USA > Massachusetts > Biographical history of Massachussetts; biographies and autobiographies of the leading men in the state, 1911, vol 9 > Part 6
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The Los Angeles Herald said editorially (March 19, 1911):
" Much of the success of the National Convention of the Navy League here is due to the indefatigable efforts of Lincoln C. Cum- mings, the honorary vice-president. Mr. Cummings, who made the leading address at the convention, stands in the foremost rank as a speaker of great power and magnetism. The Navy League and the country have reason to be proud of him as a leader of thought."
ong byi. G. Withams & Bro NY
JOHN HENRY CUNNINGHAM
J OHN HENRY CUNNINGHAM, long prominent in manu- facturing circles, and a leader in military and business affairs, was a native of Boston, Massachusetts. He was born there on March 9, 1851, and died August 19, 1918. He was the son of Thomas and Sarah W. (Miller) Cunningham.
The early days of Mr. Cunningham's life were spent in his native community, and it was in the public schools of that city and Charles- town that he received his education. This training was supple- mented by a course in a commercial college in Boston in 1871. Immediately after graduation he entered his father's iron works, founded in 1852, and three years later became superintendent of the works. He continued in this business during the rest of his active business life and gained a wide reputation for reliable methods and honorable success.
In 1876 Mr. Cunningham was admitted to partnership, the firm name becoming Thomas Cunningham and Son. Upon the death of his father on July 9, 1882, the firm name was changed to J. H. and T. Cunningham, his brother having been taken into partnership, and it so remained until the business was incorporated under the title of the Cunningham Iron Works Company, with Mr. Cunning- ham as treasurer, a position which he filled acceptably until Febru- ary, 1887. He then established the J. H. Cunningham Company, wholesale dealers in wrought iron pipe and fittings for steam, gas and water, of which he became president and treasurer, and con- tinued as such, retiring from business some 5 years previous to his death. He had been Vice-president of the Lone Star Iron Com- pany of Texas and was active in other iron concerns.
He was also actively interested in many business institutions and was especially prominent in financial circles. In Chelsea, Massachusetts, to which city he removed from Charlestown in 1874 he founded the Winnisimmet National Bank, of which he became president. Many positions of public responsibility and preferment were given to Mr. Cunningham for his fellow citizens were quick to recognize his powers of leadership, his loyalty and
JOHN HENRY CUNNINGHAM
trustworthiness just as they had measured his business ability and honesty. He was one of the incorporators of the County Savings Bank, serving as a member of the Committee on investments; was a large owner in and a director of the Winnisimmet Ferry Com- pany, and was also interested in the New England street railways. He was president of the Plymouth and Kingston Street Railway Company, Plymouth; vice-president of the Gloucester Street Railway Company, Gloucester; vice-president of the Boston Construction Company and a heavy stockholder in and a director of the following street railway companies: the Worcester, Leicester and Spencer, the Worcester and Millbury, the Lynn and Boston, and the Haverhill and Amesbury. He was president of the Massa- chusetts Street Railway Association, and of the Boston Construc- tion Company; and a director of the Beacon Trust Company of Boston.
Mr. Cunningham's military career covered a period of twelve years, nine years of which were spent in the Fifth Regiment, Massachusetts Volunteer Militia, and three years on the staff of Governor William E. Russell, as assistant adjutant-general with the rank of colonel.
Socially he was well known and esteemed. He was a past master in Robert Lash Lodge of Free Masons of Chelsea, a Knight Templar, a thirty-second degree Mason, and a life member of the Massachu- setts Consistory. He was also a member of the Boston City Club and the Boston Athletic Club and the Review Club of Chelsea. In politics he was a Democrat, having served as president of the Chelsea Democratic Club, and was a member of the Young Men's Democratic Club of Massachusetts. He was fond of travel and had made several trips around the world.
On April 10, 1873, Mr. Cunningham was married to Miss Frances E. Prouty of Cohasset. She survives together with one son, Dr. John Henry Cunningham of Boston, at present in the U. S. Army on the staff of Surgeon General Gorgas at Washington, D. C., and a daughter Mrs. Arthur Willis of Brookline.
The name of Colonel John Henry Cunningham will long be honored in his community for his prominence in business and pub- lic affairs, and for his own worth and stability as a citizen and a man.
