Biographical sketches of representative citizens of the commonwealth of Massachusetts, 1901, Part 38

Author:
Publication date: 1901
Publisher: Boston, Graves & Steinbarger
Number of Pages: 924

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In politics Mr. Lovejoy is an earnest sup- porter of the Republican party, and is now connected with the town government, serving upon the committee on appropriations. He is a member of Columbian Lodge, No. 29, I. O. O. F. ; Columbian Encampment, No. 43; and Fells Canton, No. 26, Patriarchs Militant -all of Stoneham, Mass.

In October, 1875, Mr. Lovejoy was united in marriage with Miss Lizzie A. Robinson, daughter of William and Jane (Nichols) Rob- inson, of Chelsea, Mass. Of this union there are two children : Florence M., who was born July 15, 1886; and Morton L. Lovejoy, who was born September 2, 1889.

NDREW JACKSON LOVELL, a well- known grocery merchant of Boston, and a resident of the neighboring city of Cambridge, was born in West Boylston, Mass., February 16, 1836, son of Levi Bigelow and Mary (Frost) Lovell.

The Lovells are of English origin; and family tradition asserts that three brothers of the name arrived in New England at an early date in the Colonial period, one of whom settled in New Hampshire and the other two on Cape Cod. Savage in his Genealogical Dictionary mentions James Lovell, of Wey- mouth; "John, Weymouth, perhaps elder brother of James"; Robert, a freeman of Massachusetts in 1635, and probably thien of Weymouth; William of Barnstable, son of John; and others of this surname.

The subject of this sketch traces his ances- try to Alexander Lovell, who settled in Med- field, Mass., about 1652, having come thither with the colony of Weymouth and Braintree men. "Nothing is known of him previously," says the historian of Medfield. In 1658 Alex- ander Lovell married Lydia Albee, who died three years later ; and he is said to have mar- ried for his second wife Lydia, daughter of Hopestill Leland.

His sixth child, Alexander Lovell, Jr., born in 1671, married Elizabeth, daughter of Joseph and Hannah (Frairy) Dyer, and had a family of ten children, of whom Jonathan, the next in line of descent, was the seventh born. This Jonathan Lovell, the year of whose nativity was 1714, settled in that part of Worcester which was afterward incorporated as the town of Holden. His wife in maidenhood was Mary Cheney. Jonathan Lovell, Jr., son of Jonathan and Mary (Cheney) Lovell, was born December 15, 1743. He married, and was the father of eight children, among whom was David, grandfather of Andrew J. Lovell.

For many years David Lovell occupied the Carter farm, one of the best pieces of agricult- ural property in West Boylston; and prior to the advent of railroads, he at regular intervals drove to Boston with a four-horse team loaded with farm produce. He lived to the age of about seventy-four years. His wife, whose maiden name was Susan Bigelow, died at the age of sixty-five. They were the parents of nine children, of whom Levi B. was the eldest.

Levi Bigelow Lovell was born in West Boylston, Mass., March 11, 1810. In middle life he was a farmer in a small way in Holden, where his chief business was the manufacture of shoes. Later he entered the service of the Fitchburg Railroad Company as a gate-tender ; and in 1877, while stationed in Concord, Mass., was accidentally killed. His wife, Mary Frost Lovell, who was born in Water- town, Mass., a daughter of Jonathan Frost, died at the age of fifty-seven years. Her father, also a native of Watertown, was a prominent citizen of Walpole, Mass. Mr. and Mrs. Levi B. Lovell were the parents of four children, three of whom are living, namely : Andrew J., the subject of this sketch ;

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Mary Maria, who is the wife of Frank A. Fos- :er, of Barre, Mass., and the mother of one child, Harry; and Frank Skinner Lovell, who married Jennie Foster, also of Barre, and has one child, Stanley Lovell Foster.

