USA > Massachusetts > Biographical history of Massachussetts; biographies and autobiographies of the leading men in the state, 1911, vol 9 > Part 14
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Everything at home in those early days was made eminently worth the doing, a wholesome, well rounded existence, in which natu- ral confidence and hopefulness were deeply ingrained in his nature.
From the Newton High School he was sent to Mr. Allen's Eng- lish and Classical School in West Newton where he prepared for
WILLIAM BARTLET LAMBERT
Harvard College. In 1867 he graduated from Harvard with the degree of A.B. and in 1872 was made a Master of Arts.
On leaving the University in 1867, he began his career as Trea- surer of the Siemens Regenerative Gas Furnace Company of Boston. Two years later, he became a partner in the glass firm of Lambert Brothers. It was circumstances, far more than personal inclina- tion, which led Mr. Lambert into business. Seldom, however, has a man grasped circumstances more firmly, or moulded arbitrary conditions more resolutely to his own desire. He proved that a college education is no stumbling block to practical success.
The glass firm of the Lambert Brothers was an independent con- cern from 1869 until 1893. In the latter year William Lambert assisted in organizing the Boston Plate and Window Glass Company by the consolidation of Lambert Brothers, Hills, Turner and Com- pany and R. Sherburne. A little later he was made President of the new corporation. He was also elected a Director of the Washington National Bank and of the Mercantile Trust Company, both of Boston.
On October 4, 1870, Mr. Lambert married Anna K. Lombard, daughter of Israel and Susan (Kidder) Lombard. A son, Edward Bartlet Lambert, who graduated from Harvard University in class of 1895, was born in 1872 and died in Cambridge in 1903.
A daughter, Elinor, is the wife of Professor H. J. Hughes of Harvard.
Mr. Lambert's second marriage took place October 14, 1884, to Annie Read, daughter of William Read of Cambridge.
Half a century of unremitting service in building up the business prosperity of the Commonwealth is indeed an unusual record, and one which could not easily be overestimated. Mr. Lambert is a member of the Union Club of Boston, a Director of the Oakley Country Club of Watertown, and was Commodore of the Hull Yacht Club, more recently merged into the Boston Yacht Club. He is also active in the Boston Harvard Club. In politics he is a Republican - with a single exception, that he voted for Cleveland. Mr. Lambert attends the First Parish (Unitarian) Church of Cam- bridge.
" Loyalty to ideals," says Mr. Lambert, " is the first principle of success. My father, one of the most high-minded men I ever knew, taught me, as far back as I can remember, to work toward the loftiest standard of which my reason was capable. Integrity and close application to the thing in hand amounted to a kind of devotion in me while I was a student, and I carried the same method into business. One thing the American boy must learn is 'Never say die ' - that spirit will take him any length he is determined to go."
Geo.V. Levnet
GEORGE VASMER LEVERETT
G T EORGE VASMER LEVERETT, long identified with the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, in a legal capacity, was born in Charlestown, Massachusetts, on February 16, 1846, and died at his home in Boston on October 18, 1917. He was the son of Daniel and Charlotte (Betteley) Leverett.
Mr. Leverett was of notable ancestry. The family name in this country is chiefly associated with Sir John Leverett, Colonial Governor of Massachusetts, who was born in England in 1616, who at the age of seventeen emigrated to America with his father, Thomas Leverett, and settled in Boston. He returned to England in 1644 and took part in the struggle between the parliament and the king, and as commander of a company of foot soldiers gained military distinction and the friendship of Cromwell. On his return to America he held successively some of the most important civil and military offices in the gift of the colony, and finally, in 1673, became Governor. His skill and energy were instrumental in con- ducting to a fortunate issue the war with King Philip. He was knighted by Charles II in acknowledgment of his services to the New England Colonies during this contest. Another member of this family was John Leverett, a former president of Harvard College.
The First Church of Boston from which George Vasmer Leverett was buried contains a tablet to the memory of Governor Leverett, and will shortly have two others, one for John Leverett, and one for Thomas Leverett, who was one of the old-time elders of the church. The family has been identified with this church for a hundred and fifty years.
