USA > Massachusetts > Biographical history of Massachussetts; biographies and autobiographies of the leading men in the state, 1911, vol 9 > Part 2
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Richard Cockburn Maclaurin
Chas. B. Away
CHARLES BEAN AMORY
T Y HE Amory family name has been borne conspicuously and honorably in Massachusetts since 1720 and in the Colony of South Carolina even earlier. Thomas Amory was a prominent merchant of Bristol, chief commissioner of the navy of Ireland, from 1660, residing at Galway, Ireland, up to the time of his death. His son, Jonathan, was born at Bristol, in May, 1654, removed to Barbadoes, West Indies, and thence to Charleston, South Carolina, about 1691, and was advocate-general and trea- surer of the province of South Carolina, being the first American ancestor of the Amorys in America.
Charles Bean Amory inherited a rich strain of blood. He was born in New York City, July 30, 1841. His father was Jonathan Amory (born in 1802, died in 1885). His mother's maiden name was Letitia Austin, his grandfathers were Jonathan Amory and John Austin; his grandmothers before marriage were Mehitable Sullivan and Mary Redding. His father was largely interested in patents, and was very kindly in disposition and courtly in manner. He instilled into the minds of his children a wholesome respect for the dignity of labor, which served them well in their after business life.
The Sullivans were noted for unwavering integrity, firm deci- sion, perseverance, and pluck, and these qualities gave tone to the business lives of their descendants. The original settler was John Sullivan, born in Limerick, Ireland, in 1690, landed in York, Maine, in 1723, and settled in Berwick, where he died in 1801, aged one hundred and five years and three days. He married in Ireland, Margaret (or Margery) Brown, who died in Berwick in 1801, aged eighty-seven years. Their oldest son, Benjamin, was an officer in the British navy, and was lost before the Revolutionary War. The second son, Daniel, was born about 1738 in Berwick, and settled in Sullivan, Maine, about 1762. He married for his second wife (who was the mother of his children who reached maturity) June 14, 1765, Abigail, daughter of John and Hannah Bean. She was born in 1747 and died in April, 1828, aged eighty-one years. There being no magistrate nearby, or roads across country, their wedding journey was made in a log canoe. Daniel was a patriot, and de- served as high honors as his more celebrated younger brothers, John and James. Early in the Revolutionary War he raised a company of militia, and was active and fearless in protecting the shore towns from the predatory attacks of the British. The British and Tories,
CHARLES BEAN AMORY
appreciating his activity, made several attempts to capture him, and finally succeeded, on the stormy night of March 16, 1781, when he was awakened to find his bed surrounded by a party of marines from the British war vessel Allegiance, which had anchored near his home at " Waukeag Point." He was taken to Castine, where he was offered his liberty if he would take an oath of allegiance, which offer he refused, and was carried to Halifax. From Halifax he was sent to the old prison ship Jersey in New York harbor, where he remained six months. He was, after much trouble upon the part of his brother James, exchanged, but died upon his passage home.
The third son of the emigrant John Sullivan and his wife Mar- garet was the compatriot of Washington, the celebrated Major- General John Sullivan. He crossed the Delaware with Washington, and was engaged in the Jersey campaign, was at Long Island, at Rhode Island, at Brandywine, Germantown, suffered with his men at Valley Forge, and gained renown in his campaign against the Six Nations. After his retirement from the army he was attorney- general for New Hampshire, member of the Council, and was elected governor of the State three times. Washington appointed him judge of the United States District Court, which position he held at the time of his death, January 23, 1795.
The fourth son of the emigrant was the equally celebrated James Sullivan, born at Berwick, April 22, 1744, who was a member of the first Provincial Congress of Massachusetts in 1775; delegate to the Continental Congress from 1776 to 1785; judge of the Supreme Court from 1776 to 1782; attorney-general of the Commonwealth of Mas- sachusetts from 1790 to 1807; at which time he was elected governor of the State, which office he held at the time of his decease, which occurred December 10, 1808. He was the great-grandfather of Charles Bean Amory.
