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 49
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MOTT, JOSEPH VARNUM, son of Henry A. and Mary (Varnum) Mott, was born in New York city Sept. 5, 1849. His father is a prominent lawyer (retired) of that city, and his grandfather was the late Dr. Valentine Mott, known in his day as " the king of surgeons." His early education was ob- tained in the Lyons Institute and from private tutors, and he attended the College of Physicians and Surgeons of New York, from which he gradu- ated in 1872. He first began practice in his native city, and in various hospitals and dispensaries there, and subsequently, in 1884, moved to Boston. Here he has had an extensive office-practice, and has of late years devoted much time to fraternal work. He is a member and officer of a large number of organizations, - president of the Massachusetts Fraternal Endowment Union, grand chancellor Knights and Ladies of Columbia, supreme director of the United Fellowship, grand instructor of grand council Royal Society of Good Fellows, and ruler of the Good Fellows Club of the last-mentioned order ; he is medical examiner for the New England Order of Protection, American Legion of Honor, Royal Society of Good Fellows, and United Fellowship, and a member of the Knights of Pythias and the Ancient Order of United Workmen. While in New
York he was a member of the New York County Medical Society, the Harlem Medical Association,
J. VARNUM MOTT.
the Physicians' Mutual Aid Association, and other organizations. Dr. Mott has been twice married ; two of his children by his first wife are living : J. Varnum and Maria Louise Mott.
MOWRY, OSCAR B., was born in Woonsocket, R.I., but removed to Boston with his parents when a small lad. He is a graduate of Brown Uni- versity, from which he has received the degree of A.M. as well as A.B., and of the Harvard Law School. While at the law school he also studied with C. T. & T. H. Russell. He was admitted to the Suffolk bar in 1868. For a number of years he was associated with Thomas I .. Sturtevant, and he is now engaged in general practice at No. 83 Devonshire street. In politics he is Republican. He represented Ward ft in the common council for three years. Now he resides in Longwood, and takes active interest in improvements in that pict- uresque suburb. Mr. Mowry is married to Georgi- anna J., daughter of George C. Goodwin, of Boston.
MUNROE, MARTIN A., United States deputy collector of customs, was born in Boston Aug. 30, 1845. He was educated in the Eliot School and the Boston Latin School. In 1861 he enlisted in Company I, Thirtieth Regiment Massachusetts Volunteers, and
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served in the Department of the Gulf until early in that city Dec. 23, 1864. He was educated in the 1863, when, on account of sickness, he was dis- Taunton schools and Academy, and entering St. Mary's College, Montreal, graduated therefrom in 1879. Then he took the course in the Harvard Medical School, graduating M.D. in 1884. After serving two years in the Boston City Hospital, he began private practice in this city, where he has since remained. He is a member of the Massa- chusetts Medical Society and of the City Hospital Club. He is unmarried. charged. In the spring of 1864 he again enlisted, this time in the Seventh Unattached Company In- fantry, and on the expiration of his term of service he reenlisted in Company K, Fourth Regiment Heavy Artillery, Massachusetts Volunteers. He was then commissioned lieutenant, and served until the close of the war. In October, 1870, he was appointed clerk in the customs service at this port; in 1879 was promoted to chief clerk ; and in May, 1882, was appointed deputy collector, which position he now holds. After the war he was for many years quite active in the Volunteer Militia of the State, having been lieutenant in the Seventh Regiment and afterwards adjutant of the First Battalion In- fantry. He is a prominent member of St. John's Lodge and of St. Andrew's Chapter, Free Masons, and of Boston Commandery Knights Templar. He is also a member of Post 113, G.A.R., and of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion.
MUNROE, WILLIAM ADAMS, son of William W. and Hannah F. (Adams) Munroe, natives of Cambridge and Arlington, Mass., was born in Cambridge Nov. 9, 1843. He was graduated from Harvard in 1864, and studied law there portions of the years 1866 and 1867. Afterwards he studied in the Boston law-office of Chandler, Shattuck, & Thayer, and was admitted to the bar August, 1868. He is a member also of the bar of the Supreme Court of the United States. He began practice in the fall of 1869, and in February, 1870, formed the part- nership, still existing, with George O. Shattuck, Judge O. W. Holmes, jr., being a partner from 1873 until his appointment to the bench in 1882. He is a member of the Boston Bar Association and of the American Bar Association. In politics he is Re- publican. He resides in Cambridge ; served seven years on its school committee; was one of the commissioners to revise the Cambridge city charter in 1890 ; is a member of the Cambridge Club, and was its president in 1890; and is a member and was one of the incorporators of the Colonial Club of Cambridge. He belongs to the First Baptist Church of Cambridge, is a trustee of the Newton Theological Institution, and was president of the Boston Baptist Social Union in 1882. Mr. Munroe was married Nov. 22, 1871, to Sarah D. Whiting, a native of Salem ; they have one daughter, Helen W. Munroe.
