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 50
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72
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ing an extensive view from this road. It has medal- lions of Oakes A. and Oliver Ames on either side, cut on the solid stone, sixteen times life-size. James A. Norcross takes a lively interest in the affairs of the day, and is a strict and consistent friend of temperance. He was a member of the city council of Worcester in 1877. Though residing in Worces- ter, he is a member of the Master Builders' Associa- tion and the Mechanics' Exchange of Boston. The main office and plant of the Norcross Brothers are in Worcester, but they have a larger branch estab- lishment and yard on Huntington avenue, Boston.
NORCROSS, JOHN HENRY, son of John and Eleanor (Estabrook) Norcross, was born in Lincoln, Mass., Oct. 29, 1841. He was educated in the district school in East Lexington and the high school in Lexington. He began work at the age of fifteen, in a dry-goods store in Lexington. Subsequently he was in the same business in Medford and in Ports- mouth, N.H. Then, in 1863, he entered the well- known Boston house of Lewis Coleman & Co., and five years after was admitted to partnership. In 1883, after a prosperous career there, he retired from the firm, and the following year, with William H. Brine, purchased the business of John Harrington & Co. and established the firm of Brine & Nor- cross. The business thus acquired was enlarged and extended, two other stores in different parts of the city were soon opened, and branch houses started in Springfield, Mass., and Manchester, N.H. Mr. Norcross has for many years resided in Med- ford, where he has been identified with numerous movements for the improvement and welfare of the town. He has served as selectman, overseer of the poor, surveyor of highways, water sinking-fund com- succession a.member of the Republican town com- mittee, and when a candidate for the lower house of the Legislature in 1888 he received the Democratic vote as well as that of his own party. He is a trustee of several Masonic bodies, trustee of the Medford Savings Bank, and vice-president and trustee of the Medford Cooperative Bank. On June 6, 1866, Mr. Norcross was married in Medford to Miss Cynthia J. White ; they have had four chil- dren : Charles Merrill, Edith Gertrude, Eleanor Josephine, and Theodore White Norcross.
NORCROSS, ORLANDO W., was born in Clinton, Me., Oct. 25, 1839. Through early self-dependence he found his way to the calling of carpenter and builder, and in 1864 joined his brother, James A., in the firm of Norcross Brothers, their operations
beginning in Swampscott, Mass., and subsequently extending to Worcester, Boston, New York, and Western cities. At the outbreak of the Civil War he enlisted in the Fourteenth Massachusetts Infantry, which became the First Massachusetts Heavy Artil- lery, and was in the service for three years. He was a member of the notable commission sent to inves- tigate the condition of the Federal Building, Post- office, and United States courts at Chicago, a most difficult and delicate task, which will long be remem- bered in building annals, with the fact that no sug- gestion or finding of this commission has failed to be sustained by subsequent events. Mr. Norcross resides in Worcester, and like his brother takes an active interest in local affairs and the temper- ance cause. He is a member of the Boston Master Builders' Association, and of the Mechanics' Ex- change. [For notes on the character of the work of the Norcross Brothers, and a list of some of their more important buildings, see sketch of James A. Norcross. ]
NORRIS, ALBERT LANE, M.D., son of Greenleaf R. and Lucinda (Lane) Norris, was born in Epping, N.H., March 4, 1839. He was educated in the local schools, Chester and Exeter Academies, graduating from the latter in 1859. He came to Boston in 1860, and for two years was engaged in business. Then he entered the Harvard Medical School. In 1863 he was appointed assistant surgeon U.S.A., and was for a time connected with the hospital in Philadelphia. He remained in the government ser- vice until the close of the war, and returned to Cant- bridge in 1867. In 1869 and 1870 he went abroad and studied with a number of eminent European authorities. Returning, he resumed practice in missioner, and auditor. He was for twelve years in Cambridge in 1870, and has since remained there. He is a member of the Massachusetts Medical Society, the Cambridge Medical Improvement Asso- ciation, the American Medical Association, the Boston Society for Medical Observation, and the Gynæcological Society of Boston. He is also an honorary member of the British Medical Associa- tion. He is prominently identified with the Ma- sonic and Odd Fellows orders, and is a member of the Colonial, Cambridge, and New Hampshire Clubs. For five years he was a member of the Cambridge school committee. Dr. Norris was married in 1873 to Clara E., daughter of Dr. J. L. Perley, of Laconia, N.H. ; they have three children : Albert Perley, Clara Maud, and Grace May Norris.
