USA > Massachusetts > Massachusetts of today; a memorial of the state, historical and biographical, issued for the World's Columbian exposition at Chicago > Part 14
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III
BOSTON.
E VERETT A. STEVENS, railroad commissioner, is a practical railroad man in the literal meaning of the term. He was born in Madison, Me., May 13, 1843, and received his education in the common schools. Though occupying a lucrative position in Montreal, Canada, at the breaking out of the Civil War in the United States, he hastened to take his part in the conflict, and went to the front as a member of Company I, Eleventh Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteers, at the age of nine- teen years. He re- mained in the regiment until it left the front at Cold Harbor, its term of service having ex- pired, and was mus- tered out on the 24th of June, 1864, in Boston. The Elev- enth was an organi- zation to which Gen- eral Hooker in his reports paid deserved compliments, and it made an admirable record in the Third Corps under General Sickles. The certifi- cate of discharge which Mr. Stevens holds shows that he was mentioned as having displayed conspicuous bravery at Locust Grove, at the crossing of the North Anna River, and in the Wilder- ness. Returning from the scenes of conflict, he entered the service of the Fitchburg Railroad Company, and passing through the different grades, soon reached the position of loco- motive engineer, serving on express passenger trains several years, principally on the Hoosac Tunnel route to the West. Though not an orator, his sound common- sense made him popular with his craft, and he was thrice elected to the office of chief engineer of the Boston division of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers,
representing the division in several of the national con- ventions of the organization, and being twice honored by election to office there. In 1883, he was nominated by Governor Butler as a member of the Board of Rail- road Commissioners, receiving the unanimous endorse- ment of the Executive Council. In 1886, he was nominated by Governor Robinson, again in 1889 by Governor Ames, and yet again in 1892 by Governor Russell, receiving the unanimous vote of approval of the councillors. He is active in the Grand Army of the Repub- lic, having been elected two terms as commander of Post II, of Charlestown, making the tour of the Pacific at its head in 1886. Mr. Ste- vens's standing with the soldiers and rail- road men has led to other distinction. He was prominent before the legislative committee on color blindness in 1882 and secured the repeal of the law by which every railroad man in the grade of train hands had to submit to a test in color and shade that would have forever incapac- itated the eye of the most experienced salesman in dry goods, fancy gloves or ribbons. The test was brought down to the essentials in actual use by railways as signals, night or day. Further, Commissioner Stevens has for some years held the position of presi- dent of the Massachusetts Mutual Accident Association, an organization that provides relief for its subscribers or their families in the event of unforeseen bodily mishaps, whether fatal or temporarily prostrating. He succeeded Mayor Gilbert Palmer in that position, which he fills with energy and discretion.
EVERETT A. STEVENS.
II2
MASSACHUSETTS OF TO-DAY.
T' THE movement for the popularization of art in America had its origin in Boston. Here, too, the educational development of art as a factor in common- school instruction first began. With both these great movements, the name of Louis Prang is inseparably connected. He has, indeed, been more closely iden- tified with them than any other man. Mr. Prang's career, from his dreamy childhood in a German city, through the many vicissitudes of youth and early man- hood to the splendid achievements of his later years, is one of most absorbing in- terest. Though it is the type of idealist, rather than that of man of affairs, that best represents him and his share in the life of the times, yet his business success has been excep- tional. He was born in Breslau, Germany. His father was a cal- ico printer, and the lad early studied chemistry and me- chanics and learned the processes of dye- ing, color-mixing and color-printing. While yet in his teens he was sent to spend a year in the count- ing-room of a dyeing and printing estab- lishment in Westpha- lia, where he gained a knowledge of mer- cantile affairs. When about twenty years old he was engaged by a large Austrian firm to spend five years in the study of the most advanced methods of dyeing and color-printing practised in England and on the Continent, with a view to organize afterward a manu- factory in Bohemia. His investigations were success- fully carried out for four years, at the end of which he returned to Germany an enthusiastic advocate of the cause of social democracy. He was the leader of a
LOUIS PRANG.