En9 5- 6. Witams & Bra NY
Franklin A. Downs
FRANKLIN HERBERT DOWNS
F RANKLIN HERBERT DOWNS was born in Mechanic Falls, Maine, December 13, 1859. His parents were Asa L. Downs - who was born January 28, 1828, and died January 28, 1892; and Clara Jane (Perkins) Downs. His father's parents were Jedediah Downs - who was born in December, 1794, and died October 1, 1875, at the age of 80 years and 10 months - and Dorcas (Clark) Downs, who died November 13, 1879, at the age of 77 years and 5 months. His mother's parents were Isaiah Perkins, who was born in October, 1795, and died March 22, 1876, at the age of 80 years and 5 months - and Matilda (Peterson) Perkins, who died January 18, 1859, at the age of 64 years and 6 months. Three of his great-grandparents came from England, while his great-grandmother Clark was an Indian.
At eleven he began to clothe himself from the money earned by peddling candy in the paper mills, and by driving cows to pasture. At the age of thirteen he worked in a gun factory. He entered Hebron Academy and fitted for college.
At the age of eighteen he started to learn the shoe business. His first position was in the making room of a shoe factory in Mechanic Falls, in his native state. The very next year, however, he went to Kennebunk, then to Lynn, Massachusetts, where he entered the employ of the Ventilating Water-Proof Shoe Company, with Joseph Davis as the President of the Company. He remained with this company six years, when a partnership was formed under the firm name of Cushing and Downs, shoe manufacturers. This continued for five years until, in 1889, he associated himself with J. N. Smith and Company. At the end of five years, in 1894, he bought out the business of J. N. Smith and Company, and formed the Downs and Watson Company, which continued until Decem- ber, 1906. Then Mr. Downs retired from business for a year and a half. But in 1908 he became a partner in the P. J. Nangle and Company, cut sole manufacturers.
Mr. Downs is a Republican in politics and a Universalist in his religious affiliations. He has been a director of the Lynn Hospital and of the Lynn Safe Deposit and Trust Company. He is a member of the Lynn Historical Society Oxford Club Lynn, and of the Boston Art Club. Algonquin, Boston Athletic Association, and Corinthian Yacht Club. He has been prominent among the Masons and the Elks. Is fond of horses, baseball, golf,-in fact-all athletic sports.
On June 20th, 1895, Mr. Downs married Anne Ballantyne, daughter of Adam S. and Mittie (Tilton) Ballantyne. She is a granddaughter of Jeremiah and Anne (Carter) Tilton, and of James and Christina (Rae) Ballantyne, and is of Scotch descent. There have been no children born of this marriage.
By devotion to business, he has succeeded in his chosen career.
LOUIS STOUGHTON DRAKE
L OUIS STOUGHTON DRAKE was born at West Rush, Munroe County, New York, August 5, 1865. His father, Andrew Jackson Drake (October 8, 1825-May 18, 1894) was the son of John Drake (April 12, 1782-November 19, 1855) and Prudence Dean of Taunton, Massachusetts. He was a cotton manu- facturer and afterwards became a dealer in grain, and was character- ized as " a quiet Christian gentleman, of the old school." He was a descendant of Thomas Drake who was born at Colyton, Devon County, England, September 13, 1635, and in 1653 sailed from England to settle in Weymouth, Massachusetts, and was a de- scendant in the tenth generation of John Drake of Mount Drake, Devon, England. The records of this family throughout have shown great patriotism. Eighteen of them rallied to the Lexington Alarm in 1775, and forty served later for the State of Massachusetts and in the Continental Army.
Mr. Drake's mother was Laura Miranda Clark, born January 28, 1835. She was a daughter of Foster Clark (May 21, 1808- December 28, 1867) and Harriet (Blake) Clark. She was a de- scendant of Hugh Clark who settled among the early colonists of Watertown, Massachusetts, in the year 1640. To her son she proved to be most helpful and it is with sincere regard he speaks of her influence upon his intellectual life.
He had no special difficulties to overcome while securing an edu- cation. He spent much time studying the New England flora and preparing his herbarium which ranked among the largest privately owned at that time. After graduating from the High School, he began his active business career as a salesman in 1885, in one of Boston's old East India Importing Houses. His office was filled with the atmosphere of the famous clipper ships whose pictures adorned the walls, and was fragrant with the aroma of the samples of their cargoes. Thus was fostered that love of the romance of the seas which has always appealed to the adventurous in the heart of man, and which has made him a successful follower of the old
Lance Pirate
LOUIS STOUGHTON DRAKE
East India merchants who, in earlier days, carried the flag over the Seven Seas.
In 1899, he became engaged in the business on his own account and is now President and Treasurer of " Louis Stoughton Drake, Incorporated, East India Merchants, of Boston, Massachusetts."
Mr. Drake has also spent many years in genealogical research and compiled and published in 1896 " The Drake Family in Eng- land and America, 1360-1895, and The Descendants of Thomas Drake of Weymouth, Massachusetts, 1635-1691."