Andrew Jackson Lovell was educated in Holden, and began his business training in Worcester, in the grocery store of C. D. Cobb & Co., which he entered at the age of nineteen years. In 1857 he was transferred to his em- ployer's Boston establishment, and after five years of diligent and faithful service was ad- mitted to partnership. In 1865, in company with his brother-in-law, Mr. Parker, he pur- chased Mr. Cobb's interest in the store at 106 Cambridge Street, which for the succeeding eleven years was conducted under the style of Lovell & Parker; and from 1876 up to the present time he has carried on the business alone, having been located at the same stand for the past forty-three years. In connection with his Boston store Mr. Lovell also con- ducts a large grocery establishment in North Cambridge, where he took up his residence in 1871, and as the result of his enterprise and sound and upright business methods he has realized a continuous and substantial pros- perity. In 1863, when the disruption of the Union was so seriously threatened by the Civil War as to necessitate the compulsory enlist- ment of soldiers for immediate service in the field, Mr. Lovell was drawn in the first Boston draft; but business and family cares urgently requiring his presence at home he procured a substitute, to whom he paid a bounty of three hundred dollars.

Aside from his extensive mercantile inter- ests he is actively connected with other busi- ness enterprises, being a director and trustee of the Puritan Trustee Company, of which he was one of the original incorporators; a di- rector of the North End Savings Bank; and president of the board of directors of the Uni- versalist Publishing House of Boston. Politi- cally, he is a Republican, and for several years has served upon the Sinking-fund Com- mittee of the city of Cambridge. In Masonry he has taken the Royal Arch Degree, being a member of Joseph Warren Lodge, and of St. Paul Chapter, of Boston. He is also a mem-

ber of the Newtown Club of North Cambridge, and the Cambridge Club. Though reared in the Methodist faith, his liberal opinions in religious matters led him into Universalism ; and he is a Deacon of the Third Universalist Church, Cambridge, in which for fifteen years he officiated as superintendent of the Sunday- school.

On November 27, 1860, Mr. Lovell mar- ried Miss Sarah Augusta Woodward, daughter of Stephen G. and Lucy (Jordan) Woodward, of Ellsworth, Me. Their children are: Fred- erick Woodward, Harry Frost, and Andrew Jackson Loveil, Jr. Frederick W. Lovell married Etta Ward, a daughter of Sylvester Ward, of Boston, and has three children - Evelyn, Ward, and Carl Lovell. Harry F. Lovell married Annie Lapham, of Cambridge, and has one daughter, Dorothy Lovell. An- drew J. Lovell, Jr., married Grace Skinner, of Chicago, Ill. They have one son, Hollis Reed Lovell.

ILLIAM SMITH SWIFT, of Vine- yard Haven, Representative to the State Legislature from Duke's County for 1898 and 1899, was born at Mar- tha's Vineyard, November 1, 1860, a son of Charles Hiram and Hannah Vincent (Smith) Swift. His paternal grandfather was Jacob Swift, a resident of Rochester, Mass.

Charles H. Swift, the father, was born at Sandwich, Mass. When a young man he learned the trade of carpenter, which he fol- lowed for many years. He died in 1884, at the age of sixty-seven years. His wife, whose maiden name was Hannah Vincent Smith, was a native of Tisbury, Mass., and a daughter of Joseph and Sally Vincent Smith. She was a grand-daughter of Zachariah Smith, who was the son of Thomas Smith. Four of her chil- dren are now living, namely : Timothy S., who resides at Cottage City; Lizzie, whose hus- band, Alonzo Ames, of Rockland, Me., died June 20, 1899; Holmes Athearn, a resident of Vineyard Haven; and William Smith Swift, the subject of this sketch.

William S. Swift at the age of fourteen began industrial life as clerk in a provision

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store at Vineyard Haven, and continued in that occupation for four years, attending school, however, for a part of each year. When he was eighteen he went to Boston, where for two years he was employed as book-keeper in a clothing store. Afterward he was clerk in a market for two years. Upon the death of his father he returned home, and in 1884 engaged in the grocery and provision business, in which he has built up a lucrative trade.

