USA > Massachusetts > Massachusetts of today; a memorial of the state, historical and biographical, issued for the World's Columbian exposition at Chicago > Part 27
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215
BOSTON.
C HARLES WHITTIER, manufacturer of elevators and machinery, and inventor, was born Nov. 26, 1829, in Vienna, Kennebec County, Me. He is the son of John Brodhead and Lucy (Graham) Whittier. The first of his ancestors in this Country was Thomas Whit- tier, who came from England in 1638, at the age of sixteen, in the ship "Confidence." Mr. Whittier's education was obtained in the public schools of Rox- bury, Mass., where he entered the Washington Grammar School in 1841, the year in which it was dedicated. At the close of his school- days he was appren- ticed for three years to learn the machin- ist's trade with the firm of Chubbuck & Campbell, Roxbury, of which the present Whittier Machine Company is the lineal successor. He has thus been in the same business for nearly fifty years. During his appren- ticeship Mr. Whit- tier attended for two years the drawing school of the Lowell Institute, and be- came not only a practical mechanic but an experienced draughtsman. Being made superintendent of the business in 1859, he was admit- ted to partnership in the firm, which was then, upon the retirement of Mr. Chubbuck, changed to Campbell, Whittier & Co. In 1874 the business was incorporated under the name of the Whittier Machine Company, with Mr. Whittier as president, a position which he has since held. The works, for many years in Roxbury, but located now mainly in South Boston, comprise a very large and unusually fine plant in the line of foundry and machine work, especially adapted to the manufacture of steam,
hydraulic and electric passenger and freight elevators. The company is one of the principal manufacturers in America of electric elevators, which represent the highest development thus far attained by electrical science and mechanical art in this industry. A large number of improvements, increasing the safety, speed and comfort realized in the use of elevators, have been introduced by the Whittier Machine Company. These improvements are protected by numerous patents, many of which are Mr. Whittier's own inventions. The company has always encouraged legisla- tion calculated to se- cure the compulsory adoption of all rea- sonable safeguards for the protection of life and limb in the use of elevators, in- cluding a rigid sys- tem of inspection. Mr. Whittier has al- ways been identified with the Republican party. In 1884 he was elected to the State Senate, where he served one term. For many years he has been an active member of the Mas- sachusetts Charitable Mechanic Associa- tion. He is one of the two vice-presi- dents of the Eliot Five Cents Savings Bank, Roxbury, and is a member of the Executive Committee of the Board of Trustees of Tufts College. For nearly forty years he has been a mem- ber of the First Universalist Society of Roxbury. His long career as a shrewd, honorable and successful busi- ness man, and as an inventor, qualifies him to stand as a truly representative man of the Commonwealth. Mr. Whittier was married in Roxbury, June 7, 1855, to Eliza Isabel, eldest daughter of Benjamin F. and Eliza (Ever- ett) Campbell. They have no children.
CHARLES WHITTIER.
.
216
MASSACHUSETTS OF TO-DAY.
H OSEA KINGMAN, lawyer, mason, and veteran of the Civil War, is one of the representative men of Massachusetts. He was born in Bridgewater, Plymouth County, Mass., April 11, 1843, the son of Philip D. and Betsey (Washburn) Kingman. In the public schools of his native place he gained his early education, and then went to the Bridgewater Academy, a famous institution, which is the alma mater of many distinguished men. Mr. Kingman also attended the Appleton Academy, at New Ipswich, N. H. He then entered Dartmouth College, at Hanover, N. H., but the breaking out of the war inter- rupted his studies here, and he enlisted in Company K, Third Regiment, Massachu- setts Volunteers, and was mustered into service Sept. 22, 1862. In that month Mr. Kingman accom- panied his regiment to Newbern, N. C., where he remained until December, when he was detailed to duty in the signal service, and was sent to Port Royal, S. C. Later he was detailed to Folly Island, Charleston Harbor, and on June 22, 1863, he was mustered out of the service. After having thus served nearly one year with distinction he returned to college, where he was able to make up his junior year work in his senior year, and so was graduated with his class in 1864. Mr. Kingman then took up the study of the law, and his training in this department of his life's work was gained in the office of William Latham, with whom, after his admis- sion to the bar, he went into partnership, under the firm name of Latham & Kingman. In 1871 Mr. Latham retired, and Mr. Kingman continued the business and is