He is a life member of the " New England Historic-Genealogical Society," the Exchange Club of Boston, and the Boston Chamber of Commerce. Politically, he is an Independent Republican, having left the Democratic Party on the silver and Bryan questions. He is affiliated with the Grace Episcopal Church of Newton, Massa- chusetts. For diversion, and as a means of recreation he is par- ticularly fond of canoe racing, and for twenty years was an active participant in all the leading contests which took place in the Eastern United States and Canada. Later he became an enthusi- astic small boat and canoe sailor.
January 15, 1894, he married Laura, daughter of Albert D. S., and Susan (Stoughton) Bell, a grandaughter of Robert G. and Sophronia (Bruce) Bell and of Henry E. and Laura (Clark) Stough- ton, and a descendant from William Bell who came from Northern Ireland, to Tewksbury, Massachusetts, about 1715. They have had three children; Laura, Andrew Jackson, and Prudence Drake.
Mr. Drake's life demonstrates the well-known fact that only by great perseverance with enthusiasm can success and prominence in the business world be attained. Through his integrity, kindliness, and tireless industry, he has attained a place in the hearts of his friends and associates, and is recognized as an influential business man and as an example and an incentive for other young men just beginning their business careers. Through the influence of a good home environment, of the best of companionships and constant contact with men in the various walks of life, he has been fully equipped to meet the difficulties and trials which encompass the life of every business man. He stands as a worthy representative of the fine, dependable, and reliable type of the New England merchant.
CHARLES CHRISTOPHER ELY
C HARLES CHRISTOPHER ELY, by occupation, Treasurer and General manager of the Trimont Wrench Manufactur- ing Co. of Boston, and by nature, a Poet, was born at Owego, Tioga County, New York, April 19, 1847. His father, William Alfred Ely (1789-1863), born at Lyme, Connecticut, son of Elisha Ely (1748-1801), who served as an officer in the Revolutionary Army, and Susannah (Bloomer) Ely, was a successful general merchant and merchant-manufacturer of lumber at Owego. His mother, Ann Smith (Gregory) Ely, (1810-1884), daughter of Samuel Odell Gregory (1770-1849) and Ruletta (Cook) Gregory, had a strong influence on his character and development. The immigrant ancestor of Charles Christopher Ely was Richard Ely, who came from Plymouth, England, to America in 1660, and settled at Lyme, Connecticut.
In 1865, after leaving school, he entered the employ of a drug company, New York City, where he studied pharmacy two years.
Mr. Ely began his business career in 1868, when he engaged in the drug business with his brother, Alfred G. Ely, and afterwards with his brother Frederick Ely, in Owego. In 1887 he moved with his brothers to New York and engaged in the manufacture and sale of a drug specialty. In 1896 he sold out his interest in this business to his brothers. In 1902, at the death of his brother, Edward O. Ely of Boston, Mr. Ely moved to that city and in February of that year became treasurer and general manager of the Trimont Manufacturing Company of Roxbury district, Boston, succeeding his brother Edward O. Ely in that business. In June, 1905, he resigned his position and returned to New York City, but took it again in May, 1908, and still holds it. Mr. Ely's life work is and has been business, but he has taken up the writing of poetry in recent years as a pastime and recreation, and is now making a reputation as an author and a poet. In 1912 he pub- lished "The Image Makers, and Other Poems"; and is at present preparing to bring out a second edition of the first book with later poems not yet published except in brochure form, in which the following subjects are treated: - Inspiration, Imagination, Fancy, Nature's Voice, Man's Dual Nature, The Garden of the Soul, Love, Life, Happiness, Joy, Immortality, The Pure in Heart, and The Kingdom at Hand. Loyalty to what Mr. Ely considers his duty, has been a marked characteristic of his life, expressed in self-sacrifice to business interests with which he has been connected Mr. Ely is a member of the Presbyterian Church; and is identified with the Republican party. Biographies, says Mr. Ely, are the greatest educators; to know others what they have done, and thereby to know ourselves what we may do, are inspirations to high ideals and accomplishments.
Chaves C. 814
CLARENCE HOUGHTON ESTY
T HE earliest record of the Esty family in England is found in Essex County in 1484 in the will of a Richard Esthey. From there the family spread into Sussex and Suffolk from whence the American family came. The name is still represented in Ipswich, England.
The American Esty family are descendants of Jeffrey Esty who was given a grant of land in Salem in 1637 and of his son Selectman Isaac Esty of Salem and his wife Mary Towne Esty one of the martyrs of Salem witchcraft. In the will of Isaac Esty recorded at Salem in 1711 he spells his name Esty, Estie and Estey. In various records of his activities as selectman we find the name spelled also Este and Easty.
