USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > Boston of to-day; a glance at its history and characteristics: with biographical sketches and portraits of many of its professional and business men, 1892 > Part 21
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BIRTWELL, JOSEPH, was born in England forty-four years ago, and has been engaged in the structural iron business all his life. In 1870 he established himself in business in London, and in 1882 came to Boston and began business at No. 60 Broad street, under the firm name of Joseph Birtwell & C'o. Since this time he has been the largest im- porter of iron and steel beams and girders in the United States, and has furnished his materials for some of the largest buildings in the country, among them being the Texas State Capitol Building, the New England Mutual Life Insurance and the Massachusetts Life Insurance Companies' Buildings in Kansas City, the new Suffolk County Court House, the new Public Library Building, the Pierce Build- ing, the Massachusetts Life Insurance Building, the Boston Tavern, the Albion Building, the" Tudor, and a number of other public and private build- ings in Boston and other cities. Mr. Birtwell is
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also extensively engaged in bridge, tower, and via- duct work. He is a member of the Master Builders' Association. He resides in the Dorchester district.
BLACKALL, CLARENCE H., architect, was born in New York Feb. 3, 1857. He received the degree of B.S. and M.A. in the University of Illinois, and studied his profession in the School of Fine Arts in Paris. He was the first to enjoy the benefit of the ·Rotch Travelling Scholarship, and the valuable ex- perience he received abroad has shown itself in his later work. He entered the office of Messrs. Pea- body & Stearns in this city, and remained there eight years, beginning practice as architect, for him- self, in 1888 in Music Hall Building, Hamilton place. He is the architect of the Old Cambridge Baptist Church, large warehouses on Purchase street, Boston, and fine residences in Brookline, Allston, Cambridge, and Wollaston. Among the houses he has designed in Brookline are those of E. Story Smith, F. E. James, W. I. Bowditch, David K. Horton, and his own residence. He is also the architect of the Church of Our Saviour at Roslindale, the Peabody Building, Salem, and the Bowdoin Square Theatre, Boston. Mr. Blackall was the organizer of the Architectural Club, and was chosen its first president, which position he still holds. He was also one of the organizers of the Architectural League of New York, and is gener- ally interested in all matters of art. In a short space of a few years Mr. Blackall has acquired an acquaintance and reputation which has placed him in the front rank of his profession. He was mar- ried in 1883 to Miss Emma Murray, and resides in Cambridge.
BLACKMAR, W. W., General, was born in Pennsyl- vania in July, 1841. His father was a clergyman, and moved to Boston when the son was a small boy. He went through the Brimmer School and the Bridgewater Normal School. He was fitting for college at Exeter, N.H., when the war broke out. He discarded his books and took up a sabre. He enlisted as a private in the Fifteenth Pennsylvania Cavalry, and was promoted through all the non- commissioned grades until he became orderly ser- geant of his company. He was then promoted to a lieutenancy and transferred to the First West Vir- ginia Veteran Cavalry, one of Custer's famous regi- ments. He was next promoted to a captaincy on the field of Five Forks by General Custer, after he had taken the colors across a deep gully under a heavy fire of the enemy. The brigade rallied around the colors and continued the fight to a suc-
cessful termination. He was detailed as adjutant- general of his brigade, and afterwards made provost- marshal of the division, in which capacity he served to the end of the war, being present at Lee's sur- render at Appomattox. Among the battles in which he took part were Antietam, Stone River, Chicka- mauga, Chattanooga, the Shenandoah Valley cam- paigns, the battles around Richmond and Petersburg, Sailor's Creek, Five Forks, Appomattox Court House. and several others. After the war he resumed his studies and graduated from the Harvard Law School. He is now enjoying a large practice, and has charge of several large trust estates. He was the first com- mander of Post 113, G.A.R., and was judge-advo- cate of the Department of Massachusetts. He has always taken an active interest in politics - a stanch and sturdy Republican, but with the exception of service in the city council early in life he has steadily refused to hold political office. He was for twelve years judge-advocate-general of the Commonwealth. He is an able and eloquent speaker. He is a member of the Loyal Legion, and is a Mason. He is director in several large corporations, including the Nantasket Beach Steamboat Company, the Hamilton Woollen Company, and the Boston National Bank.
BLAIR, ISAAC, was born in Truro, N.S., and was
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educated at Mt. Allison College, Sackville, N.B. He learned his trade in Boston, and began business for
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ancis Blake .