Ever since he was old enough to take an interest in public affairs Mr. Swift has been a Prohibitionist in politics. His first Presiden- tial vote was cast for ex-Governor John P. St. John in 1884. In 1897 he was elected to the State Legislature on the Prohibition ticket, and was the only member of the House elected on that ticket. In the fall of 1898 he was re- elected, after an exciting campaign, being the only person in the county elected in opposition to the Republican ticket. His re-election occurring as it did, when the election of a United States Senator was pending, could not be construed otherwise than as an endorsement of his previous course, which, he being un- hampered by the usual party ties, was practi- cally independent, he voting for whatever measures he considered would be for the bene- fit of the community. In the session of 1899 he served on the Committee on Fisheries and Game, as clerk of the committee; and in that of 1898 on the Committee on Federal Rela- tions, of which he was Clerk.

Mr. Swift was married in ISS4 to Josephine L. Cleveland, a native of Vineyard Haven, and daughter of Jacob and Sarah (Gray) Cleve- land. He has five children: Sherman Gray, Alaric King, William Francis, Josephine Cleveland, and Donald Stuart Swift.

ICAH DYER, JR., formerly a well- known Boston lawyer and one of the most prominent residents of the Dorchester District, was born on North Street, Boston, September 27, 1829, son of Micah and Sally (Holbrook) Dyer. He was a representative of an old and highly reputable Barnstable County family, founded by Dr. William Dyer, an Englishman, who

arrived on Cape Cod toward the latter part of the seventeenth century. Dr. William Dyer was married at Barnstable to Mary Taylor in 1686, and subsequently moved to Truro, Mass. He died July 27, 1738, aged about eighty-five years; and his wife died on October S of the same year, aged about eighty years. They were the parents of eight children. Many of their descendants have attained distinction in the different walks in life, Among them may be named Captain Nehemiah M. Dyer, United States Navy, who commanded the protected cruiser "Baltimore" in the battle of Manila Bay.

When a young man, Micah Dyer, Sr., re- moved from Wellfleet, Mass., to Boston, where he engaged in mercantile business and became a successful hardware merchant. He lived to be eighty-seven years old. His wife, Sally, who also was a native of Wellfleet, daughter of Joseph Holbrook, died at the age of eighty- four. They were the parents of eleven chil- dren.

At the age of seven years Micah Dyer, Jr., began his attendance at a primary school on Hanover Street taught by a Miss Chamber- lain. He was a Franklin-medal scholar at the Eliot School, where he was graduated in 1842. He next attended for two years the Wilbraham (Mass.) Academy, then in charge of Masters Raymond and Twombly, after which he spent a year at the Northfield (N. H.) Academy, and was for some time under the private tutorage of Dr. E. O. Phin- ney in Boston. Prevented by impaired health from pursuing a college course, he entered the Harvard Law School at the age of seventeen, and was graduated with the degree of Bache- lor of Laws three years later. He subse- quently continued his legal studies in the office of the Hon. S. G. Nash, Associate Jus- tice of the Massachusetts Superior Court. When twenty-one years old, he opened an office in a building occupying the present site of Young's Hotel; and his professional career advanced rapidly upon lines well calculated to insure the prominence which he ultimately attained in the courts and legal circles of the Commonwealth. Ile also practised quite extensively in the United States courts. In

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Addition to his law business he was actively interested in various financial enterprises of importance, and for many years was a conspic- uous figure in the business circles of Boston. Ilis progressive tendencies were frequently the incentive to active measures for the public good. Anticipating the ultimate construction of Columbia Road some years prior to the commencement of work upon that splendid thoroughfare, he, at considerable personal ex- pense, set back the ancient trees upon the street line of his fine estate at Upham's Cor- ner in order to facilitate the improvement. Kind-hearted and benevolent, he was very helpful to the young ; and there are many men of position in Boston to-day who owe their start in life to Mr. Dyer.

