USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Danvers > Danvers, Massachusetts : a resume of her past history and progress, together with a condensed summary of her industrial advantages and development : biographies of prominent Danvers men, 1899 > Part 13
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Mansel C. Lord.
The merchant tailoring enterprise of Mansel C. Lord was established in 1879, and commands an excellent patronage among the most discriminating and fas- tidious citizens of Danvers and its vicin- ity. Mr. Lord also has many customers in Boston and Reading whom he visits at frequent intervals. His salesroom is well appointed and at present six persons are employed in the making of garments. The stock embraces a valuable and choice assortment of foreign and domestic wool- ens, worsteds, beavers, tweeds, and nov- elties, in fancy and fashionable weaves, that cannot fail to please the most fastid- ious. Mr. Lord is a practical cutter, and expert tailor of twenty-three years' experi- ence, and personally attends to all the details of production, allowing no gar- ment to leave his hands unless it can be pronounced absolutely perfect in fit, fin- ish, style and workmanship. It is thus that he has built up his trade, and he can be implicitly relied upon to furnish only su garments as shall be perfect in every detail. Mr. Lord was born in Athens, Maine, 1858, attending the public schools and graduating at Somerset Academy. Upon completing his education he went to Bangor to learn the tailoring business and from thence came to Danvers, where he established himself in business. He subsequently removed to the old Post- office building, where he has been located for eighteen years. He is prominent in social circles, being a member of Mosaic Lodge; Holten Royal .Arch Chapter ; St. George Commandery, Knights Tem- plar, Beverly ; I. O. O. F., and Red Men. He has a comfortable residence at the corner of Park and Berry streets.
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Hon. Arthur A. Putnam.
Arthur Alwyn Putnam of Uxbridge, Mass., youngest son of Elias and Eunice (Ross) Putnam and descendant of John Putnam, emigrant progenitor of the num- erous and widely-spread family of the name in America, was born in Putnam- ville, Danvers, near the Topsfield line, Nov. 18, 1829. His mother was a daugh- ter of Adam Ross of Ipswich, Mass, a soldier at Bunker Hill and during the Revolutionary War. Elias, his father, was son of Israel Putnam, who was a " highly respect- ed and worthy cit- izen ;" and of his wife, Anna, who was a daughter of Elias and Eunice (Andrews) Endi- cott, and a lineal descendant of Gov. John Endi- cott. Israel was son of Dea. Ed- mund Putnam, and of his wife, Anna Andrews, sister of the above Mrs. Elias Endi- cott. Dea. Ed- mund was captain of one of the eight D a n vers-Lexing- ton companies of April 19, 1775, marching with his men and the rest to engage in the memorable battle on that day.
The subject of our sketch, having re- ceived his earlier education at public schools in his native town, and at acad- emies in Westfield, Mass., and Thetford and West Randolph, Vt., entered Dart- mouth College, in 1852, but left it at the end of his sophomore year. He then studied law at the Dane Law School, Cam- bridge, and afterward in the offices of Culver, Parker & Arthur (late President Arthur, New York), and of Ives and Pea-
HON. ARTHUR A. PUTNAM.
body of Salem, Mass. In the winter of 185 1 . 52, he taught in the school of his native district, as his father had done at the same place forty years before. He began to make political speeches in the neighbor- hood about the time he became a voter, but became still more active in this line in various parts of Essex County, during the Fremont campaign of 1856. In that year Danvers elected him her representa- tive to the lower branch of the state legis- lature, in which he was the youngest but one of that body, yet was appointed one of the monitors of the House and also a member of the committee on elections. After two years of im- paired eyesight, he resumed his law studies, and in 1859 was admit- ted to the bar and opened his office in the town of his birth. In 1859, also, his fellow cit- izens again sent him to the legisla- ture, where he was highly influential in helping to elect John A. Goodwin as speaker, and held the position of Chairman of the Committee on Probateand Chan- cery. In the ex- tra session of 1860 he was quite alone in opposing the bill for the wholesale slaughter of cattle suspected of pleuro- pneumonia. The measure was wildly pushed through both houses, but Mr. Put- nam's bold and carefully considered speech predicted that in two or three weeks the senseless scare and craze would die out and the law would be a dead let- ter, and this was precisely what came to pass.