George Vasmer Leverett attended the Harvard grammar school in Charlestown, the High School, where he ranked first in his class, and entered Harvard College in 1863. He graduated in 1867 as the first scholar in his class. He then entered the Harvard Law School, where, in 1869, he received his degree of LL.B. He received his degree of A.M. from Harvard in 1870. From 1868 to 1870 he was instructor in mathematics at Harvard.
In 1871 Mr. Leverett entered upon the practice of law in Boston.
He moved to Cambridge in 1880, and on April 3, 1888, he married Mary E. L. Tebbetts. She was interested in social welfare and charity work. After her death in 1897, he moved to Boston to remain there until the end of his life.
In 1886 he became official attorney for the Bell Telephone Com- pany, and later its general counsel. It is believed that the parent
GEORGE VASMER LEVERETT
company was organized in his office. It was in his office, also, that the Trustees of the Huntington Avenue Lands, organized in 1871, made their headquarters, and he was their clerk and later one of their number.
As general counsel for the Bell Company, and for its successor, the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, Mr. Leverett had charge of all its legal matters. Every law of state legislatures or of Congress, that might effect the company's interests, and every decision of the courts in the United States that bore upon those interests was studied by him.
Mr. Leverett was fond of Greek and was particularly interested in reading the words of the fathers of the Church in the original language. He kept up this study of Greek all his life for the enjoy- ment he got out of it. So proficient was he in this study even in school days that his schoolmates nicknamed him "Sophocles." He found in music also another source of pleasure and was a regular attendant at the Boston Symphony orchestra concerts. He ex- celled in mathematics as well as in Greek and music, and enjoyed solving problems in that science.
He was a director in the Conveyancers' Title Insurance Company; the State Street Trust Company, and others; a trustee of the Frank- lin Savings Bank; member of the Bar Association of the City of Bos- ton; of the Massachusetts Historic-Genealogical Society; of the Co- lonial Society of Massachusetts; a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; a member of the Harvard Clubs of Boston and of New York; the University Clubs of Boston, New York and Chicago; the Union Club of Boston; and the Oakley Country Club. He was also a member of the Bostonian Society, the Bunker Hill Monument Association, the Charlestown High School Associa- tion and of the Old Schoolboys' Association. Of the High School Association he was successively secretary, vice-president, and president, each for two years, and was orator at one of its annual meetings.
He resigned as general counsel for the Telephone and Telegraph Company at the end of 1915 but remained consulting counsel of the company, and was held in great esteem not only for the efficient manner in which he had watched over its interests for so long, but for his sterling personal qualities and high character. His genial personality and fine memory for persons endeared him to many.
Throughout a long and active life Mr. Leverett bore himself worthily. Profound as was his legal learning, his innate sense of right was quite as conspicuous. He left a noble example of high personal attainment and honorable citizenship.
Forcial Longle .
PERCIVAL LOWELL
P ERCIVAL LOWELL was born in Boston, Massachusetts, March 13 ,1855, and died in Flagstaff, Arizona, November 12, 1916.
He was the son of Augustus and Katherine Bigelow (Lawrence) Lowell. His brother A. Lawrence Lowell is president of Harvard University. Percival Lowell was a graduate of Harvard in the class of 1876. In 1907, Amherst College conferred on him the degree of LL.D; while Clark University conferred the same degree on him in 1909. In 1883 Lowell went to Japan, where he lived during the ten years following, serving as counsellor and foreign secretary to the Korean Special Mission to the United States. On his return to America in 1894, he established the Lowell Observa- tory at Flagstaff, Arizona, and was engaged in astronomical studies and authorship until his death. In 1900 he organized an eclipse expedition to Tripoli, and in 1907 sent an expedition to the Andes mountains in South America, for the purpose of photographing the planet Mars. His previous discoveries on Mars won for him in 1904 the Janssen medal of the French Astronomical Society. He was also presented with a gold medal in 1908 by the Sociedad Astronomica de Mexico.
At a special session of Section A (Mathematics and Astronomy) of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Lowell made the following statement regarding his discovery of new canals on the planet Mars:
" New canals on Mars in the first sense, though always interesting and at times highly important, are no novelty at my observatory, inasmuch as at least four hundred have been discovered in the last fifteen years.