The influence of his mother on his moral, spiritual, and intellec- tual life was a strong factor in the early life of Charles Bean Amory, and contributed not a little to his success in after life. He graduated from the grammar and high schools, and began the active work of life at the age of sixteen by entering the office of Messrs. B. C. Clark & Co., as a clerk. He places the influence of home life, of schools, early companionship, private study, and contact with men in active life in the order named as having much to do with his success in early life. He served as a clerk in Boston from 1857 to 1861; was a cot- ton broker in New Orleans from 1865 to 1885; was treasurer of the Hamilton Manufacturing Company, a cotton mill in Lowell, Massa-
CHARLES BEAN AMORY
chusetts, from 1885 to 1909, when he resigned. An extract from the Directors' Records of the Hamilton Manufacturing Company, November 29, 1909, reads:
" TO THE DIRECTORS OF THE HAMILTON MANUFACTURING COMPANY:
GENTLEMEN, - Your Committee, appointed at the last meeting to submit resolutions in regard to Mr. Amory's resignation, beg leave to offer the following minute, and to recommend that it be entered in the records of the Company. In accordance with Mr. Amory's earnest desire, the Directors of the Hamilton Manufactur- ing Company have reluctantly accepted his resignation from the office of Treasurer, but in doing so they desire to record their warm appreciation of what he has accomplished during the twenty-three years he has held office. But it is not only in the results obtained that Mr. Amory has proved his right to the gratitude of the corpo- ration. Throughout his long service the controlling consideration with him has always been not what was for his own advantage, but what was best for the Company. The loyal and unselfish spirit in which he has worked has won for him the warm personal regard and respect of all the Directors and their sincerest wishes for his future welfare.
Respectfully submitted,
JAMES LONGLEY, GEORGE WIGGLESWORTH, C. MINOT WELD,
Committee."
Mr. Amory was vestryman in St. Paul's Church at New Orleans, senior warden of the church of the Holy Spirit at Mattapan, senior vice-president of the Arkwright Club, Commander of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion Commandery of Massachusetts, has rendered military service as lieutenant and captain in the 24th Regiment, Massachusetts Volunteers, and as assistant-adjutant- general of the United States Volunteers from September, 1861, to May, 1865.
He has written a brief history of his military life which shows that he took a pride in its duties and gave faithful attention to its drill and tactics, as a result of his early training in thoroughness and detail so essential in successful army work.
CHARLES BEAN AMORY [Official Copy]
BOSTON, October 3, 1865.
TO THE HON. E. M. STANTON, Secretary of War:
SIR, - I desire to recommend most earnestly and particularly, that a brevet be conferred on Capt. Charles B. Amory, late A.A.G., U. S. Vols. (son of Jonathan Amory, Esq., of this city), for distin- guished gallantry at the explosion of the mine in front of Peters- burg, July 30, 1864. His conduct on that day was gallant in the extreme, and his services of the greatest value in rallying the broken troops after I was disabled. He has lately been mustered out upon his resignation after his return from imprisonment. I most respect- fully request that the brevet of major date from that day, July 30, 1864.
Very respectfully,
Your obd. svt.,
W. F. BARTLETT, Brevet Major-Gen., U.S.A.
[Indorsement] Approved,
U. S. GRANT,
Lieutenant-General.
Headquarters Army, U.S., October 10, 1865.
Mr. Amory is a member of the Somerset Club, Loyal Legion, and served as its commander, also served as commander of Edward W. Kinsley Post, No. 113, G.A.R., has been a life-long Republican, is a member of the Episcopal Church. He enjoys country life and driving as a source of health and amusement.
He was married twice: first to Emily A. Ferriday, daughter of Wm. Ferriday of Concordia Parish, Louisiana; second to Lily C. Clapp, daughter of Emory Clapp of New Orleans, Louisiana, and has four children: Charles B. Amory, Jr., major second Cavalry, U.S.A. in France, Leita Perkins, wife of Charles E. Perkins, Jr., John Austin Amory, Cotton Buyer for McFadden & Co., Boston, and Roger Amory, Captain Aviation Service, Austin, Texas.
From his experience, Mr. Amory believes that young Americans. to attain success must enter into active life with a firm and well- grounded belief and trust in " patriotism, courage, honesty, indus- try, and tact," all of which will tend to help attain for them the summit of their ambition.
Jacob Jaseph Arakılıçan.
JACOB JOHN ARAKELYAN
J ACOB JOHN ARAKELYAN was born in Arabkir, under the shadow of Mt. Ararat, in Asiatic Turkey. His father, Arakel Arakelyan, 1812-1907, was a manufacturer of fabrics and is remembered as a man optimistic, faithful and patient in every trust given to him. His mother was Lucin Agadajanian.
Mr. Arakelyan received his education in one of the schools started by the American missionaries which have done so much for the re- generation of Turkey. He also attended the evening commercial college under the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanics Association.
