USA > Massachusetts > Massachusetts of today; a memorial of the state, historical and biographical, issued for the World's Columbian exposition at Chicago > Part 35
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279
BOSTON.
S TARTING out into the venturesome world of busi- ness without friends and without capital, George O. Wales has achieved, while still a comparatively young man, one of the conspicuous successes in the commer- cial life of Boston- a success due not to speculation or to mere chance, but to his own pluck, ability and integrity. The firm of George O. Wales & Co., iron merchants, is well and favorably known throughout New England, as well as in the iron trade of the country. Mr. Wales is a native of the old presiden- tial town of Brain- tree, Mass., where he was born in 1848, the son of George and Isabella C. Wales. He obtained his early education in the com- mon schools of Brain- tree, and, after grad- uating from the High School, where he ac- quitted himself cred- itably, he came, in 1867, to Boston, hav- ing chosen for him- self a mercantile ca- reer. Beginning in a modest way as en- try clerk for the wholesale millinery house of Sleeper, Fisk & Co., he worked his way up to the po- sition of book- keeper. He served this firm faithfully for three years, and then, being desirous of widening his business experience and familiarizing himself with other lines of trade, he went as head book-keeper to the firm of Albert Thompson & Co., wholesale leather dealers. In this position he remained one year, and then, in 1871, when but twenty-three years of age, he started in busi- ness for himself, and laid the foundations of what is now one of the most respected; firms in Boston. Its growth has been rapid but normal. Taking the New England agency of some of the Pennsylvania iron mills,
GEORGE O. WALES.
Mr. Wales has developed, from small beginnings, a large business that is conducted with great skill and energy. Parallel cases of uninterrupted success from the very start are not of frequent occurrence. By the introduc- tion of original and aggressive methods, combined with foresight and rare business tact, Mr. Wales has been enabled to win the respect and confidence of all his business associates. The firm of George O. Wales & Co., whose offices are in the Mason Building, on Kilby Street, repre- sents many of the largest and most re- liable iron mills of Pennsylvania, deal- ing principally in the highest grades of goods, and making specialties of steel and iron plates and sheets, boiler tubes, boiler, tank and stack rivets, steam, gas and water pipe, and cor- rugated sheet iron. The demands of bus- iness, absorbing as they are, do not, by any means, take the whole of Mr. Wales's thought and atten- tion, for he is de- voted to his home life and is an ardent horticulturist and an art connoisseur. He takes pride in the beautiful homestead at Braintree, embra- cing twenty acres, where he still resides, and which he has brought up to a fine state of cultiva- tion. He is also deeply interested in the subject of life insurance, and carries a very heavy policy. In 1870 Mr. Wales was married to Miss A. F. P. Howard, who died in 1886. He has five children, the eldest of whom is in business with his father. The second son is a stu- dent at Harvard. Mr. Wales is a member of the Mas- sachusetts Horticultural Society and of the Art Club of Boston.
280
MASSACHUSETTS OF TO-DAY.
TO 'O the proverbial nicety of taste exercised by the wealthy citizens of Boston in matters combining style and comfort, is due the high standing enjoyed by the carriage-making industry among the trades of Massa- chusetts. This industry has experienced great advance- ment during the last score of years, and now the amount of capital invested in it is counted by millions of dol- lars. The admitted leader in this trade, and the man whose brain has conceived many original ideas in the construction of car- riages to please the most exacting lovers of road driving, is Mr. Chauncy Thomas, whose factory and warerooms occupy two six-story build- ings on Chestnut Street, at the west end of Boston. He holds patents on twenty or more in- ventions useful in his trade and has evolved innumerable conceits which have been copied very ex- tensively. As the business of Mr. Thomas sprang from a small beginning and arose to its pres- ent importance by virtue of his own untiring efforts, the history of his life challenges the atten- tion of admirers of self-made men. Ile was born in Maine in 1822, his parents, who are direct descendants of the Old Colony Puritans, having moved from Hingham, Mass., to the Pine Tree State in 1819. When he was sixteen years of age he was apprenticed to the carriage-making business in Bangor, Me., and subsequently came to Boston, where he worked in the capacity of a journey- man until 1852. While working as an employee, Mr. Thomas displayed, in a remarkable degree, a gift for drawing, and he seized every opportunity to develop
CHAUNCY THOMAS.