" When Schiaparelli left his great work he had mapped one hundred and seventeen canals: with those detected at Flagstaff, the number has risen to six hundred or more.
" On September 30, 1909, when the region of the Syrtis Major came into view again after its periodic hiding of six weeks, two striking canals were evident to the east of the Syrtis in places where no canals had ever previously been seen. Not only was their appearance unprecedented but the canals themselves were the most conspicuous ones on that part of the disc. The new canals were recorded in independent drawings and shortly afterward were photographed as the most conspicuous canals in the images.
" Subsequent examination of the records showed that they were indeed new, and this was conclusively established by examina- tion of records of previous years. The records of the observatory date back to 1894. Nor had any observer previous to 1894 recorded them. Schiaparelli had never seen them, nor had his predecessors
PERCIVAL LOWELL
or successors. This determined definitely that no human eye hac ever looked upon them before."
When asked the question whether the canals had not always been there, Lowell said as follows:
" This may be answered definitely in the negative. When it is realized that a canal of such size, while it might not have been visible elsewhere, on account of the character of the air, the im- proved instrumental means and the long experience of the obser- vers, could not have escaped the director's assistants." Dr. Lowell also dwelt on another theory, as to whether the canals could be due to the annual change of seasons which might affect the features of the planet. He stated that " there are canals which are quickened solely from the melting of the North polar cap such as the Thoth and others like the Ulysses which are beholden only to the Southern one. But the present canals are not of that category, for they did not appear in past Martian years, which, had they been so conditioned, they should have done. The records are decisive on the point. They do not belong to the class of uni-hemispheric seasonal canals. The records at Flagstaff covering several years needed to establish the fact are able to give an absolute verdict."
Lowell spared no expense in the interests of science, and the observatory at Flagstaff, Arizona, was maintained entirely by him. It was here that the observations on Mars were made that have furnished the scientific world with the theory of life on that planet.
Lowell was appointed in 1902 non-resident Professor of As- tronomy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He was a member of the American Philosophical Society, the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, the Société Astronomique de France and the Astronomische Gesellschaft, to the National and the American Geographical Societies and he held an honorary membership in the Sociedad Astronomica de Mexico.
Lowell wrote numerous articles on the subject of astronomy, and was the author of many works of note including " Chosen," 1885; " The Soul of the Far East," 1886; " Noto," 1891; " Occult Japan," 1894; " Mars," 1895; " Annals of the Lowell Observa- tory," in the three volumes, 1898-1905; " The Solar System," 1903; " Mars and Its Canals," 1906; " Mars as the Abode of Life," 1908; and the " Evolution of Worlds," 1909.
He was member of Somerset, Union, and St. Botolph Clubs, Boston. On June 10, 1908 Percival Lowell was married to Constance Savage Keith, of Boston.
Lowell's whole life was given to science. He was generous in thought - broad and enlightened in his views on all subjects.
8. 7. michail.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN McDANIEL
B ENJAMIN FRANKLIN McDANIEL was born in Phila- delphia, Pennsylvania, September 8, 1845, and died April 25, 1914, at Dorchester, Massachusetts.
He came of good family, of Quaker stock, his father being a man of industry and integrity engaged in the manufacture of hats. His education was received in the Philadelphia schools. When fifteen years of age he enlisted as a drummer boy and first served in the Civil War with the Philadelphia infantry. A year later he enlisted and served during the remainder of the war with the First Delaware Battery, being a participant in the Red River expedition. Though only fifteen he showed his manliness and patriotism in responding to Lincoln's call.
Upon his return from the battlefield, the Reverend Increase Smith of Dorchester coached him for college and he entered the Harvard Divinity School, graduating in 1869. He entered at once upon his active career as minister of the Unitarian church at Hubbardston, Massachusetts. From there he went to the Exeter, New Hampshire, Unitarian Church, which he served for eleven years. Following his service in Exeter came four years of faithful and loyal ministry to the Barton Square Church at Salem, Massachusetts.
