Historic homes and institutions and genealogical and personal memoirs of Worcester county, Massachusetts, with a history of Worcester society of antiquity, Vol. I, Part 11

Author: Crane, Ellery Bicknell, 1836-1925, ed
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: New York, Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 824

USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Historic homes and institutions and genealogical and personal memoirs of Worcester county, Massachusetts, with a history of Worcester society of antiquity, Vol. I > Part 11

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of Mr. Caleb B. Metcalf. Going next to the high school, he grad- uated from that institution in 1854, and immediately entered Harvard College. Among his classmates there, were two other graduates of the Worcester high school, namely, Eugene Frederick Bliss, who has been for most of his life, since graduation, a citizen of Cincinnati, Ohio, and the late Lieut. Thomas Jefferson Spurr, who was mortally wounded at the battle of Antietam. Mr. Green graduated from Harvard College in 1858. In the early part of the summer of 1859 he sailed from Boston for Smyrna as a passenger in the barque "Race Horse," and be- fore returning home, in the same vessel. visited Constantinople. Remaining two years in Worcester on account of ill-health, he resumed his studies at Harvard University in the autumn of 1861, and graduated from the divinity school connected with that institution in 1864. He visited Europe again in 1877, 1902, 1903. 1904 and 1906, and added in 1905 to extensive travels previously made in this coun- try, a visit to Alaska. During the civil war, and while in the divinity school. Mr. Green was drafted for service in the army, but was debarred from entering it by delicate health. He took the degree of Master of Arts at Harvard University in 1870, and June 28, 1877. was chosen an honorary mem- ber of the Phi Beta Kappa society by the chapter of the order connected with the same university.

In 1864 Mr. Green became bookkeeper in the Mechanics National Bank of Worcester, and in the course of a few months, teller in the Worcester National Bank. The latter position he held for several years. He was offered the position of cashier

WORCESTER COUNTY

of the Citizens National Bank, to succeed the late Mr. John C. Ripley, but declined it; as he also declined, at about the same time, a place in the Wor- cester County Institution for Savings.

Mr. Green became a director of the Free Pub- lic Library, January 1, 1867, and four years later, January 15. 1871, librarian of the same institution. The latter position he still holds, having been elected for the thirty-sixth year of service January 2, 1906. The library has grown rapidly in size and use under his care. It contained, December 1, 1905, 153,176 volumes. The use of its books in the year ending with that date was 366,935. A feature in that use is the remarkably large proportion of books that are employed for study and purposes of reference. Mr. Green is regarded as an authority among librarians in respect to matters relating to the use of libraries as popular educational institutions, and in respect to the establishment of close relations between libraries and schools. He was a pioneer in the work of bringing about inter-library loans and in a large use of photographs and engravings in supplementing the value of books. He has for a few years past set the example of having, in a library, talks about books on specified subjects, and is now conducting some interesting experiments in bring- ing the users of the circulating department and the children's room under the influence of the best works of art.

Mr. Green was one of the founders of the Amer- ican Library Association, and is a life fellow of the society. He was for several years the chair- man of the finance comunittee of that body and its vice-president for 1887-9 and 1892-3. In 1891 Mr. Green was chosen president of the association, and presided at the annual meeting held that year in San Francisco. He was in 1896 the first president of the council. He is an original Fellow of the Library Institute, founded in 1905; an organization supposed to be composed of a limited number of the most distinguished librarians of the country. Mr. Green was a delegate of the American Library As- sociation to the International Congress of Librarians held in London in October, 1877, was a member of the council of that body, and took an active part in the discussions carried on in its meetings. Be- fore the close of the Congress, the Library Associa- tion of the United Kingdom was formed. Mr. Green was chosen an honorary member of that association, in July, 1878. He presided for a day over the World's Congress of Librarians held in Chicago in 1903, and at a meeting of the American Library Association held at Chicago University the same year. Mr. Green was a vice-president of the In- ternational Congress of Librarians held in Lon- don in 1897. In 1890 he was appointed by the gov- ernor of Massachusetts an original member of the Free Public Library Commission of the Common- wealth, and was reappointed in 1894, 1899 and 1904. Mr. Green was one of the founders and the original first vice-president of the Massachusetts Library Club. He was for many years a member of the com- mittee of the overseers of Harvard University to make an annual examination of the library of the university. occupied a similar position in connection with the Boston Public Library for a single year, and began, in 1887, to deliver annual courses of lectures as lecturer on "Public libraries as popular educational institutions" to the students of the School of Library Economy connected with Colum- bia College, New York city. He has also lectured at the Library School since it became an institu- tion of the state of New York, and was chosen a inember of a committee to examine the school in both places.