As a boy, Jacob John Arakelyan was aspiring and ambitious, and he early had dreams of the larger liberty and opportunities for advancement offered in the United States. As a young man, with- out friends or funds, he landed in Boston, on July 15, 1867.
During his first year in America he worked as a carpenter. In 1868, he secured a position with The Riverside Press of Cam- bridge. His earnestness and intelligence early attracted the attention of the head of the firm, the Honorable H. O. Houghton of Houghton Mifflin Company, with whom he remained for fifteen years. Mr. Houghton took a personal interest in him. To his constant friendship and wise counsel is due, in the opinion of Mr. Arakelyan, a large part of the success which he has achieved.
By 1883 Mr. Arakelyan had acquired a small printing plant of his own. Close personal attention to details coupled with untiring energy and keen business sagacity soon gave him an ever increasing volume of trade which necessitated constantly enlarging facilities until finally The Arakelyan Press, admitted to be one of the most modern and complete printing, binding and mailing establish- ments in Boston, occupied the entire floor of a building covering a whole city square.
Mr. Arakelyan was for thirty years an important factor in the printing industry of Boston, being always in the vanguard in the use of new and improved machinery. He specialized in the printing of religious literature. For many years he printed The Christian Endeavor World upon a special great rotary press which he had built for the purpose at a cost of more than thirty thousand dollars, printing, folding and stapling seven thousand papers an hour, and taking great pride in turning out the paper as nearly perfect as the mechanical conditions of rapid printing render possible. He also became the printer of The Congregationalist, and many other relig- ious publications and finally transferred his business to the Con- gregational Sunday-School and Publishing Society in payment of a suitable annuity for a term not to exceed fifteen years. For some years it was his cherished purpose to bequeath his plant to this Society at his death, but as he himself says: " It has seemed to me better to be my own executor."
JACOB JOHN ARAKELYAN
Successful as he is as a business man, other interests take up his time. No good cause appeals to him in vain. He takes a deep interest in the Christian Endeavor Society, for, as he says, " It is a means of training young people for successful service and earnest, devoted Christian lives."
Several years ago he became a trustee of the World's Christian Endeavor Union, and more recently the auditor of the United Society. As trustee he has rendered valuable service in the exten- sion of world-wide Christian Endeavor.
Mr. Arakelyan has translated and printed a large edition of the Christian Endeavor constitution in the Armenian language for free distribution, in addition to making generous gifts for the work in other places, and for the International Headquarters building. He was also the main contributor for the translations and printing of Christian Endeavor literature in Spanish, for use in Mexico.
He is an active member of the Second Congregational Church of Dorchester, Massachusetts, and a generous supporter of all good causes.
Another benefaction was the payment of ten thousand dollars to the United Society of Christian Endeavor in lieu of an annuity as long as he lives, the money upon his decease becoming the un- incumbered property of the United Society. Various reform and philanthropic organizations find in him a good friend, and he is often invited to attend national and international religious conventions.
Mr. Arakelyan is a member of the City Club, the Boston Chamber of Commerce, the Economic Club, the Congregational Club, and the Twentieth Century Club. He has served on the Committee of Art and Libraries of the City Club, and on the Reception Com- mittee of the Congregational Club.
In politics he is a Republican. In religion he is affiliated with the Congregational denomination, being a liberal supporter of the work and deeply interested in the common activities of the sister- hood of churches in the Metropolitan district.
On June 4, 1879, Mr. Arakelyan married Jane M., daughter of Charles and Jane Humphrey, granddaughter of John and Hannah Humphrey, and a descendant of Jonas Humphrey, who came from England to America in 1634. Mrs. Arakelyan is equally devoted and generous in the interest of Christian Endeavor movements.
Out of his experience and observation, Jacob John Arakelyan gives good advice to young people when he says: "Be loyal to trust, and faithful to duty. Devotion to right as one sees it should be the highest aim. Shun evil companions, but do not withhold the thing that would lift up a fellow-being. Keep busy in good works, in all these be persistent and constant. To believe in the guidance of God enables one to accomplish greater things."
F
CHARLES ANSELM BASSETT
A MONG the men of whom the Commonwealth is proud - though their names may not be widely heralded, was Charles Anselm Bassett of Fall River. He was born April 1, 1842, at Taunton, Massachusetts, and died at Fall River, January 23, 1916.
He was the son of Charles Jarvis Holmes Bassett (1814-1891) and Emeline Dean Seabury. His grandfathers, with dates of birth and death, were: Anselm Bassett, born April 30, 1784, died Septem- ber 9, 1863, and John Westgate Seabury, Jr., born July 17, 1791, died April 28, 1857. His grandmothers' names before marriage were Rosalinda Holmes and Emeline Dean.