MURPHY, FRANCIS CHARLES, M.D., son of the late Dr. Joseph Murphy, of Taunton, Mass., was born in
MURPHY, JAMES R., was born in Boston July 29, 1853. He was educated in Boston College and Georgetown University, D.C., graduating from the latter in 1872. He was then for three years in- structor in Latin in Loyola College at Baltimore, Md., and in Seton Hall, New Jersey. In the mean- time he read law privately, and in 1875 entered the law office of Judge J. G. Abbott, in Boston, taking also a course in the Boston University Law School. From the latter he graduated LL.B. in 1876. He was admitted to the Suffolk bar at the close of the same year, and has practised alone ever since. He is in general practice, and his clientage is composed
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JAMES R. MURPHY.
largely of building contractors. He was counsel in the Frye murder case, the Florence-street murder case, in the first important case tried under the new Employers' Liability Act, and in many other important cases. In politics he is Democratic, in-
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dependent in local affairs. In religion he is a Cath- olic, and has been instrumental in the organization of young men's Catholic associations. He is a member of the Catholic Union, the Royal Arcanum, and the Order of United Workmen. Mr. Murphy was married in Baltimore to Mary; daughter of George B. Randall ; she died leaving two children, Gertrude and Mary R. Murphy.
NAPHEN, HENRY F., was born in Ireland Aug. 14, 1852, coming to this country with his parents when an infant. He received his education in the
HENRY F. NAPHEN.
public schools, under a private tutor, in Harvard College, and in the Boston University Law School. He obtained the degree of Bachelor of Laws from Harvard University, and subsequently took a course there as resident Bachelor of Laws. In 1880 he was admitted to the Suffolk bar, and has since prac- tised his profession in Boston. In 1882 he was elected a member of the Boston school committee for the term of three years, and in 1883 was ap- pointed a bail commissioner for Suffolk county by the justices of the Superior Court, which office he still holds. In 1885 and 1886 he represented the Fifth Suffolk District in the State senate, in the for- mer year, on account of his election to the sen- ate, declining to be a candidate for a second term on the school committee. During his term in
the upper branch of the Legislature he served on several important committees. He framed and was instrumental in having passed the act against opium joints, by which the police of Boston were enabled to prosecute and abolish the large number of these places then in existence in the city. It was first contended that the act was unconstitutional, but it has stood the test. He was a member of the joint special committee to investigate the repairs on the State House. He also took an active part in advocating the passage of the resolve in favor of the abolition of the poll tax as a prerequisite for voting, and endeavored to secure the passage of an act by which truant children should be separated from the other inmates of the penal reformatories, and a manual training provided for juvenile offend- ers during their imprisonment. He opposed the metropolitan police bill ; introduced a measure em- powering all courts of record to grant naturaliza- tion; and opposed the introduction of the act " That no person hereafter naturalized in any court shall be entitled to register as a voter within thirty days of registration," contending that it was un- constitutional ; and subsequently the justices of the Supreme Court so decided. He was averse to, and worked against, the division of Hopedale and Bev- erly. He has served for three years as a member of the Democratic State committee, the last two years as a member at large ; and for a number of years he was a member of the Democratic city committee of Boston. He is president of the City Point Catholic Association, a member of the Chari- table Irish Society and of the Catholic Union, vice- president of the Working Boys' Home, of which he was one of the original incorporators, clerk and a director of the St. Elizabeth's Hospital, a member of the Orpheus Musical Society, a non-resident member of the Democratic Club of New York, and a member of several fraternal organizations.
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NASH, STEPHEN G., son of John and Abigail Ladd (Gordon) Nash, was born in New Hamp- ton, N.H., April 4, 1822. He was fitted for college at the institution in New Hampton, and en- tered Dartmouth at the age of sixteen, graduating in the celebrated class of 1842. For some time after leaving college he was engaged in teaching, first at New Hampton, where he taught the classics, and later as principal of the Noyes Academy, Frank- lin, N.H. While in the latter position he also studied law with Judge George W. Nesmith. Subsequently he came to Boston, and in 1846 was admitted to the Suffolk county bar. He continued in general practice here in Boston until he was appointed to
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the bench of the Superior Court of Suffolk county as a vast amount of alteration work. They did upon its establishment in 1855, with a jurisdiction higher than the then existing Common Pleas. He was then thirty-three years of age. When this court and the Court of Common Pleas were merged in the present Superior Court -in 1859 - he ceased
STEPHEN G. NASH.