NORTH, CHARLES H., son of Charles P. and Lydia (Kendall) North, was born in Thomasville,
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Ga., April 8, 1832. He is descended from John North, who came to Boston in the "Susan and Ellen " in 1635, at the age of twenty, and settled in Farmington, Conn. His father was a native of West Windsor, Vt., to which place his grandfather had early moved from Farmington .. When Charles H. was born the family were living in the South, where his father was established in business. When the war broke out they were living in Covington, Ky., and the elder North enlisted in an Ohio regi- ment. While serving as a captain he was killed, at the battle of Shiloh. Charles H. was brought up in the North, coming to live in his grandfather Ken- dall's family, in West Windsor, when a child of four. He attended the local schools there until he reached fourteen, and the next four years were devoted to farming. Then, at the age of eighteen, he came to Waltham, Mass., and was employed in a bakery. A year later he entered French's Academy and took the regular course. Then he entered the employ of another baker, and was engaged for some time as driver of the bakery wagon. When he reached his majority he came to Boston, and here was employed in the Quincy Market, by John P. Squire, at twelve dollars a month. The next year he started in business for himself, leasing stall No. 29 in the same market, for the sale of pork. His trade steadily increasing, he soon enlarged his quarters by adding the next stall, buy- ing out the lessee ; and not long after, still more space being required, he took the store on North Market street which he occupied until his retire- ment from the business. In 1867 he formed a partnership with John N. Merriam, S. Henry Skilton, and Newman E. Conant, and the killing of hogs being added to the business, a great slaugh- tering and packing house was established in Somer- ville. In 1872 Mr. North bought out Mr. Merriam's interest, and ten years after bought out that of Mr. Conant ; and thereafter, until 1890, the firm con- sisted only of himself and Mr. Skilton. In January of the latter year the partnership ceased, and the " North Packing Provision Company," a corpora- tion, succeeded to the business, with Mr. North as general manager and Mr. Skilton as assistant manager. Early in 1891 Mr. North retired and has since been engaged in real-estate and invest- ment securities, with offices in the Ames Building. In September, that year, he went to Lincoln, Neb., where he purchased a large amount of the stock of the " Nebraska Stock Yards Company," incorpo- rated under the laws of Nebraska, with a capital of one million dollars, whose property consists of over one thousand acres of land, two brick packing-houses
and other buildings. Subsequently Mr. North in- creased his holdings of this stock, and his interests are now centred in Lincoln. Mr. North was married Sept. 24, 1856, to Jane, daughter of Micah N. Lincoln, of West Windsor, Vt. ; they have had eight children : Wayne H., Charles L., Jennie, Mark N., George, Onata, Frederick K., and Harry I. North.
NORTON, WILLIAM A., was born in Keene, N.H., April 2, 1824. He. came to Boston in March, 1843, and in 1850 he began work on bridges
WILLIAM A. NORTON.
and foundations. In 1856 he undertook the busi- ness of contracting for such work, and in I859 formed a copartnership with William A. Kendrick, with whom he had occasionally been associated. In 1865 he sold his interest in this firm, and in the autumn entered into partnership with John Harris in the work of pile-driving. Four years later he bought Mr. Harris' interest, and has since continued the business alone. Mr. Norton assisted in work on the Federal-street bridge in 1855, put the top on the first and second bridge across the Boston & Albany Railroad, and built a number of other bridges. In the Back Bay Improvement his work began in Marlborough street, and ultimately he drove piles in Beacon street, Commonwealth avenue, Newbury street, and every cross street, doing more than any other one man in making the foundation
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secure for building in this section. The Pierce Building, the Brunswick, the Victoria, the Kensing- ton, Trinity Church, the Athletic Club Building, Hotel Royal, and other large buildings stand on his foundations. Many large structures in South Boston and the Charlestown district also stand upon piles driven by him. In addition to this work he has built a large number of wharves, piers, and slips, among them the Hoosac Tunnel docks in the Charles- town district. He has in recent years established a " boom " at No. 285 Dorchester avenue, South Boston, and is largely engaged in furnishing spruce piles to others, as well as contracting work himself. He is a member of the Master Builders' and the Charitable Mechanic Associations. He is a resi- dent of Allston. Mr. Norton was married in Rox- bury July 14, 1847, to Miss Margaret W. Kendrick, sister of William A. Kendrick ; they have had six children : the eldest son, Frank A., born in 1848, is now assistant with his father ; the second son, Albert A., born in 1850, deceased at the age. of twenty- eight, - killed while running an engine at the high school ; third, Harry Irving, born 1857, deceased 1859 ; the eldest daughter is C. Gertrude, and the others Geo. W. K. and Maude F. Norton.
