USA > Massachusetts > Massachusetts of today; a memorial of the state, historical and biographical, issued for the World's Columbian exposition at Chicago > Part 33
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263
BOSTON.
JOHN G. LOW, the inventor of the art tiles that bear his name, has developed the greatest artistic industry of America in the department of fictile prod- ucts. Mr. Low studied painting in Paris, and was long a leading member of the artists' fraternity in Boston at the time of that celebrated semi-Bohemian organiza- tion, the Allston Club, of which he was a member along with William M. Hunt, Thomas Robinson, Joseph Fox- croft Cole and Albion H. Bicknell. Perceiving the capacity for the artis-
tic design and use of tile to a degree im- mensely in advance of anything done at the time, while the country was keenly alive to the impulse imparted to artistic activity by the Cen- tennial exhibition at Philadelphia, two years before, he, with his father, Mr. John Low, founded in Chelsea, in 1878, the nucleus of the great works now conducted by the Low Art-Tile Company, -the largest establishment in the world for the production of this class of work. The tiles thus produced were of a new order ; a revelation in the way of the possibili- ties of fictile art. They soon became known all over the artistic world. In 1880, less than two years from the birth of this new American industry, these tiles were awarded in London a ten-guinea gold medal - the highest prize - over all the English manufacturers, with the experience and prestige of many years of prosper- ous activity behind them. Since then, at Barcelona, in Spain, and at the great Exposition Universelle in Paris, they have been awarded gold and silver medals. A com- parison between the tiles in use before the Low tiles were
JOHN G. LOW.
made, and those which were soon turned out in great quantities at Chelsea, will show in the former products which now seem almost of a primitive crudeness in design and color. The new American tiles exhibited a phenomenal variety and attractiveness in shape, size and design. For the first time tiles were made in relief, and their inventor, with a remarkable fertility of resource and a striking talent for structural design, adapted them to form decorative parts of many objects of every-day use-including stoves, clocks, furni- ture, candlesticks, wine coolers, paper- weights, ash-trays, jardinières, etc. Great as is their use for these purposes, however, the most extensive application yet made of them is in the recently de- veloped tile soda- fountains that are now revolutionizing this great and pecul- iarly American busi- ness. These fountains are of massive con- struction and most attractive appear- ance, being com - posed of beautifully artistic bas-relief panels in combina- tion with rich archi- tectural mouldings, making objects that are extremely deco- rative. The care which Mr. Low has taken to give all the products of the establishment a thoroughly artistic character, in addition to their ster- ling technical merit, has been at the base of his suc- cess. An artistic triumph of the works was the produc- tion, a few years ago, of a series of "plastic sketches," made in a limited number, and now having the value of great rarity for collectors. Mr. Low's son, John F. Low, is associated with him, and to his rare ability as a chem- ist are due the rich and delicate color-tones of these tiles.
264
MASSACHUSETTS OF TO-DAY.
A RTHUR S. LELAND was born and bred in Boston. He was educated in private schools, attending Chauncy Hall and the Institute of Technology. He determined early in his career to educate himself in the woollen business. His first year of business was spent in examining woollens in the concern of Macullar, Parker & Williams, now Macullar, Parker & Co., in 1879. After remaining one year he left the woollen business temporarily and went through Bryant & Stratton's Com- mercial College. He then went into the woollen commission business with the concern of Gowing & Grew (now Gow- ing, Sawyer & Co.), of New York and Boston, and at twenty-one years of age he became their head book - keeper. From Gowing & Grew's office he went to Mackintosh, Green & Co.'s, where, at the end of one year, he became their head salesman. At this house during his odd hours, gained by early rising, he studied law. Here also he studied the designing and weav- ing of textiles. His vacation he spent in trying to perfect him- self in his business. He was a weaver in a woollen mill in South Boston, and endeavored to learn carding and spinning in Vermont. He was also wool sorter in the Washington Mills in Lawrence. After remaining with the house two years, he associated himself, at twenty- three years of age, with James Walton, of Methuen, under the style of Walton & Leland. His business now amounted to four hundred and fifty thousand dollars in a single year. It was during this time that Mr. Leland went into the Washington Mills as wool sorter, remain-
ARTHUR S. LELAND.