still in practice. As a public man Mr. Kingman has served in the positions of district attorney of Plymouth County and as commissioner of insolvency of that county. He was elected to the latter position in 1884, and was re-elected each year until 1887, when he was elected district attorney. He also received the appoint- ment of special justice of the first district court of Plymouth County, Nov. 12, 1878. He resigned his office as district attorney to become a member of the Metropolitan Sewer- age Commission, of which board he is now chairman. Mr. Kingman is an inter- ested student of local history, and is a trustee of the Ply- mouth County Pil- grim Historical Soci- ety, an organization which has done much for the enlargement of historical research in the line of early Plymouth events. Mr. Kingman is also atrustee of the Bridgewater Acad- emy, and takes an active interest in ed- ucational matters at home and abroad. He has likewise been for some time a trus- tee of the Bridgewater Savings Bank. He is also prominent in the ranks of Free Masonry. June 23, 1866, he was married to Carrie, the daughter of Hezekiah and Deborah (Freeman) Cole, at Carver, Mass. This union has been blessed with but one child : Agnes C. Kingman. Mr. Kingman's home is in Bridgwater, where he was born and has lived nearly all his life, and where he is respected by all. His responsible and exacting duties as chairman of the Metropolitan Sewerage Commission occupy at present nearly the whole of his time and energies, and he fills that office with great credit.
HOSEA KINGMAN.
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217
BOSTON.
INVENTIVE genius and talent for business are seldom united in one man, and when these qualities meet, as in Solomon Adams Woods, a successful life results. He is a native of Farmington, Me., where he was born, Oct. 7, 1827, the son of Nathaniel and Hannah (Adams) Woods. His ancestors went from Massachu- setts to Farmington, where his paternal grandfather was one of the first settlers, and where his father became one of the leading men of the town. Mr. Woods was brought up on the farm, getting his schooling winters at the district school, and later at the Farmington Acad- emy. Having a me- chanical bent of mind, at the age of twenty years he learned the carpen- ter's trade, which he intended to follow. Four years later, however, he planned, with his employer, the erection of a sash, door and blind factory in Farming- ton, and came to Massachusetts to purchase the ne- cessary machinery. That was the turning point in his career. Instead of returning to Maine, he engaged as a journeyman in the same business, in Boston, with Solomon S. Gray. Within a year Mr. Woods had bought out his employer, and on Jan. 1, 1852, went into the business of manufacturing sashes, doors and blinds on his own account. Two years later he formed a partnership with Mr. Gray, under the firm name. of Gray & Woods, for the manu- facture and sale of a wood-planing machine, originally invented by Mr. Gray, but rendered much more prac- tical by Mr. Woods's improvements. The partnership lasted seven years. In 1865 Mr. Woods's business,
SOLOMON A. WOODS.
which had grown to large proportions, was still further extended by the manufacture of the improved Wood- bury planer. To meet the increasing demands of his business, Mr. Woods erected a manufactory in South Boston, and branch houses were established in New York and Chicago. In 1873 the S. A. Woods Machine Company was incorporated, with a capital of $300,000, and with Mr. Woods as president, an office he still holds. To the successive firms of Gray & Woods, S. A. Woods and the S. A. Woods Machine Company, more than fifty patents for de- vices and improve- ments in machines for planing wood and making mould- ings have been is- sued, and from the Massachusetts Char- itable Mechanic As- sociation and other institutions they have received nearly a hundred medals. Mr. Woods has been a member of the Boston Common Council, a director of the East Boston ferries, and since 1870 a trustee of the South Boston Sav- ings Bank, of whose Board of Investment he has been a mem- ber for many years. In 1878 he declined a nomination for the Board of Aldermen, unanimously urged upon him by both parties. Mr. Woods was married, in 1854, to Miss Sarah Eliza- beth Weathern, of Vienna, Me., who died in 1862. Five years later he married Miss Sarah Catharine Watts, of Boston. He has three children : Frank Forrest (on whom he depends chiefly for the present and future management of the business, and who holds the position of vice-president and general manager), Florence and Frederick Adams Woods.
218
MASSACHUSETTS OF TO-DAY.
