USA > Massachusetts > Massachusetts of today; a memorial of the state, historical and biographical, issued for the World's Columbian exposition at Chicago > Part 11
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87
BOSTON BOARD OF TRADE.
W ILLIAM A. FRENCH, president of the Mas- sachusetts National Bank, is well known in business and financial circles in Boston, where he was born Oct. 17, 1843, being the son of Abram French, for many years and until his death the head of the great crockery and glassware house of Abram French & Co. Abram French built up this famous house and made it what it is to-day, the largest dealer in china and glass- ware in New England, if not in the country. William A. French was edu- cated at the Chaun- cy Hall School, then and now a famous institution, and at Harvard Uni- versity, from which he graduated in the class of 1865. In 1867 he entered the house of Abram French & Co., as a member of the firm, and remained there twenty-five years, until the present Abram French Com- pany was incorpor- ated. Mr. French is now president of the Abram French Com- pany and is an active member of the Bos- ton Associated Board of Trade and other organizations. In 1884 he was made a director in the Mas- sachusetts National Bank, and on April 4, 1887, he was elected its president. The Massachusetts Bank was
WILLIAM A. FRENCH.
organized March 18, 1784, and commenced business July 5 of that year, being the oldest bank in New England. It was originally composed of wealthy sub- scribers, who fixed the par value of the shares at five hundred dollars, to keep them out of the hands of the
people. Its original capital was three hundred thousand dollars, which was reduced in 1786 to one hundred thousand dollars, and then gradually increased until, in
1810, it had risen to one million, six hundred thousand dollars, but in 1821 was reduced to one half that amount, and the par value of the stock reduced from five hundred dollars to two hundred and fifty dollars. When first chartered, the bank purchased the building known in colonial days as the Manufactory House, at the corner of the present Tremont Street and Hamilton Place, for four thousand dollars. The same property to-day is valued at upwards of five million dollars. The original building was sold and pulled down in 1806, when the bank removed to No. 66 State Street, where it remained for more than sixty years. After the great fire of 1872, the bank removed to Post- Office Square, where it continued until January, 1892, when its business had in- creased to such an extent as to render its removal necessary to more spacious quarters, which are now occupied by it in the Exchange Building, No. 53 State Street. The belief which is almost universal, that the fibre paper used by the Government for its notes and bonds is patented, is an erroneous one. There is nothing patentable about the idea, for more than fifty years ago the Massachusetts Bank printed its notes on paper through which fibres of red silk were liberally distrib- uted, in much the same manner as is now done in the Government paper, and for the same reason : the pre- vention of counterfeiting. Mr. French married Olivia C., daughter of Oliver S. Chapman, of Canton, Mass. : they have four children. His residence is in Jamaica Plain.
88
MASSACHUSETTS OF TO-DAY.
W ILLIAM O. BLANEY, senior member of the firm of Blaney, Brown & Co., is one of the best known business men in the city of Boston, and his name is intimately associated with many of its prominent institutions. He was born in Bristol, Me., on July 16, 1841, the son of Arnold and Nancy (Hunter) Blaney. Arnold Blaney was for many years judge of probate of Lincoln County, Maine, and also held many other promi- nent public positions. Mr. Blaney was educated in the public schools of Bristol, and at the Lincoln Academy. In 1864 he came to Boston and entered the employ of Davis & Crosby, flour and grain merchants. He showed early an apti- tude for the voca- tion, and in 1869 succeeded to the business of the firm, under the name of W. O. Blaney. This style was maintained for a few years, when it was changed to Crosby & Blaney. In 1879, upon the death of Mr. Crosby, I .. S. Brown was ad- mitted to the partner- ship, and the firm has since been known as Blaney, Brown & Co. This house is to-day probably the largest dealer in and receiver of flour and grain in the city. Mr. Blaney has been and is one of the leading members of the Chamber of Commerce. In 1869 he became a member of the Commercial Exchange. In 1879, he was made a director of the exchange and held that office two years. He then served as vice-president and after- ward two terms as president. Upon the consolidation of the Commercial Exchange and the Produce Exchange, in 1885, under the name of the Boston Chamber of Commerce, he was appointed chairman of the Com-
WILLIAM O. BLANEY.