From 1853 to 1856 he was a member of the Massachusetts Legislature, serving on the Judiciary Committee and as chairman of the Committee on Probate and Chancery. As a member of the Boston School Board during the fifties, he created wide-spread comment and considerable antagonism by the persistent manner in which he enforced at the Eliot School the rule requiring the reciting the Lord's Prayer by the pupils; and, in spite of the reception of numerous letters threatening him with personal violence, he fearlessly ad- hered to his position, although his stand in the matter caused his defeat for a seat in the State Senate by a small margin. He was identified with several charitable organizations, and a member of various military, social, and fraternal bodies, including the Masonic order up to the thirty-second degree, the Odd Fellows, the Bostonian Society, the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company, and the Boston Club. He was an associate member of Benjamin Stone Post, No. 68, G. A. R., of Dorchester, and for some time chairman of the Eliot and Boston School Boys' Association. His religious affil- iations were formerly with the Methodist Epis- copal church, of which he was a trustee; but, later in life embracing the Unitarian faith, he withdrew from that denomination, and joined the congregation of the Church of the Unity. Micah Dyer, Jr., died November 24, 1898.

On May 1, 1851, Mr. Dyer was united in marriage with Miss Julia Knowlton, a native

of Deerfield, N. H., daughter of Joseph and Susan (Dearborn) Knowlton.

The immigrant progenitor of the Knowlton family of New England, to which Mrs. Dyer's father belonged, was Captain William Knowl- ton, who died on the voyage from London to Nova Scotia, and whose sons a few years later settled at Ipswich, the earliest to arrive there, it is said, being John in 1639.

Through her maternal grandfather, Nathan- iel Dearborn, who married Comfort Palmer, of Haverhill, N. H., Mrs. Dyer is descended from Godfrey Dearborn, who came from England, and was one of the earliest settlers of Exeter, N. H., in 1639, later removing to Hampton, N. H. Mrs. Dyer is of Revolutionary ances- try on both sides, her great-grandfather, Ed- ward Dearborn,-and her grandfather, Thomas Knowlton, having both served, it is said, at Bunker Hill and at Dorchester Heights. In the Revolutionary Rolls of New Hampshire, Volume II., Edward Dearborn is named as one of the enlisted soldiers in the militia now raising (September 7, 1777) to join General Stark at Bennington; also on the pay-roll of Captain Nathan Sanborn's company, Colonel Evans's regiment, which marched, September, 1777, from New Hampshire to re-enforce the Northern Continental army at Saratoga. Ed- ward Dearborn married Susanna Brown, whom he left when he entered the Continental army, to carry on the farm and care for three small children, the nearest neighbor being ten miles away. Susanna Brown was a daughter of Nehe- miah and Amy (Longfellow) Brown, of Ken- sington, N. H., and grand-daughter of Nathan Longfellow. The last-named ancestor of Mrs. Dyer was probably the Nathan born in 1690, son of William and Anne (Sewall) Long- fellow, and brother to Stephen, born in 1681, from whom the poet Longfellow was descended. Joseph Knowlton, Mrs. Dyer's father, partici- pated in the War of 1812-15; and Joseph II. Knowlton, her brother, served in the Federal army from the commencement to the close of the Civil War.

In club work, a marked and ameliorating feature of the times, and in noble philanthropic labors, Mrs. Dyer, like her distinguished contemporaries, Mrs. Julia Ward Howe and

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Mrs. Mary A. Livermore, takes a conspicuous part, being the leading spirit in no less than twenty-two associations, among them the famous Woman's Charity Club and Hospital and the Wintergreen Club of Boston, of both of which she is the founder and has been presi- dent from their organization. She is president of the Women's Christian Temperance Union of Upham's Corner, a life member of the Ladies' Aid Association of the Soldiers' Home, and for ten years its president, and is on the board of managers of the Massachusetts Home for Intemperate Women. All move- ments having as the keynote of their existence charity, philanthropy, social intercourse, and the moral and mental elevation of society, are certain to receive her hearty support and valu- able co-operation.