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himself here in 1885. One of his most important undertakings was the raising of the old United States Court House Building, on the corner of Tremont street and Temple place, now the dry-goods estab- lishment of R. H. Stearns & Co. This was a stone structure 80 by 60 feet, and it was raised to a height of 32 feet from the sidewalk. Other successful undertakings were the raising of an iron tank, 35 feet in diameter by 40 feet high, to a position on brick walls 45 feet high; the raising of the great roof of the Columbia skating-rink 25 feet, when the building was reconstructed into the Grand Opera House ; and the raising of the old Catholic Cathedral, on the corner of Washington and Motte streets, a brick structure 80 by 75 feet, to the full height of 37 feet and I inch. Mr. Blair is mar- ried and has two children: Ethel M. and George A. Blair.
BLAKE, FRANCIS, son of Francis and Caroline (Trum- bull) Blake, was born in Needham, Mass., Dec. 25, . 1850. He is of the eighth generation descended_ Cambridge, and Washington. In his leisure mo- from William and Agnes Blake, who came to America from Somersetshire, England, in 1630, and settled in Dorchester. This ancestor was a distinguished leader in colonial affairs, and his de- scendants have kept his name in honorable prom -. inence to the present time. Mr. Blake was edu- cated at public schools until 1866, when his uncle, Commodore George Smith Blake, U.S.N., secured his appointment from the Brookline High School to the United States Coast Survey, in which service he acquired a scientific education which has led to his later successes in civil life. Mr. Blake's twelve years of service on the Coast Survey have connected his name with many of the most important scientific achievements of the corps, his active career in which closed with the following correspondence :
WESTON, MASS., April 5, 1878.
SIR: Private affairs not permitting me at present to dis- charge my official duties, I respectfully tender my resignation as an assistant in the United States Coast Survey. It is impossi- ble for me to express in official language the regret with which I thus close my twelfth year of service.
Very respectfully yours, FRANCIS BLAKE, Asst. U.S. Coast Survey.
To the Hon. C. P. PATTERSON,
Supt. U.S. Coast Survey, Washington, D.C.
U.S. COAST SURVEY OFFICE, WASHINGTON, April 9, 1878.
SIR : I regret very greatly to have to acknowledge the re- ceipt of your letter of April 5. tendering your resignation as an assistant of the United States Coast Survey. I accept it
with the greatest reluctance, and beg to express thus officially my sense of your high abilities and character - abilities trained to aspire to the highest honors of scientific position, and char- acter to inspire confidence and esteem. So loath am I to sever entirely your official connection with the survey that I must re- quest you to allow me to retain your name upon the list of the survey as an "extra observer," under which title Prof. B. Peirce, Prof. Lovering, Dr. Gould, Prof. Winlock, and others had their names classed for many years. This will, of course, be merely honorary; but it gives me a "quasi " authority to communicate with you in a semi-official way as exceptional occasion may suggest. Your resignation is accepted, to date from April 15.
Yours respectfully, C. P. PATTERSON, Supt. Coast Survey. F. BLAKE, Asst. Coast Survey.