mittee on Transportation, and afterwards was elected chairman of the Committee on Arbitration. One of the proudest achievements of Mr. Blaney's connection with the Chamber of Commerce was the ultimate suc- cess of his proposition to erect a building for the asso- ciation. In 1888 a committee was appointed to secure a site for a new building, and Mr. Blaney was made chairman of this committee. In the following year he was appointed chairman of the Building Committee, and the present magnificent struc- ture, one of the handsomest in New England, was com- menced in April, 1890, and completed in February, 1892. There was more or less opposition to the scheme from the start, but Mr. Blaney and his associates overcame this, and the Chamber of Commerce to-day as a body unites in giv- ing to him a large share of the credit for what has proved a wise and needed departure. Mr. Blaney has been for six years a delegate from the Chamber of Commerce to the Associated Board of Trade, and for the past year has held the position of vice- president of the latter body, where he has always taken a deep and lively interest in all questions pertaining to the growth and prosperity of the city, particularly in reference to trans- portation, Western, international, and local. He is a director in the Commercial Bank, and also a meniber of several business and social clubs. On May 16, 1857, Mr. Blaney was married at Bristol, Me., to Loella E., daughter of William Huston. Their children are Charles C. and Louise Blaney.
89
BOSTON BOARD OF TRADE.
J JONATHAN BIGELOW, merchant and legislator, was born in Conway, Mass., his American ancestry going back to the seventeenth century, when it was represented by John Bigelow, who settled in Watertown in 1632 ; and Mr. Bigelow has been present at many happy reunions of the family. He was born Jan. I, 1825, and is the oldest of a family of ten children. When nine years of age, he left home to reside with his uncle in Charlestown, who was engaged in the butcher business. On his relative's removal to Brighton, he accom- panied him and assisted him on the farm. It was here that his predilection for intellectual pur- suits became appar- ent. He attended school during the winter months, and took advantage of every opportunity for the acquisition of knowledge. When nineteen years of age he accepted a position to teach school in Screven County, Central Georgia, sixty miles from Savannah. This was in 1844, and an idea of Southern customs and of slav- ery before the war was thus obtained. Being personally ac- quainted both with Northern and South- ern characteristics, he could impartially judge in refer- ence to the question of slavery. In 1845 he returned North and established a boot and shoe business in Rox- bury. This was successfully carried on for ten years. Mr. Bigelow's desire was, however, to be in a business which would allow him leisure during the evenings, and, as he had studied the produce commission trade, he was well qualified to go into that business. Accordingly, in 1857, he established the present business at No. 3 North
Market Street, removing later to No. 25 North Market Street, and in 1859 to the present site. The business was first known as Perry & Bigelow, then by its present title, Jonathan Bigelow & Co., subsequently as Bigelow, Maynard & Magee, then Bigelow & Magee, resuming its present style again in 1865. By the above data it will be seen that Mr. Bigelow has been on North Market Street thirty-five years, and he is one of the very few produce commission merchants who, as an original partner, has been on one street that length of time. This is one of the oldest houses in Boston, and has always paid one hun- dred cents on the dollar. Mr. Bigelow is a representative merchant of the United States, re- ceiving consign- ments from more than thirty of the dif- ferent States, not counting the prov- inces. He is re- spected and es- teemed by all who know him. He was elected to the Leg- islature for 1887 from the sixteenth Middlesex represen- tative district, he being a resident of Watertown. During the year he presented three important bills, decidedly advanced in their ideas, viz. : for registration in dentistry ; for giving women who were entitled to vote on school committees a right to vote on the license question ; and for the removal of obstruc- tions to the entrance of gambling rooms. Both on the floor, where Mr. Bigelow showed himself an able speaker, and in committees, where the great bulk of the work is done, he worked for the best interests of the State. He has always had much to do in the Unitarian Church and Sunday School.
JONATHAN BIGELOW.
90
MASSACHUSETTS OF TO-DAY.