Mrs. Dyer has two sons: Willard Dyer, M. D., born April 21, 1852, a graduate of Harvard University, and a well-known Boston physician; and Walter R. Dyer, born April 20, 1855, who was formerly engaged in the lumber business in one of the Western States, and is now a real estate dealer in Boston. A daughter, Mabel, born in 1857, died in infancy.

ENJAMIN FRANKLIN DUDLEY, of Roxbury, was born in Raymond, N. H., May, 1827, son of Franklin and Olive (Bean) Dudley. He is a descendant in the eighth generation of Gover- nor Thomas Dudley through the latter's son Samuel, who went from Roxbury, Mass., to Exeter, N. H., and was the progenitor of a numerous posterity, composing the New Hamp- shire branch of the Dudley family. Franklin Dudley, who was a native of Raymond, was engaged during the active period of his life in general farming, including the operating of a saw-mill. He was a leading spirit in local affairs, and served with ability in some of the more important town offices. His wife, Olive, was a daughter of Nathan Bean, of Candia, N. H. They were the parents of seven chil- dren : Benjamin F., the subject of this sketch ; Moses Gilman, who died at the age of thirty years; Olive Elzab, who married Franklin Bean, of Raymond; Annie, wife of Edwin A.

Davis, now of Harriman, Tenn. ; Guildford Augustus, who died at the age of thirteen years; Margery, who died when eight years old; and Caroline, who died at the age of five years.

Coming to Boston at the age of sixteen years, Benjamin F. Dudley spent four and a half years in learning the coppersmith's trade, receiving during his apprenticeship, in addi- tion to his board, the sum of fifty dollars per year. After working one year as a journey- man, he established himself on Harvard Street, Boston, where he has carried on the copper- smith business with prosperity for over fifty years, for the past fifteen years having given his special attention to the manufacture of boilers. As a business man he is favorably known to builders and residents of his local- ity. He is said to be the only descendant of Samuel Dudley, born out of the State, who ever returned to reside permanently in the early abiding place of his sturdy ancestor. Personally, he stands high in the estimation of his neighbors. He is a member of the Masonic order.

In 1853 Mr. Dudley was joined in marriage with Miss Sarah Dudley, his first wife, daugh- ter of John Dudley, of Wayne, Me. The only child of this union, Eva, married John Parker, of Roxbury; but Mr. Dudley has two adopted children - Stewart and Gladys. Mr. Dudley's first wife died in 1882, and in 1890 he mar- ried Mrs. Helen Clark, nec Worcester, of Acton, Mass., his present wife.

EORGE GRIGGS MORRISON, one of the best known residents of Alls- ton, was born in Brighton, January 22, 1833, son of David and Sarah (Griggs) Morrison. On the paternal side he is de- scended from Scotch-Irish ancestry, the first of whom in America settled in New Hampshire early in the eighteenth century. Mr. Morri- son's father was a native of New Hampshire, son of David Morrison, Sr., also of that State; and his mother was born in Brookline, Mass.

David Morrison, the younger, located in Brighton about the year 1815, and found em- ployment as a farm hand. Carefully saving

GEORGE G. MORRISON.

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his earnings, he later engaged in the provision trade in Boston, having a stall in the old mar- ket building-prior to the erection of the pres- ent Quincy Market. He was among the first to secure quarters in the last-named building, occupying stall No. 86 from the time of its completion until 1848, when he retired with a substantial competency, acquired through close attention to business, sterling integrity, and economical habits. During the year in which he retired from business he erected the house on Harvard Avenue, Allston, now occupied by Judge Baldwin, and subsequently resided there until his death, which occurred in 1860. He was a highly esteemed citizen of Allston, and displayed much interest in the growth and prosperity of that section. Politically, he was a Whig. He was a member of the Univer- salist church.