During a greater part of the last two years of his service in the Coast Survey, Mr. Blake was at his Weston home engaged in the reduction of his European field-work connected with the determina- tion of the differences of longitude between the astronomical observatories at Greenwich, Paris, ments he had devoted himself to experimental phys- ics, and in so doing had become an enthusiastic amateur mechanic ; so that at the time of his resig- nation he found himself in possession of a well- equipped mechanical laboratory and a self-acquired ability to perform a variety of mechanical opera- tions. Under these conditions, what had been a pastime naturally became a serious pursuit in life ; and within barely a month of the date of his resig- nation Mr. Blake had begun a series of experiments which brought forth the Blake Transmitter, as pre- sented to the world through the Bell Telephone Company in November, 1878. Mr. Blake's inven- tion was of peculiar value at that time, as the Bell Telephone Company was just beginning litigation with a rival company which, beside being financially strong, had entered the business field with a trans- mitting telephone superior to the original form of the Bell instrument. The Blake Transmitter was far superior to the infringing instrument, and en- abled the Bell Telephone Company to hold its own in the sharp business competition which continued until, by a judicial decision, the company was assured a monopoly of the telephone business during the life of the Bell patents. There are to-day more than 215,000 Blake Transmitters in use in the United States, and probably a larger number in all foreign countries. Since its first invention Mr. Blake has kept up his interest in electrical research, and the records in the patent office show that twenty patents have been granted to him during the last twelve, years. Mr. Blake's life in Weston began June 24,
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1873, on which day he was married to Elizabeth I .. , daughter of Charles T. Hubbard. In the year of his marriage there was the beginning of " Keewaydin," the beautiful estate in the south-eastern part of the town which has since been his home and the birth- place of his two children -Agnes, born Jan. 2, 1876, Benjamin Sewall, born Feb. 14, 1877. Mr. Blake has been a director of the American Bell Telephone Company since November, 1878. He was elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1874, fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences 1881, member of the National Conference of Electricians 1884, member of the American Institute of Elec- trical Engineers 1889, member of the corporation of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology 1889, member of the Boston Society of Civil Engineers 1890. He is a fellow of the American Geographi- cal Society, member of the Bostonian Society, member of the Boston Society of the Archaeological Institute of America, and has for many years been appointed by the Board of Overseers of Harvard College a member of the committee to visit the Jefferson Physical Laboratory. He is a member of the most prominent social clubs of Boston, and his active interest in photography has led to his election for many years as vice-president of the Boston Camera Club.
teaching, then studied medicine, and later settled at Farmington, Me., where he continued in the prac- tice of his profession until his death, in 1849. George Fordyce Blake was born in Farmington, Me., May 20, 1819. At the early age of fourteen he was apprenticed to learn the trade of house- carpentry. In 1839 he left his native town, and first went to South Danvers (now Peabody), where he remained seven years, working at his trade. From that place he went to Cambridge to take the posi- tion of mechanical engineer at the brickyards of Peter Hubbell, with the general charge of the works. While thus employed he devised a water-meter, for which he received his first patent in 1862. After the removal of the brickyards to Medford, it was found that the clay obtained there could not be worked with the ordinary machinery, and Mr. Blake planned and constructed a new machine for pulver- izing the clay, which was patented in 1861. In order more efficiently to free the clay-pits from water, he invented what is perhaps his greatest achievement, - the Blake Steam-pump, - and thus laid the foundation of his fortune. The practical testing of his pump at the yards proving its great capacity, he, in company with Job A. Turner and his former employer, Peter Hubbell, began in 1864 the manufacture of steam-pipes and water- meters in a building on Province street, Boston. The business grew so rapidly that several successive removals to better quarters were necessary, and in 1873 the firm purchased and occupied the large building on the corner of Causeway and Friend streets. Their foundry for large castings was at East Cambridge. In 1874 a joint-stock company was incorporated under the title -" The George F. Blake Manufacturing Company," with George F. Blake as president. In 1879 it purchased the large plant of the Knowles Steam-pipe Company, at Warren, Mass., thus greatly extending its facili- ties. It was, however, found necessary in 1890 to remove the Boston manufactory to East Cambridge, where extensive works were erected, covering four acres, with a main building of four hundred feet long by one hundred feet broad, with every con- venience for the successful prosecution of the work. The business has been recently sold to an English syndicate, though Mr. Blake still retains an interest. In the course of his successful career Mr. Blake has given unremitting attention to his business, and has brought his intelligent judgment to bear upon all its various details. For a long time, until the growth of the business made that an impossibility, ail the plans and drawings for the special adaptation of
BLAKE, GEORGE FORDYCE, is descended from one of our oldest New England families, and one that has an honorable record. His ancestor, William Blake, came to this country from Little Baddow, Essex, Eng., in 1630, and settled in Dorchester. In 1636 he removed, with William Pynchon and others, to Springfield : but his descendants for three generations continued to reside in Dorchester and Boston ; two of them held the office of deacon of the church and selectmen of the town, and one was a member of the General Court. At the period of the outbreak of the war for Independence we find Increase Blake living in Boston, on King (now State) street, near the scene of the Boston Massa- vre, and engaged in the manufacture of tin-plate goods. His public-spirited refusal to supply the British with canteens, which he had furnished for the provincial troops, aroused the retaliatory spirit of the Tories : his shop and other property were destroyed, and after the battle of Bunker Hill he found it expedient to remove to Worcester, Mass. His son, Thomas Dawes Blake, the father of the present representative of the family, was born in Boston in 1768, and was educated in the schools of Worcester. He was engaged for a few years in the machinery were mide under his personal super-
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vision. The result is seen in the vast business that has grown up. The Blake pumps have gone to all parts of the world and have been adapted to every conceivable use, some of them, constructed for sup- plying cities with water, having a capacity of twenty million gallons in twenty-four hours. In 1869 Mr. Blake removed to Belmont. His beautiful home stands on a breezy hill overlooking a wide stretch of country to the northward and westward of Boston, and is surrounded by fine trees and well- kept lawns.