As librarian of the Free Public Library, Mr. Green has gained for himself and his library a wide reputation. In "The Worcester of 1898" it is said of him that "his purpose has been from the first to make the Public Library an instrument for popu- lar education and a practical power in the com- munity. To this end he has written and spoken much during the past twenty years, and his efforts and advice have influenced, in no slight degree, library methods and administration throughout the United States. The library methods of Worcester have been studied in the Department of the Seine, in which the city of Paris is situated. Mr. Green's advice has been sought by the Educational De- partment of the English government. The Free Public Library of Worcester has recently been de- scribed at great length by a German scholar as an example worthy to be followed in that country, in advocating the introduction of popular libraries, such as we have in the United States, into Germany." There is a picture of the interior of the children's room of the Free Public Library in a recent Danish pamphlet written by Andr. Sch. Sternberg, of the Free Public Library Commission of Denmark. Mr. Green was chosen a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society of Great Britain, May 8, 1879, and on April 28, 1880, a member of the American Antiquarian Society. Since October 22, 1883, he has been a member of the council of the latter organization. He was also elected a member of the American Historical Association immediately after its forma- tion. He was an early member of the Colonial Society of .Massachusetts and of the American or- ganization known as the Descendants of Colonial Governors. Mr. Green is a life member of the New England Historic-Genealogical Society, and was for several years a member of the Archaeologi- cal Institute of America, and of the committee on the School for Classical Studies at Rome. He is a corresponding member of the National Geographi- cal Society and of the Historical Society of Wis- consin. He is a member of the Bunker Hill Monu- ment Association, and was for several years a fel- low of the American Geographical Society, and a member of the American Social Science Associa- tion. He has been a manager of the Sons of the Revolution, and was a charter member and the first lieutenant-governor of the Society of Colonial Wars in Massachusetts, presiding at its first general court and the dinner which followed it. Mr. Green is a member of the Society of Mayflower Descendants, and of the Old Planters Society. He has been a member of the University Club, Boston, from its organization, and was an original member of the Worcester Club, the St. Wulstan Society, and the Worcester Economic Club. He is also a member of the old organization, the Worcester Association for Mutual Aid in Detecting Thieves. October 12, 1882, Mr. Green was chosen a member of the board of trustees of Leicester Academy, to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Rev. Edward H. Hall, on his removal from Worcester to Cambridge. In 1886 he assisted in the formation of the Worcester High School Association, and was chosen its first . president, and re-elected to the same position in 1887. In the summer of 1886 he was chosen presi- dent of the Worcester Indian Association and held the office for two years.

Mr. Green has been president of the Worcester Art Society. He was a member of a committee of three asked by the late Mr. Salisbury to consult with him about arrangements for starting the Wor- cester Art Museum and to help him in the choice of the list of corporators. When the Museum was organized, he was offered a position as trustee, but

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declined to accept it. Mr. Green has been, from the beginning of the organization, secretary of the Art Commission of the St. Wulstan Society. He has been treasurer of the Worcester Public School Art League since its establishment in 1895. He has been very influential in promoting interest in the fine arts in Worcester by means of exhibitions which he started in the Public Library building, and by the installation in the library of a large collection of the best photographs of the old and more modern masterpieces in painting and sculpture.