Of his patriotic service, when, at the outbreak of the rebellion in the spring of
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1861, he presided over the first war meeting in Danvers and soon afterward raised and commanded the second com- pany formed in the town (Company I, of the 14th Infantry), an account is given in the " Historical Sketch," in the first part of this volume. Along with other officers he had difficulties with the colonel of the regiment and accordingly left it about the time of its departure from Fort Warren for Washington and returned to the practice of law at Danvers. But as the war continued, the fever was on again and in the summer of 1863, he joined with Col. Frankle of the Second Heavy Artillery, in actively recruiting the 3d battalion of that regiment, in which he soon became senior Ist lieutenant and subsequently captain of Co. E. This was the last of the Massachusetts regiments to return home after the war. Its service consisted chiefly of garrisoning forts on the Atlantic coast and skirmishing with the enemy in the interior to capture cot- ton and other spoils. At places where he was stationed, epidemics were very preva- lent and the mortality was great, but he himself kept on his feet, and on being asked later what principal battle he had been engaged in, he replied, " The Battle of Yellow Fever." During his service in the Second Artillery, he was also judge advocate at Plymouth, N. C., and for a time was assistant provost marshal of the District of North Carolina, having charge, for several weeks, of the central office at Newbern. He has long been prominent in the Grand Army of the Republic, as commander of his post for two years, as delegate to state and national encamp- ments and on the staff of various depart- ment commanders; as judge advocate under department commander Smith in 1891, and as himself a candidate for de- partment commander in 1892, when he made a strong run, but was defeated by his friend, J. K. Churchill, who had the advantage of being in the line of promo- tion. For more than a quarter of a cen- tury he has been a favorite orator in many places for Memorial Day, delivering an address each year and sometimes two on the same day and in one instance three.
In the spring of 1866, he removed to Blackstone, Mass., for the continued practice of his profession. In 1872 he was appointed Judge of the newly created 2d District Court of Southern Worcester, having tried, during the four previous years, numerous civil and criminal cases before juries in the Superior Court, with many favorable verdicts. He has been judge for twenty-seven years, and during that long time has been absent from his post only a few days and then by reason of sickness alone. At the end of twenty- five years of service, his admiring friends and associates desired to compliment him with some token of their apprecia- tion of his high worth and able and faith- ful work, but the purpose or plan was abandoned in consequence of his disincli- nation to receive the honor.
During his residence at Blackstone, he married, Nov. 25, 1868, Miss Helen Irving Staples of that town, and their two children are Alden Lyon and Beatrice. In 1877, the family removed to Uxbridge where they have since had their home. In both places Judge Putnam has 'con- tinued to take a deep interest in political affairs and has been a staunch Republican from the start, though not blindly or slavishly following his party in any aban- donments of its original and fundamental principles. He has attended local meet- ings, stumped in state and national cam- paigns, served as delegate to important conventions in the state and was alternate to the national conventions that nominated Lincoln and Hayes, and has been called to preside over others, County, Congres- sional, and Senatorial. His speeches at such meetings, like his arguments at court or his addresses on other occasions, are not only strong and eloquent, but are often touched with wit and humor, irony or sarcasm, that greatly enhance the gen- eral effect. A somewhat extended news- paper sketch of him, to which we are not a little indebted foi our own, testifies to the delight with which his assembled friends or fellow citizens always welcome his presence and voice, his fine figure and his apt and ready utterance. Some or many of the hot contests in which he has been engaged as counsel or partisan and
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in which he has shown conspicuous abil- ity, are well remembered. The one that resulted in the first nomination· and elec- tion of George F. Hoar to Congress, was of first rate importance. The delegates to the convention were about equally di- vided in their preference between Mr. Hoar and Mr. Bird. All depended upon the five delegates that were yet to be chosen from Blackstone, and these were in doubt. Mainly through the lead and influence of Judge Putnam the five de- clared for the future illustrious senator, and the world knows the sequel.
The Judge has also a decided literary taste and talent. In 1855, he wrote a series of letters from New York to the Salem Register on " Life in the Metropo- lis," and published an address on General Grant. During the Rebellion he was war editor of the Peabody Press for about a year, and also at Plymouth, N. C., started and conducted for two months a small weekly paper, called "The Flag." The " History of Blackstone," contained in the " History of Worcester County," is one of his productions. The "Ten Years a Police Court Judge " (1884), is a highly entertaining book and is still sold, and his " Putnam Guards" (1887), giving an account of early war proceedings in Dan- vers in 1861, is a pamphlet of permanent interest and value. Among his notable occasional addresses is one which he de- livered at the dedication of the Thayer memorial building in Uxbridge; and among various admirable lectures which he has given before literary societies may be particularly mentioned his " Miles Standisn " and his " Authorship of Shakes- peare," in the last of which he sides, with telling effect, with the Baconians. Many years ago he organized in Danvers a Shakespeare Club, which Hon. Henry K. Oliver, of Salem and Lawrence, said was the second in the United States, Oliver himself having organized the first. The Judge is not only fond of the drama, but also has a passionate love of music and was very early in life an adept with many an instrument and played the post-horn or bugle in noted bands, nor by any means has wholly lost the taste or art in later years.