to be a judge, and resumed general practice in Boston, where he still has an office, with his resi- dence in Lynnfield. He is now the only survivor of the justices of the Superior Court of Suffolk county. Judge Nash was a member of the lower house of the Legislature in 1855. His business practice was relieved in 1859-60 by a year's travel in Europe, and by a shorter tour again in 1883. He was married in Wakefield, in 1860, to Mary, daughter of Edward and Betsey Upton ; their two sons, Arthur Upton and Gordon Nash, died in childhood.
much work on the Cotting and the Park Buildings, corner of Boylston street and Park square ; the Minot Building, Devonshire street ; the Fay Build- ing, Court street and Franklin avenue ; Phillips- estate Building, Tremont street ; Hamilton-place Building ; and C. A. Welsh's block in Waltham ; and extensive alterations on the Globe, Adams, and other buildings. Mr. Neal is an active member of the Master Builders' Association and of the Charitable Mechanic Association. He was married in Boston March 22, 1882, to Miss Nellie F. Greer.
NEEDHAM, DANIEL, son of James and Lydia (Breed) Needham, was born in Salem, Mass., May 24, 1822. The branch of the Needham family to which he belongs has for several generations con- sistently adhered to the doctrine and usages of the Society of Friends. He was educated in a private school, at the high school in. Salem, and the Friends' Boarding School, Providence, R.I. He studied law with David Roberts, and was admitted to the Middlesex county bar in 1847. He began the practice of law in Boston in company with Edmund Burke, of New Hampshire, and David Roberts, of Salem, the firm name being . Burke, Needham, & Roberts. This partnership continued for several years. He was appointed national bank examiner for Massachusetts in 1871, and held that office until 1876. There were in his charge one hundred and eighty-five national banks, and all of these, with few exceptions, were in Massa- chusetts. During his term of office more official defalcations were brought to light than in the united terms of all the other national-bank examiners for the Commonwealth. Colonel Needham was on the staff of Governor Boutwell in 1851-2 ; was chair- man of the Democratic State committee of Massa- chusetts, 1853-4; and organized the coalition movement which resulted in the election of Gover- nor Boutwell in 1851. He removed to Vermont, and was a member of the lower house of the Legisla- ture of that State in 1857-8, and of the senate 1859- 63. Returning to Massachusetts he was elected to the lower house of the Legislature from Groton in 1867, and to the senate 1868-9. While in Vermont he was appointed Vermont commissioner to the Ham- burg International Exposition, 1863. He has been president of the Middlesex North Unitarian Associa- tion, and president of the Institute of Heredity since its organization ; president of the Groton Farmers' Club and master of the Grange ; president of the Middlesex County Milk Producer's Union ; presi-
NEAL, ALFRED J., son of James P. Neal, a suc- cessful and substantial Boston-builder for twenty-one years, was born in Boston July 10, 1859. The father was accidentally killed on the Boston & Albany Rail- road in 1880, and the son continued the business, taking Joseph H. Preble, who had been his father's foreman for a number of years, into partnership, and establishing the firm of Neal & Preble. Con- tracting for everything in the building line, they have done some of the heaviest work in the city, as well dent and founder of the Middlesex Club; and
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trustee of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. He was for years managing director of the Peterborough & Shirley Railroad, and in 1847, in connection with the associate directors, made himself liable for the debts of the corporation. He made over all his property to the banks holding the endorsed paper. He ultimately paid every obligation, and perfected arrangements whereby he became reimbursed by the corporation. He is a director in the Boston Safe Deposit and Trust Co. ;
