USA > Massachusetts > Biographical history of Massachussetts; biographies and autobiographies of the leading men in the state, 1911, vol 9 > Part 7
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Upon his return to China in 1902 Mr. Ferguson, who had already been connected with the Viceroy of Nanking in an advisory ca- pacity for several years, was transferred from his educational work and was made secretary of the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, and in 1903, chief secretary of the Imperial Chinese Railway Adminis- tration, in which capacity he remained until 1905. As early as 1898 he was foreign adviser to the Viceroy of Nanking, and in 1900 was appointed concurrently foreign adviser to the Viceroy of Wuchang, which official positions he filled until 1911. During this time he continued to reside in Shanghai, and on behalf of the Chinese Government settled with the French Government the celebrated Ningpo Joss House case, was special commissioner for the extension of the Shanghai Foreign Settlements, arranged the plan for the protection of the southeastern provinces in 1900 during the Boxer rebellion, thus saving the lives and property of foreigners, and settled many other cases of dispute between China and foreign countries. In 1902-3 he was a member of the Chinese Commission for the revision of treaties with the United States, and also with Japan. In 1904 and again in 1907 the Chinese Government sent Mr. Ferguson to the United States on a special mission, in con-
JOHN CALVIN FERGUSON
nection with the settlement of the dispute with the American- China Development Company concerning the construction of the Canton-Hankow Railway.
During his fourteen years' residence in Shanghai he was con- nected with important public interests. For many years he was a member of the Educational Committee of the Shanghai Municipal Council and a founder of Municipal Schools for Chinese. He was for ten years Secretary of the North China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society and Editor of its Journal. In 1911 he was President of this Society. He was one of the promoters of the study of the Chinese language by Municipal employees in Shanghai. He was actively interested in religious work, was Superintendent of the Sunday School of Union Church, Shanghai, for ten years and was Secretary and Vice-Chairman of the first Committee to commence Young Men's Christian Association work in China.
In 1898 Mr. Ferguson purchased the Sin Wan Pao, a Chinese daily newspaper, and owned it exclusively for several years. Later it was organized into a joint stock company in which he retains a controlling interest. He continues to control the policy and organi- zation of this newspaper which has now the largest circulation of any newspaper in the Chinese language. From 1906 to 1911 he also was the owner and Editor-in-chief of " The Shanghai Times," a daily paper published in the English language.
In 1911 he removed to Peking having been appointed Foreign Secretary of the Board of Posts and Communications on account of his familiarity with the development of railways in China. He did not hold this position long on account of the breaking out of the Revolution. In 1915 Mr. Ferguson was recalled to Government service and was appointed Counselor of the Department of State of China and in 1917 was made adviser to the President of China.
He has been actively interested in Red Cross work, and was one of the founders, vice-president and councillor of the Red Cross Society of China, and in 1912 was the delegate of China to the Ninth International Red Cross Convention at Washington. During 1910 and 1911 he was chairman of the Central China Famine Relief Committee.
Mr. Ferguson was decorated with the first class button and also with the order of the Double Dragon when China was an Empire. Since the establishment of the Republic he has received the order of the Chia Ho. His services in diplomacy have been recognized by the French Government, which made him a Chevalier de la Legion d'honneur, and the Emperor of Japan for similar reasons conferred upon him the order of Sacred Treasure. He also holds
JOHN CALVIN FERGUSON
the order of St. Anne from the Russian Government, and the Order of Merit of the Red Cross Society of China, 1912, and of Japan, 1913.
Mr. Ferguson has made a careful and broad study of Chinese Art in collaboration with noted Chinese connoisseurs. He has con- tributed various articles to journals on art subjects and has lectured on Chinese Art in many American Universities and Colleges. He was chiefly instrumental in introducing several branches of Chinese Art into American Museums and for his work in its behalf was elected a Fellow in Perpetuity of the Metropolitan Museum, New York. Of clubs he is a member of the Shanghai Club, the Peking Club, the Shanghai Golf Club, the Century Club, and India House, New York; the Hunnewell and Tuesday Clubs of Newton; of learned societies he is a member of the Royal Asiatic Society of London, the American Oriental Society, the Archaeological Insti- tute, the International Law Society, and numerous other leading societies. As an educator Mr. Ferguson translated into Chinese, " Steele's Chemistry," " Regulations Governing the Militia of the State of New York," and Froebel's " Education of Man," which first appeared in 1826, and had already been translated into the languages of the more progressive nations of the world.