Wherever he has lived, he has proved himself a good and useful citizen, a warm hearted friend and a faithful servant of the public. He was formerly on the Li- brary Committee of the Danvers Peabody Institute, and has served on school com- mittees in Danvers, Blackstone and Ux- bridge. For many years he has been a trustee of the Uxbridge Savings Bank, being also one of its financial committee ; and he is now the President of the Trus- tees of the Uxbridge Public Library. He is of the Unitarian denomination and for six years was chairman of the Parish committee of the Uxbridge Unitarian So- ciety. About the time he left Dartmouth College he read in his classroom an essay on Thomas Paine, which, by its broad and radical views, gave much offence to the faculty. Thirty-three years afterward the college conferred upon him the degree of A. M. Perhaps neither party stands to-day just where it stood forty or fifty years ago. At all events, the Judge has always had " the courage of his convic- tions," and he is as honest and true as he is brave and kind, helpful and unselfish.
Hon. William H. Moody.
Upon the death of the lamented Gen- eral Cogswell in the early spring of 1895, the Republican thought of the old Essex district turned instinctively to Hon. Wil- liam H. Moody of Haverhill, at that time serving his fifth year as District Attorney for the eastern district of Massachusetts, as his successor.
He is a native of Newbury, where he was born Dec. 23, 1853. He graduated from Phillips Academy, attended Holten High School of Danvers, where he re- sided for a few years, graduated from Andover, in 1872, and from Harvard University four years later. Devoting himself to the study of law, Mr Moody practiced in Haverhill with marked suc- cess and has acted as city solicitor. His incumbency of the district attorneyship was a most notable one, and attracted wide attention. At a special election held at the time of the regular state elec- tion in November, 1895, he was chosen to succeed Gen. Cogswell, receiving 15,064
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votes to 5,815 for Hon. H. N. Shepard of Boston, democrat. One year later, Mr. Moody was re-elected by a majority of about 12,000 over Hon. E. M. Boyn- ton of West Newbury. The sixth con- gressional district is historic territory, comprising as it does, the major portion
he served on the committee upon expen- ditures in the department of justice and election committee No. I. His work upon the vexatious problems arising from contested election cases which this com- mittee was called upon to consider, was eminently fair and just to all concerned.
HON. W. H. MOODY, CONGRESSMAN 6TH DISTRICT.
of Essex county, with a population, ac- cording to the United States census of 1890, of 169,418. Of the many and di- versified interests there involved, Mr. Moody has been a most acceptable rep- resentative. In the fifty-fourth congress
Mr. Moody introduced several bills bear- ing upon the fishing industry, in which his district is so largely interested, and also devoted himself to securing better life-saving facilities along the north shore. He is an eloquent speaker and his eulogy
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upon Gen. Cogswell, delivered in Con- gress on the day set apart for such memo- rials, was one of the best heard there in recent years. Mr. Moody is prominent in social life in his home city and is a member of leading fraternal and business organizations.
honor when next a vacancy shall occur.
Mr. Moody is one of the broadest, kindest and most popular men in the state, and in every department of human affairs receives the warmest support from all classes.
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HON. W. S. KNOX.
Congressman Moody's numerous suc- cesses in the National House and his able leadership and recognition in various im- portant measures are familiar to all. He has been among those most prominently spoken of as Speaker Reed's successor, and is one of the leading candidates for the
Hon. William S. Knox.