W ALSTEIN R. CHESTER, president of the Bay State Lumber Dealers' Association, was born in New London, Conn., July 16, 1833. He comes of an old colonial family, many of whose members played prominent and heroic parts in the Revolutionary War, and in the War of 1812. One of his ancestors was Captain Jason Chester, whose daughter Rebecca wit- nessed the slaughter of American troops by the British at the fort in New London, when three of her brothers (Mr. Chester's great uncles) were killed. Rebecca afterward married Lieutenant James Chester Reed, who, on account of his love for her, re- signed his commis- sion in the British Army. Their son, Captain James Ches- ter Reed, com- manded the Ameri- can privateer, “Gen- eral Armstrong," in the War of 1812, and at Fayal avenged the death of his uncles. Mr. Chester's great- grandfather was a paymaster in the Revolutionary War. Two of Mr. Ches- ter's brothers in- herited the naval spirit of their ances- tors, one of them, Colby M., being the commandant of the cadets of the United States Naval Acad- emy, and the other having been a lieutenant in the revenue marine service. Their parents were Melville and Frances ( Harris) Chester. Walstein R. Chester obtained his education at the Bartlett Grammar School in New London, and later was associated with his father in the lumber business in that city, remaining there until 1860. In 1862 he married Marietta C. Carr, daughter of Henry W. Carr, of Brookline, Mass., and in 1865 moved to Brookline, where he has since resided. He
WALSTEIN R. CHESTER.
has been in the wholesale lumber business in Boston for the last few years, under the firm name of Walstein R. Chester & Co. Mr. Chester is prominently indenti- fied with the lumber interests of New England. He was one of the organizers of the Bay State Lumber Dealers' Association, which has accomplished so much in promoting the welfare of the trade. Mr. Chester is the delegate of the association to the Boston Associated Board of Trade, and also to the Massachusetts Board of Trade. He is the Boston representa- tive of many large lumber mills in Maine and Canada. His other business interests include a directorship in the Davol Mills of Fall River, and he has also been a director in the Somerset and Johnsonburg Pottery Company of Penn- sylvania, one of the largest concerns of its kind in the State. Mr. Chester has long been prominent in the business affairs of his town, and also in the local and State politics of Massachusetts. For five years he was chairman of the Brookline Republi- can Town Commit- tee, and for about the same length of time was president of the Brookline Republican Club, one of the vigorous political organizations of the State. He is also a mem- ber of the Boston Home Market Club. Mr. Chester has achieved eminent success in his business affairs and is held in the highest esteem by all his associates. He has steadily declined to be a candidate for public office, though nominations have often been proffered to him. Mr. Chester's family consists of his wife and three children, one son and two daughters.
91
BOSTON BOARD OF TRADE.
E DWARD H. HASKELL, one of the best known men in the paper trade of Boston, was born in Gloucester, Oct. 5, 1845, the son of William H. and Mary (Smith) Haskell. He attended the common and high schools, and, in 1859, took up the profession of journalism in the office of the Gloucester Telegraph. On Sept. 28, 1861, he enlisted in Company C, Twenty- third Regiment, Massachusetts Volunteers. In Decem- ber he was ordered to special duty with the Signal Corps of the Burn- side expedition. His first engage- ments were at Roan- oke Island, Newbern (where he was slightly wounded), and at Fort Macon. In 1862 he was ordered to the Army of the Potomac, and was soon transferred to the army of Gen- eral Pope in Virginia and participated in the engagements at Cedar Mountain, Kelly's Ford, Rappa- hannock Station, Manassas Junction, and Bull Run. From September, 1862, to August, 1863, he was an instructor in signal service at the Camp of Instruction at Georgetown, D. C., taking part in short campaigns against General Lee's army. In the East Tennes- see campaign of the following winter he was with General Burnside at the siege of Knoxville, and in June, 1864, he was ordered to report to General Schofield, then with Gen- eral Sherman in Georgia. He was almost continuously under fire at Kenesaw Mountain, Marietta, and in the investment of Atlanta. Upon his return to Gloucester he re-entered the office of the Gloucester Telegraph, which he was forced to leave after two years because of failing health, when he entered mercantile life. In
1875 he became interested in the paper trade, and soon laid the foundation of his present large and successful business. He is also interested in the manufacture of paper of various grades, and is treasurer of the Rumford Falls Paper Company, whose mills are destined to be the leading newspaper mills of the country. His high standing in the trade led to his selection as president of the Boston Paper Trade Association, and he has been, and is, an active member of the Associated Board of Trade of Boston. In 1877 Colonel Has- kell was elected to the Legislature from Gloucester, and in 1880 he was ap- pointed assistant adjutant-general on the staff of Governor Long, and served in that capacity three years. In 1879 he was elected secretary of the Republican State Committee, and rendered valu- able services in that office during four years. In 1880, and also in 1884, he was a delegate to the National Republican Convention in Chi- cago. In 1882, he was elected coun- cillor from the fifth district, and served with Governor But- ler. Two years later he was the senior member of Governor Robinson's council. As chairman of the Finance Com- mittee of the encampment of the Grand Army of the Republic in Boston, in 1890, Colonel Haskell rendered valuable aid. In the military and in the business circles of the city he is equally popular. Colonel Haskell was married June 27, 1866, to Hattie J., daughter of William and Sarah H. Munsey, who, with their family of one son and two daughters, now reside at their beautiful home in Newton.