revolutionary club in 1848, and was obliged to flee from his native country. After being in Switzerland for a time, he came to America, landing in New York in 1850. For a few years he led a precarious existence, but in 1856, embarking in the business of lithography in color, he set out on the road to fortune. In 1864, he began the reproduction of oil paintings by chromo- lithography. For these new creations Mr. Prang coined the word "chromo," a term that has been
somewhat roughly used and brought into disrepute by competitors. How the public apprecia- tion of Mr. Prang's work has steadily grown broader and more critical ; how the delight in his exquisite Christmas and other holiday cards has increased from year to year ; how many an artist, now well known, gained his first rec- ognition at Louis Prang's hands ; how his public exhibitions of accepted designs for cards have awak- ened widespread in- terest ; how he, as the founder of the Prang Educational Company, became a pioneer in the canse of art instruction in the public schools,- all this is part of the country's art history. In recent years, Mr. Prang has been devoting himself with his usual energy, and with the assistance of the best color experts, to a plan for color instruction in the public schools which is being widely adopted. His plans for the further development of art education, to which he devotes a great deal of time and personal attention, are of a very broad nature, his efforts having secured cordial recognition in this country and in Europe.
II3
BOSTON.
F "OR nearly a score of years Joseph Cook has quick- ened the pulse of Boston's religious and intellec- tual life. He is probably the most aggressive and original, as he is certainly the most celebrated, defender of the Orthodox faith of the present day. Years ago, when he was in the zenith of his fame as a lecturer, all Boston was eager to hear what Joseph Cook had to say about the latest scientific discovery or theory and its relations to the faith that was once delivered to the saints. And the great audiences that still appear whenever he is announced to lecture or preach are ample proof that his remarkable popu- larity has not visibly waned. One of the most consummate rhetoricians who ever lived, he is likewise a formidable logi- cian, and can blend an ironclad, unan- swerable syllogism with a daring and original metaphor, taking your breath away with his figures of speech and strik- ing you dumb with his logic. Though it has been said of him, that he would effect the reconcilia- tion of science and religion by the com- plete annihilation of science and the en- throning of religion in its stead, his bitterest opponents must admit that Mr. Cook is fully abreast of the scientific thought of the day. "The Boston Monday Lectureship," established by Mr. Cook at Tremont Temple in 1873, is still con- tinued, his lectures, delivered on eight successive Mon- days at noon in the winter time, being attended by thousands. There is scarcely a domain of modern thought that he does not enter, and though his pronun- ciamentos on politics, social and economic reform,
science and religion, have often been the butt of cheap newspaper jokes, they are at least always novel and thought-provoking. Mr. Cook was born at Ticonderoga, N. Y., Jan. 26, 1838, his father being a farmer. In 1858, he entered Yale, but three years later had to give up his studies on account of ill-health. He entered Harvard as a junior in 1863 and graduated in 1865 with high honors. After three years at Andover, he spent an additional year in the study of philosophy, but, although granted a license to preach, he declined all invita- tions to become the pastor of a church. In 1868 and 1870, he preached at An- dover and for a time at Lynn, Mass. Then he went to Europe and studied at vari- ous German universi- ties under famous theologians and phi- losophers. In 1873, on his return to America, he began his course of noon- day lectures. These have been published in book form, and have been translated into many foreign languages. The titles of the volumes are : " Biology," "Tran- scendentalism," "Orthodoxy," "Con- science," "Hered- ity," " Marriage," "Labor," "Social- ism," "Occident," "Orient." During a lecturing tour of the world in 1880, Mr. Cook lectured in Great Britain, and visited Germany, Italy, Greece, Palestine, Egypt and India. He then went to China, Japan, Aus- tralia, New Zealand and the Sandwich Islands. In Japan he delivered a number of lectures through an interpreter to Japanese public men. In ISSS he founded Our Day, a monthly record and review. He was married in 1877 to Georgie Hemenway, of New Haven.
JOSEPH COOK.
114
MASSACHUSETTS OF TO-DAY.