that talent, thus acquiring an advantage which ever since has served him well. In 1852 Mr. Thomas went to West Newbury, Mass., where, in conjunction with other young men, he established a carriage factory. The principal event of his seven years' stay in that locality was his marriage, Mrs. Thomas being the daughter of the late Daniel Nichols of the town named. Leaving West Newbury in 1859, Mr. Thomas, with his brother- in-law, set up a factory in Roxbury and there constructed carriages, ambu- lances and army wagons. In a short time this partnership was dissolved, and Mr. Thomas came to Boston, where he transformed an old boat-house, located on the banks of the Charles River, within a few yards of the site of his present establishment, into a carriage factory. During the thirty years which have since passed, Mr. Thomas, by giving constant personal supervision to his business, by his abil- ity to design in a way to please, and by his readiness to conceive original ideas to meet the æsthetic as well as the practical tastes of the people of the Back Bay, has built up a business which is an honor to the State. Although devoted to business, Mr. Thomas has time to indulge his literary tastes. He not only reads extensively but also writes interestingly. Mr. Thomas is the author of " The Crystal Button " (published by Houghton, Mifflin & Co., Boston), a most ingenious and fascinating work of the imagination, portraying the possibilities of an ideal civilization when the problems of natural and social science shall have been fully solved.
281
BOSTON.
INVENTIVE talent, business sagacity and indomitable energy have placed Alonzo G. Van Nostrand, while still a young man, in the front rank of New England's men of affairs. He was born in Brooklyn, N. Y., July 3, 1854, the son of Hon. William T. and Mehetabel (Bradlee) Van Nostrand. His maternal grandfather was Thomas Bradlee, of Boston. Mr. Van Nostrand's parents moved to Boston when he was four years old, and he first went to the Hawes and then to the Lincoln grammar schools in South Boston, gradu- ating from the Eng- lish High School in 1872. He then went immediately to work in his father's brewery in Charles- town, devoting him- self night and day to the business, and becoming so identi- fied with it that in 1878, at the age of twenty-four, he was admitted to the firm as partner. In 1879 Mr. Van Nostrand originated the "P. B." trade-mark for his ale, which has since become so fa- mous in New Eng- land. In 1886 he conceived the idea of bottling an ale in the English fashion to compete with Bass, and in that year established the bottling department. This proved so successful that he built a model bottling house of his own planning, and to-day has the largest output of any American ale bottler, selling last year over half a million bottles of P. B. ale. In November, 1891, he built a lager beer brewery, and May 1, 1892, purchased his father's interest in the ale brewery, becoming sole proprietor of what is now known as the Bunker Hill Breweries. Mr. Van Nostrand is the youngest man operating a brewery in Massachusetts,
ALONZO G. VAN NOSTRAND.
and his establishment is also the oldest in the State, having been founded in 1821. The P. B. ale has a rep- utation second to none in the Commonwealth, and is the only malt liquor used in the Massachusetts General and the Boston City hospitals and other institutions for the sick and convalescent. The Bunker Hill breweries cover about three acres of land, with a frontage of four hundred feet on Alford Street, Charlestown. Before the spot is reached their location is made known by a tall tower on one of the buildings of the group used for brew- ing purposes. This tower and belfry were renoved from the old Boylston Market, an ancient Boston landmark of considerable histori- cal interest, built in 1809 and demolished in 1887. It was re- built exactly as it stood on the old market, and is cher- ished highly by Mr. Van Nostrand, who does not forget the time when he with thousands of Boston high school boys were obliged to drill in the old Boylston Market Hall. Mr. Van Nostrand is a member of various social and business organizations, among which are the Boston Chamber of Com- merce, the Boston Art Club, the Eastern Art Club and the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company. He is also a prominent member of the Boston English High School Association. He was married in 1885 to Miss Sadie G. Foque, daughter of Theodore N. Foque, of Malden, Mass., and has one child, William Theodore Van Nostrand. His residence is at No. 286 Newbury Street, Boston. He is one of the progressive business men of the Commonwealth.
282
MASSACHUSETTS OF TO-DAY.