His ancestors were of pure Pilgrim stock. William Bassett emigrated from England to Leyden, Holland; and came thence in the ship "Fortune " to Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 1621. He was afterwards one of the original proprietors of Bridgewater, Massachusetts, - a man of good education, and a wealthy land- owner. In the Pequot War he served as Volunteer, and was for six years a Representative in the Old Colony Court. Peregrine White, the first white child born in the Plymouth Colony, became his son-in-law.
His grandson, William Bassett (3), born in Sandwich, Massa- chusetts, 1686, was Marshal of the Colony, Judge of the Common Pleas, and Register of Probate, and one of the most distinguished men of his time.
The father of Charles A. Bassett was Cashier and later President of the Taunton National Bank - a man of notable integrity, firmness and efficiency.
He was a clerk in a dry-goods store in 1859. For four years was the youngest clerk in the National Bank of Taunton. He became Cashier of the First National Bank of Fall River (1864-1877), and Treasurer of the Fall River Savings Bank, 1877, to the time of his death.
He was a member of the " Sinking Funds Board " of Fall River for nearly twenty years.
His social affiliations were with the Masonic Fraternity, and the Quequechan Club of Fall River. He was a Republican. He was an attendant of the First Congregational Church of Fall River.
On June 15, 1870, he married Mary L., the daughter of Dr. Foster and Nancy L. Hooper, and granddaughter of Salmon and Rebecca Foster Hooper. They have one daughter, Mary Hooper Bassett, wife of George H. Waring - a cotton broker.
Mr. Bassett's career furnishes a good illustration of the usefulness and power of a faithful, modest, reputable citizen, and is one that can be safely emulated by all young men in present and future generations.
HORACE HOLLY BIGELOW
H ORACE HOLLY BIGELOW was born June 2, 1827, in Marlboro, Massachusetts, the son of Levi and Nancy (Ames) Bigelow. His grandfather, Gershom Bigelow, was born March 22, 1768, and died October 27, 1847. His grandmother, Mary (Howe) Bigelow, was born February 22, 1769, and died April 20, 1820.
His father devoted his time to farming, teaching school, or sur- veying, as convenience made it most profitable or desirable. He was a man known for firmness, perseverance and honesty.
John Biglo, as he spelled his name, was the first to leave England for this country. He settled in Watertown, Massachusetts. Colonel Timothy Bigelow and others of the family distinguished them- selves for bravery in the War of the Revolution.
Mr. Bigelow had the benefit of a moral and intellectual atmos- phere in his early home life, presided over by a mother who gave her children good advice on all needed occasions, producing good and lasting results.
Like other boys in his neighborhood, he began at the age of ten years to work about his father's farm, performing such labor as suited his strength. He gained his education in the public schools of Marlboro. He learned the shoemaking trade at the early age of fifteen. He was diligent in everything he undertook, and gave such close attention to his work and to the details of the trade, that, at the age of twenty, or in 1847, he began the manufacture of shoes in Marlboro, on his own account. In 1850 he formed a partnership with his uncle, C. D. Bigelow of New York, for the manufacture of brogans. He returned to Marlboro in 1854, where he devoted three years to building a miscellaneous trade. He then established shoe manufacturing industries in quick succession in Albany, New York; Providence, Rhode Island; and Trenton, New Jersey; making use of convict labor in performing the work. At Trenton he had contracts for furnishing shoes for United States troops in the Civil War.
About 1863, Mr. Bigelow organized the shoe industry in Wor- cester, under the firm name of Bigelow & Trask, and acted as superintendent. Subsequently the firm gave place to the Bay State Shoe and Leather Company, of which he was manager and held a large interest in its stock.
Mr. Bigelow had developed a decided taste for mechanics when a mere lad, which was a prophecy of coming inventions in riper years. When quite young he perfected a machine for turning out meat skewers at a rapid rate, which replaced the hand-made method previously in use.
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Herare H. Bigden
HORACE HOLLY BIGELOW
Following 1872, Mr. Bigelow was kept busy with the invention of many machines connected with the production of shoes, for which he received patents. Among which may be mentioned a machine for gang punch pegging; another for channelling and heel trim- ming; and the Bigelow heeling machine, a wonderful labor-saving device which has entirely changed the method of boot and shoe manufacture.