In the Massachusetts delegation to the lower branch of Congress. the counsel of Hon. William S. Knox of Lawrence ranks high. The territory represented by Mr. Knox is considered to have the greatest
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textile interests of any district in the country, including such manufacturing centres as Lawrence and Lowell and reaching to our neighbor, Peabody. Not for a moment was there a doubt that the interests of the Fifth District would be amply protected by its present Con- gressman and these anticipations have been abundantly justified. Hon. William S. Knox was born in Killingly, Conn., Sept. 10, 1843, moved to Lawrence when nine years of age, and has resided in that city ever since. He graduated from Amherst College in 1865 and in the fall of the following year was admitted to the Essex Bar. The legal practice of Mr. Knox has always been a large one and he was chosen City Solicitor in 1875-6, and again in 1887-8-9-90. In 1874-5 he was a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, his legal acu- men placing him upon the Judiciary Committee. He has been markedly suc- cessful in business movements and is now president of the Arlington National Bank of Lawrence. In 1894, he was elected to Congress by a good majority over Hon. George W. Fifield, Democrat, and in the Republican tidal wave of November, 1896, he was given 17,835 votes to 11,531 for Hon. J. H. Harrington of Lowell, his Democratic opponent. In the fifty-fourth Congress, Mr. Knox served upon the Committees on Territories, and Expendi- tures upon Public Buildings. Upon the questions arising from reports by these committees, he spoke frequently and with effect. Perhaps the most important of the bills which he presented was that pro- viding for a uniform system of bank- ruptcy. Bankruptcy legislation was a subject of particular interest to Mr. Knox, other speeches dealing with the proposed International Monetary Con- ference and various territorial matters. In the recent special session of Congress, the opinion of the member from the Fifth Massachusetts District was most weighty in the consideration of the economic problems there presented for solution. Mr. Knox was elected to and is a mem- ber of the Fifty-sixth Congress. His views are in line with those of the Re- publican majority. Personally, he is
most affable and numbers friends by legions.
Charles Horace Shepard.
Charles Horace Shepard came to Dan- vers in 1873 from Woburn, and established here the apothecary business, which he sold later to Edgar C. Powers ; now the property of S. M. Moore. In 1875 Mr. Shepard bought the Mirror newspaper and printing office of H. C. Cheever, and the job printing business of Putnam & Barnes, and consolidated them in new quarters in the Ropes block, where the business has since remained, and is now the property of Frank E. Moynahan, who had been for some years a member of the staff, and purchased the plant of Mr. Shepard in 1890, on the latter's appoint- ment as U. S. Consul to Sweden. During Mr. Shepard's fifteen years ownership and management of the Danvers Mirror, the paper attained high rank among the local weeklies of the County and State, and its editor was recognized among his fellows by election for several years as Secretary of the Massachusetts Press As- sociation ; was once commissioned to go to Augusta and present in person its invi- tation to James G. Blaine to attend and address the Association at its annual re- union and banquet in Boston ; was twice elected Vice President of the Essex County Republican Club ; and was ap- pointed, with Dr. Loring, Gen. Cogswell, Cabot Lodge, Judge Cate of Amesbury and editor Hill of Haverhill, to prepare and present to John G. Whittier, on the eightieth anniversary of his birth, an expres- sion and testimonial of the Club's regard and reverence for the noble man and loved poet ; and Mr. Shepard had the honor and pleasure to convey and present to Mr. Whittier the Club's offer, in the form of a specially prepared book of suit- able size, containing portions of an ad- dress before the Club by Senator Hoar, after a recent half-day spent with the poet, resolutions of the Club followed by signatures of all its officers and members, and nearly every member of the Senate and House of the United States Congress. Mr. Shepard attended the National con-
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vention in Chicago in 1884 that nomi- nated Mr. Blaine for the Presidency ; was alternate delegate to Gen. Cogswell from this Congressional district to the National convention that nominated General Har- rison for President in 1888 ; was the same year unanimously nominated for Represen- tative to the General Court from this dis- trict (Danvers and Middleton), and was elected ; was unanimously renominated the next year and was (fortunately) de- feated, though by only one vote, when 200 Republicans, as is usual in " off- years," did not get to the polls. Mr. Shepard's course and service had been such that in 1890 he was given, with- out urging and at no expense, what Secretary Blaine pronounced the best recommen- dations he had ever seen for a consular appoint- ment, including individual auto- graph letters from John G. Whittier, Hon. Augustus Mudge, Rev. C. B. Rice, Geo. W. Fiske, Melvin B. Putnam, John D. Long, Oliver Ames, Governor Brackett, Treas- urer Marden, Sec- retary Pierce, Auditor Ladd, Speaker Barrett, Commis- sioner Merrill, Sergeant-at-Arms Adams ; forty hold-over members of the Legisla- ture of 1889, on a joint recommendation ; Governor Davis, Senator Hale and Con- gressman Boutelle of Maine; two of the largest business firms in the paper line in Boston ; many delegates to the National Convention of 1888, and last but not least, the President and all past officers of the Massachusetts Press Association, and General William Cogswell. Application
was made for a Consulate in Canada, but the location given was Gothenburg, Swe- den ; a district 500 miles in length and from 150 to 300 miles wide, containing. three million people, the principal cities of the kingdom (except Stockholm), and the only open winter seaport. During Mr. Shepard's three years in the service, recording yearly a business of a million- and-a-half dollars, forwarding quarterly accounts to the State and Treasury de- partments, there was never reported a single error.