BLAKE, S. PARKMAN, was born in Boston Nov. 10, 1835. He was engaged for a number of years in commercial business in Philadelphia, Pa., dealing in yarns and dry goods consigned from New England ; then returning to Boston in 1872, he entered the real-estate business, which avocation he still pur- sues at No. 19 Exchange place. In that time he has developed a widespread connection and an ex- tensive patronage, including among his customers many leading capitalists and property owners. He is a recognized authority in regard to values of resi- dential and business properties in the city and its neighboring towns, and has placed many heavy loans and negotiated extensive trusts. Mr. Blake was one of the early members of the Real Estate Exchange and Auction Board, and has been in the board of directory since the opening of that insti- tution.
BLAKE, WILLIAM P., son of Edward and Mary J. (Dehon) Blake, was born in Dorchester July 23, 1846. He was educated in the local schools and at Harvard, graduating in 1866. Subsequently he studied law in the Harvard Law School and with Hutchins & Wheeler, and was admitted to the bar in September, 1869. He practised with his father until the latter's death in 1873, then continued the office and business, with cases and care of trusts. Earlier he did much in conveyancing. He was a Republican until Blaine's candidacy for the presi- dency, and is now independent in politics. He is a member of the Tavern, St. Botolph, and Athletic Clubs, and of the Boston Bar Association.
BLANCHARD, BENJAMIN SEAVER, son of William and Mary E. (Seaver) Blanchard, was born in Roxbury on Sept. 22, 1856. He comes of an old Massa- chusetts family. His grandfather, Benjamin Seaver, was mayor of Boston for three terms, from 1852 to 1854. He obtained his early education in the pub- lic schools, and graduated from Harvard Medical School in 1882. He began the practice of his pro-
fession in the Roxbury district, and afterwards re- moved to Brookline, where he still resides. He was married in 1887, and has one son, Fessenden S. Blanchard.
BLOOD, HIRAM ALBRO, son of Ezra and Lydia Ann (Jefts) Blood, was born in Townsend, Mass., Feb. 3, 1833. He received an academical educa- tion in the town of his birth. At the age of eigh- teen he went to Worcester in search of employment. Two years after he entered the commission-house of Bliss, Sutton, & Co., in that city, as a clerk, and the following year (in 1854) became a member of the firm, at which time he opened a branch house in Fitchburg and went there to live. In 1857 he dissolved his connection with Bliss, Sutton, & Co., and entered into a copartnership with William (). Brown, of Fitchburg, under the name of Blood & Brown. This firm existed until 1860, when Mr. Brown withdrew to enter the United States army, becoming a major ofy the Twenty-fifth Regiment, and a new firm was formed under the name of H. A. Blood & Co., which continued the business. In 1865 Mr. Blood withdrew from all mercantile pur- suits, and became entirely interested in railroads, to the construction and operation of which he has ever since given his time and attention. In. 1865 he was connected with the Fitchburg & Worcester Railroad as a director, and as its superintend- ent and general manager. He afterwards built, or was largely instrumental in building, the Boston, Clinton, & Fitchburg, the Framingham & Lowell, the Mansfield & Framingham, and the Fall River Railroads, of which he successively became super- intendent and general manager. Subsequently he united and consolidated them, together with the New Bedford & Taunton and the Taunton Branch Railroads, into one system, under the name of the Boston, Clinton, Fitchburg, & New Bedford Rail- road Company, reaching from Fitchburg and Lowell in the north to Mansfield, Taunton, New Bedford. and Fall River in the southern part of the State. This system of railroads was for a time operated by him as general manager, and was afterwards con- solidated with the Old Colony Railroad Company, of which it now forms an important part. In the construction of these railroads, and in their subse- quent operation and consolidation, Mr. Blood was the inoving and directing spirit. In 1875 he pro- cured the charter for the Wachusett National Bank of Fitchburg, obtaining all the subscriptions to its capital stock, established the bank, and became its first vice-president. He was the third mayor of Fitchburg, first elected by the board of aldermen
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and common council Nov. 2, 1875, to fill out the of Boston. He was admitted to the Suffolk bar in unexpired term of the Hon. Eugene T. Miles. At the subsequent annual election in December he was elected by the people, and was inaugurated January, 1876, thus filling the office of mayor for one year and two months. Mr. Blood is now chiefly interested in railroads in the State of Ohio. He is the president of the Cleveland & Canton Rail- road Company in that State, which position he has held since May, 1884.