On August 4, 1887, Mr. Ferguson was married to Mary E., daughter of the Reverend Robert and Helen (Hurd) Wilson, grand- daughter of Thomas and Mary (Neville) Wilson and of Elizur and Phoebe (Goldsmith) Hurd and a descendant from John Hurd who came from Somersetshire, to Windsor, Connecticut, before 1640. Nine children were born of this marriage, the eldest being Luther M., graduated Harvard A.B. 1910, M.D. 1914, United States Army Medical Corps, deceased 1916; seven are now living - Helen Matilda, now Mrs. G. E. Tucker; Florence Wilson; Charles John, Harvard A.B. 1915, lieutenant Company B, Fourteenth Regiment of Engineers, United States Expeditionary Forces in France; Mary Esther, Robert Mason, Duncan Pomeroy, and Peter Blair.
In 1907 he purchased an estate in Newton where he makes his home while traveling to and from China in the performance of his duties.
John Calvin Ferguson who has achieved success as missionary, educator, art critic, and statesman, from his own experience and observation offers this advice to his younger fellow-citizens: " De- votion to the principles of our Christian religion, a thorough edu- cation in a few subjects rather than a superficial acquaintance with many, respect to elders and superiors, and a constant interest in writings."
GEORGE CLEMENT FISK
G EORGE CLEMENT FISK, the eldest son of Thomas Trowbridge, and Emily H. Fisk, was born in Hinsdale, New Hampshire, March 4, 1831 and died April 6, 1917 at his home in Springfield, Mass.
He received an exceedingly scanty education in the Hinsdale district school and soon entered a general store in the village, but the miscellaneous character of his duties was by no means to his liking. In 1851, at the age of twenty he therefore left Hinsdale with fifteen dollars in his pocket with which to begin his conquest of the world. He went first to Springfield and because he saw nothing better in prospect entered a dry goods store there, but presently relinquished this employment and was next heard from as a clerk in a grocery store. A few months' trial convinced him that mercantile pursuits were not to his taste and he decided to go West in search of work. As a book agent he did not succeed in Cleveland, his first objective point, and he went on to Beloit, Wis- consin. Here he spent some time in looking about for work, but he presently returned to Springfield.
At this juncture Eleazer Ripley was about to begin the manu- facture of locomotives in Springfield and needing a bookkeeper offered the position to young George Fisk who accepted it and while they waited for the machinery, Mr. Ripley requested the young man to take a temporary position in the car shops of T. W. Wason. This Mr. Fisk did and Mr. Wason soon made him an offer of a permanent position, and this offer, with Mr. Ripley's consent, was accepted. This was in 1853 and the next year Mr. Fisk acquired a partnership interest in the business. He served both as bookkeeper and cashier and when the business was organized as a corporation he became Treasurer. On the death of Mr. Wason he was chosen President and then General Manager of the business.
In 1871 new car works were built at Brightwood, near Springfield, named after the country seat of Dr. J. G. Holland, whose home over- looked the site. Mr. Fisk planned the new shops, utilizing to the best advantage the sixteen or more acres devoted to the business. The aim which he kept continually in mind in the erection and
GEO , C. Fisk
GEORGE CLEMENT FISK
lacing the many structures composing the Brightwood plant, was hat the shops should be light, airy, symmetrical in plan and perfect 1 convenience, an intention ably carried out, as those who visit he Brightwood works will readily perceive.
The product of the company will be found in service in every art of the United States and their goods have gone also to Argen- ina, Brazil, Chili, Panama, Venezuela, Yucatan, China, Central merica, Cuba, Egypt, Mexico, Nova Scotia, and Portugal.
The Fisk Casino, built by Mr. Fisk, is a small but well-equipped heatre which furnishes an attractive place of amusement for the Brightwood people. The drop curtain displays a view of Mount Monadnock and the Ashuelot Valley.
The Brightwood Paper Mills at Hinsdale which were built by Mr. Fisk supply employment to many persons and constitute one f the chief industries.
Mr. Fisk took great pride in his thoroughbred cattle of which he lad many highly valued specimens. He purchased the homestead arm at Chesterfield, New Hampshire, with other farms, including bout six hundred acres, and there he spent many of his summers. He retired from the Wason Company in 1907, after thirty-seven years service as its President.