1866, and coming to Boston, both entered the wholesale house of Jordan, Marsh, & Co., where they spent seven years, and gained a thorough knowledge of the wholesale, retail, and importing business. Then in March, 1873, under the firm name of Noyes Brothers, they opened a small retail store at No. 51 West street. This soon becoming too small for their rapidly increasing business, they opened a branch in Cambridge, another in Provi- dence, R.I., and secured the entire building at the corner of Washington and Summer streets, their present quarters. They manufacture largely their own goods, and each season the principal foreign markets are visited for novelties in their line, for ladies', men's, and children's wear. In February, 1883, Charles C. Noyes died, and since that time David W. has been alone in the management of the extensive business. He completed in 1891 a new factory in Watertown, where one hundred hands are employed in the different branches of the manu- facturing and laundry works of the house. Mr. Noyes has also owned a controlling interest in the Elm City Shirt Company, of New Haven, Conn., and has been .its president for six years. The name of Noyes Brothers is prominent among those who contribute to the interests and charities
NOYES, DAVID W., was born in Norway, Me., of Boston.
DAVID W. NOYES.
and was educated in the town school. Leaving that beautiful old town, with his. brother Charles C., in
NUGENT, JAMES H., was born in Boston Nov. I, 1831. He began active life as a house and fresco painter, early building up a large and prosperous business. When the Civil War broke out he en- listed in Company D, First Regiment Massachu- setts Volunteers, and served with distinction on the battle-field until honorably discharged for disability ; then he reenlisted in the Veteran Reserve Corps, and served in that arm of the service until the close of the war. Returning to civil life he re- sumed his business of house, sign, fresco, and all kinds of decorative painting, which he has con- tinued successfully ever since. Moving into Ward 19, in the Roxbury district, he took an active part in local affairs. He became a Republican leader in the ward, a member of the ward committee, and subsequently its chairman. He was first elected to the common council, where he was placed on the soldiers' monument and other important commit- tees ; then in 1878 and 1879 he was elected to the lower house of the Legislature, where he served on the committees on military affairs and the State House ; and in 1884 he was elected an alderman on the general-ticket system, and reelected the following year under the aldermanic-district system. He served on all the important committees, and as
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chairman of several. In 1889-90 he was superin- which position he now holds. Sheriff O'Brien has tendent of bridges, appointed by Mayor Hart. At for ten years been president of the Home for Destitute Catholic Children. the municipal election of 1891 he was the Repub- lican candidate for street commissioner, and ran ahead of his ticket several thousand votes. His taste for military life has continued since the war. He was for some time lieutenant in Company C, Ninth Regiment Massachusetts Militia, and is now quartermaster. He is a member of the Roxbury Military Association ; of Charles Russell Lowell Post 7, G.A.R .; of Chickering Lodge, No. 856, Knights of Honor ; and of the Market Men's, the Republi- can, and the Hawthorne Clubs.
AKES, WILLIAM H., was born in Cohasset, Mass., Jan. 24, 1857. Members of the fam- .ily from which he sprang fought both in the Revolu- tionary War and in the War of 1812; two of them were in the battle of Bunker Hill. His father died when he was a lad of seven years, and he came with his mother to Charlestown, where he has since resided. He was educated in the public schools. At the age of fourteen he went to work, entering the employ of Howard Day, at No. 37 Bromfield street. In 1885 he became assistant book-keeper for W. T. Van Nostrand & Co., and two years later began business for himself as a grocer at No. 211 Main street, Charlestown district. He has long been interested in military affairs. For four years he commanded the Charlestown Cadets, and he is now major of the Fifth Regiment of Infantry, Second Brigade, Militia. He has taken a leading part in the affairs of his district. He was elected to the common council in 1887, 1888, and 1889, and served in the lower house of the Legislature of 1891, when he was chairman of the committee on military affairs. He is a member of the Grocers' Association, and is also a prominent Mason and Odd Fellow.