George G. Morrison has resided upon the estate he now occupies, at 70 Harvard Avenue, ever since his boyhood, and is therefore one of the most widely-known citizens of Allston, which he has seen develop from a sparsely settled rural district into a populous and at- tractive suburb of Boston. His early educa- tion, acquired in the Brighton public schools, has been largely supplemented by experience and observation ; and the knowledge thus gained has proved advantageous. After leaving school he turned his attention to market gardening, which he followed for some years, or until Au- gust, 1862, when he enlisted for service in the Civil War as a private in Company G, Forty- second Regiment, Massachusetts Volunteers. While attached to the Nineteenth Corps, Army of the Gulf, his regiment participated in an engagement at Galveston, Tex., where he was captured by the enemy, and after being held a prisoner of war at Houston for about three months he was paroled. Receiving an honor- able discharge from the army in September, 1864, he returned to Allston, and, again turn- ing his attention to market gardening, followed that occupation until 1872, when he relin- quished the business.

For nearly thirty years he has been exten- sively interested in real estate, and through his instrumentality much valuable property has been improved into handsome suburban

estates. Preferring to devote his time to his private affairs, he invariably declines nomina- tions to public office, which he is frequently urged to accept. Nevertheless, he is openly solicitous of the general welfare of his imme- diate neighborhood and its continued improve- ment. In politics he is a Republican. He retains a fondness for his old companions in arms, and is a comrade of Francis Washburn Post, No. 92, Grand Army of the Republic, of Brighton.

Mr. Morrison married for his first wife Amelia Poland, of Cumberland, Me. His sec- ond wife was Emily A. Coffran, of Northfield, N. H. He has one daughter, Sadie Augusta, born of his second marriage. She is the wife of Charles Smith, of Boston, and has a daugh- ter, Edna.

IDEON CURRIER, a retired building contractor of Boston, was born in Chester, N. H., April 6, 1817, son of Benjamin and Dorothy (Taylor) Currier. Coming to Boston in 1835, he served an ap- prenticeship of three years at the mason's trade, under Charles S. White, and contin- ued in the trade as a journeyman for a simi- lar length of time, or until 1842. He then went into business for himself, and for over fifty years thereafter was one of the leading building contractors of Boston. Among his more important works may be mentioned ser-

eral school buildings for the city of Boston ; the East Boston gas works buildings; the first block of modern residences erected south of Dover Street (1845) ; the residences of James M. Beebe and Mr. Haskell on Ashburton Place (1847) ; the City Hall, Chelsea (1854) ; ten houses on Tremont Street, between Can- ton and Brookline Streets (1856) ; two free- stone and three brick-front houses, erected for himself, on Union Park (1858) ; six houses on Shawmut Avenue (1859) ; the Memorial Hall of Bowdoin College, Maine, in 1870; Hotel Brunswick ( 1876) ; ten houses on Tre- mont Street, five on Union Park, and six on Shawmut Avenue, all for himself ( 1885) ; the rebuilding of twenty-one tenements on Tre- mont Street (1892), which he still owns; three

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store buildings on [ligh and Purchase Streets (1892) ; the Five Cents Savings Bank building on School Street in 1859; a fine residence for George C. Crowninshield, of Boston, from plans of the celebrated French architect Le Monier, who also made the plans of the Dea- con house; also, by the same architect, at Pine Bank, Brookline, a residence for Edward N. Perkins. During the Civil War Mr. Cur- rier built a dyke for the United States govern- ment at Provincetown, Mass.

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Biographical sketches of representative citizens of the commonwealth of Massachusetts, 1901, Part 38

Author: Publication date: 1901 Publisher: Boston, Graves & Steinbarger Number of Pages: 924

Author:
Publication date: 1901
Publisher: Boston, Graves & Steinbarger
Number of Pages: 924