IT is a rare combination of talents which enables a man to succeed in war, letters and business affairs, and these talents have met in the versatile author of " Patroclus and Penelope." Theodore Ayrault Dodge belongs to an old New England family, his maternal great-grandfather being General Seth Pomeroy, of Bun- ker Hill fame. Colonel Dodge was born in Pittsfield, Mass., May 28, 1842, and was educated abroad. After studying military science four years at Berlin, Germany, under Major-General Von Frohreich of the Prussian army, and taking a course of lectures at Heidel- berg, he graduated at the University of London in 1861. He then returned to America and enlisted as a private in the Union Army, serving for two years in the Army of the Potomac under Generals Kear- ney and Howard. His field service ter- minated at Gettys- burg, where he lost his right leg. Col- onel Dodge received four brevets for gal- lantry, -two in the volunteer and two in the regular service. He became first lieu- tenant Feb. 13, 1862 ; captain in the Vet- eran Reserve Corps, Nov. 12, 1863 ; brev- etted major, Ang. 17, 1864, and colonel, Dec. 2, 1865. He was made captain of the Forty-fourth Regular Infantry, July 28, 1866, and served as chief of the bureau of enrolment in the War Department until April 28, 1870, when, under the act of Congress by which all wounded sokliers were taken from active service, he was placed on the retired list of the army, where he still holds his commission. He has been connected with various business enterprises in Bos- ton which, under his management, have been made suc-
THEODORE A. DODGE.
cessful. He is now president of the Boston Woven Hose and Rubber Company. Colonel Dodge's tastes, however, like those of his father and of his son, are literary. For some years he has been engaged on a history of the art of war, entitled, "Great Captains - Six Lectures," of which three volumes, bringing the subject down to the fall of the Roman Empire, have been published. Colonel Dodge is an enthusiastic horse- man, having been in the saddle forty years, and ridden, as he estimates, over a hundred thousand miles. His " Patro- clus and Penelope ; a Chat in the Sad- dle," is a recognized authority on horse- manship both in Eu- rope and America. Colonel Dodge has also published “A Bird's-Eye View of our Civil War" and "The Campaign of Chancellorsville." In addition to these works, which are sufficient to establish his reputation as an historian and military critic, Colonel Dodge has contributed much to periodical litera- ture, and has deliv- ered a number of lectures on military subjects at Harvard College, before the Lowell Institute, and elsewhere. He has been an officer of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion, is a member of the St. Botolph and Country clubs, and in 1887 was presi- cent of the Papyrus Club. In 1865 Colonel Dodge married Miss Jane Neil, a grandniece of Chief Justice John Marshall, of Ohio. She died in 1891, leaving him three children, one of whom was editor of the " Harvard Monthly " while at college. Colonel Dodge's home is in Brookline. He is now ( 1892) making a tour of the world.
283
BOSTON.
W ILLIAM FRANKLIN DRAPER, manufacturer, veteran and congressman, was born in Lowell, Middlesex County, on April 9, 1842, the son of George and Hannah B. (Thwing) Draper. His early education was gained in the public schools of his native city, sup- plemented with a year or two of academic training. When sixteen years of age he went to work in a cotton mill, and made a study of the processes of manufactur- ing cotton goods. The war came, and though only nineteen years of age Mr. Draper en- listed in Company B, Twenty-fifth Massa- chusetts Volunteers, a company recruited in Milford. He was promoted through the various grades to that of first lieuten- ant, and when the Thirty-sixth Regi- ment was formed in Worcester he was made captain of Company F. Faith- ful and gallant ser- vice soon made him major, then lieuten- ant-colonel, and while holding the latter rank he was in command of a brig- ade in the Army of the Potomac. He was wounded in the battle of the Wilder- ness, May 6, but after partial recovery he returned to the front and com- manded his brigade at Weldon Railroad. He was brevet brigadier-general when mustered out, Oct. 12. Returning from the war, General Draper engaged in the manufacture of cotton machinery, and since his father's death, in 1887, he has been the head of the firm of George Draper & Sons, widely known as the leading introducers of improvements in cotton machinery in this country. Besides this, he has been directly con- nected with many other large manufacturing concerns,
WILLIAM F. DRAPER.
and is now an officer of a large number of corporations, covering the manufacture of machinery, cotton cloth, shoes, electrical goods, also railroads, gas and water companies, insurance, etc. He possesses strong inven- tive talent, and has personally patented nearly fifty different inventions, some of them of great importance. They were principally on looms and spinning frames, though there is hardly a machine in use in the cotton industry that has not been improved by inventions made or introduced by him or his firm. The production of cotton spinning machines has been doubled by the Draper im- provements, and the cost of the process divided by two. More power has been saved by them than is furnished by the Merrimac River to the great manufac- turing cities of Lowell, Lawrence and Manchester. General Draper is admittedly the first expert in this coun- try on spinning ma- chinery, and has written several stan- dard articles on this and other mechani- cal subjects. The protective tariff has been with him a special field for re- search, and he has personally inves- tigated, at great length, economic conditions, both in Europe and this country. His pamphlet and magazine articles on the tariff have been widely read and dis- cussed. He has twice been president of the Home Market Club, founded by his father. He is also a mem- ber and officer of the Arkwright Club. In 1892 he ran against George Fred Williams for Congress from the eleventh district. General Draper was elected by an overwhelming majority.
