USA > Massachusetts > Massachusetts of today; a memorial of the state, historical and biographical, issued for the World's Columbian exposition at Chicago > Part 23
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183
BOSTON.
TO 0 the great majority of lawyers success at the bar comes only after many years of struggle. To W. E. L. Dillaway, however, it came before he had even been admitted to the bar. At the age of nineteen, while studying in the office of A. A. Ranney and Nathan Morse, he argued his first brief before the full bench of the Massachusetts Supreme Court, and won his case. That success was followed by an almost unbroken line of legal victories, quite unprecedented in a young man, until, at the age of thirty-six, Mr. Dilla- way retired from practice to devote his entire time to his vast financial inter- ests. Born in Bos- ton, Feb. 17, 1852, Mr. Dillaway is a descendant of one of the oldest Boston families. He was educated in the pub- lic schools, and after graduating at the English High School he took a special course at Harvard, graduating from the law department in the class of 1871 when but eighteen years old. Two years of study in the office of Ranney & Morse followed, and in 1873, before he had attained his ma- jority, Mr. Dillaway was admitted to the bar. He had al- ready had an extensive experience as a jury lawyer, his persuasive eloquence and his ready wit, combined with his legal acumen, making him unusually successful in jury cases. After remaining with Messrs. Ranney & Morse for a time, Mr. Dillaway engaged in general practice. From the very beginning of his legal career, Mr. Dillaway had the largest and most lucrative practice enjoyed by any young man at the bar in Boston. Be- sides being the attorney for many banks and corpora-
W. E. L. DILLAWAY.
tions, he was prominently identified as counsel in the Smith will case, in the patent litigation of the National Pump Association, in the failure of the famous Pacific National Bank, and in numerous other important cases. He was also counsel for the West End Street Railway Company, having entire charge of its legislative matters, upon which all its subsequent success was founded. Mr. Dillaway was sole counsel for the Bay State Gas Company, in all its controversies for admission to the right to do busi- ness in Massachu- setts, and in the course of that litiga- tion was opposed at one time or another by all the leading lawyers of the State. In every case he was successful. He had charge of the nego- tiations, oftentimes delicate and compli- cated, which brought about the consolida- tion of the gas com- panies in Boston, and is a director in all of them, as well as being the heaviest owner of gas stock in Bos- ton. In ISSS Mr. Dillaway retired from the practice of law, having found that his private business and that of the corpora- tions with which he is connected called for his entire atten- tion. He owns a
controlling interest in the stock of the Mechanics Na- tional Bank, of which his brother, Mr. C. O. L. Dilla- way, is the president. He is one of the heaviest real estate owners and taxpayers in Boston, and has large interests in the West. In ISSS Mr. Dillaway was selected to deliver the Fourth of July oration for the city of Boston. He is an enthusiastic collector of rare books, bronzes, etchings and prints. Mr. Dillaway was married in 1874 to Miss Gertrude St. Clair Eaton.
184
MASSACHUSETTS OF TO-DAY.
O NE of the prominent men in the journalistic circles of Boston at the present time is Colonel Edwin Hutton Woods, to whose original business methods and inventive genius the Boston Herald is largely indebted for its commanding position. Mr. Woods was born in Boston, Oct. 6, 1843, and at the age of fourteen began his career in the hardware store of Allen & Noble. His education was obtained in the public schools, but he secured some mercantile instruction by a course in a commercial college. In 1862, although but nineteen years of age, he enlisted in the Army of the Potomac as sergeant of Company B, For- tieth Regiment, and while marching to Miner's Hill, Vir- ginia, in September of the same year, re- ceived a severe sun- stroke, which dis- abled him to such a degree that he was discharged from the army the following spring. Returning to his native city, he sought employment in the counting-room of the Herald as a book-keeper, and his employers soon real- ized how valuable an acquisition he was to the working force of that paper. At that time there were but three wholesale dealers in the city who purchased the Sunday edition of the Herald, and they sold quantities as needed to the smaller dealers. Mr. Woods suggested that the papers be sold direct, and also that newsdealers obtain their papers on the ticket plan, thus saving the trouble of receiving so much cash over the counters. These plans were adopted and found to be so practicable that all other publishers availed themselves of his improved methods. The idea of sending Sunday trains out for
the purpose of distributing the Herald all over New Eng- land also originated in the active brain of Mr. Woods. The firm, which in 1888 consisted of R. M. Pulsifer & Co., admitted Mr. Woods to partnership in that year, and, when a corporation was established, he took the posi- tion of vice-president and business manager. Later he was elected president, a position which he holds at the present time. Colonel Woods established the Hotel and Railroad News Company of Boston, and held the position of vice-pres- ident for several years, and is a direc- tor now. He is also vice-president of the American News- paper Publishers' Association, and president of the Boston Publishers' Association. He is a member of the Algonquin Club, Bos- ton Press Club, and the Hull Yacht Club. Mr. Woods was ap- pointed assistant adjutant-general, with the rank of colonel, on the staff of Governor Ames, in 1889. He has also held many offices, including that of commander of Post 7, Grand Army of the Repub- lic, and was lieuten- ant of Company E, Seventh Regiment, Massachusetts Vol-
EDWIN H. WOODS.