Mr. Fisk was married to Maria Emerson, a daughter of Daniel H. Ripley. His son, George, died at the age of eleven, another son Charles A., died August, 1904, while Robert and Lena died in in- Fancy. Their daughter Isabel R., was married to Oliver Hyde Dickinson, June 20, 1888. There are seven grandchildren and one great-grandchild.
Mr. Fisk's career illustrated the power of self-help, of patient purpose, resolute working, and steadfast integrity, issuing in the formation of truly noble and manly character. The instances of men in this country who, by dint of persevering application and energy, have raised themselves from the humblest beginnings to eminent positions of usefulness and influence in society, are so numerous that they have long ceased to be regarded as exceptional. Looking at some of the more remarkable instances, it might almost be said that early encounter with difficulty and adverse circum- stances was the necessary and indispensable condition of success.
George Clement Fisk overcame adverse conditions and obstacles and achieved true success.
RICHMOND FISK
R ICHMOND FISK was born in Bennington Center, Vermont, February 23, 1836, the son of Richmond Fisk and Lurana Matteson Fisk. The father was born February 10, 1804, and died October 16, 1877. Dr. Fisk's grandfathers were Jeremiah Fisk (1766-1823) and George Matteson. Richmond Fisk, Senior, was Deputy Sheriff, and Sheriff of Bennington County, a farmer and lumber dealer, - a man of energy and incisive mind, but also a : man of broad sympathy and large benevolence. In the Fisk genea- logical line is found Captain Phineas Fisk, who was born in Eng- land in 1610 and was Captain of Militia in Wenham, Massachusetts, in 1664. He was of the fifteenth generation in descent from Symond Fisk, lord of the manor of Standhaugh, Suffolk, England.
In his youth Dr. Fisk learned to work. He was helper on his father's farm and in the lumber yard. He claimed that his powerful voice was gained from delivering orations out-of-doors to the astonished farm animals. No other member of his family was noted for such power of voice. He learned to live right by the teaching and example of his parents. He learned self-reliance through the discipline of earning his way through school and college. He pre- pared for college in Ball Seminary, Hoosick Falls, New York, and entered Williams College from that school in 1854. Two years later he transferred to Union College, Schenectady, New York, from which he graduated in 1858. He received the honorary degree of D.D. from Tufts College in 1871. Upon leaving Union College he studied law in Hudson, New York, and completed his course in the Albany Law School.
Law was not to be the profession to which he devoted his strength and life. The influence of the great teachers in Union College, notably Professor Taylor Lewis and Professor Laurens P. Hickok, remained as a spell upon him. He was drawn more and more strongly toward the ministry. He studied for a time privately and then began his ministry over the Universalist Church in Newark, Wayne Co., New York, in 1859. Two years later he was ordained .. He then served churches in Lockport, New York and Auburn, New
Richmond Fisk,
RICHMOND FISK
York, until 1868, when he was elected President of St. Lawrence University, being the second incumbent of that office. During his administration the preparatory school, which had formerly been a department of the college, was discontinued; a law school was established; a system of free scholarships was inaugurated for northern New York, which remained in force for upwards of twenty years, and Herring Library Hall was erected.
He resigned the college presidency in 1872, and returned to the more direct service of the churches. He was pastor of Universalist churches in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and Syracuse and Watertown, New York, and of Unitarian societies in East Boston, Massa- chusetts, and Fargo, North Dakota. Wherever he was settled he was always active in charitable and reform work. At Syracuse he was foremost in establishing the bureau of labor and charities, of which he was Secretary for seven years; and he also organized a Red Cross Society, and was Secretary of the Civil Service Associa- tion. A similar record remained of his work in all cities which claimed him for a time in Societies such as Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, organizations for relief of human ills, and various other forms of applied and practical Christianity.
Dr. Fisk was a member of the Delta Kappa Epsilon College Fraternity, of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and he was a Thirty Second Degree Mason. In politics he was a Republican.
On May 8, 1861 he was married to Adelaide Bartle, daughter of James P. and Beulas L.(McNeil) Bartle, granddaughter of A. McNeil and Mary (Miller) McNeil, who came from Holland and Scotland and settled in New York. Two children were born to Dr. and Mrs. Fisk, of whom one survives, Alice Fisk, wife of Dr. Edwin Bynner Butterfield, Ayer, Mass. There is also one grandson, Fisk H. Butterfield.
Dr. Fisk's last professional service was as pastor of the Unitarian Church in Ayer, and his death occurred in that town at the ad- vanced age of seventy-nine.