From Salem he went to San Diego, California, preaching there for seven years. While in that city he served on the School Com- mittee introducing new methods and features into the courses and causing himself to be termed " the teachers' friend." Upon his return from San Diego he accepted a call to the Newton Centre Unitarian Church. In this city he organized a Young People's Religious Union which was recognized as a model in its spirit and methods for others of the denomination. After six years' service there he became pastor of both the Norfolk Street Unitarian Church in Dorchester, and the Children's Church of the Barnard Memorial in Boston, as well as Superintendent of that Institution.
In his service there he manifested a sunny disposition and an enthusiasm which immediately won the children's love. As a
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN MCDANIEL
leader in the various activities such as the classes, clubs, enter- tainments and festivals he possessed a wonderful power for inter- esting and holding their attention. He had traveled extensively in Europe, and during his travels he had collected many engrav- ings and photographs which he now used in stereopticon lectures for their instruction and entertainment. He was truly their friend and a constant uplift and inspiration in the work, the very soul and life of the place. Endowed with rare qualities and a magnetic personality he was most successful. While at Exeter and Salem he accomplished great results with the boys and young men of these places. Being a natural mechanic he instructed them in carpentry and was a pioneer in the movement to educate the hand as well as the brain.
He was politically identified with the Republican party and a member of the Grand Army of the Republic. He was particularly devoted to Nature study and his chief mode of recreation from his responsible tasks was the collecting of insects, minerals and fossils. During his ministry at Exeter, New Hampshire, he organized a Natural History Society for that community.
On October 14, 1869, he married Mary Elizabeth, daughter of Sumner and Elizabeth H. (West) Wellman, granddaughter of Ebenezer and Carrie Parker Wellman and of William and Mercy Larkin (Gray) West, and a descendant from the Wellman family who came from Wales and England and settled in Lynn, Massa- chusetts, about 1625. There were three children born to Mr. and Mrs. McDaniel, two of whom are living: Arthur Sumner, a law librarian in New York, and Professor Allen Boyer McDaniel of Union College, Schenectady, New York.
Mr. McDaniel had a varied and exceedingly interesting career. His chief distinction lay in his optimistic, unselfish, and sympa- thetic disposition. He was endowed with fine intellectual gifts which gave him power and place among the leaders of his denomi- nation, but his most congenial and successful field of endeavor was among children and youth.
It can most truthfully be said of him that in his death the chil- dren of the Barnard Memorial lost a friend, the church a noble and faithful servant, and the city an esteemed and useful citizen.
Ing by E & Williams & Bro NY
WILLIAM AUGUSTUS McKENNEY
W TILLIAM AUGUSTUS McKENNEY, President and Director of the McKenney and Waterbury Company, of Boston; was born in Boston, Massachusetts, October 9, 1855. His father, Charles Henry McKenney, born March 9, 1826, was engaged in the manufacture and sale of gas fixtures; he married Susan A. Dodge, a woman whose gentle influence in the training of her son he realizes has been the chief factor in his successful career.
His education was received in the Boston public schools. Upon his graduation from grammar school in 1879 he became an errand boy in a Boston store.
Since that time he has been connected with the manufacture and sale of gas fixtures and lamps. For many years he was a sales- man, but in September of 1888 he engaged in the business on his own account and the firm of McKenney and Waterbury was formed.
During the fifteen years preceding the establishment of this firm he was a commercial traveller or salesman, his field being New England. In his line of work he made many trips abroad and besides acquiring much information in regard to the business, he became thoroughly acquainted with the foreign market, and the development of his special branch of trade.
Mr. McKenney has been President of the Boulevard Trust Company of Brookline, Massachusetts, for the past five years. He is President and Director in several corporations including the Crowell and Thurlow Steamship Company, which owns amongst others a modern steamer named the William A. McKenney in honor of Mr. McKenney. He is also Vice President of the Atlantic Coast Co. of Boston Shipyards at Boothbay Harbor and Thomaston Me.
He is a member of the Algonquin Club of Boston, the Boston Athletic Association, the City Club, the Boston Yacht Club and the Belmont Spring Country Club, the Commercial Travellers Association and the Boston Art Club. In politics he is a member of the Republican party. He is a faithful member of the Unitarian
WILLIAM AUGUSTUS MCKENNEY
Church of Brookline, Massachusetts. His favorite form of recrea- tion is yachting in which he takes an active interest.