Mr. Green was also, at two different times and for several years, treasurer of the Worcester Natural History Society, and has been for many years a trustee of the Worcester County Institution for Savings. In 1903 Mr. Green was made second vice- president of the Worcester Harvard Club (which not long before he had helped to form) ; and in 1904. first vice-president. For several years he has been a member of the corporation for the adminis- tration of the Home for Aged Men. Mr. Green formerly wrote constantly for the Library Journal, sending an article to the first number, and has made many contributions to the proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society. He has also written papers for the American Journal of Social Science, the Sunday Review of London and other periodicals. Two books by him were published by the late Fred- erick Leypoldt. of New York, namely, "Library Aids" and "Libraries and Schools." Both were printed in 1883. The former work, in a less com- plete form, had been previously issued by the United States Bureau of Education as a circular of in- formation. At the request of the secretary of the Board of Education of Massachusetts, Mr. Green wrote an appendix to his forty-eighth annual re- port on "Public Libraries and Schools." The essay was afterwards printed as a separate pamphlet. A paper by him on "The use of pictures in the public libraries of Massachusetts" was . printed as an ap- pendix to the eighth report of the Free Public Library Commission of Massachusetts. Mr. Green has made many addresses and read a number of papers on library and other subjects. Among the earliest of these are "Personal Relations Between Librarians and Readers." a paper which was pre- sented to a meeting of librarians who came together in Philadelphia in October, 1876, and formed the American Library Association (of this paper two editions have been printed and exhausted). It was made the subject of editorials in several Boston and New York newspapers, and the plans of conducting a library, described in it, were regarded at the time of its appearance as novel and admirable ; "Sensational Fiction in Public Libraries," a paper read July 1. 1879. at one of the of the sessions of the meetings of the American Library Association. held in Boston that year (this paper was also printed in pamphlet form and' widely distributed) : "The Re- lations of the Public Library to the Public Schools," a paper read before the American Social Science Association, at Saratoga, in September, 18So (this address was printed in the form of a pamphlet. and has been widely read and very influential in awaken- ing an interest in work similar to that described in it, in America and abroad) ; papers and an address on subjects similar to the one last men- tioned. read or delivered at meetings of the Ameri- can Library Association in Cincinnati and Buffalo, at Round Island. one of the Thousand Isles in the St. Lawrence river. in San Francisco, and at a meeting of the Library Section of the National Edu- cational Association, at a meeting in Washington. Other important papers by Mr. Green on questions in library economy are "The Library in its relation

to persons engaged in industrial pursuits ;" "Open- ing Libraries on Sundays;" "The duties of trustees and their relations to librarians ;" "Address as Presi- dent of the American Library Association;" "Inter- library loans in reference work;" "Adaptation of libraries to constituencies," printed in vol. I of the report of the United States Commissioner of Educa- tion for 1892-3; "How to encourage the foundation of libraries in small towns:" and three closely con- nected papers entitled "Discrimination regarding 'open shelves' in libraries," "What classes of per- sons, if any, should have access to the shelves in large libraries" and "Lead us not into temptation." Addresses have been printed in pamphlet form that were made at the opening of library buildings in Newark, New Jersey, Rindge, New Hampshire, North Brookfield and Oxford, Massachusetts. *

Mr. Green made remarks at the library school in Albany and in two or three Massa- chusetts towns favoring the purchase of books

for grown-up immigrants in the languages to

which they have been accustomed. He wrote "A History of the Public Libraries of Wor- cester" for the "Worcester of 1898," and earlier for Hurd's "History of Worcester County." He was chairman of a committee to supervise the portion of that history relating to the town and city of Wor- cester.

The first account of the methods introduced by Mr. Green in the conduct of the Free Public Library in Worcester, which was printed in pamphlet form, was presented as an appendix to his annual report as librarian for the year 1874-5, copies of which were sent to the Exposition in Philadelphia in 1876. It was afterwards reprinted at the request of the directors of the Free Public Library for dis- tribution. In the fourth report of the Free Public. Library Commission of Massachusetts, Mr. Green wrote on "Libraries and Schools," in the fifth report, on "Loaning reference books to small libraries," in the seventh report, "On the use of libraries by chil- dren" and, as stated above, in the eighth report, "On the use of pictures in libraries." He also wrote portions of the reports of the Free Public Library of Worcester, while a director, and has written nearly the whole of the reports (excepting the presidents' reports) while librarian. He wrote sketches of the lives of such librarians as William Frederick Poole and John Fiske for the American Antiquarian So- ciety's proceedings. The more elaborate historical papers which have been prepared by Mr. Green are: "Gleanings from the Sources of the History of the Second Parish, Worcester, Massachusetts," read at a meeting of the American Antiquarian Society, held in Boston, April 25, ISS3, and "The Use of the Voluntary System in the Maintenance of Ministers in the Colonies of Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay during the earlier years of their existence," an essay which formed the historical portion of the re- port of the Council of the American Antiquarian Society, which Mr. Green presented to that society at its meeting in Boston, April 28, 1886. Both of these papers have been printed in a form separate from the proceedings of the society for which they were written. The latter was highly praised by the distinguished student of early ecclesiastical history in Massachusetts, the late Rev. Dr. Henry Martyn Dexter. Other interesting and valuable historical papers by Mr. Green are "Bathsheba Spooner," "The Scotch-Irish in America," "The Craigie House," and "Some Roman Remains in Britian."

