USA > Massachusetts > Massachusetts of today; a memorial of the state, historical and biographical, issued for the World's Columbian exposition at Chicago > Part 4
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the incorporators of the bank of which he is now presi- dent, and was its first treasurer. Mr. Evans lives in Everett. He was the prime mover in having the town set off from Malden in 1871, and in 1892 was active in having the town incorporated as a city. He was elected in 1892 by the citizens as the first mayor of the new city. He represented the town two years in the Legis- lature, and in 1889 and 1890 was senator. In 1892 he was elected councillor by the Massachusetts Legisla- ture.
George F. Morse represents the seventh district. This is his first year in the council. He was born in Leominster, Mass., Oct. 16, 1835, and in that town obtained his education, graduating from the high school in 1851. In 1857 he became one of the organizers of the Morse Comb Company. In 1871 the firm of G. F. Morse & Co. was formed for the manufacture of combs, and this business has continued till the present time. Mr. Morse served two years in the Civil War. In 1863 he was proprietor of the City Hotel in Baltimore, and in 1876 he was proprietor and manager of the Creighton House, in Boston. He has been president of the South Spring Hill Gold Mining Company, of California, presi- dent of the Hecla Powder Company, of New York, and a director of the Leominster Gas Company and the Wachusett National Bank, of Fitchburg. He was mar- ried in 1859 to Miss Mary E. Tufts, of Fitchburg.
Elisha Morgan, of Springfield, is councillor from the eighth district. This is his first public office, and he has been re-elected for a second term. He was born in Northfield, Mass., in 1833. As a boy he worked in the country store of his father, and then, before he reached his majority, he secured employment as accountant with the Connecticut River Railroad Company. Subsequently he was promoted to the positions of paymaster, freight agent, and ticket agent, with headquarters in Springfield, holding all three positions at one time. In 1865 he began the manufacture of envelopes and mucilage, employing about twenty hands. Now more than two hundred are employed, and the business has grown to one of the largest of its kind in the world. In 1872 the company was incorporated as the Morgan Envelope Company. Their annual output is nearly a hundred million envelopes. Mr. Morgan also has a half interest in the envelope factory at Hartford, Conn., which supplies the United States government with envelopes.
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MASSACHUSETTS OF TO-DAY.
A TTORNEY-GENERAL ALBERT E. PILLSBURY, the official leader of the legal practitioners of the State at the present time, is a man of whom it may be said with truth that he has won his way by force of his own merits. Mr. Pillsbury is the son of Josiah W. and Elizabeth D. Pillsbury, and was born at Milford, N. H., Aug. 19, 1849. His father was a graduate of Dart- mouth College, of the class of 1840, and intended to follow a profession, but the state of his health required the out-of-door life of a farmer, and his son's early years were spent upon the farm. Mr. Pillsbury began his education in the Milford schools, and prepared for college at Appleton Acad- emy, at New Ipswich, N. H., and Lawrence Academy, at Groton, Mass., entering Har- vard in the class of 1871. He did not finish his course at Harvard (from which institution, however, he received the hon- orary degree of A. M. in 1890), but went to Sterling, Ill., where he taught school for a year and studied law with his uncle, Hon. James Dins- moor. He was ad- mitted to the bar in Illinois, but returned to New England, was admitted in Massa- chusetts, and opened an office in Boston, where he has ever since been in practice. He entered public life as a member of the lower House of the Legislature from Ward 17, and served three years, from 1876 to 1878 inclusive. He was elected to the Senate from the Sixth Suffolk District for the years 1884, 1885, and 1886. As a member of the House in 1876, he was chairman of the Committee on Elections and a member of the Committee on Federal Relations, and in 1877 and 1878
was a member of the judiciary and other committees. While in the Senate in 1884 he was chairman of the Joint Committee on the Hoosac Tunnel Railroad, a member of the Committee on the Judiciary, and chair- man of various special committees. In 1885 and 1886 he was unanimously chosen president of the Senate. In 1887 he was offered the appointment of judge-advocate general, and a year later, a seat upon the bench of the Superior Court, both of which were declined, as well as the position of cor- poration counsel of the city of Bos- ton, offered him in 1889. In the fall o 1890 he was nomi nated for attorney general by the Re- publican State Con- vention, and was elected at the ensu- ing election, and in 1891 and 1892 he was re-elected. His administration of this office is described by a leading journal as "one of the most successful, not to say brilliant, in the his- tory of the State," and some of his offi- cial work has at- tracted wide atten- tion, especially his argument to the jury in the trial of the Tena Davis murder case at Cambridge. He was prominently mentioned in con- nection with the Republican nomination for governor in 1892, but declined to be a candidate. In 1888 Mr. Pillsbury was chosen president of the National Associa- tion of the Pillsbury family at its first gathering at New- buryport, where the family in this country originated, and where the house built by " Daniel Pilsbery," in 1699, still stands. Mr. Pilsbury was married in Newbury, Vt., July 9, 1889, to Louise F. (Johnson) Wheeler, daughter of Edward C. and Delia. M. (Smith) Johnson.