O'BRIEN, JOHN B., sheriff of Suffolk county, was born in St. John, N.B., May 8, 1844, but his parents removed with their family to this country when he was two years old. At the breaking out of the Civil War, when he was but seventeen years of age, he enlisted in the Twenty-fourth Massachu- setts Volunteers, under Colonel T. G. Stevenson, and served for three years. In the battle of Deep Run, Aug. 16, 1864, he was sorely wounded. At the close of the war he returned to Boston, and entered the office of the sheriff of Suffolk county as a clerk. In 1872 he was appointed deputy sheriff, and in 1883 elected to the chief office,
O'KEEFE, MICHAEL W., M.D., son of Daniel and Catherine (Wallace) O'Keefe, was born in Ireland September, 1848. He came to this country when a lad and attended public schools in Boston and Balti- more. Then he studied in Worcester and in the College of the Holy Cross. Afterwards he took the course of the Bellevue Medical College of New York city, from which he graduated in 1877. He at once began the practice of medicine, establish- ing himself in Chelsea. Two years later he removed to East Boston, where he has since continued in the enjoyment of a lucrative practice. He is a member of the Order of Foresters. He was married in ISSo to Miss Persis, daughter of Charles M. Thompson.
OLIVER, FITCH EDWARD, M.D., was born in Cam- bridge Nov. 25, 1819. He was educated at Ando-
FITCH E. OLIVER.
ver and at Dartmouth College, graduating from the latter in the class of 1839. From Dartmouth he went to the Harvard Medical School, graduating in 1843, and receiving his degree of M.D. He then went to Paris to complete his professional educa- tion, returning to Boston to begin his practice in 1844. Dr. Oliver was instructor in the Harvard
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Medical School from 1860 to 1870, and one of the visiting physicians to the City Hospital from 1864 (the time of its establishment) to 1872. He is a member of the Massachusetts Medical Society and the Boston Society for Medical Improvement (of which he was secretary for a term of years), the Massachusetts Historical Society, and corresponding member of the Medico-Chirurgical Society of Glas- gow. In 1848, in connection with Dr. Morland, he translated Chomel's treatise on " General Pathology." From 1860 to 1864 he was editor of the " Boston Medical and Surgical Journal." On July 17, 1866, he was married to Miss Susan Lawrence, daughter of Rev. Charles Mason, of Boston ; they have had six children, all of whom reside in Boston.
OLMSTEAD, JAMES MONROE, son of Rev. John W. Olmstead, D.D., late editor of "The Watchman," the leading Baptist paper in New England, was born in Framingham, Feb. 6, 1852. He attended the Roxbury Latin School, where he fitted for college, and entering Harvard, graduated in 1873. He then went abroad, and remained there two years, studying civil and commercial law both at Berlin and Heidel- berg. On his return he studied in the Boston Uni- versity Law School, and with the present Chief Justice Field, then of the firm of Jewell, Field, & Shepard. He was admitted to the Suffolk bar in December, 1877. He is now associated in practice with Hon. A. E. Pillsbury, with offices at No. 244 Washington street, the connection having been es- tablished six years ago. Mr. Olmstead is Republi- can in politics, and has been for two years president of the Republican city committee, and for five years a member of that body. He also represented Ward II, the Back Bay ward, in the lower house of the Legislature, in 1891 and 1892, serving as chairman of the committee on election laws, a member of the committee on probate and insolvency (in 1891), and chairman of the committee on mercantile affairs (in 1892). He is a member of the Puritan, Algonquin, and Union Boat Clubs.
Journal," was born in Charlottetown, P.E.I., July 26, 1854. His father was a native of Thurles, county Tipperary, Ire., and his mother of New- foundland, to which his father immigrated in 1833. When about ten years of age young O'Meara came with his parents to the United States, and, after a short residence in Braintree, the home was estab- lished in Charlestown. Here he obtained his gen- eral education in the Harvard Grammar School, from which he graduated in 1868 ; and the Charles-
town High School, graduating in 1872. The day after his graduation he became the Charlestown reporter for the "Boston Globe," and in October following he was given a position as reporter on the regular staff. He was an expert shorthand-writer, a quick, energetic news-gatherer, and he early dis- tinguished himself by his excellent work. In De- cember, 1874, he resigned his position on the "Globe " to accept that of shorthand reporter for the " Boston Journal." This was the beginning of his service on that paper, and his advance to the chief place has been through various grades of news- paper work. In May, 1879, after an experience of five years in legislative, city hall, news, law, and political reporting, he was promoted to the office of city editor ; and two years later, upon the death of the veteran journalist, Stephen N. Stockwell, he be- came news editor, a position corresponding to that. of managing editor in most newspaper offices. In June, 1891, the late W. W. Clapp, who had long been the manager and responsible head of the paper, retired, and thereupon the chief direction of affairs was placed in Mr. O'Meara's hands, his title being general manager. Under his management the "Journal " has been transformed from the folio to the quarto form, and its facilities greatly extended and improved. He was long the auditor of the New England Associated Press, and is now its treasurer and a member of the executive committee; he is also secretary and treasurer of the Boston Daily Newspaper Association, a business organization of the Boston daily newspapers. Mr. O'Meara is a member of the Boston Press Club, its president from 1886 to 1888, his election each year being unani- mous; he is a member of the Charlestown High School Association, in 1881 its vice-president, and afterwards for two years its president, delivering the annual oration before the organization in 1885 ; and he was the first instructor in phonography in the Boston Evening High School, occupying that posi- tion for four years. He is now serving as trustee of the Massachusetts State Library. In 1888 the hon- orary degree of Master of Arts was conferred upon ried Aug. 5, 1878, to Miss Isabella M. Squire ; they have three children.