*The address of welcome at the dedication in 1904 of the building of Clark University Library was printed in the "Pub- lications " of the library.

WORCESTER COUNTY

He has also written for the American Antiquarian Society, and the Colonial Society, elaborate sketches of the lives of Pliny Earle Chase, George Bancroft, Edward Griffin Porter, Andrew Haswell Green and Benjamin Franklin Stevens. Mr. Green was invited by the late Justin Winsor to write a chapter in his "Narrative and Critical History of the United States," but had to decline the invitation for lack of time and strength.

(VIII) James Green, a counsellor-at-law in the City of Worcester, was born March 2, 1841, at Wor- cester. Massachusetts. His parents were James (7) and Elizabeth (Swett) Green. He studied in the Worcester public schools, and graduated at Harvard College in 1862. The college course held pretty strictly then to the classics, mathematics and phil- osophy, and he was particularly interested in Greek and history and English composition. In the social life of the college, he was a member of the Institute of 1770, the Hasty Pudding Club, the Haidee Boat Club, etc. His college rank was sufficient. to give him a "Detur" (a prize for the work of the fresh- man year), and parts at the junior and senior ex- hibitions. At the time of his graduation, in the summer of 1862, the civil war was going on, and the fortunes of the Northern side were discouraging. He tried to enter the army, against the medical advice of his uncle, who had always cared for him pro- fessionally, and he actually signed the enlistment roll; but his company was not filled in time to be accepted. He had entered the law office of Hon. Dwight Foster, at Worcester, before commence- ment, and in the spring of 1863 he entered the Harvard Law School; and was a proctor in the college, and he received his Harvard degrees of LL. B. in 1864, and A. M. in 1865. He passed the . year 1864-5 in law offices in New York city, es- pecially in the office of Miller, Peet & Nichols, and was admitted to the New York bar on examination in 1865. Most of the year 1865-6, he was traveling in the western states, and in the latter year he was admitted to the Worcester bar. He has been in practice in Worcester ever since. In January, 1872, he went to Europe on account of threatened ill health, and spent two years and a half in traveling on the continent, and largely in Italy, studying the languages wherever he went, and also architecture, painting and sculpture and modern history. He traveled also in Greece, and journeyed as far as to Constantinople and Smyrna. Upon his father's death, on June 10, 1874, he returned at once to Worcester. Since that time he has busied himself a good deal in the care of real estate as well as at the law. In 1877-8 he traveled another year in France and Spain and England.

On June 2, 1881, he married Miss Mary A. Mes- singer. of Worcester. daughter of David Sewell and Harriet (Sawyer) Messinger. and they have lived ever since at 61 Elm street, Worcester. They have had two children, Mary Sprague and Thomas Sam- uel Green, who both attended the public schools of Worcester. and are now living. After graduating at the Classical High School. the daughter at- tended Miss Baldwin's school at Bryn Mawr, and the son entered Harvard College in 1905.

James Green's tastes have always been in the direction of literary study, and he has interested himself a good deal in modern languages and modern history ; but his life has been too much occupied with the details of business, and handicapped by a defect- ive eyesight and a too sensitive constitution, to allow him to follow out his tastes freely. He became very much interested in the late war between the British and the Boers in South Africa; and, feeling that the British cause was grossly misrepresented