284
MASSACHUSETTS OF TO-DAY.
ALFRED WINSOR.
IN the vast shipping interests of Boston the tow boat service has come to be one of the most important departments. It is a business that has grown with the commerce of the city, and is now largely in the hands of the Boston Tow Boat Company, which was first organized in 1855, and began business with one tug, the "William Sprague." From this humble beginning the present company, owning a fleet of steamers, barges, tugs, lighters, grain elevators and perfected apparatus for wrecking has developed. Some of the most notable wrecking and towing feats on record have been accom- plished by the force of the Boston Tow Boat Company -feats that a quarter of a century ago would have been considered quite impossible. The saving of the Belgian steamer "De Ruyter," wrecked on Scituate beach in 1890; the raising of the barge "Atlas," wrecked off Hyannis in the same year ; the raising of the "H. M. Whitney," sunk by the "Ottoman" in Boston harbor in 1892 ; the towing of the steamer " Akaba " from Turk's Island nearly to New York, and of the steamer " Federa- tion," from Bermuda to Philadelphia in 1892 ; the bring- ing of the Joggins raft to New York - these and other splendid achievements have attracted widespread atten- tion among marine underwriters and in the shipping world generally. The Boston Tow Boat Company has been the first to demonstrate that ocean towing is prac- ticable. The company was incorporated in 1873, and in 1875 went into the transportation business, building two large steamers, the "Saturn" and the "Orion," for carrying coal and towing barges. They are the only I
two American-built " tramp" steamers afloat, and the latter is said to be the strongest iron steamer ever built in the United States. Besides these steamers, the Boston Tow Boat Company owns twenty barges, twenty tugs, twenty-five lighters, three wrecking lighters, a water-boat, floating derrick and floating coal hoisters. Its wrecking gear, with pontoons, coffer-dams, pumps and hydraulic lifts, is the most elaborate on the Atlantic coast. The company maintains a wrecking plant at Vineyard Haven. Mr. Alfred Winsor is president of this company, and likewise of the Boston & Philadel- phia Steamship Company, the oldest coastwise line from the port of Boston. It originated in 1852, with two small steamers that sailed from T Wharf. In 1872 the company purchased the Keystone line, running between Providence and Philadelphia, and has since operated it. The following year the consolidated lines were incorpo- rated with a capital stock of $713,000, and with Mr. Henry Winsor, of Philadelphia, as president. He died in 1889, and upon the reorganization of the company in 1891, his nephew, Mr. Alfred Winsor, was chosen president. In its experience of over forty years, the company has lost but one steamer, -the "Palmetto," which was sunk off Block Island in 1858, - and has made an exceptional record for regularity. It now runs three steamers on the Boston and three on the Provi- dence line. Mr. Winsor is also president of the North Atlantic Steamship Company, which was incorporated in 1892, with a fleet of three steamers plying between Boston, Halifax, Port Hawkesbury and Charlottetown.
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285
BOSTON.
JOSHUA MONTGOMERY SEARS.
R ANKING third in wealth among the capitalists of New England, and being the second largest individual real estate owner in Boston, Joshua Mont- gomery Sears has added to the many millions which he inherited from his father. He is the son of Joshua Sears, and was born in Yarmouth, Mass., on Christmas Day, 1854. His father, who came of an old Cape Cod family, started in business without capital, and within a few years became one of the wealthiest of Boston's East India merchants. His residence was the handsome house on Beacon Street now occupied by the Somerset Club. Marrying late in life, he died while his only son, J. Montgomery, was quite young. Alpheus Hardy was one of the guardians of the boy, who received his early education at a private school in Andover, Mass., from which he was sent to Germany, where he continued his studies. Returning to America in 1873, at the age of nineteen, he entered Yale College and was graduated in the class of 1877. On Sept. 18 of the same year he was married to Sarah Carlyle, daughter of Charles F. Choate, of Cambridge, who is now the president of the Old Colony Railroad. Mr. and Mrs. Sears have since resided in Boston. Though the care of his large estate requires much of his attention, he nevertheless finds time for much practical philanthropy. Among his public charitable works is the West End Workingmen's Club, which he established on the lines laid down by Robert Treat Paine in the Wells Memo- rial Workingmen's Institute. In connection with Rev.