BLOOD, ROBERT ALLEN, M.D., son of Luke W. and Mary (Bickford) Blood, was born in New London, N.H., April 30, 1838. His training in the local schools was supplemented by a course in the New London Scientific Institute. At the opening of the Civil War he joined the Union army, and served with distinction in many engagements. After the war he studied medicine with Dr. Bickford, of Charlestown, and in the Harvard Medical School, from which he graduated in 1870. He at once began practice, first establishing himself in his old home, New Lon- don, N.H. Then, in 1873, he returned to Charles- town, where he has since remained, meeting with gratifying success in his professional work. He is a member of the Massachusetts Medical Society, the American Medical Society, and the Society for Medical Observation, and he is prominent in the Masonic and Odd Fellows orders. In 1872 Dr. Blood was married to Elizabeth, daughter of Gen. Luther McCutchins, of New London, N.H. ; they have one child : Robert McCutchins Blood.
BLUNT, WILLIAM E., was born in Haverhill, Mass., Aug. 20, 1840, where he lived until he was ap- pointed surveyor of the port of Boston, in 1890. For several years he held the position of city solici- tor of Haverhill, and served as associate justice of the district court for a period of twelve years ; and he was postmaster of Haverhill (first appointed in 1876) under Presidents Grant, Hayes, and Arthur. From 1870 to 1876 he was a member of the Legislature. He was a delegate to the Repub- lican national conventions at Philadelphia and at Chicago.
BOARDMAN, HALSEY J., was born in Norwich, Vt., May 19, 1834. His early education was received in the common schools of that town, and he later graduated from Thetfold Academy, in the class of 1854. . Entering Dartmouth the same year, he graduated with high honors in the class of 1858. Then he studied law in the office of Norcross & Snow in Fitchburg, and later with Philip H. Sears,
1860, beginning the practice of law in Boston in July. He entered business as senior partner of the firm of Boardman & Blodgett in Boston, this con- nection continuing until the junior partner, Caleb Blodgett, was elevated to the bench. Subsequently Stephen H. Tyng was taken as a partner, and later Frank Paul. He is now in the practice of his pro- fession alone at No. 17 State street. During the past few years, owing to defective sight, Mr. Boardman has found it necessary to throw off much of the labor incident to the legal profession, and has been engaged in various manufacturing and railroad in- terests. He is president of the Duluth & Winnipeg Railroad and director of several others. Mr. Board- man has been repeatedly called to offices of trust and responsibility. From 1862 to 1864 he was commissioner of the Board of Enrolment, under President Lincoln, for the Fourth Congressional Dis- trict. He was chairman of the Republican ward and city committee in 1874, president of the com- mon council in 1875, Republican candidate for
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mayor in the same year, and representative to the Legislature in 1883, 1884, and 1885. In 1887 and 1888 he was a member of the Senate, serv- ing as president both years. He is a prominent member of the New England Historic Genealogical Society.
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(Amerige) Bond, was born in Cliftondale, Saugus, Mass., July 13, 1846. He was educated in the
BOND, CHARLES H., son of Charles M. and Mary ing from the army in 1864, he established himself in Wilton, where he practised two years. Then he came to Boston, and has since remained here. He has been connected with the Boston University since the organization of the medical department, with the exception of one year. Dr. Boothy is one of the surgeons to the Homoeopathic Hospital, and he has also a private surgical hospital with a capacity for eighteen patients, and which is now being en- larged. He is a member of the American Institute of Homoeopathy, the Massachusetts Homoeopathic Medical Society, the Boston Homeopathic Medical Society, and the Boston Surgical and Gynecological Society. He has contributed various articles to the medical journals. On April 1, 1863, he was mar- ried to Miss Maria A., daughter of Reuben Stodder, of Athens, Me.
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