Isaac Esty's son Benjamin moved to Dorchester in 1706, his grandson, Joseph, born in 1724, and his great grandson, Joseph, fought in the battle of Dorchester Heights in the Revolutionary War. Isaac Esty's great-great-grandson, Elijah, married Sally Winslow Williams of Roxbury, daughter of John Williams, Rox- bury's well known tanner. Through her mother she was the direct descendant of Mary Chilton Winslow.
The young couple went to the then wilderness of Central New York where their son, Joseph Esty, was born in 1798. He became a successful tanner at Ithaca and one of the founders of Ithaca's business prosperity. He was elder in the Presbyterian Church for fifty consecutive years.
His son Edward Selover Esty became a large manufacturer of leather. He represented his constituency in the New York state assembly in 1858 and in the Senate in 1882. He helped to reorganize the school system of Ithaca, was President of the Board of Educa- tion till his death in 1890 and was actively interested in every- thing pertaining to the public welfare.
Clarence Houghton Esty, the third child of Senator Edward S. Esty and Frances Amelia Wilgus Esty, was born at Ithaca, New York, October 18, 1854. He entered the public school at seven, at nine he took up the study of Latin, and at eleven that of Greek. He was an omnivorous reader; his favorite authors were Dickens and Scott whose characters became such familiar friends that throughout his life he could recall any incident of these novels. He inherited a strong musical taste from his father who was a volun-
CLARENCE HOUGHTON ESTY
teer organist for thirty years. One of his earliest recollections was sitting on his mother's knee in the choir loft where she sang in the choir.
As his brother went to Yale and his sister to Vassar his parents wished him to enter the home University then newly founded by Ezra Cornell at Ithaca. He entered Cornell when sixteen years old, but left College for a year to travel with his family in Europe at the close of the Franco-Prussian War and to join his brother Albert who was studying in Leipsic University. They traveled through England, France, Germany and Austria. After his return he continued his college course and distinguished himself in Latin, Greek, modern Languages, Philosophy and Oratory. He won the Latin and Greek prizes and the Woodford gold medal for prize speaking. He also delivered the Ivy Oration at his graduation in 1876. He was elected to represent Cornell at the Intercollegiate speaking contest held at New York two weeks later, but a nervous breakdown, to the great disappointment of his friends, necessitated his giving up this honor and taking a complete rest. His record of faithfulness in his work was remarkable. For two years he left his home in the valley and climbed Ithaca's steep hill to the University for an eight o'clock recitation and never was tardy and never missed a day. Mr. Esty was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, when that chapter was installed at Cornell.
After his graduation, together with his brother Albert, he entered his father's business in the manufacture of leather. He took up at the same time the study of law at Columbia University where he obtained his degree of LL.B. in 1881 and was admitted to the New York State Bar. He was admitted to the Massachusetts Bar on April 5, 1901, to practice " as an attorney and by virtue thereof as a Counsellor-at-Law in any of the Courts of the said Common- wealth." He did not practice law, however, but continued a suc- cessful business career under the name of E. S. Esty and Sons and on the death of his father under E. S. Esty's Sons, until the forma- tion of the U. S. Leather Company in the early nineties when he retired from active business affairs.
The prominence of his family made him a familiar associate of the founders and benefactors of Cornell University. His home was an intellectual and social centre for the many brilliant visiting lecturers of Cornell. Goldwin Smith, George William Curtis, and Joseph H. Choate were a few among the many entertained at his house. He was an intimate friend and visitor at the home of Andrew D. White. When the Alumni of Cornell gave the bust of
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CLARENCE HOUGHTON ESTY
Andrew D. White to the University Mr. Esty was the speaker chosen for the unveiling. His histrionic ability combined with his exceptional deep, rich bass voice and thorough musicianship made him a great success in the leading rôles of the Gilbert and Sullivan Operas which were produced in the late eighties at Ithaca.
Mr. Esty married February 23, 1893, Miss Rosamond A. Field, daughter of Thomas Bassford Field and Mary Coe Field of Wells- boro, Pennsylvania. Among her ancestors was Zechariah, a grandson of the English Astronomer, John Field, who settled in Dorchester, in 1627, and whose descendants moved, in 1629, to the Connecticut Valley and were identified with the struggles of the earliest settlers in the wilderness. They fought the Indians, were in the massacre of Bloody Brook and Deerfield, two ancestors were carried captive to Canada, later redeemed and brought back to Deerfield. Mrs. Esty's father and the late Marshall Field, second cousins, were playmates and desk mates at school in Conway, Massachusetts, throughout their boyhood days. Mrs. Esty grad- uated at Vassar College in 1888, received a diploma in music in 1889, and pursued post graduate work at Cornell, receiving her master's degree at Cornell University in 1890. After a year spent in New York in the further study of music and a year spent in Minnesota as teacher she was married to Mr. Esty. They had five children. Edward Selover Esty, Harvard 1916, an Ensign in the U. S. Navy in the present war; Mary Chilton Esty, Vassar 1919; Frances Field Esty, Vassar 1922; Rosamond Claire Esty, and Geoffrey Winslow Esty.