He was author of many articles contributed to the public press, and published addresses and sermons.
WALTER GRANT GARRITT
W TALTER GRANT GARRITT, one of the organizers and also vice-president of the United States Leather Company, was born in Liberty, New York, May 12, 1854, and died at his home in Brookline, Massachusetts, October 20, 1917. He was the son of Cyrenus and Dorothy (Burr) Garritt.
As a young man Mr. Garritt took a zealous interest in the leather trade and after many years of patient labor developed an unusual skill and knowledge of the business. He won the respect of other manufacturers and dealers in leather for his sound judgment and he was frequently consulted on important business matters in the industry.
Mr. Garritt was a director of the Commonwealth Trust Company, and vice-president of the Central Leather Company, also a member of its Executive Committee devoting a day each week in New York to the affairs of the organization. He was also a trustee of Boston University and trustee of St. Mark's Methodist Episcopal Church of Brookline.
Mr. Garritt was an authority and expert in regard to all matters pertaining to the leather industry. He gave his time and thoughts to the introduction of constantly new and valuable features, which were adapted to meet the needs of the business. In the successful carrying out of his ideas he manifested much enterprise, fertility of resource and executive ability.
This business experience of Mr. Garritt taught him the close relationship of the tariff to the successful building up of our great industries. He never failed to make clear his earnest convictions that tariff adjustments should be made along the lines strictly scientific, with constant care to avoid excesses and the closest dis- crimination in the application of rates. His interest in these economic questions and his identification with the upbuilding of the leather trade throughout the United States brought him into close touch with public men and leading economists.
But Mr. Garritt was more than a business man. He was ready to serve many uses and numerous ends in life. He was a man of
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I. G. G anil.
WALTER GRANT GARRITT
wide sympathies, of broad views, of comprehensive purposes and aims, and of a liberal spirit. He was restricted to no one line of effort, and to no narrow field of desire or endeavor. Nothing relating to the public good or to the prosperity and welfare of the community was foreign to him or failed to enlist his interest and active support. His ability, his manly character, his disinterested spirit were recognized by his fellow citizens, who were quick to acknowledge them and ready to honor him by suitable tokens of confidence and regard. He was one of the One Hundred members of the Public Safety Committee of New England.
The success of Mr. Garritt was due chiefly to himself, to his untiring industry, his determined purpose, and to his unfaltering perseverance, which no obstacles could deter or check. These native endowments gave him success and won for him well earned and durable honors.
In fraternal circles he was a member of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, having taken the Knights Templar degree.
Mr. Garritt was married February 18, 1891, to Polly Burr Hall, daughter of Amos and Emily (Burr) Hall of Liberty, New York. There were three children born of this marriage: Walter G. Garritt, Junior, at present with the Ambulance Corps in France, Robert H., a member of the Naval Reserve, and Helen, now Mrs. Sheldon Eaton Warwell of Brookline.
Personally Mr. Garritt was one of the most genial and approach- able of men. He was ever ready to listen when appealed to, and his sure and ripe judgment never failed to solve a problem placed before him. He was a good citizen, one who cherished the best American principles, and he left an influence that will live in the memory of those who knew him for many years.
EUGENE ALBERT GILMAN
E UGENE ALBERT GILMAN, a native of the state of Maine, was the son of Albert and Rachel Gilman. His father was a teacher by profession.
The immigrant ancestor of Eugene Albert Gilman was Sir Ed- ward Gilman, who came from Hingham, England, and settled in Hingham, Massachusetts. He crossed the ocean in the ship Diligence, which arrived in Boston on August 10, 1638.
Eugene Gilman was always much interested in chemistry and, from his earliest boyhood, medical books held a special charm for him.
He went to Harvard University, where he graduated from the Medical School with the doctor's degree in 1872. It was as a physi- cian that he became generally known.
He was a member of the Masonic Fraternity and of the Republi- can Party. In the later years of his life, driving was his favorite amusement and recreation.
On February 4, 1889, he married Harriette D., daughter of Parker and Elizabeth Foster, of Boston.
Fifteen years before his death, he took up the study of Spanish, and became a fine Spanish scholar.
Dr. Gilman had a ready pen and he was the writer of many pamphlets, several of them of technical character.