lic schools and by private tuition in this city, gradu- ating from the Harvard Medical School in 1882, . and receiving the degree of M.D. He was house- officer at the Massachusetts General Hospital a year and a half, at the end of which time he went abroad for one year, completing his medical course at Vienna. He returned to Boston in 1884, where he has since remained in the practice of his profession. In 1884 he was appointed to the anatomical depart- ment of the Harvard Medical School, which posi- for ten years was the owner and manager of the tion he held five years, and soon afterward surgeon Montello Woollen and Grain Mills, Montello, Wis., to out-patients of the Massachusetts General Hos- pital, - an office which he still holds. He was chair- man of the overseers of the poor, and is one of the board of managers of the farm school. He is a member of the Massachusetts Medical Society, of the Boston Society for Medical Improvement, and of the Boston Society for Medical Observation, and is secretary of the Boston Society of Medical Sciences, and the senior member of the committee of arrangements of the State Medical Society of Massachusetts. In April, 1891, he was appointed by Mayor Matthews commissioner of public institu- tions, which position he held until the spring of the woollen mill having been built originally by him ; and has been a trustee of the Massachusetts Agri- cultural College from its organization. Colonel Needham was elected secretary of the New England Agricultural Society at its organization in 1865, and has since held that position. His zeal and abilities have been among the principal factors of the suc- cess of the society. It has held agricultural fairs in all the New England States, with full share of pub- lic . patronage and exceptional pecuniary success. At times responsible for the expenses incurred, he has skilfully conducted affairs so as to escape finan- cial loss. Mr. Needham has been a member of the school board and the town treasurer of Groton many years. Many of his public addresses have had a large circulation in newspaper and pamphlet form, notably one on the "National Bank " and one on the " Evolution of Labor." Colonel Needham was married in Groton July 15, 1842, to Caroline A., daughter of Benjamin and Caroline Hall, of Boston ; of this union were four children : Elleanor M., William C. H., James Ernest, and Effie Marion Needham. Mrs. Needham died June 30, 1878. On Oct. 6, 1880, he was married to Ellen M. Brigham, of Groton. She was the daughter of George D. and Mary J. Brigham ; they have had three children : Marion Brigham, Alice Emily, and Daniel Needham. His son William C. H. died while a member of the senate of the State of Ohio, in 1881.
NEWCOMB, EDGAR ALLAN POE, architect, son of Levi and Sarah Ann (Ball) Newcomb, was born in Boston in 1846. He was educated in the Boston public schools and the academy at Ogdensburg, N.Y. He began business with his father under the firm name of L. Newcomb & Son, and is now pur- suing his profession in his own office at No. 5 Pem- berton square.
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OTIS K. NEWELL.
1892. Dr. Newell has contributed numerous articles to the various medical journals, and has translated several German monographs. He introduced into this country the examination of the body cavities
NEWELL, OTIS KIMBALL, M.D., was born in Bos- ton Dec. 14, 1860. He was educated in the pub- by means of the modern electric illuminating ap-
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paratus. Dr. Newell has always been interested in and have the entire management of a number of public affairs, and is a close student of political estates. Their business in relation to investments economy.
NEWTON, E. BERTRAM, was born in Roxbury Jan. 26, 1861. He was educated in the English High School of Boston: He began business life in 1879 as a clerk with the Delaware Mutual Marine In- surance Company, working his way up to the posi- tion of head clerk. He remained with this company until 1888, when he joined his brother, John F.,
E. BERTRAM NEWTON.
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in the real-estate business in this city, and the firm of John F. Newton, jr., & Bro. was established.
NEWTON, JOHN F., JR., was born in Roxbury Aug. 1, 1858. He was educated in the Roxbury High School. He began his business career in the wholesale leather-trade, being associated with the house of Ariel Low & Co. from 1876 to 1881, and with the assignee of Shaw Brothers for two years. Shortly after he entered the real-estate business, pursuing it alone for six years; then, in 1888, his brother, E. Bertram Newton, joined him, and the real-estate firm of John F. Newton, jr., & Bro. was established, with offices in Roxbury and in the Advertiser Building, Boston. Subsequently, in 1891, they moved to the new Ames Building. They operate not only in Roxbury, but do a general real- estate and mortgage business in the city proper,
JOHN F. NEWTON, JR.
in Chicago property and leaseholds is represented there by the firm of Messrs. James L. Waller & Co., and practically, therefore, they have an office also in that city. Mr. Newton is a trustee of the Eliot Five Cent Savings Bank. He is connected with the Masonic order, a member of the Lodge Chapter and Commandery. He resides in the Elm Hill district.