AS S an example of a self-made man, one who has earned his right to the title rather by the success of perseverance and untiring industry than by any turn of fortune's wheel, John P. Squire, the Cambridge packer, holds high place. From a poor farmer's boy, whose first business experience was that of a clerk in a village store in rural Vermont, to the head of the third largest pork-packing establishment in the United States, is a record of which any one might feel proud. John P. Squire was born in Weathersfield, Vt., May 8, 1819. His boyhood years were spent on the farm and attending the short terms of the public schools. At the age of sixteen he entered the employ of Mr. Orvis, the vil- lage storekeeper at West Windsor, where he stayed for two years, or until he earned sufficient money to enable him to attend the acad- emy at Unity, N. H. Subsequently he taught night school at Cavendish. In 1838 he came to Boston and became a clerk in the stall of Nathan Robbins, in Faneuil Hall Mar- ket. He went into business for himself in 1842, with Francis Russell as partner, at No. 25 Faneuil Hall Market. His success from this on was marked. In 1847 the partnership was dissolved, and for eight years he carried on the business alone. In 1855 he again formed a partnership. Since then there have been several changes in the firm, but Mr. Squire always remained at its head. The business is now carried on under the name of John P. Squire & Co. Corporation, of which Mr. Squire and two of his sons, Frank O. and Fred. F., are the members. In 1885 Mr.
Squire bought a tract of land in East Cambridge, upon which he built a packing house. The plant was enlarged from time to time to meet the demands of a growing business until, in 1881, a great refrigerator of thirty thousand tons' capacity was built, with a cooling area of three acres. When this and other buildings were destroyed by fire in 1891, a new refrigerator, with the De La Vergne system of artificial refrigeration, was built, having six acres of cooling space, and a capacity for hanging ten thou- sand hogs, and the killing of five thou- sand per day. The magnitude of the bus- iness may be sug- gested by the state- ment that over eight hundred thousand hogs are slaughtered annually, one thou- sand men are em- ployed at a yearly expense of seven hundred thousand dollars, and the freight bills for live hogs amount to seven hundred thousand dollars a year. Mr. Squire married the daughter of his first employer, Miss Kate Green Orvis, in 1843, and eleven children blessed the union, nine of whom are now living. On April 30, 1892, Mr. Squire celebrated the golden jubilee of his en- trance into business by a grand reception at the estab- lishment in East Cambridge, and several thousand friends accepted the opportunity to tender him their congratulations. Mr. Squire joined the Mercantile Library Association when he first came to Boston, and spent a great deal of his time in reading, of which he was very fond. The position which he attained in com- mercial circles was due to his own efforts. His resi- dence is in Arlington.
JOHN P. SQUIRE.
219
BOSTON.
W ILLIAM F. SAWYER, president of the Massachu- setts College of Pharmacy, was born Oct. 30, 1847, in Charlestown, Mass., being the son of Seth and Susan Prudence (Frost) Sawyer. His great-grandfather Pol- lard was the first private to fall in the battle of Bunker Hill. Mr. Sawyer's education was gained in the public schools of Charlestown, and he attended for a time the academy at Manchester, N. H. When seventeen years of age, he entered a drug store as apprentice, and spent several years in learning the business. He worked in many different stores in Charlestown and Cambridge, thereby acquiring a varied knowledge, which in those days was ne- cessary in order to become a reliable and thorough drug- gist. He finished his course as drug clerk in Morse's store, at Charlestown. In these several places he had gained a wide and eminently prac- tical knowledge of the retail drug busi- ness, and in 1870 he decided to go into the trade for himself. His first venture was at Athol, Mass., where he con- ducted a drug store four years with such success as ensured his skill and knowl- edge of the business, and gave him confidence to begin business in Boston. In 1874, therefore, he purchased the store at No. 1152 Tremont Street, established in 1849, and has done business there from that date to this. Mr. Sawyer has always taken a deep and active interest in pharmaceutical matters, and in the several associations of the druggists has been an active member. He is at present a member of the Executive Committee and of the Legislative Committee of the State Phar-
WILLIAM F. SAWYER.