in the United States, he wrote a lecture on this subject which he delivered before the Society of Antiquity in Worcester and afterwards issued as a pamphlet. The ground that he covered had been very little touched by other pamphleteers; for he tried to show, in contradiction of what was often said in American papers, that the British were fight- ing for the very same principles for which the American colonists fought a century before; and that the Boers, in their anger at the British policy of emancipating the blacks, were as illiberal and false toward the British colonists in South Africa as King George's ministers had been toward our ancestors in America. This pamphlet was circu- lated widely in the United States, and was de- clared by many thoughtful critics to be one of the very best short statements of the subject that had been printed. Upon the unsolicited recommenda- tion of a high official at Washington, to the Imperial South African Association in London, to reprint this pamphlet and circulate it freely in all English- speaking countries, it was republished by the asso- ciation for free distribution, and the distinguished Quaker philanthropist, John Bellows, of Gloucester, England, reprinted the book for the association at his own expense. Mr. Green has also printed va- rious other pamphlets and biographical notices from time to time, in his own name and anonymously, and among them an address to his college class- mates at an anniversary dinner; a notice of a new edition of Aristotle's Musical Problems that had been brought out by certain Dutch scholars; and a tribute to the memory of his associate and friend at the bar, Hon. David Manning, etc. Mr. Green was an early member of the St. Botolph Club, and the Massachusetts Reform Club, of Boston, and of various local organizations, including the Worcester Club, the Shakespeare Club, the Gesang Verein Frohsinn, the Twentieth Century Club. and the Economic Club, all of Worcester ; and also of clubs for reading and conversation in French and Ger- man. He was brought up in the historic First Uni- tarian Church of Worcester, to which he still be- longs. The earlier pages of these Memoirs show his descent from four of the Pilgrims of the "May- flower," and from Thomas Dudley, second governor, and other early Puritans of Massachusetts Bay; and his connection with Henry Dunster, first presi- dent, and Benjamin Woodbridge, first-named grad- uate, of Harvard College.

(IX) John Green, Jr., of St. Louis, Missouri, was born August 2, 1873, at Templeton, Massa- chusetts, the son of Dr. John Green (S), and Harriet L. (Jones) Green. He was fitted for college in St. Louis, and also with Mr. Charles W. Stone in Boston, and entered Harvard College in September, 1891, from which he was graduated A. B. in June, 1894. He entered the Medical Department of Wash- ington University (St. Louis) in October, 1895, and was graduated M. D. in April, 1898, receiving the Gill prize in Diseases of Children. He entered the St. Louis City Hospital on competitive examin- ation, and served as junior assistant from June to December, 1898. Since November, 1899, he has been engaged in the practice of ophthalmology in the city of St. Louis. He is a member of the St. Louis Medical Society, the Medical Society of City Hospital Alumni, the Missouri State Medical Asso- ciation. the American Medical Association, the St. Louis Medical Library Association and the American Academy of Ophthalmology and Oto-Laryngology. He has been secretary, vice-president and president of the Medical Society of City Hospital Alumni. He is also a member of the Society of the Sons of the Revolution and the Civic League of St. Louis.

USTUN UBLIC LIBRARY

James Green

WORCESTER COUNTY

Dr. Green has published the following pamphlets : "The General Practitioner and Ophthalmology," "Treatment of Ophthalmnia Neonatorunt," "Double Optic Neuritis occurring during Lactation," "Ocular Examination as an aid to the early diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis, with report of a Case" (witlı Dr. S. I. Schwab), "Juvenile Glaucoma Simplex associated with Myasthenia Gastrica et Intestinalis," "A case of Cerebro-spinal Rhinorrhoea with Retinal Changes" (with Dr. S. I. Schwab), "Treatment of Certain External Diseases of the Eyes by the X-ray," "Ocular Signs and Complications of Diseases of the Accessory Sinuses of the Nose," "Report on Progress in Ophthalmology for the years 1903, 1904, 1905 and 1906," and "The Control of Municipal Medical Institutions, with special refer- ence to the City of St. Louis," etc. He is editor of the Department of Ophthalmology of The Inter- state Medical Journal, visiting ophthalmic surgeon to the Jewish Hospital Dispensary of St. Louis, and consulting ophthalmic surgeon to the St. Louis Female Hospital.

He married, October 29, 1902, Miss Lucretia Hall Sturgeon, of St. Louis, Missouri. Their chil- dren are: Helen Celeste, born November 23, 1903, and Harmon, born July 3, 1905. His office address in 1906 is 225 Vanol building, corner of Vandeventer avenue and Olive street, St. Louis, Missouri.

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Historic homes and institutions and genealogical and personal memoirs of Worcester county, Massachusetts, with a history of Worcester society of antiquity, Vol. I, Part 11

Author: Crane, Ellery Bicknell, 1836-1925, ed Publication date: 1907 Publisher: New York, Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company Number of Pages: 824

Author: Crane, Ellery Bicknell, 1836-1925, ed
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: New York, Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 824