ing from six until twelve o'clock. His afternoons were then spent at his mill in Methuen. When twenty-seven years of age he assumed the business alone, under the name of A. S. Leland & Co. Mr. Leland has written articles for magazines and newspapers, which have been received with the consideration they deserve. At thirty years of age he sold out his mill property. Although his business as a manufacturer was a success, Mr. Leland at this time concluded to enter the arena of banking. In January, 1890, he formed the concern of Leland, Towle & Co., which has from its inception been remarkably success- ful. Mr. Leland makes a business of taking up new enter- prises and obtaining for them sufficient capital to make them successful. Mr. Le- land has been suc- cessful in everything he has undertaken, and has never been connected with any- thing approaching failure. As an organ- izer he has developed his natural talents so perfectly that in a period of eighteen months the birth of three new companies and the revivifying of two old ones, all of which are profit- able, attest his busi- ness tact. His opinion and experience are much in demand by corpo- rations and concerns wanting advice. His firm docs a large commission business in stocks and bonds. The motto that nothing succeeds like success is exemplified in Mr. Leland. He is endowed with a seemingly inex- haustible capacity for work and has the faculty of accomplishing much in totally different lines of activity within a very short space of time. As he is still in the prime of life, he has a good future before him.
265
BOSTON.
IN the long list of honored names of Boston financiers who have been instrumental in the development of New England industries, belongs the name of Spencer Welles Richardson. He is the senior partner in the banking house of Richardson, Hill & Co., one of the most solid and conservative of all the financial institu- tions of Boston, and besides this has multifarious inter- rests in other directions which identify him with some of the most prominent facts in the financial, mercantile and social life of the Boston of to-day. He was born in Princeton, Mass., April 10, 1834, and was educated in the Boston public schools and the Brookline High School. He was a bright scholar, as is shown by the fact that he received the Franklin medal at the Quincy School in Boston in 1849. He began business life in the ticket office of the Boston & Maine Railroad in Boston, remaining there a year. In Feb- ruary, 1852, he en- tered the Boston office of the treas- urer of the Laconia Company, the Pep- perell Manufacturing Company, and the Saco Water Power Machine Shop, all of Biddeford, Me. He was employed in this office until the breaking out of the Civil War, when he enlisted in the Forty-fourth Massa- chusetts Regiment, and was promoted to the rank of captain of Company E. Mr. Richardson is one of five brothers who served in the Union Army during the Re- bellion. After returning to Boston, the banking firm of Dwight, Richardson & Co. was established, in 1866, and Mr. Richardson was its head until October, 1869, after which for a year he continued the business alone.
SPENCER W. RICHARDSON.
With William H. Hill, Jr., and Edward D. Adams, he founded, Nov. 1, 1870, the present banking and broker- age house of Richardson, Hill & Co. In December of the same year he was elected treasurer of the Saco Water Power Machine Shop, of Biddeford, in which position he still remains. He is also a director of the Boston & Bangor Steamship Company. He was a mem- ber of the Mercantile Library Association from 1854 to 1860, serving on its board of directors, on its lecture committee, as treas- urer, and as presi- dent. For several years he was con- nected officially with the New England Fe- male College, until it was transferred to the Boston Univer- sity. He is at pres- ent treasurer and trustee of the Mas- sachusetts Hom œ o- pathic Hospital, and holds many positions of responsibility as trustee and director of other institutions. Mr. Richardson is a member of Benjamin Stone, Jr., Post 68, Grand Army of the Republic, and com- panion of the Mili- tary Order of the Loyal Legion. He is also a member of the Art, Algonquin, and Merchants' clubs. On June 27, 1864, he was married to Miss Mary T. Cumston, daughter of the late William Cumston, founder of the firm of Hallett & Cumston, piano manufacturers. Mr. and Mrs. Richardson have three sons, - William Cumston Richardson, S. B., grad- uated in 1891 from the Massachusetts Institute of Tech- nology ; Spencer Cumston Richardson, now at Harvard. and Amor Hollingsworth Richardson, who is in his father's office. Mr. Richardson's residence is on Marl- borough Street, Boston.
266
MASSACHUSETTS OF TO-DAY.