EDWARD H. HASKELL.
92
MASSACHUSETTS OF TO-DAY.
T' HE vital importance of medicine in the homes of the people places the wholesale drug trade in the front ranks of commercial and industrial pursuits, apart from the enormous capital invested in it. Boston is the centre of this trade for Massachusetts, and is also the point from which drugs and medicines are distributed throughout New England. It is appropriate, therefore, that this branch of commerce should hold a place in this work, and that its selected representative should be a Bostonian. Mr. Charles A. West, the recipient of this honor, ranks high among druggists, be- ing president of the Boston Druggists' Association and trus- tee of the Massachu- setts College of Phar- macy ; the last named position has been held by him for the past three years. His business house, West & Jenney, Broad Street, corner of Franklin, is young in years, but it controls the greatest import- ing business of any firm in the New Eng- land trade. Mr. West was born in Boston April 4, 1850. After studying in the pub- lic grammar and English High schools - he went to work as an office boy in the wholesale drug house of Reed, Cutler & Co., now Cutler Bros. & Co., and gradually rose to positions of trust and confidence. In January, 1887, in company with a fellow-salesman, Mr. Bernard Jenney, Jr., he established the firm of which he is now the senior partner. Both members of the firm were popular in the trade, and their new house immedi- ately sprang into astonishing favor. By skilful manage- ment these gentlemen acquired note as importers, and incidentally secured supremacy in the camphor business
of New England. To-day, they own two camphor refineries, a factory for subliming camphor, a phar- maceutical laboratory, and an immense warehouse. They are also among the principal holders of stock in the Dana Sarsaparilla Company, which manufactures a preparation having a permanent hold upon public favor. Agencies are maintained in every large centre of com- merce in the world. Mr. West is devoted to the exact- ing duties of his large business, and he is pre-eminently one of that class of men who have abso- lutely no time for the duties of public life. Consequently, he has never permitted him- self to be led into public affairs, al- though often solici- ted by his friends and neighbors, in the city of his resi- dence, Somerville, the pleasant suburb of Boston. Mr. West is connected with all of the prominent associations of his trade, among which are the National Wholesale Druggists' - Association and the American Pharma- ceutical Association. Both of these organ- izations have re- ceived benefit from his willing work and ready brain. With his family-a wife and daughter -he occupies a prominent social position in Somerville. He is the president of the most exclusive social organization of that city, the Central Club, whose house is the scene of many pleasant gatherings of ladies and gentlemen during the winter months of each year. As trustee of the public library of Somerville he has done much to increase its usefulness, and he lends his active and ener- getic aid to every movement that contemplates the bet- terment of the town.
CHARLES A. WEST.
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93
BOSTON BOARD OF TRADE.
T THE New England Furniture Exchange is one of the most efficient business men's organizations in the country. It was organized in 1874, at a time when there were a great many failures in the trade, and when the manufacturers began to see the necessity of check- ing the growth of certain evils. One of the incorpora- tors of the exchange in 1879, and its president in 1890 and 1891, is Frank A. Brown. Before his election to the presidency he had been treasurer of the exchange for ten years. He was born in Boston, June 1, 1839, the son of Francis and Elizabeth (Herman) Brown. He was educated in the schools of Chelsea, and, at the age of thirteen, went to work as clerk in the Suffolk Bank, Boston. Here he remained ten years, and in 1862 enlisted as private in Company G, Fortieth Massa- chusetts Infantry, serving in the Armies of the Potomac, the James and the De- partment of Florida. He was in every battle and in four sieges, in which his regiment partici- pated, and was pro- moted to lieutenant. During the whole three years of his field service he never lost a day's duty. On returning to Boston, in 1865, he became bookkeeper for Woodbury & Gray, furniture manufacturers, and remained with them three years. Then he went to Buckley & Bancroft as salesman for one year, and in 1869 formed a partnership with Arthur McArthur, under the firm name of McArthur & Brown. The firm manufactured parlor furniture, and at first was located on Haverhill Street, moving subsequently to the corner of Portland and Travers streets. The firm dis-
FRANK A. BROWN.