In 1883, Mr. Bigelow obtained control of a large tract of real estate on the west shore of Lake Quinsigamond, as well as of the Worcester & Shrewsbury Railroad connected with it. This road he put in thorough repair, and many buildings were erected on this desirable property. The flourishing village of Lake View has resulted from this enterprise, where pleasant homes for mechanics, and others, have sprung up as if by magic, forming a delightful suburb to Worcester.
In 1882, Mr. Bigelow closed a deal with the Boston & Albany Railroad and became the owner of the original site of the Worcester depot on Foster Street, on which he built a roller skating rink, and located the first Electric Light Plant in the City.
In connection with the promoting of many enterprises, Mr. Bigelow was successively President and Treasurer of the Worcester and Shrewsbury Railroad, and President of the Worcester & Shrewsbury Street Railway Company, also President of the Bigelow Heeling Machine Company. Besides devoting much necessary time to each of these enterprises, he found the time to originate a plan for conducting Co-operative Banks. Mr. Bigelow was married to Adelaide E. Buck, daughter of James Buck and Adeline Taylor. These children have been born to them: Adelaide F. Stevens, Francis H. Bigelow, and Irving E. Bigelow. Both of the sons are engaged in Real Estate and financial business.
Mr. Bigelow was a Republican, although he voted once for Gov. B. F. Butler, for diversion. He was a member of the Worcester Mechanics' Association. He said when he needed relaxation he turned his attention to the developing of real estate, the planning of amusement resorts, and city parks.
Replying to the question " What will most help young people to attain true success in life," Mr. Bigelow suggested that the " simple life and plenty of exercise in producing something visible, and the proper amount of attention and study of the business one is taking up will produce the results aimed for in any business."
Mr. Bigelow wrought not for self alone; he studied the needs of others, and produced much to add to the comfort of the masses. Mr. Bigelow will long be remembered for his thoughtfulness, his generous gifts, and his devotion to the public weal.
LAFAYETTE GILBERT BLAIR
L AFAYETTE GILBERT BLAIR was one of thefamous Scotch family of Blairs that furnished Scotland and this country with so many of its noble sons. Among his ancestors was Hugh Blair, the Scotch divine, rhetorician and author. His im- mediate family were Scotch Presbyterians, who, with many others of the same faith, left Scotland and migrated to the North of Ire- land, that they might there follow unmolested the precepts of their religious belief. During the last part of the eighteenth and the earlier part of the nineteenth century many of them came to the United States and settled in the back country of Pennsylvania and New Jersey. They acquired the misnomer of Scotch-Irish, but they were Scotchmen from the North of Ireland. They had not mixed or intermingled with the Irish race.
Mr. Blair's great grandfather's family came here from the county of Londonderry in the latter part of the eighteenth century. They settled in Waynesboro, Franklin County, Pennsylvania. Hugh Blair, the grandfather of Lafayette Gilbert Blair, was born on July 19, 1792, and died May 18, 1824. He married Ann Maria Gilbert. On his mother's side Mr. Blair's grandfather was Samuel Pierpoint, born in Baltimore. He married Rachel White, daughter of Captain Thomas White of the Revolution. She was a descendant of Pere- grine White of Pilgrim fame. Mr. Blair's father was David Gilbert Blair, a pioneer of Kansas City, born March 11, 1821, and died February 21, 1911. His mother was Mary Jane Pierpoint, born March 23, 1830, and died April 23, 1908.
Lafayette Gilbert Blair was born in Cumberland, Maryland, on May 8, 1849. He died December 7, 1912. In 1857 David Blair and his family left Cumberland for the Western frontier. By prairie wagon and by boat they journeyed to St. Louis and from there took the " John Warner " to Kansas City, landing at what was then Westport Landing. The first fall and winter the family made their home in a grove by a spring near which the Baltimore Hotel now stands - a small plot of ground on the corner of what is now Ninth Street and Grand Avenue. After the city began to grow this became the site of Mr. Blair's hardware manufacturing establishment. It was originally bought for two hundred dollars and a dapple gray mare. Just twenty-nine years later, 1886, some seven years before David Blair left Kansas City, he refused an offer of ninety thousand dollars for the same property.
The youth of Mr. Blair was filled with experiences of western frontier and border life. He was in Kansas and Missouri through the terrible days of the Civil War. Though only a lad when Price
Lafayette G. Blair
LAFAYETTE GILBERT BLAIR
raided Missouri in 1865, he took up his rifle and entered the fight. He enrolled in the Missouri militia and served about two months. He saw only one engagement, the Battle of Brush Creek.
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