Mr. McKenney was married March 24, 1896, to Anna Laura Owen.
From his experience and observation he offers this suggestion to those who would know the one quality on which all success rests: " Be truthful and honest, and upright in all things."
Mr. McKenney belongs to that school of men who do business on honor, and whose word is considered as good as their bond. He possesses sterling integrity, great firmness and a pure character. He is one of the leading business men of Boston, and is classed with the most energetic and public spirited citizens of the city. His career is a source of encouragement to young men who start in life with no capital except a good character and the blessings of a public school education. He early evinced a decided talent for business life and its varied pursuits, and today is recognized as a business man of commanding presence, pleasing address and of marked executive ability. By his daily life of usefulness he has won the deep respect and confidence of his fellow citizens.
Enpy the Mass Bieg Sory
DAMason
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DAVID HAVEN MASON
H ON. DAVID HAVEN MASON was born in Sullivan, N. H., March 17th, 1818 and died at his home in Newton, Mass., May 29, 1873. He graduated at Dartmouth College in 1841. He gathered around him a large circle of appreciative friends.
After several years of close attention to the law, he entered public life and by the various offices whose functions he discharged with admirable judgment, zeal and success, he made his influence felt, as a public benefactor throughout the Commonwealth. Mr. Mason was a resident of Newton for twenty-five years. He early won the confidence of his fellow citizens and was a very active and influential member of the House of Representatives in the years 1863-1866 and 1867. The patriotic Governor John A. Andrew leaned upon him with implicit confidence and often applied to him for counsel and aid in important and difficult emergencies. In the struggles of the country, during the war of 1861-65, he showed the most devoted patriotism by word and deed.
He declined the honor of being a candidate for the Senatorship which he was urged to accept, on account of the claims of his pro- fession.
While he was a member of the House of Representatives, Mr. Mason attended to the business of the Commonwealth with great fidelity and won for himself the reputation of being one of the best debaters in that honorable body. He watched carefully every measure that came before the Legislature. His speeches before the Legislature or Committees of the Legislature, on the Consolidation of the Western and the Boston and Worcester Railroad Corpora- tions, on equalizing the bounties of soldiers, on the adoption of the Fourteenth Article, Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, on making the Milldam free of toll, and on the leveling of Fort Hill.
In 1860 Mr. Mason was appointed on the Massachusetts Board of Education, of which for several years he was a very efficient member and discharged the duties of that office with exemplary faithfulness. No demands of his business were permitted to inter- fere with his obligations to the State in this department of service. It was to him a labor of love. Mr. Mason was also deeply interested
DAVID HAVEN MASON
in sustaining the high character of the schools in the town of New- ton. " Mason School " at Newton Centre was named for him as an honorary testimonial of his interest in the cause of education.
During the war of 1861-65 he was unwearied in his zeal to pre- serve the country and its free institutions unharmed and to stimu- late his fellow citizens to all right and noble efforts. A notable instance of this occurred in an emergency in the war, when a large and enthusiastic meeting of citizens was held in the town hall of Newton; the design of the meeting was to take measures for equip- ping one or more companies of volunteer militia and to take further measures for the support and comfort of the families of such as should be called into service. He said calm judgment should rule the hour; the minds of men should not in their enthusiasm be carried beyond the proper line of duty; while they are willing to give of their substance, judgment and discretion should so guide their actions that while everything needed should be given un- sparingly, nothing should be wasted. Millions of gold and rivers of blood will not compare with the influence of this question, for on its solution hangs the hopes of civil liberty and civilization throughout the world for ages to come. Let it not be said that we of this generation have been unfaithful to the high and holy trust.
These resolutions, which were passed unanimously, are as honor- able to the mind that originated and the pen that drew them as to the citizens of the town which passed them.
December 22, 1870, Mr. Mason was appointed to the office of United States District Attorney for Massachusetts in place of George S. Hillard, resigned, but Mr. Mason was nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate above all competitors, his appointment being regarded as a strong one for the Govern- ment and highly acceptable to the people and the bar of Massa- chusetts. While Mr. Mason administered this, his last public office, some very important and celebrated cases were decided by the Court, which evinced the Attorney's wisdom, sagacity and legal knowledge.
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