unteer Militia, for three years. He served as a member of the Common Council several years, and is an active member of Joseph Warren Lodge of Masons. Besides being eminently successful in business life, Colonel Woods has distinguishing social characteristics, and his pleasant disposition and hearty manner have won him a host of friends in every walk of life. Colonel Woods believes firmly in modern methods, and much of his suc- cess is due to his executive ability and business acumen.
185
BOSTON.
THOUGH not a native of Massachusetts, or even of New England stock, General John M. Corse, " the hero of Allatoona," is closely identified with Bos- ton in many ways, having been its postmaster for four years and having greatly increased the efficiency of the postal service. General Corse was born in Pittsburg, Penn., April 27, 1835, being descended from a Hugue- not family that settled in the South early in the eighteenth century. General Corse's parents moved to St. Louis, and later to Burlington, Ia., while he was still quite young, and his early education was obtained in those places. He entered West Point in 1853, but withdrew before graduation and stud- ied law, being ad- . mitted to the bar in 1860. He began the practice of his pro- fession in Burlington, Ia. Taking an active interest in politics, he was the candidate for secretary of state of Iowa in 1860 on the Douglas ticket. At the breaking out of the Rebellion he entered the service as a captain of artil- lery. Then he was transferred as major of the Sixth Iowa In- fantry, and later was assigned on the staff of General John Pope, with the rank of judge-advocate general, and afterwards inspector-general.
JOHN M. CORSE.
After participating in many engagements, he was made lieutenant-colonel of the Sixth Iowa Infantry, and joined Sherman's army in the siege of Corinth, Memphis and Vicksburg. For gallantry at the assault on Jackson he received the commission of brigadier-general, and took command of the Fourth Division of the Fifteenth Army Corps. At the battle of Mission Ridge, General Corse's leg was
broken by a shell. After recovering from the wound he joined General Sherman's staff and marched with him to the sea. It was his bravery at Allatoona Pass that made him famous throughout the country and won for him the rank of major-general. With a handful of resolute soldiers he withstood for hours a deadly fire from the enemy, refusing to surrender, and holding the important position until reinforcements from General Sherman arrived. He was wounded five times during the war. After a two years' campaign in the Northwest against the Sioux, he was ap- pointed lieutenant- colonel in the regu- lar army. Resigning from the army, Gen- eral Corse was ap- pointed internal rev- enue collector by President Johnson. He held this position for two years and then went abroad, where he remained several years. Re- turning from Europe, he engaged in the construction of har- bors and railways in the West. Coming East to live, General Corse settled in Bos- ton, where he has since lived. In 1886 President Cleveland appointed him post- master of Boston, and the appointment was received with equal satisfaction by Republicans and Democrats. Post- master Corse was very successful in his endeavors to improve the efficiency of the Boston post-office, and the work he accomplished there was appreciated by every business man in Boston. General Corse was married in 1856 to Miss Ellen Edwards Prince, who died, leaving one son, who is now a railroad man in the West. In 1883 General Corse again married, his second wife being the niece of President Franklin Pierce.
186
MASSACHUSETTS OF TO-DAY.