G REAT progress has been made in America during the last half century in the manufacture of meteorological instruments. Improvements and new inventions in instruments have kept pace with the rapid strides that have been made in the science of meteo- rology - a science that is still in its earliest stages. In almost every observatory and laboratory of the United States, and in many foreign lands, the name of Huddle- ston is familiar, and it is a name that has grown to be synonymous with perfect accuracy and reliability. By long years of toil, and by unremitting study of the principles of nat- ural science as rela- ting to meteorology and meteorological instruments, John S. F. Huddleston has won for himself the reputation of manu- facturing such ther- mometers, barome- ters and meteorolog- ical instruments generally as cannot be excelled. The story of his unevent- ful life may be told in a very few words. He was born in Lon- don, England, and in his early boyhood days attended the schools there. At an early age his parents came to the United States and settled in Boston. Here he went to school, and his name stands on the roll of the school-boys of that period, he having been a pupil in the old Boston Latin School. After leaving his studies, his time for a number of years was devoted to acquiring a thorough knowledge of the construction of meteorolog- ical instruments in every branch. In 1839 he com- menced business on his own account, locating on Washington Street. For forty-three consecutive years - and until the demolition of the building -he was on
JOHN S. F. HUDDLESTON.
the site where the Globe building now stands. Since then his rooms have been in the Transcript building. In social life at an early age he united himself with various utilitarian societies, and soon after the revival of Odd Fellowship in the United States, in the early forties, Mr. Huddleston joined the order, being one of the first Odd Fellows in Boston. For nearly fifty years he has kept up an active interest in the order, and has been honored with all its offices. He is also a Free Mason of advanced degrees. In business Mr. Huddleston de- votes himself entirely to the manufacture of high-class meteor- ological instruments, such as are used in colleges, observato- ries and laboratories, and wherever ex- treme scientifie accu- racy is required. His instruments have always taken the highest medals wherever exhibited. In connection with the late Professor Winlock he invented, and is sole maker of, an improvement of the hygrometer, called the hygro- phant, an instrument that shows with accu- racy and at a glance, without computation, both the temperature and the degree of humidity. In weather bureaus and in laboratories the hygrophant has grown to be almost indispensable, and is considered a valuable addition to the list of meterological instruments. Mr. Huddleston was also the originator of the enamelled back tube, which so markedly improves the legibility of the thermometer, and which is now in use the world over. In all the various meteorological instruments which he makes, attention is paid to a special adaptation to the particular purposes for which they are intended to be used.
115
BOSTON.
THE oldest church of the Swedenborgian faith in New England is the Boston Society of the New Jerusalem, which was established in 1818. Beginning with only twelve members, it has been the parent church of many other societies, and now has a member- ship of over six hundred. In the seventy-five years of its history, it has had but two pastors, Rev. Dr. Thomas Worcester, and Rev. James Reed. The latter is one of the prominent ministers of the New Church (Sweden- borgian) in America, and a well-known contributor to its literature. He was born in Boston, Dec. 8, 1834, and is the son of Sampson and Catharine (Clark) Reed. His father, who was for many years a member of the city government and took an active and leading part in the municipal affairs of Boston, was the son of Rev. Dr. John Reed, who for a long time was set- tled over the old first parish in Bridge- water (now West Bridgewater). Rev. John Reed's father was also a Congre- gationalist clergy- man, so that Mr. Reed comes of a ministerial fam- ily. He received his early education in private schools, and was fitted for college in the Boston Latin School. Entering Harvard in 1851, he graduated in 1855, among his classmates being Phillips Brooks, Robert Treat Paine, and Alexander Agassiz. After graduation he taught for one year in the Boston Latin School, and then studied for the ministry under the guidance of Rev. Dr. Thomas Worcester, pastor of the church of which Mr. Reed's father had always been an active member. After two years' study, he was
JAMES REED.
called to the assistant pastorate of the Boston Society of the New Jerusalem, and was ordained to the min- istry in April, 1860. He continued as assistant to Dr. Worcester until the latter's resignation in January, 1868, when he became pastor of the church and has remained there ever since. In addition to his pastoral duties, Mr. Reed has contributed much to New Church litera- ture, and has published "Religion and Life " (New York, 1869), "Man and Woman " (Boston, 1870), and "Swedenborg and the New Church" (Boston, 1880). He was for some time an editor of the " New Jerusalem Magazine." From 1871 till 1875 Mr. Reed served on the Boston School Com- mittee, and one year he drew up the annual report of the Board. He was married, Dec. 19, 1858, to Miss Emily E. Ripley, of Brook- line. They have five children living, the eldest son being in business in Bos- ton. The joint cel- ebration of the seventy-fifth anni- versary of the Boston Society of the New Jerusalem, and the twenty-fifth anniver- sary of Mr. Reed's pastorate will be held in 1893, and the event will doubtless be a notable one in the history of the New Church in New England. Though its membership is widely scattered over Boston and the suburbs, and though so many of the churches have been obliged to leave the centre of the city for the Back Bay, the Society of the New Jerusalem still flourishes in its old home on Bowdoin Street, which it has occupied for forty-eight years. Mr. Reed lives in Louisburg Square.