NICHOLS, CHARLES FESSENDEN, M.D., son of Charles Saunders Nichols, of Salem, Mass., was born in that city Feb. 20, 1846. His early education was acquired in the English and Latin High, and in Oliver Carlton's Private School in Salem, and then he studied with a tutor in Germany two years (1864 to 1866). Returning, he took the medical course at Harvard, and was gradu- ated in 1870. Having served eight months as house-physician at Carney Hospital, he pursued his studies in homeopathy with the Wesselhoefts, of Boston. In 1872 he was invited by Chief Justice Allen, of the Hawaiian Islands, to accompany him to Honolulu, the chief justice being anxious to test the treatment of homeopathy in diseases prevailing in the islands. The method was thus introduced there, and was so successful in controlling leprosy and other diseases that the members of the royal
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family became patients of Dr. Nichols, while ho- W., first pursued it in the eastern part of Massachu- mæopathy was rigorously advocated by the mis- sionaries, who were chiefly influential in leading the natives to its adoption. During his practice at the islands Dr. Nichols resided in the family of the present queen. On returning to Boston in 1874 he was associated with Dr. W. P. Wesselhoeft, and was also made editor of the " New England Medical Gazette." In 1882 he began practice alone, but `shortly afterwards Dr. E. S. Simpson, of Boston, became his professional assistant, and this relation has since continued. He has been a member of the American Institute of Homoeopathy, of the Massachusetts, the Boston, and the International Homeopathic Medical Societies, and the Organon Society. His published papers include "Quantum Sufficit," pamphlet of series "M. in P.," epit- omizing his magazine articles ; " Notes on Hahne- mann and Madame Hahnemann ; " and later papers in various medical journals, in " Popular Science News " and " Science." An article on " The Koch Controversy," in the "Science News" of April, 1891, created wide interest at the time of its pub- lication. Its claim for the prediscovery, by the homeopathic school, of Koch's method of treat- ment for tuberculous disease was enforced by a strong argument for the scientific training and status of the homœopathists. Dr. Nichols was in 1891 made a member of the editorial staff of "Science." One of his late papers in that magazine was an attack upon " Christian Science," the " Faith Cure," etc. Dr. Nichols was married May 7, 1884, to Grace Belle, daughter of the late James S. Hous- ton, of Boston.
NOBLE, JOHN, clerk of the Supreme Judicial Court, was born in Dover, N.H., April 14, 1829. After attending the public schools in his native place, he fitted for college in the Rochester and Phillips Exeter Academies. He entered Harvard College, graduating in the class of 1850. He was usher and sub-master in the Boston Latin School from 1850 to 1856, and entering the Harvard Law School in the latter year, graduated in 1858, receiving the degree of LL.B. Mr. Noble then began the practice of law in Boston, which he pursued successfully until 1875, when he was appointed' clerk of the Supreme Judicial Court, and subsequently was chosen by the people at each successive election, retaining the office up to the present time.
NORCROSS, JAMES A., was born in Winslow, Me., March 23, 1831. He early learned the trade of carpenter and builder, and with his brother, Orlando
setts, the two starting business together in Swamp- scott in 1864, under the firm name of Norcross Brothers. The association and its openings afforded nothing more than ordinary promise, but within a few years its work had become of the first impor- tance. In 1866 the Norcrosses were given the con- tract for building the Congregational church in Leicester, Mass., an undertaking of modest propor- tions. In 1867 Worcester had begun a marked stage of improvements, and the Norcross Brothers found here their opportunity. In the period be- tween 1868 and 1870 they built Crompton Block on Mechanic street, the First Universalist Church, and the Worcester High School building - the latter their first structure of like prominence and cost. A few seasons later they built the beautiful All Saints' Church in Worcester. It was their exceeding good- fortune to have been, on notable occasions, made associates with the late lamented architect, H. H. Richardson, in some of his best work; and their work will stand with his for generations to come as most noteworthy. Their contracts, in many in- stances, are such as the skilful architect best loves, an all-including affair that gives the finished build- ing complete. To this end no small share of their skill has been devoted to securing workmen and machinery that give to the interiors their own im- press of perfection. Some of the carved wood-work from their shops has been the envy of connoisseurs. Among their notable buildings may be mentioned the great Ames Building, corner of Court and Wash- ington streets, the new State-street Exchange, the new Chamber of Commerce, the State House Extension, the Algonquin Club-house, the Latin and High School building, and Trinity Church, Boston ; the North Easton Town Hall; the Crane Memorial Library, Quincy ; the Union League Club- house, New York ; Harvard College Gymnasium ; Union Theological Seminary, New York ; Vermont University, Burlington, Vt. ; Durfee High School, Fall River ; Cheney Block, Hartford, Conn. ; Mar- shall Field Building, Chicago; New York Life In- surance Building, Omaha, Neb. : New York Life Building, Kansas City, Mo. ; new passenger-stations on the Boston & Albany, Old Colony, and other railroads. These are a few of the most prominent among many. Among the private residences which they have built in Boston are those of Oliver Ames, C. A. Whittier, John F. Andrew, and C. C. Con- verse. They also built the Ames Memorial Monu- ment at Sherman, Wyoming Territory, situated on the highest elevation of the Rocky Mountains which is crossed by the Union Pacific Railroad, command-
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