W HAT the twin brothers, Cyrus and Darius Cobb, have done for American art can scarcely be even hinted at within the liniits of a brief biographical sketch. Suffice it to say, that in the realms of histori- cal painting and sculpture they stand unrivalled. When the story of their wonderful lives-embracing, as they do, so many and such varied spheres of activity, and yet dominated by a single purpose, and fitting into each other with perfect harmony-comes to be written, it will be one of the most fascinating bi- ographies in the world's literature, and a source of in- spiration to all whose lives are controlled by high ideals. For a man to leave his chosen field of art in which he has at- tained high distinc- tion, take up the study of law for a given purpose, achieve pronounced success at the bar, and then, returning to art, win new lau- rels and add to a fame already estab- lished, requires something more than talent ; it requires genius. That, in a nutshell, is the life- story of Cyrus Cobb. In 1873 he entered the bar-he was the first graduate of the Boston Law School -to aid in accomplishing his own and his brother's long-maintained purpose, which the adverse conditions governing historical art in this country rendered neces- sary. Thus aided, Darius continued his work, and established his name as one of the greatest historical painters of modern times. Cyrus lost but three jury cases in his whole legal career of nearly ten years, and his critical review of the case of Mrs. Myra Clarke Gaines vs. the City of New Orleans was pronounced by
Mrs. Gaines's counsel to be one of the ablest of the many able papers written on the case. When he re- joined his brother in art work he immediately produced his great painting, "Jesus Condemned," which critics and artists have declared could be judged only by European standards. He then painted his "Warren at the Old South," which hangs in the Boston Art Museum, and which, aside from its artistic merits, has a peculiar psychological value, arising from the fact that while Darius was, in the language of his brother artists, "striding forward with seven - league boots in his art," Cyrus was concen- trating all his powers on the law, and yet, when he renewed his art, his advance in it was found to have been just equal to his brother's. After painting this work, he left the brush to Darius, and since then has devoted himself to sculpture. His busts have won him renown, his suc- cess with post- mortem subjects being especially marked, and his work from the photo- graph has established his name abroad. His head of General Grant was at once recognized as supe- rior to all likenesses of any kind, and his statue of "America," which is to go into the arcade of his soldiers' monument at Cambridge, is one of the great statues of all times. His design for the monument was selected as incomparably superior to all other compet- ing designs -over forty in number. His colossal head of the "Celtic Bard," which has recently been photo- graphed, is pronounced worthy the hand of Michael Angelo.
CYRUS COBB.
187
BOSTON.
D ARIUS COBB, with his twin brother Cyrus, was born in the birth chamber of Adoniram Judson, the great missionary, at Malden, Mass., Aug. 6, 1834. Both their parents were descended direct from the Pilgrims. Their paternal grandfather and grandmother were both Cobbs, one of the sixth and the other of the seventh generation from Elder Henry Cobb, who came over on the second voyage of the "Mayflower." Their father, Rev. Dr. Sylvanus Cobb, was one of the leading theologians of his day, being a power in the work of liber- alizing the Christian pulpit. Their mother was a very talented woman, being for twelve years presi- dent of the Ladies' Physiological Insti- tute. Her maiden name was Eunice Hale Waite. On her father's side she came from the Hales and the Waites, and her mother was a Stanwood. She therefore repre- sented three of the most influential fami- lies in the country. The father of the twins removed to Waltham when they were three years old, and to East Boston when they were six. The foundation for the brothers' varied attainments, which have made their names prominent aside from their art, was laid in their early youth, when they made it a rule to rise at four o'clock, studymusic till breakfast and art until the middle of the afternoon, and then pursue their literary studies till midnight. Their lives were in a sense interchangeable. They deemed it wise, how- ever, to make their professions distinct, Darius choosing painting and Cyrus sculpture. Their art work was inter- rupted by the War of the Rebellion. They enlisted in
the Forty-fourth Massachusetts Infantry, performing their duty in the field with the same spirit that has characterized their civil life. Darius' work in art has embraced historical paintings, portraits and landscapes. At the age of seventeen he expressed his determination to paint the Christ, which he produced thirty years after- ward in his "Christ Before Pilate," a painting that has taken rank as one of the great masterpieces of modern times. It is universally pronounced the best rendering of the Saviour ever produced in art, the poet Whittier lead- ing in this opinion. Darius stands in the front rank of portrait painters. His por- traits of Rufus Choate, General Butler and George T. Angell are nota- ble examples. He has recently made a sketch for a large painting in which heavenly hosts are descending to the earth and annihila- ting evil, which, when put upon the large canvass with the success that has attended all his his- torical paintings, will give his name pre- eminence. He is now engaged upon a large painting, repre- senting a maiden just rising from the earth, attended by two angels who are ushering her into life eternal. The subject was suggested to him years ago by the death of his sister, and it will be, when finished, the most beau- tiful and effective work he has yet produced. The twin brothers married sisters, Darius, Laura M., and Cyrus, Emma Lillie, who are direct descendants of John Alden, which brings their children into the same ancestral line with John and John Quincy Adams The brothers Cobb
DARIUS COBB.
have large families of children.