C. H. SHEPARD.
After waiting expectantly six months for recall by Mr. Cleve- land's administra- tion, which did not appear, and not caring to cross the Atlantic in winter, Mr. Shepard sent his resignation to Washington, packed his goods and with his fam- ily returned home reaching this country after a stay of eight days in London (where he re- ceived from Min- ister Bayard a pass to the House of Commons), in time to put in a week at the Co- lumbian Exposi- tion ; there enjoy- ing the entertainment and courtesy of a box in the Auditorium, from Hon. Ferdi- nand W. Peck of Chicago, Treasurer of the Exposition, whom Mr. Shepard had entertained in Gothenburg, and accom- panied on a mission to King Oscar, in the interest of Sweden's taking part in our World's Fair. Mr. Peck was commis- sioned with others to visit all the Euro- pean countries in 1892 to urge their par- ticipation in our Fair, and their mission was most successful. That reception and
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interview with the King on his yacht "Sofia " in the beautiful harbor of the famous summer resort of Sweden at the island of Marstrand, twenty miles from Gothenburg ; the King's welcome, Mr. Peck's address, King Oscar's response in English, his cordial handshake of all the visitors, was an event not to be forgotten ; and the praiseful letter of Director-Gen- eral Davis of the World's Fair, to the Consul after the return home of the Com- missioners, was something worthy to be framed. Mr. Peck is now, by appoint- ment of the President, Director-General of the American Exhibit at the Paris Ex- position next year.
Another most pleasing event in Mr. Shepard's service in Sweden was a day's entertainment of Hon. Andrew D. White, then U. S. Minister to Russia, now Am- bassador to Germany. The best turnout in the city was none too good for the Consul to supply for a half-day's tour of its avenues, numerous parks, water-works, canals, miles of wharfage, and beautiful buildings, by Minister White, English Consul Duff, and the American Consul and Vice Consul. It may not be generally known that the official rank of an Ameri- can Consul is classed as equal to that of Colonel in our regular army ; and that on any public occasion where such officers are assembled, precedence is taken accord- ' ing to date of commission.
Returning to Danvers, Mr. Shepard and family re-established their home on Ash street, and in July, 1895, he pur- chased the two printing and newspaper offices in Peabody ; and that is his pres- ent business. He is a Notary Public for this State, by appointment of Governor Greenhalge, having had much to do in that line while in the consular service, being by virtue of such office, Notary Public for the United States, and a con- sular certificate and seal must attest sig- natures to all official or legal documents issued in foreign countries to be used in the United States. Mr. Shepard took the degrees of Master Mason, in Meridian Splendor Lodge, Newport, Maine, in 1867, and of Royal Arch Mason, in Stevens R. A. Chapter, same town, in 1868 ; and was made Secretary of each body, on the
evenings of his raising, and exaltation ; and held the same so long as he resided in the State.
If the foregoing shall be considered sufficient reason for appearance on this planet, something may be said of the time of that event and its previous and subse- quent relations. In the late years of the last century a Baptist clergyman named Samuel Shepard came from England to America and established a home in Brent- wood, New Hampshire. From there his son Joseph, a graduate of Dartmouth, and a physician, with his wife and two daughters and five sons, moved early in this century to the young State of Maine. His son Josiah settled in the town of Stetson, in Penobscot county and married Mary Damon, daughter of Daniel Damon, who had come from North Reading, Mass. Their children were Hervey Hook, Charles Horace, born Oct. 19, 1842, and Mary Elizabeth. The mother and son Horace and daughter Elizabeth are now living, mother and son in Danvers and daughter in Reading, wife of Joseph S. Temple. The father died in 1869, in Newport, Maine. The son Hervey died in Matamoras, Mexico, in 1863, where he had fled from Texas to escape service in the rebel army.
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