In 1897 after a year's residence abroad Mr. Esty removed with his family to Brookline, Massachusetts, where he chose for his permanent home the summit of Aspinwall Hill. He died on October 19, 1917.
Mr. Esty was gifted with an exceptional judgment and under- standing of people. It enabled him to advise a number of leaders of the country who sought and acted upon his judgment and thus he exercised an influence on public affairs although his health never permitted him to take an active part.
He had a marvelous memory, a brilliant intellect, strong love for Music and Art, was widely read and traveled, devoted to his home and family and bore suffering with a true Christian spirit.
All who came in contact with him felt the kindliness of his heart and the purity of his character and his life will be an inspiration to all who were privileged to know him.
JOHN CALVIN FERGUSON
J OHN CALVIN FERGUSON was born in Lonsdale, Ontario, Canada, March 1, 1866. His father, the Reverend John Ferguson, July 8, 1830-January 1, 1916, was a clergyman of the Methodist Episcopal denomination, and served many churches in the central part of Ontario. He was a man of sturdy, religious, and independent character. Through his father Mr. Ferguson is descended from Duncan Ferguson, 1808-1865, and Susannah (Preston) Ferguson. His mother, who before her marriage was Catherine Matilda Pomeroy, was the daughter of Daniel Pomeroy, 1801-1855, and Sarah (Taylor) Pomeroy. She exerted a strong and beneficent influence over the moral and spiritual welfare of her son.
The Ferguson family of Scotland traces its origin to Fergus Mor MacEarca in 498 A.D., and his descendants form one of the " three pure Scotic Tribes." The family is scattered in all parts of Scotland and in Northern Ireland. The branch of the family from which Mr. Ferguson is descended came from Balquider (Balquhidder), near Stirling, in Perthshire where the family has been represented continuously for at least six centuries. Here Robert Bruce took shelter with a Ferguson in 1306 and there are many traditions connecting Bruce with the Fergusons. In Balquider was Ar- dandamh House, the home of the head of the local clan. From this family came Peter Ferguson who arrived in America in 1818 and settled near Perth, Ontario, Canada, where he gave his name to the local village of Ferguson's Falls.
On his mother's side Mr. Ferguson comes from the Pomeroy family of Windsor, Connecticut, the first Pomeroy in America being Eltweed Pomeroy who landed at Dorchester, Massachusetts, in 1630.
The name of Ferguson is indelibly inscribed among the first on the immortal scroll of Scotland, and is synonymous with patriotism, loyalty to principle, practical commonsense, and all that may be credited to public and private virtue. It has been represented in all fields of art, literature and religion.
As a youth, John Calvin Ferguson, was especially fond of reading, and in addition to a careful religious training received a sound classical education. His preliminary education was received in the public schools of Ontario, and at Albert College, Belleville, where he received honors in classics, and his collegiate education was attained in Boston University from which he graduated in 1886. He spent a year in post-graduate study which together with extra undergraduate studies entitled him to the degree of Ph.D. which
John C. Ferguson
JOHN CALVIN FERGUSON
he received in 1902. Mr. Ferguson made a special study of philology at the university and specialized in Greek and Latin.
It was the wish of his parents that their son should be a minister, and in 1887 he went as a missionary to China under the Methodist Episcopal Church.
In 1888 he accepted the position of first president of Nanking University which had been established by the Methodist Episcopal Missionary Society. He raised the money for the erection of its four buildings and remained as president for nine years until the first classes in arts, medicine and theology had graduated. During this time he became one of the founders of the Educational Society of China and served it as Secretary, Editor and Vice-President. In 1897 he was called from Nanking to Shanghai to become the first President of Nanyang College, recently founded by the Chinese Government. This institution flourished to an extraordinary degree under his administration and reached a high standard of efficiency. Nanyang College has the finest buildings and equipments of any government college in China and its graduates are now filling many positions of high honor in the service of their country. During the last year of his presidency of Nanyang College Mr. Ferguson was sent by the Chinese Government to Europe and to the United States to investigate higher commercial schools for the purpose of introducing their methods into the Nanyang College.
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