188
MASSACHUSETTS OF TO-DAY.
IN no city of the country are there better facilities than in Boston for the accommodation of travellers arriv- ing here or passing through the city from one railway station to another. With the growth of Boston has grown up an enormous business in the transfer of passen- gers and baggage - a business that has been thoroughly systematized and brought under the management of one brainy man. His name is George Washington Arm- strong, and to his executive business ability thousands of travellers every year are deeply in- debted. His rise from the position of newsboy to that of the head of one of the most respected corporations in New England is an inter- esting study. He was born in Boston, Aug. 11, 1836, the son of David and Mahala (Lovering) Armstrong. His re- mote ancestors be- longed to one of the renowned Scottish lowland clans, which was very numerous on the borders of England several cen- turies ago, and many of whose members subsequently found homes in the United States. The pro- genitor of the family in this country, Char- ter Robert Arm- strong, was among the early settlers of New Hampshire, being one of the orig- inal proprietors of Londonderry in 1722, and from him George W. Armstrong is descended. He obtained his education in the public schools of Boston, being one of the pupils of the old Hawes Grammar School. At the age of fourteen he began life for himself, with eighty- three dollars which he received from his father's estate. First he was a penny postman, having the whole of South Boston for his district. Then he worked as office
GEORGE W. ARMSTRONG.
boy for the South Boston Gazette and the Sunday News. In 1852 he became newsboy on the Boston & Worces- ter (now the Boston & Albany) Railroad, remaining on the road for nine years, and during the last year and a half of this time being employed as baggage master, sleeping-car conductor, brakeman and conductor on regular trains. He then became manager of the news business on the road, and in 1863 obtained a half interest in the restaurant and news room in the Boston & Albany station at Boston. Since 1871 he has conducted this business alone. Purchasing a local express in 1865, he organized “ Arm- strong's Transfer," which he has raised to a business of im- portance and magni- tude. He added passenger carriages and introduced other new features, includ- ing a system of checking baggage from one station to another, for the ac- commodation of rail- way passengers. In 1882 the Armstrong Transfer Company was incorporated, with Mr. Armstrong at its head. No just claim against the company for loss of property or delay in delivery has ever been the subject of litigation. Mr. Armstrong also owns the news and din- ing-room business on the Boston & Albany and Eastern Division of the Boston & Maine and also on the Boston, Revere Beach & Lynn Railroad, and the news busi- ness on the Fitchburg line. He is a director in the Traders National Bank and in several railroad corpora- tions, and president of the Emergency Hospital. He has been twice married, his second wife being the daughter Dr. Reuben Greene, of Boston. He has three children. 1
1
189
BOSTON.
B ENJAMIN DEAN, who has for nearly fifty years been in the active practice of his profession of the law in Massachusetts and most of the time in Middlesex and Suffolk counties, was born in Clitheroe, Lancashire, England, Aug. 14, 1824. His parents, Benjamin and Alice Dean, settled in Lowell, Mass., when young Ben- jamin was five years old. There he graduated from the high school in 1840. He then entered Dartmouth Col- lege, but gave up his collegiate course at the end of the freshman year to study law with Judge Hopkinson. He was admitted to the bar in 1845 and practised in Lowell until 1852, when he became a partner of Henry W. Fuller, in Boston, and succeeded to the business on Mr. Ful- ler's death. He was a member of the State Senate in 1862, 1863 and 1869. He was chairman of the Com- mittee on Prisons in his first two terms and served on other important commit- tees during the excit- ing period of the war. In 1869 he suc- ceeded Judge Francis Dewey as chairman of the Committee on the Judiciary, was a member of the Joint Standing Committee on the Library, and of the Joint Standing Committee on the License Law. He was a member of the Boston Common Council in 1865, 1866, 1872 and 1873, where he held each year the chairmanship of the Com- mittee on Ordinances. Mr. Dean represented the Third District of Massachusetts in the Forty-fifth Congress. He has been prominent in the Masonic Order since 1854, holding the offices of deputy for the State of Mas- sachusetts of the Supreme Council of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite for the Northern Masonic Juris-
BENJAMIN DEAN.