maceutical Association, and a member of the Boston Druggists' Association, the American Pharmaceutical Association, and of the Druggists' Alliance. Mr. Sawyer was one of the first men in the State to call the atten- tion of druggists to the fact that Massachusetts had no suitable building for the teaching of pharmacy. The handsome new Massachusetts College of Pharmacy, at the corner of St. Botolph and Garrison streets in Boston, is the result of the labors of Mr. Sawyer and of othesr. This is the first and only college of its kind in the State. It was started in 1868 in a room on Boylston Street. It was next found in the old Hol- lis Street school - house, and later in the Franklin school- house. It had at this time some seven thousand dollars, and through the efforts of trustees, one of whom was Mr. Sawyer, money enough was raised to ensure the building of the pres- ent structure. The institution to- day has control of about one hundred and twenty thousand dol- lars' worth of prop- erty. Mr. Sawyer is connected with a number of charitable organizations, and is also president and director of several business corporations. He is a member of the Masonic Order, the Odd Fellows, Royal Arcanum, Ancient Order of United Workmen, and Home Circle. On Nov. 23, 1870, at Royalston, Mass., Mr. Sawyer was married to Eunice Helen Bryant. Their one child is William Prince Sawyer. Popular among his fellow-druggists of the best stamp, Mr. Sawyer is honored by them as a man who, among other things, helped to make the College of Pharmacy possible.
220
MASSACHUSETTS OF TO-DAY.
F EW among the younger generation of Boston lawyers are better known than George Robinson Swasey. Though less than forty years old, he has already estab- lished an enviable reputation as one of the foremost pleaders at the New England bar. Of sturdy New Eng- land stock, he has fought his way in his profession until he stands to-day in the foremost rank, and his opinion is sought not alone by lay clients but by his most suc- cessful legal brethren. His father was Horatio J. Swasey, and his mother Har- riet (Higgins) Swa- sey. Mr. Swasey was born at Standish, Me., Jan. 8, 1854. He fitted for college at Westbrook Semi- nary and Gorham Academy, and subse- quently entered Bow- doin College, from which he graduated in the class of 1875. He then began the study of law with his father, Hon. Horatio J. Swasey, at Stan- dish, Me., where he remained for two years. In the fall of 1877 he entered the Law School of Bos- ton University, and less than one year later, in June, 1878, he graduated at the head of a class of fifty-two members, many of whom have since won high rank at the bar of Massa- chusetts and other States. In the fall of the same year Mr. Swasey was appointed a tutor in the law school, a position which he held until the fall of 1882, when he resigned. In April, 1878, he was admitted to the bar of his native State, and in February, 1879, to the Massa- chusetts bar. He at once began the practice of law with his brother, Horatio E. Swascy (who died in 1889), under the name of Swasey & Swascy, and they quickly built up an extensive business. In the spring of 1883
GEORGE R. SWASEY.
Mr. Swasey was appointed acting dean of the Boston University Law School, during the absence of the dean in Europe, and was at the same time appointed a lec- turer in the school, a position which he still holds. In 1886 he was nominated for the School Board of the city of Boston, on the Democratic and Republican tickets, and elected. He was re-elected in the years 1887, 1888 and 1889, and while a member of the board did good work on behalf of education. He was chair- man of the Com- mittee on Accounts and Evening Schools. Throughout the pro- longed controversy which took place a few years since as to the use of particular text-books in the schools, he was a firm advocate of text- books which should be just to all, and insisted that in matters of educa- tion no class or creed should be un- fairly treated. Mr. Swasey has done considerable legal writing, having compiled several treatises, and has assisted in the prep- aration of two edi- tions of " Benjamin on Sales." He is at present chairman of the Board of Appeals of the city of Bos- ton. Without taking a prominent part in politics, by the force of his charac- ter and popularity, he is a considerable factor in the public life of his city and State. It has been given to few men to attain so early in life such an enviable posi- tion at the bar, and so much prominence as an authority on educational matters, as has been gained by Mr. Swasey. In the opinion of his friends and admirers he is only on the threshold of a career that is leading him to still greater success.
221
BOSTON.
M ICHAEL JOSEPH McETTRICK, congressman elect from the Tenth Massachusetts District, the son of Matthew and Mary (McDonough) McEttrick, was born in Roxbury, Mass., June 26, 1846. At the age of eleven years he graduated, at the head of his class, of which he was the youngest member, from the Washington Grammar School. He then attended the famous Rox- bury Latin School, and after graduating there, he entered the office of City Engineer Charles Whitney, of Roxbury, to acquire a knowl- edge of civil engi- neering. This pro- fession he was afterwards compelled to abandon owing to an injury sustained to his eyes. During the last year of the Civil War, he en- listed in the regular army, receiving his discharge in 1865. He was assistant assessor of the city of Boston in 1884, and in the fall of the same year was elected by the Democrats of his district to the Mas- sachusetts House of Representatives. Seven times in suc- cession he was elected, receiving each year an in- creased majority. In the House he served on many of the most important commit- tees, such as finance, child labor, education, roads and bridges, liquor law, constitutional amendments, woman suffrage, expendi- tures and municipal charters. He quickly rose to a position of power and commanding influence on the floor of the House, being chairman of the Democratic members and their acknowledged leader. His brilliant minority reports as member of the Education Commit- tees of 1888 and 1889 advocated in a masterly way the principle, since endorsed by the Legislature, concerning
MICHAEL J. McETTRICK.