Eugene Gilman was very fortunate in the conditions of his home life; his mother was a noble and beautiful character who strongly impressed the intellectual and moral development and spiritual life of her son. To compose a poem in a foreign tongue would be difficult for most men. Dr. Gilman was a linguist as well as a scientist and to his vigorous mind the composition of a Spanish poem was a recreation not a burden. It is well that in America and in our own day there are men like Dr. Gilman who by their mental eagerness and freshness show how far the gulf stream of our youth may flow into the arctic regions of our lives.
Alman
حبيبي
Ist Graves
GEORGE HENRY GRAVES
G T EORGE HENRY GRAVES was born in West Fairlee, Vermont, March 10, 1844, the son of George W. Graves, born February 14, 1805, died July 26, 1879, and Laurinda Watson. His grandfathers were Abner Graves, born 1780, died in 1860, and David Watson, born in 1776, and died 1865; his grand- mothers, Katherine Kibling Graves and Nancy Elliot Watson. His father, one of the early California gold seekers, was a hotel pro- prietor and postmaster at East Randolph, Vermont. His marked characteristics were kindliness and integrity. He descended from John Graves, who came from England prior to 1643 and settled in Concord, Massachusetts, and John Kibling, who came from Ger- many in 1758 and settled in Ashburnham, Massachusetts. He is descended on his mother's side from Matthew Watson, who came from Ireland and settled in Boston in 1718, and John Elliot, who settled in Roxbury. One of his ancestors was Major Joseph Elliot, who served in the War of the Revolution.
Mr. Graves, who was an only son, was very fond of animals and especially of horses; he assisted his father on the farm in his youth. Mr. Graves enjoyed the inestimable advantage of a good mother's strong influence upon his moral and spiritual life. Next to the powerful impression made upon him by his mother and his home, he counts the contact with men in active life as valuable in a general way in molding his character and his career. His early school life at Randolph Academy, Vermont, was interrupted by his volunteering in 1861 to serve in the Civil War. He has always been deeply interested in commercial literature and in history, and, no doubt, this solid reading in early life formed an important part of his education. After the war he attended Comer's Commerical College in Boston.
His personal inclination toward a commerical life impelled him, in 1865, to enter the counting room of J. J. Walworth and Company, now the Walworth Manufacturing Company. Mr. Graves was appointed cashier of the Walworth Manufacturing Company in 1870, and elected Treasurer in 1886 and a Director in 1889; he was Treasurer and Active Executive Officer from 1903 to 1913, and has served continuously ever since as Treasurer. From 1888 to 1891 he served as a Director of the Prudential Fire Insurance Company of Boston, Director of the Malden Board of Trade, 1892-97; Director Malden Co-operative Bank, 1892-1904; Vice-
GEORGE HENRY GRAVES
president, 1903-04; Trustee of the Home Savings Bank of Boston, 1903-04; Trustee of the Malden Savings Bank since 1904, Vice- president since 1915, Director of the Kernwood Club, and Trustee since 1896, and President in 1905 and 1906, Trustee of the Massa- chusetts Soldiers' Home since 1912, Assistant Treasurer since 1915, Director of the Boston Credit Men's Association from 1897 until 1911, and President in 1907-08; and from 1901 to the present time, Sinking Fund Commissioner of the city of Malden.
Nothing, in his estimation, in his public service, exceeds in real usefulness the part he took in the Civil War, in which he enlisted in Company G, 8th Regiment Vermont Volunteers, in 1861; he was transferred to the signal corps (secret service), United States regular army, 1862, with rank the same as a sergeant in volunteer service; he was honorably discharged at New Orleans, Louisiana, at the expiration of his term of service in 1864.
Mr. Graves is a Freemason, member and pastmaster of Winslow Lewis Lodge, Boston, and Chairman of its relief fund, member of Pastmasters Association, First Masonic District, Boston; Chapter, Council and Knight Templar Orders, of Malden; past commander of Edward W. Kinsley Post, 113, G. A. R., and trustee of its relief fund, member of the United States Signal Corps Association, and President 1918, ex-president of the Vermont Veterans' Association, and member of the Exchange Club, Boston, the Malden Young Men's Christian Association, the Boston City Club, the Malden Associated Charities, the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanics' Association, and the Boston Chamber of Commerce.
Mr. Graves has been identified with the Democratic Party, but since the silver free coinage issue was raised has been independent in voting. He is connected with the Trinitarian Congregational Church. He enjoys a life in the woods, near to nature, and all out- of-door sports.
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