IN the panorama of the religious history of Boston, one of the most conspicuous figures is the First Religious Society of Roxbury, which was founded in 1631, and of which John Eliot, "the Apostle to the Indians," was the second minister. The church has had a long line of distinguished pastors whose influence was ever potent in the religious, social and political life of the community. Rev. James De Normandie, the present pastor, has more than sustained the high reputation of the church, for when he first took charge, in 1883, he found the society in a rather disorganized condition. He im- mediately began to build up the church and put into it new life and activity. His efforts have been eminently successful. Mr. De Normandie has a scholarly mind and is a pulpit orator of great power. The De Normandie family is one of the oldest in the annals of France, going from thence to Geneva at the time of Calvin. André De Normandie was the first of the family to come to America. He settled at Bristol, Penn., in 1706. It was near here that James De Normandie was born, June 9, 1836. His mother's family, the Yardleys, were of English Quaker descent, coming over with William Penn. Mr. De Normandie entered Antioch College (Ohio) at its opening, in 1853, under Horace Mann, then the most distinguished educator in America, who took charge of this college, that here, without the barriers of tradition, he might carry out some of his high moral ideas in college training. After graduating, Mr. De Normandie taught a year in Washington Uni- versity at St. Louis, and then entered the Harvard
Divinity School. Graduating there in 1862, he was called to the South Parish, at Portsmouth, N. H., October, 1862, as the successor of Rev. Dr. A. P. Peabody. Here he became prominent in all the educa- tional and philanthropic interests of that town, espe- cially during the struggle of the Rebellion, and in the work of the Unitarian denomination, a contributor to its periodicals, a director for several years of the American Unitarian Association, and chairman of the National Conference for seven years. After being connected with the Unitarian Review in an editorial capacity . for some time, he assumed entire charge of it in 1882. His pastorate in Portsmouth came to a close in 1883, when, after having received calls to sev- eral of the most prominent churches of the Unitarian body,-among which were the First Parish in Portland, Me., and the Church of the Messiah at St. Louis, - he accepted the invitation to take charge of the First Religious Society in Roxbury, the church made famous by the long ministry of the Apostle Eliot in its early history, and at a later date even more sog by the remarkable ministry of Dr. Putnam, who is still regarded by a whole generation as one of the most eloquent and effective preachers Boston ever had. Since 1884, Mr. De Normandie has been president of the Board of Trustees of the Roxbury Latin School, which was founded about the time of the great grammar schools of England, during the revival of classical learning. In this capacity his erudition and scholarly attainments have proved invaluable.
JAMES DE NORMANDIE.
267
BOSTON.
C' HARLES WESLEY EMERSON, M. D., LL. D., preacher, author, teacher, orator, and founder of the Emerson College of Oratory of Boston, was born in Pittsfield, Vt., Nov. 30, 1837, the son of Thomas and Mary F. (Hewitt) Emerson. He comes of a race of ministers and learned men, and is a remote relative of Ralph Waldo Emerson. The family was ennobled by Henry VIII. Charles Wesley Emerson laid the foundation of his educational equipment in the public schools of his native State, supplemented by several years of scientific, philosoph- ical and theological study. He graduated from the Medical Col- lege of Philadelphia, and coming to Bos- ton passed through two departments- law and oratory - of the Boston Univer- sity. Completing his theological studies with Rev. Dr. Tyler, he was ordained to the Congregational ministry in Windham County, Vt. For twenty years Dr. Emerson preached with phenomenal success, holding pas- torates in several places in Vermont and Massachusetts. He built up weak parishes, relieved churches from debt, and everywhere preached to overflowing congregations. After twenty years of incessant pulpit and parish work his health became greatly impaired, and the resignation of his Fitchburg pastorate and withdrawal from public work became necessary. He then devoted himself to the study of voice and physical culture, and visited Eu- rope for the further pursuit of his oratorical studies. On his return he spent some time in special study in hospitals, and was subsequently elected professor
CHARLES W. EMERSON.
of physiology and hygiene of the voice in the Bos- ton University School of Oratory. In 1880 he opened a school of oratory and physical culture in Pemberton Square, Boston, giving it the name of the Monroe Con- servatory of Oratory. The number of students increased rapidly, new departments were added, and in 1886 the school received a charter from the State, with power to confer degrees, and become the Monroe College of Oratory. Four years later, by legislative enactment, the name of the institu- tion was changed to the Emerson Col- lege of Oratory. The school now occupies the great granite building, corner of Tremont and Berke- ley streets. The col- lege year just closed witnessed an at- tendance of five hundred students. The faculty includes Dr. Emerson, presi- dent ; Henry L. Southwick, secre - tary ; Susie Rogers Emerson, principal of the department of physical culture ; William J. Rolfe, lec- turer on Shakes- peare; John W. Dickinson, lecturer on pyschology ; Dan- iel Dorchester. teacher of English literature : S. E. Sherman, teacher of anatomy and physi- ology ; H. E. Holt and Albert C. Cheney, teachers of singing ; Jessie Eldridge Southwick, teacher of dramatic expression ; C. W. Kidder, professor of vocal physiol- ogy ; Professor Trine, teacher of rhetoric ; and six teachers of oratory, expression and physical culture. In the midst of a busy life, Dr. Emerson has found time to deliver many lectures, and has recently issued three books, -" The Evolution of Expression," " The Perfective Laws of Art " and " Physical Culture."