solved in 1872, since which time Mr. Brown carried on the business alone until July 1, 1891, when his son-in- law, Mr. Fred S. Belding, was admitted to the firm. In 1875 he moved to No. 87 Union Street, his present loca- tion. Since 1872 the style of the firm has been F. A. Brown & Co. He manufactures fine parlor furniture, and has established one of the most enviable business reputations in all New England. He is treasurer of the Boston Furniture Club, in which he has taken a promi- nent part since its organization. On all matters relating to the furniture trade Mr. Brown is con- sidered an excellent authority, as he is thoroughly informed. Having been one of the most active members of the New England Fur- niture Exchange almost since the day it was formed, he is widely known in the furniture trade of the country. The ex- change includes all the furniture manu- facturers of promi- nence in New Eng- land. Mr. Brown is also a member of the Ancient Order of United Workmen, and of the Royal Arcanum. Mr. Brown was married, in 1860, to Miss Mary E. Lewis, of Chelsea, Mass. They have one daughter living, who is married. Mr. Brown has a pleasant home in Newton, Mass. He is a most affable gentleman, and is very popular in social circles. He is still in the prime of his powers, and is one of the best representatives of New England business character. Mr. Brown has never sought political honors, being engrossed in business, and preferring the quietness of his family and social life to the turmoil of a political career.
94
MASSACHUSETTS OF TO-DAY.
F RANK L. YOUNG, one of the most prominent members of the Boston Board of Trade, stands at the head of what is believed to be the largest oil manu- facturing house in the United States. Mr. Young is a native of the neighboring State of Rhode Island, having been born at Slatersville in that State, Nov. 20, 1852. While he was still a child his parents moved to Milford, Mass., and in the schools of that thriving manufacturing town and the neighboring one of Hopedale, Mr. Young received his early education. His fam- ily were in humble circumstances, and it is his proud boast to-day, when he is in affluent circum- stances, that it is to New England grit and perseverance he owes the fact that he was enabled to secure for himself a collegi- ate education. After receiving his pre- paratory training in the schools of his own home, he en- tered Brown Univer- sity, from which he was graduated in the class of 1874. On leaving college, he at once devoted him- self to business pur- suits, entering the oil trade, and he is now one of the most widely known and extensive dealers in that commodity in this country. Gradually, and without any financial assistance whatever, he built up his business until it reached the vast proportions which it has assumed at the present time. Mr. Young has extensive dealings with the currier, mill and other trades. He handles also other kindred prodnets besides oils, and owns an immense and well appointed store in Boston, which is said to be the largest and best equipped of its kind in America. It is located on Purchase Street. He has, in addition to
this store, a factory at South Boston, which covers up- wards of two thirds of an acre of ground in one build- ing, besides a considerable extent of yard room for the storage of his goods. Mr. Young is likewise extensively engaged in the manufacturing and refining business, the products of which he sells in every market throughout the United States, in addition to doing a very large for- eign export trade. His oils have long been known and regarded with favor by dealers for their excellent proper- ties. Associated with him in business, as special partner, is General William F. Draper of Hopedale. Mr. Young is very well known and popular among the members of the trade, and among business men gen- erally, as was evi- denced by the fact that he was elected president of the Oil Trade Association, the membership of which practically in- cludes every large dealer in the oil trade in the New England States. He is also a director of several manufactur- ing corporations, as well as a member of the Boston Associ- ated Board of Trade. Mr Young is some- thing of a club man, being connected with the University and other clubs, where his genial nature and good-fellowship have served to make him a general favorite. He exemplifies as perfectly as any business man in Boston that type of strong, self reliant character which surmounts all obstacles, and, with no aid from external sources, but depending solely on his own pow- ers, achieves a most remarkable and thoroughly deserved success. Mr. Young's family consists of his wife, three sons, and a daughter, who reside with him in Boston.
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