- jamin Helm Bristow, of New York, who was Secretary of the Treas- ury in General Grant's cabinet. Mrs. Draper died September 24, 1913. Mr. and Mrs. Draper had three children, all living: the oldest, named Bristow after his maternal grandfather; Dorothy; and a son who bears his father's honored name.
Governor Draper's favorite occupations, aside from intellectual pursuits, were golf and tennis for out-of-door amusements, and bil- liards for house recreation. He was fond of music and was one of the brilliant audience that filled the new Boston Opera House on the occasion of its opening night in November, 1909.
Governor Draper was distinguished for his courtesy and gra- cious approachableness, free from any stiffness and formality. He was democratic in his treatment of all men, altogether an admirable representative of the best quality of American citizenship, with the background of distinguished and memorable ancestry on both sides of his line. He was honored by high office, and served his party with fairness and dignity and his State with fidelity and unbiased judgment.
He was a member of the Society of Colonial Wars, the Eastern Yacht Club, the Somerset Club, the Union Club, the Algonquin Club, the Brookline Country Club, the Hope Club of Providence, and the Metropolitan Club of New York City.
His motto, which he recommended to the readers of this work
EBEN SUMNER DRAPER
as helpful to success, was: "Cultivate thoroughness in study and work." This was his own habit and it led him to a commanding position in the community.
Governor Draper possessed qualities of a very high order. He attained distinction in the great business with which he was con- nected as much by his fairness as by his sagacity. He helped to make the community where he lived and where the headquarters of his large enterprises were located, a model for manufacturers. He was particularly solicitous for the comfort and general welfare of his employees, but it was in his public service that he became best known to the people of the State. He served the Commonwealth with honor and high credit. He was an executive whose promises were always to be depended upon. He made them carefully, but he observed them scrupulously. Perhaps he was too direct in his methods to rank as a successful politician, but he was better than that: he was a good Governor.
One of his finest qualities was his courage in the executive office. Courage is not always popular, but when joined with con- viction it is always admirable. There were questions coming before him that were politically embarrassing but he decided them as he believed the public welfare demanded rather than on the basis of what might have seemed expediency. He was never a drone in any hive, and lived up to the full measure of his responsibilities whether in public or private service. His friendships were strong, though he did not form them so freely as some men; so were his domestic ties, and the loss of his wife was doubtless one of the causes that hastened what seems a premature termination of his life and labors.
George Draper
GEORGE DRAPER
G EORGE DRAPER, who with his brother, Ebenezer, was the founder of the important manufacturing interests at Hopedale, Massachusetts, like many of the prominent and successful business men of New England was of English ancestry. The founder of the family in this country was James Draper, a Yorkshire man, who emigrated to New England and settled in Roxbury, in 1640. Later, the family removed to Weston, where Ira Draper, the father of George Draper was born, December 29, 1764. Ira Draper was a man of great natural intelligence and of much mechanical ingenuity and progressive thought. His mechan- ical turn of mind led him to make an important invention, an improved loom temple, for use in cotton manufacturing. He does not appear, however, to have profited largely by his inventive genius, for this seems to have been all that he bequeathed to his sons.
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