diction of the United States. He was grand commander of the States of Massachusetts and Rhode Island from 1871 to 1873, and from 1880 to 1883 was grand master of the Grand Encampment of the Knights Templars of the United States of America, and is past grand warden of the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts. Mr. Dean has been chairman of the park commissioners of Boston, a director of the public institutions of the city, and of the South Boston Railroad Company, president of the South Boston Gas Light Company, and a trus- tee of the South Bos- ton Savings Bank. An expert yachtsman, he was for some years the commodore of the Boston Yacht Club, of which he was one of the found- ers. Like his friend, the late Augustus Russ, he is fond of the sea. He has for many years been an owner of the Outer Brewster Island, and lessee of the Great Brewster, while Mr. Russ owned the Middle Brewster and Green islands. They had extensive plans for great improve- ment of the islands, much to the benefit of the outer Boston Bay. Mr. Dean mar- ried in Lowell, in 1848, Mary A., daughter of J. B. French. The children of this union were six, four of whom are living : Walter Loftus, Josiah Stevens, Clith- eroe (now Mrs. C. L. James), and Mary (now Mrs. Walter Tufts). Benjamin Wheelock Dean, the eldest son, died in 1892. Mr. Dean, with the other members of the board, was instrumental in accomplishing much for the development of the magnificent park system of Boston during his term of office as chairman of the Park Commission, from 1886 to 1889.
190
MASSACHUSETTS OF TO-DAY.
G EORGE H. CHICKERING, the only surviving son of the late Jonas Chickering, is the possessor of a name that has become famous in the annals of music and the music industry in America. Mr. Chicker- ing was born in Boston on April 18, 1830, and attended a private school, as did all the sons of Mr. Chickering. The basis of his culture, universally admitted by all who have the pleasure of his personal acquaintance, is the education he received in this school, from which he at once entered as an ap- prentice in the factory of his father, located at that time in the then new structure on Franklin Square, on the site now oc- cupied by the New England Conserva- tory of Music. Mr. Chickering, who had been working under the personal guid - ance of his renowned father, was instructed in the special art of making and voicing the hammers of grand pianos. He took a deep interest in the general con- struction of pianos and the science of acoustics, and the particular specialty known as tone pro- duction, and had advanced to such a degree of practical knowledge that when, in 1855, his father went to Europe, George H. Chickering had con- trol of his own department and a general supervision of all factory matters. In fact, he became an integral part of the institution, and has ever since his entry at the factory been thoroughly identified with the Chickering piano and its remarkable development, and the present great fame of the house and of its instruments is due to him more than to any other one man. Mr. Chickering has made occasional trips to Europe, and is very fond
GEORGE H. CHICKERING.
of travel. Most of his time on the occasions of his five visits to the old countries has been occupied in the famous museums and art galleries of those lands. Those moments that can be spared from the actual operation of the great Chickering factory are devoted by him to his family, to musical affairs in Boston, with which he has always been prominently associated, and to matters of art, in which he is deeply interested. He is very well and very widely known, and to all is an authority on musical matters. His greatest ambi- tion to-day is that the Chickering piano shall, if possible, be brought to a higher point than ever be- fore, and so perpetu- ate the record of the house, and finish the life-work of his fam- ily, that they may go down to posterity, not only as the founders of the American piano- forte industry, but as the inventors and practical introducers of those wonderful inventions in the early days of piano making, which made all subsequent im- provements possible and made the con- cert grand of to-day, that triumph of mechanical genius, artistic skill, scien- tific research and indomitable labor, an accomplished fact. Personally, Mr. Chickering is a most modest and unassuming gentleman, absolutely devoid of the unwholesome self- infatuation so characteristic of the fin de siècle with even men of success and position. He is a very approach- able man, and if he will he can talk for hours in an extremely interesting manner on all topics, whether musical, artistic or otherwise. Mr. Chickering's resi- dence is at Readville, Mass.
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