the right of the State to interfere in the management of private schools. Mr. McEttrick holds that, as the Con- stitution of the United States guarantees freedom of con- science and freedom of worship to every American citizen, it guarantees with equal right, freedom of educa- tion. In 1890 he was elected to the State Senate, serving there on the committees on election laws, woman suffrage, and administrative boards and commis- sions. As the author and promoter of measures in the interest of humanity, and advocate of legis- lation for the pro- tection of factory women and children, he is recognized throughout the Com- monwealth as first and foremost. His entire career has been stamped with integrity and sin- cerity. Hence his phenomenal popular- ity, and his election to Congress in 1892 as an independent Democrat from the Tenth Massachusetts District over three strong rival candi- dates, and after a campaign that for enthusiasm and in- terest has never had its parallel in this State. It is expected that Mr. McEttrick's broad grasp of legis- lative matters, his earnestness and his eloquence, will make him a power in the Fifty-third Congress. His symmetrical and splendid physique is partially due to his taste for athletics which he devel- oped early in life. By the time he had reached his majority he had won a national reputation for his powers of strength, activity and endurance, and a record for wrestling, leaping and pedestrianism which for a long time remained unbroken. He won the long distance walking championship of America in 1869.
222
MASSACHUSETTS OF TO-DAY.
H ENRY LILLIE PIERCE was born in Stoughton, Mass., Aug. 23, 1825. He is a descendant of John Pierce, who came to this country from England in 1637, and was admitted a freeman of Watertown in the following year. His father, Colonel Jesse Pierce, was a man of considerable distinction as a teacher, a member of the General Court and a pioneer in the anti-slavery movement. His mother was the daughter of Captain John Lillie, a gallant officer in the War of the Revolu- tion. Mr. Pierce re- ceived a good Eng- lish education at the public school in his native town, at the academy in Milton, and also at the academy and State Normal School at Bridgewater. In 1850 he became con- nected with the chocolate manufac tory of Walter Baker & Co. Four years later he took charge of the entire busi- ness, and from that time to the present has been the sole manager. He began to take an interest in public questions while still a school- boy, and was one of the earliest and most zealous promoters of the movement which led to the organiza- tion of the Republi- can party. He served as the representative from Dorchester in the General Court during the sessions of 1860, 1861, 1862 and 1866, and was the author of a number of important legislative measures. On the annexation of Dorchester to Boston, in 1869, he was elected for the two years fol- lowing to the Board of Aldermen. In 1872 he was elected mayor of Boston, being the choice of the citi- zens, without regard to party. Against very strong opposition he reorganized the health and fire depart-
ments, and freed them from the personal and partisan influences to which they had been subject. Before the expiration of his term he received the Republican nom- ination for representative to Congress, and was elected by a nearly unanimous vote. During his service of four years as the representative of the third district, he took an active part in committee work and made a number of important speeches on the floor of the House, - opposing the Force Bill, so called, favoring an amend- ment to the Consti- tution, limiting the term of office of the President, favoring reciprocity with Canada, defining the proper distribution of the Geneva Award and opposing the counting of the elec- toral vote sent from Louisiana in 1876. In 1877 Mr. Pierce was again elected mayor of Boston and served one term. The most important act of his adminis- tration was the reor- ganization of the police department. Although he has not held any public office since then, he has continued to take an active interest in pub- lic affairs, and has been called upon many times to speak on political, edu- cational and eco- nomical questions. He found himself unable to sup- port the Republican nominee for the presidency in 1884, and has since been numbered among the inde- pendents in politics. For some years he has been pres- ident of the New England Tariff Reform League, and his name is also prominently identified with the reform of the civil service and of the ballot. He has travelled extensively in this country and in Europe, and has thus added to his wide and varied culture.
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