116
MASSACHUSETTS OF TO-DAY.
C OLONEL HENRY . LEE, projector and man- ager of the Union Safe Deposit Vaults, and senior member of the leading banking firm of Lee, Higginson & Co., was born in Boston, the seventh gen- eration in descent from the family of Lee that came to America in the year 1630, and from that time to the present has been prominent in the high social life of Ipswich, Beverly, Salem, Cambridge and Boston. He has maintained a position as a public-spirited and gen- erous citizen, and is now enjoying a vig- orous and happy old age. After passing through all the grades of the public and preparatory schools, he entered Harvard University in 1832, and graduated in 1836. His father, also named Henry, who died in Boston Feb. 6, 1867, re- ceived the electoral vote of South Caro- lina as a Whig on the occasion of Pres- ident Andrew Jack- son's second elec- tion. His mother was May, daughter of Hon. Jonathan Jackson. He mar- ried Elizabeth, daughter of Colonel Perkins. Colonel Lee was among the first to appreciate the advantage of a place of safe deposit for valuables in Boston, and it was mainly through his agency that the system was established there, the insti- tution of which he is the head being the pioneer. It is an enduring monument to his business sagacity, and at the same time the pattern for many others to follow with security and profit. The Massachusetts Lees are closely allied to many of the most distinguished families of the State's carlier and later history, such as those of Winthrop, Saltonstall, Pickering, Higginson, Endicott,
HENRY LEE.
and others that have always been social, business and political leaders in Salem, Boston and Cambridge. Colonel Lee has served several terms on the Board of Overseers of Harvard University, and ever took a prom- inent part in its deliberations and important actions. The Massachusetts Historical Society has long had the benefit of his active membership. From early life he has been interested in dramatic affairs, and of many engagements of high character he has always been a generous and in- fluential patron. Throughout the war for the Union Colonel Lee was an earnest supporter of Govern- or John A. Andrew, having been on the personal staff of the commander -in -chief for several years as aide-de-camp. In those stirring times a position on the staff meant work, and from such patri- otic duty the colonel was not the man to flinch. He and his business associates have often led with their influence and large means in en- terprises of a benev- olent and educational nature, and the snc- cess of many such projects has been mainly due to the examples they set to their wealthy fellow- citizens in this and other Massachusetts communities. An ardent lover of nature, Colonel Lee passes a good portion of his leisure on his large and beautiful estate at Chestnut Hill, Brookline, a region noted for its scenic surroundings. Colonel Lee has always been identified with the highest intellectual and artistic life of New England, and throughout the financial world, on both sides of the Atlantic, the name of Lee, Higginson & Co. represents solid worth and enterprise.
II7
BOSTON.
W HEN President Harrison, in April, 1892, appointed Thomas Jefferson Coolidge, of Bos- ton, to succeed Whitelaw Reid as minister of the United States in Paris, the appointment was in the nature of a gratifying surprise, though the wisdom of the choice was immediately recognized. Mr. Coolidge inherited at once the blood of the first families of Massachusetts and of the first families of Virginia. His maternal great- grandfather was Thomas Jefferson, and his paternal grandfather was Joseph Coolidge, de- scendant of one of the distinguished families of New Eng- land. T. Jefferson Coolidge was born in Boston in 1831, the son of a prosperous China merchant. His early education was obtained in France and Germany. Re- turning to this coun- try when about fif- teen years old, he entered Harvard, and graduated in the class of 1850. Mr. Cool- idge's career has been almost entirely one of business. Up to the time of his appointment as min- ister to France he had held but two public posts-park commissioner of Boston and delegate to the Pan-American Congress. After graduation, he entered the East India trade, embarking in business with the late Joseph Gardner. In 1858 he accepted the presidency of the Boott Manufacturing Company, with large cotton mills at Lowell. The com- pany was then in a weak financial condition, but before he left it, two years later, he had rebuilt the mill and established the business on a firm footing. He then went abroad, and after several years' residence in France, returned to this country and took charge of the ī 1
THOMAS JEFFERSON COOLIDGE.