Phillips Brooks, Alpheus Hardy and others, Mr. Sears organized the Poplar Street Club, the purpose of which is to counteract the influence of the saloon among the poorer classes. Mr. Sears also presented to the Episco- pal parish at Marlboro, Mass., a fine new edifice. He is the heaviest individual taxpayer in Boston, his finest piece of real estate being the Sears Building, at the corner of Court and Washington streets, which is considered to be the most remunerative property in the city, as it is one of the handsomest office buildings. Mr. Sears's Boston residence is on Arlington Street. He owns a mag- nificent farm at Southboro, Mass., and his stables there are filled with blooded stock. He is one of the summer residents of Bar Harbor, and though he is the wealthiest man there, his cottage is one of the most unpreten- tious. Both Mr. and Mrs. Sears are ardent amateur musicians, and the musicales at their home during the winter season have become celebrated. Mr. Sears is also a prominent patron of art, his collection being one of the best in New England. Many of the best examples of the modern French and Flemish schools adorn his collection, which has been selected with rare taste. He is a member of the Somerset, Union, Country and St. Botolph clubs, and of the Eastern Yacht Club, his steam yacht "Novya" being one of the fine pleasure craft on the Atlantic waters. Mr. Sears is called "the Boston Astor," and like the Croesus of the metropolis, he is extremely modest, unassuming and quiet in his tastes.
286
MASSACHUSETTS OF TO-DAY.
J. MALCOLM FORBES.
THE yacht "Puritan," defender of the America's cup, and Nancy Hanks, queen of the turf, are both owned by J. Malcolm Forbes, whose wealth and talents have contributed so much toward the develop- ment of American yachting, and whose name has also become familiar on every race-course in the country. He is the son of John Murray and Sarah (Hathaway) Forbes, and was born in Milton, Mass., in 1845. His ancestors were Scotch, belonging to a family that from the days of Wallace and Bruce included many famous fighters among its numbers. One of Mr. Forbes's paternal ancestors was Dorothy Collingwood, aunt of Admiral Lord Collingwood, who was second in com- mand with Nelson at the battle of Trafalgar and took the latter's place when he died. John Forbes, the great- great-grandfather of J. Malcolm Forbes, was the first of the family, though not the first of the name, who came to America. John Murray Forbes and his brother, Captain R. B. Forbes, have been very prominent in American commercial and maritime affairs, the latter being the first to build and sail the American schooner- rigged vessel. J. Malcolm Forbes was educated in private schools and at the English High School in Bos- ton, from which he graduated in 1863, at the age of cighteen. He soon after went into business in Boston with his father, who had built up a large China and East Indian trade. Mr. Forbes early took an active interest in the higher class of athletic sports, and especially in
yachting. He made a number of voyages, including one to Fayal on the fisherman "Fredonia." Mr. Forbes built the schooner yacht "Rambler," which won the Cape May cup in 1879, and subsequently built the sloop "White Cap," the Scotch cutter " Byadere " and the "Lapwing." He was one of the syndicate which built the famous " Puritan," and he now owns her. He is commodore of the Eastern Yacht Club, of which the "Puritan" is the flag-ship. Though retaining his lively interest in yachting matters, Mr. Forbes has during the last few years been devoting much attention to the breeding of fast horses. He owns an extensive stock farm at Canton, Mass., where some of the finest horses in the world are to be found. Besides the peerless Nancy Hanks, Martha Wilkes and the great Arion, there are many other turf record-breakers owned by Mr. Forbes. He is a director in many railway and manu- facturing corporations and a partner in the mercan- tile firm of J. M. Forbes & Co. He is a member of the Country Club, the Boston Athletic Association and the Mercantile Library Association. Mr. Forbes has been twice married, the first time to Miss Jones, daughter of Edward C. Jones, of New Bedford. She died, leaving him four children. His second wife was Miss Rose Davney, of California. The Forbes family residence is at Milton, Mass., and in the summer on Naushon Island, which belongs to the family and is situated between Buzzard's Bay and Vineyard Sound.
SALEM
HAWTHORNE'S BIRTHPLACE
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