268
MASSACHUSETTS OF TO-DAY.
JAMES E. COTTER, a leading member of the Bos- ton bar, and president of the Charitable Irish Society of Massachusetts, was born in Ireland in 1848. Left motherless in childhood, at the age of seven years he came to Marlboro, Mass., where his father became the owner of a small farm, upon which, and other farms, the boy worked during the summer months, attending school in the winter. Having received his education in the public schools of that town and at the Normal School at Bridge- water, he studied law with William B. Gale, of Marlboro, and in January, 1874, was admitted to the bar in Middlesex County. Removing to Hyde Park immediately thereafter, he has since practised his profession in Norfolk and Suffolk counties, his office being in the Sears Building, Bos- ton. Almost from the very start, Mr. Cotter's legal career has been one of marked success. During the last ten years he has been re- tained in a number of important cases in the State and fed- eral courts, being counsel in suits over the water supply of cities and towns, in- volving the value of franchise, and the property and rights of water companies; also in land damage suits, in a variety of actions of tort for personal injuries against cities, towns and railway corporations, in several noted will cases, and in actions against insur- ance companies. He was senior counsel for, and suc- cessfully defended, the section master of the Old Colony Railroad, who was indicted for manslaughter and charged with the immediate responsibility for the terri- ble railroad accident of Ang. 19, 1890, known as the 1
" Quincy disaster." Mr. Cotter has held various public positions in Hyde Park. He has been chairman of the registrars of voters ; member of the school committee for three years, the last year (1888), chairman; town counsel since 1878, with the exception of one year ; chairman of the general committee that had charge of the celebration of the twentieth anniversary of the incorporation of that town ; vice-president of the His- torical Society, and charter member and director of the Hyde Park Social Club. He is a mem- ber of the Norfolk, Suffolk and Ameri- can Bar associations. In 1874 and in 1877 he was the Demo- cratic candidate for district attorney for the district, compris- ing Norfolk and Ply- mouth counties, and was the candidate of his party for pres- idential elector in 1884. He has de- clined nominations to other political offices, and is now devoting his whole attention to the prac- tice of his profes- sion. In March, 1892, he was unani- mously elected pres- ident of the Chari- table Irish Society, one of the old and honorable bodies of New England, many of its members being prominent and influential citizens in and about Boston. In April, 1892, he was admitted to practice in the Su- premie Court of the United States, in Washington, D. C., on motion of Attorney-General Pillsbury. Mr. Cotter was married, in October, 1874, to Miss Mary A. Walsh. Six children have been born to them, five of whom are living. His residence is in Sunnyside, Hyde Park. Not yet past his prime, Mr. Cotter may well anticipate many years of honorable achievement.
JAMES E. COTTER.
1
269
BOSTON.
F Henry Austin, one of the most brilliant and versatile of the younger generation of New England poets, it has been said by a famous critic, that, as a master of the laws of versification, he has no living superior. But Henry Austin is not a mere versifier - he is both poet and philosopher. Edward Everett Hale has said : " Mr. Austin really has the eye which perceives the analogy between things visible and things invisible, and he possesses the lyric swing." His life has been full of in- teresting incident and adventure, and in many lands he has gathered the ma- terial for his produc- tions. Henry Austin was born in West Roxbury, near Bos- ton, Feb. 25, 1858. After attending the public schools of Dorchester, he was fitted for Harvard at St. Mark's School, Southboro. Instead of matriculating at Cambridge, how- ever, he started on a tour of the West- ern States, and be- fore his return to Boston had visited Japan, China, Ma- lacca, India, Egypt, and Spain. Enter- ing Harvard, he studied for a time, but did not gradu- ate. His name, however, is carried on the rolls of the class of 1878. Going abroad again, he spent some time in Australia and England, after which he returned to this country and became con- nected with the newspaper press of Baltimore and Washington as reporter, editorial writer and art critic. For two years he did considerable dramatic work, trans- lating from the French several comic operas now the property of Charles Ford, of Baltimore. He then went to New Orleans, and while there wrote many notable
HENRY AUSTIN.