Lawrence Manufacturing Company. In 1880 he gave up most of his manufacturing interests and for a time was president of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fé Railroad while the company was making a struggle for existence. He tided it over its worst period and then resigned and spent a year in Europe. On his return he accepted the presidency of the Oregon Railway & Navi- gation Company, which he held temporarily. He has been identified with the Amory and the Dwight Manu- facturing companies, and has been director 7 in the Boston & Lowell, the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, and other railroads, and in many banking enterprises. Mr. Coolidge has been a Republican for about ten years, but he has never been promi- nent in politics. His son, T. Jefferson Coolidge, Jr., was one of the leading spirits in the estab- lishment of the Young Men's Dem- ocratic Club of Mas- sachusetts, and there was in consequence frequent misunder- standing of the father's position. Minister Coolidge has been noted for his philanthropy, be- ing prominent in the public charities of Boston. At Harvard he erected the Jefferson Physical Laboratory, and to the town of Manchester (Mass.) he gave a public library. He is an overseer of Harvard College, a member of the Somerset Club and of the Harvard University Club, of New York. He married a daughter of William Apple- ton, one of Boston's great merchants. They have four children : T. Jefferson Coolidge, Jr., president of the Old Colony Trust Company ; Mrs. Lucius Sargent, Mrs. Fred. Sears, Jr., and Mrs. Thomas Newbold.
118
MASSACHUSETTS OF TO-DAY.
"THE career of Thomas B. Fitzpatrick, who has an honored name in the mercantile world, and who in the Irish national and other philanthropic causes is a tower of strength, illustrates vividly the fact that the doors of suecess are barred to none who will honestly and perseveringly strive to enter. He was born in Graf- ton, Mass., Dec. 17, 1844, the son of Mary and Patrick Fitzpatrick. In his youth the family moved to Hopkin- ton, and here young Fitzpatrick worked on his father's farm nights and mornings, and walked three miles each way daily, to attend the Hopkin- ton High School. He was able to go during the fall and winter terms only of each year, but he finished the course and was the first Catholic boy to graduate from the school. That was in 1861, and he was the valedictorian of his class. The same indomitable energy that he had displayed in getting an educa- tion in spite of the difficulties, character- ized his business life from the start. Hle came to Boston and found employment at two dollars a week as errand boy for the firm of E. D. Bell & Co., supplementing his meagre salary by working evenings. Schofield, Barron & Co., dealers in fancy dry goods, soon discovered his merits and sent him to New York, when he was about twenty years okl, to take charge of their branch office there. Before he had attained his majority he was admitted to the firm. On the dissolution of the partnership, Mr. Fitzpatrick went to the firm of Mason, Tucker & Co., Boston, as travelling salesman, and built up a large trade for them in the New England States. In July, 1872, he beeame con-
nected with Brown, Dutton & Co., in the same eapacity. After the great fire of that year the present firm of Brown, Durrell & Co., dealers in fancy dry goods, was formed by Messrs. Brown, Durrell and Fitzpatrick, the two latter gentlemen enjoying an equal interest with Mr. Brown. The firm, starting with a comparatively small capital, has built up a business of over five million dol- lars annually, which is more than double that of any other Boston house in the same line, and one of the largest in the United States. The aetive management of the business is in the hands of Messrs. Durrell and Fitzpat- rick, the senior part- ner attending to the financial matters of the firm. For many years Mr. Fitzpatrick has been prominent in all movements for the welfare of the Irish people, being intimately associated with the great leaders both in America and in Ireland. He was for a long time presi- dent of the Municipal Council of the Irish National Land League ; has been president of the Catholic Union, the most influential Catholic organization in Boston ; director of the Working Boys' Home ; is a member of the Catholic Order of Foresters, of the Charitable Irish Society, and of many other organizations ; director of the Union Institution for Savings, and also of the Newton Co-operative Bank, which he helped to estab- lish. Mr. Fitzpatick was married in 1875 to Miss Sarah Gleason, of Fitchburg. They have seven children, five sons and two daughters, for whom Mr. Fitzpatrick has established and maintains, at his home in West Newton, a private school, one of the few of its kind in America.
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