O'MEARA, STEPHEN, manager of the "Boston him by Dartmouth College. Mr. ()'Meara was mar-
O'NEIL, JOSEPH HENRY, son of Patrick Henry and Mary O'Neil, was born in Fall River, Mass., March 23, 1853. When he was quite a lad his parents came to Boston, where the boy's education was ob- tained in the public schools. After graduating he entered a printing-office, but after a short time he left this occupation, and learned the carpenter's
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trade in the large shop of Jonas Fitch & Co. When a young man Mr. O'Neil took a prominent part in temperance movements, and in 1870 he assisted in the formation of the St. James Young Men's Catholic Total Abstinence Society, of which he was the president for many years. He was also one of the originators of the Catholic Total Absti- nence Union of Massachusetts, and accomplished much in the progress and development of this or- ganization. His public life began in 1874, when he was elected to the school committee, and also be-
JOSEPH H. O'NEIL.
came a member of the Democratic city committee. With this latter body he has been identified for a number of years. From 1878 to 1882 he was in the lower house of the Legislature, and was again elected in 1884, during which service he was on a number of important committees, among them a special committee in 1881 appointed to revise the public statutes. In 1880 he was the president of the Democratic organization of the house. Mr. O'Neil has besides taken an active part in city poli- tics, being for five years a member of the board of directors of public institutions, eighteen months of which time he was its president. He was city clerk in 1887 and 1888. In the latter year he was elected to Congress from the Fourth Congressional District, and was reelected in the fall of 1890. During his first term he secured Castle Island from the government as a part of the public parks sys-
tem of the city. He is president of the Meigs Elevated Street Railway Company ; he has always taken an interest in this system, and it was largely through his efforts that the company secured a charter of incorporation in 1884. Mr. O'Neil was married on July 1, 1884, to Miss Mary Anastasia Ingoldsby ; they have one child, Joseph Henry O'Neil, jr.
ORCUTT, FRANK E., son of William H. and Jane (Hobbs) Orcutt, was born in Cambridgeport, Mass., Oct. 10, 1842. He was educated in the public schools. After taking a business course in Eastman's College, Poughkeepsie, N.Y., he began work in Boston in a bookbindery. In June, 1862, when a youth of twenty, he enlisted in Company F, Thirty-eighth Massachusetts Volunteers, and went to the front. He served in Virginia and Maryland until the command was ordered to join the Banks expedition to the Department of the Gulf. In April, 1863, he was detailed for duty at General Banks' headquarters, serving in the ordnance and engineer departments until the close of the work of the expedition, meanwhile commissioned as lieu- tenant of engineers. He was then ordered on the Texas expedition, and did important duty on the Rio Grande. Subsequently he was in Mexico during the unhappy reign of Maximilian. Then he returned to the Gulf headquarters, where he served until February, 1865, when he was mustered out and returned home. He began business for himself here in the custom-clothing trade early in 1874 (first under the firm name of Allen & Orcutt, and afterwards of Starrett & Orcutt), and continued in this branch until the spring of 1887, when he became financial manager of the Middleton paper- mill. In 1889 he was appointed by President Har- rison collector of internal revenue for this district. Captain Orcutt was one of the founders of the "Grand Army Record," published in Boston ; he is president of the Colorado Farm Loan Company, and of the Silver Light Gas Company ; and a director of the Standard Coal Company. He is a prominent member of the Grand Army, the Masonic order, the Royal Arcanum, and the Order of Red Men. He resides in Melrose, where he has been town auditor for eighteen years. On May 17, 1865, he was married in New Britain, Conn., to Miss Lucy A. Rhodes ; they have had three children : Louise H., Frank M., and Mabel M. Orcutt (deceased):
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