magazine articles. From the Southern metropolis he went to Arkansas, and in Garland County of that State he published and edited a daily newspaper. Returning to New Orleans and joining the staff of the Times- Democrat, he remained there several years. During this period he did a great deal of work for the press in general, sending syndicate letters regularly to over thirty American newspapers. Mr. Austin was also an official of the famous but ill-starred New Orleans Expo- sition. Relinquish- ing journalism, he went into business for two years, during which his pen was busy only at inter- vals. Receiving an invitation to join the editorial staff of the Boston Herald, he accepted it, and re- mained with that paper for two years. He then started a literary syndicate in connection with the Boston Traveller, which he continued for a time. Mr. Austin was actively interested in the Nationalist move - ment from its incep- tion, and was one of the leading spirits in the formation of its clubs. He was the editor of the " Nationalist Maga- zine " during its first year. For the last two years he has been engaged in general literary work, "producing books for publishers," as he modestly puts it. Some of the best of his poems have been collected in a volume entitled "Vagabond Verses " (Boston, 1890). Mr. Austin is residing at present (1892) in Boston, tem- porarily, and is engaged in compiling a curious book to be called " The Pathos, Picturesqueness and Philosophy of Crime." He is also writing a novel in verse, illustra- tive of present social conditions.
270
MASSACHUSETTS OF TO-DAY.
FRANCIS A. WALKER.
[SEE PORTRAIT ON PAGE 8.]
G ENERAL FRANCIS A. WALKER, chairman of the Board of World's Fair Managers of Massa- chusetts, and president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is a veteran in the public life of the country. A son of the economist, Amasa Walker, Francis A. Walker was born in Boston on July 2, 1840, graduated at Amherst in 1860, and began the study of law at Worcester. He joined the Massachusetts Volun- teers, and served with distinction in the war, leaving the army as brevet brigadier-general of volunteers. For a time he taught the classic languages in the Williston Seminary, and was later an assistant editor of the Spring- field Republican. In 1869 he became chief of the Bu- reau of Statistics in the United States Treasury Depart- ment, and in 1870 superintendent of the ninth census. During 1871 and 1872 he held, in addition to the superintendency of the census, the office of commis- sioner of Indian affairs. In 1873 he was elected profes- sor of political economy and history in the Sheffield Scientific School of Yale University, and held this posi- tion until 1881, when he accepted the presidency of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. During this period he occupied public positions as chief of the Bureau of Awards at the Philadelphia Exposition, and as superintendent of the tenth census. He also served as one of the United States Commissioners at the Interna- tional Monetary Conference of 1878, a position which he was obliged to decline in connection with the con- ference of 1892. President Walker is an active member of scientific bodies, and has contributed much to their success. He is vice-president of the National Academy
of Sciences, president of the American Statistical Asso- ciation, member of the Advisory Committee of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, presi- dent of the Military Historical Society of Massachusetts, and was president of the American Economic Associa- tion for a number of years. He is a member of the International Statistical Institute, and an honorary fel- low of the Royal Statistical Society of England. The degree of LL. D. was conferred upon him in 1881 by Amherst and Yale, in 1883 by Harvard, in 1887 by Co- lumbia, in 1888 by St. Andrews, Scotland, and in 1892 by the University of Dublin. His official writings in- clude annual reports as superintendent of the ninth census, 1870-72, as commissioner of Indian affairs, 1872, and as superintendent of the tenth census, 1879- 81, and the following : "Commerce and Navigation of the United States," two volumes, 1868-69 ; " Ninth Census," four volumes, 1872-73 ; "Statistical Atlas of the United States," 1874 ; " Judges' Report on Awards," eight volumes, 1878 ; "Tenth Census," twenty-four vol- umes, 1883, et seq. President Walker has been a fre- quent contributor to the reviews, has delivered numerous addresses on economic, educational and military themes, and has published the following works: "The Indian Question," Boston, 1874 ; "The Wages Question," New York, 1876 ; "Money," New York, 1878; "Money, Trade and Industry," 1879; "Land and Its Rent," Boston, 1883 ; "Political Economy," New York, 1883 and 1887 ; "History of the Second Army Corps," New York, 1886; "First Lessons in Political Economy," New York, 1889.
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