ALBERT E. PILLSBURY.
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MASSACHUSETTS OF TO-DAY.
W ILLIAM MILO OLIN, sixteenth secretary of the Commonwealth since 1780, was born at Warrenton, Ga., of New England parents, Sept. 18, 1845 ; but in 1850 his family removed to Massachusetts, and the future Secretary of State obtained his education in the public schools of the Bay State. He early en- tered the office of the Worcester Transcript, starting at the bottom of the ladder as the "devil " in that office, and working his way to the case. Thus he continued until the breaking out of the Rebellion, when his young blood became fired with the patriotic enthusiasm of the times, culmi- nating in his enlist- ment in the Thirty- sixth Regiment of Massachusetts Vol- unteers, being at the time one of the youngest soldiers to offer his services. He followed the fortunes of his regiment throughout its term of service, sharing the various cam- paigns in which they participated. Re- turning to civil life, he devoted some time to study and to his further mental equip- ment, and then joined the reportorial staff of the Boston Adver- tiser, remaining with that paper for four- teen years, and ad- vancing, during that period, from reporter to editor, and then to the position of Washington correspondent. In 1879 he was appointed private secretary and military secretary to his Excellency, Governor Talbot, and was re-appointed to those offices by Governor Long in 1880, 1881, and 1882. In May, 1882, he became private secretary to Collector Worthington, when that gentle- man was placed at the head of the Boston Custom House. On Collector Worthington's retirement, in
WILLIAM MILO OLIN.
December, 1885, Mr. Olin was appointed private secre- tary to Senator Dawes, leaving the latter to become pri- vate secretary to Collector Beard in March, 1890. It was while filling the last-named position that he was elected Secretary of State, in the fall of 1890, to which office he was handsomely returned for a third term at the last State election. He has always taken a deep interest in the military affairs of the Commonwealth, and for seven years filled the office of assistant adjutant-general of the First Brigade, Mass- achusetts Volunteer Militia, under Gen- eral Nat. Wales, and rendered good ser- vice in bringing the citizen soldiery of the State to the high mil- itary standing it en- joys at present. He is also a devoted and enthusiastic member of the Grand Army of the Republic, has been commander of his post, and was ad- jutant-general of the National Encamp- ment under the ad- ministration of Com- mander-in-Chief Merrill. He is now the Massachusetts member of the Na- tional Council of Ad- ministration. So- cially, Secretary Olin is a man of pleasing and genial address, and of warm, gener- ous sympathies ; and when he was first named for the secretaryship it was to these qualities, as well as to his military service and his high qualifications for the position, that his selection was due. His conduct of the office has been on that broad and comprehensive conception of its important duties which has distinguished his two immediate pred- ecessors, both of whom enjoyed the confidence of the voters of the State to an extent that insured them long terms of office.
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MASSACHUSETTS OF TO-DAY.
G EORGE AUGUSTUS MARDEN, treasurer and receiver-general of Massachusetts, has been five times elected to the position which he now holds. Mr. Marden is one of the best-known public officials in Massachusetts, for he has been connected with thirteen Legislatures as clerk, speaker, or member, besides being an orator whose services are always in demand, and one who has been heard in all portions of the State, while he is also well known as a writer. Mr. Marden was born at Mount Ver- non, N. H., Aug. 9, 1839, fitted for col- lege at Appleton Academy, in that town, and graduated at Dartmouth, in 1861, having earned the means by his own labor to pay his way through college. Early in the outbreak of the Civil War he enlisted in the Sec- ond Regiment Ber- dan's United States Sharpshooters, soon being transferred to and receiving a com- mission in the First Regiment Berdan's Sharpshooters, and serving as quarter- master, and also as acting assistant adju- tant-general of the Third Brigade, Third Division, Third Army Corps. His term of service was from December, 1861, to September, 1864, when he was mastered out because of expiration of term of his regiment. On the comple- tion of his services, he returned to Concord, N. H., and entered upon the study of law, engaging also in journal- istic work. The latter proved the most congenial field, and in it he has since taken a constant part. His news- paper duties have been performed at Concord, N. H., on the Monitor of that city ; at Boston, on the Daily Advertiser; at Charleston, West Va .; and in Lowell,
Mass., with the Lowell Courier, of which latter he is now editor and part proprietor. Nor has his pen been confined to journalism alone, for he has compiled and edited a history of each New Hampshire military organization which took part in the Civil War, and has written poenis for the Alumni Association and Phi Beta Kappa Society of Dartmouth College, and poems and addresses for many other organizations. For 1873, he was elected a member of the Massachusetts Legislature, and the next year was chosen clerk of that body, a posi- tion which he re- tained for nine years. In 1883 and 1884 he was again a member, and was elected speaker of the House in each of those years. In 1885 he was a member of the Senate. Mr. Mar- den has a keen sense of humor, and this characteristic of his gives an additional interest to his ora- torical efforts, and no political speaker is more sure of a large and apprecia- tive audience than he, for his name is an earnest of something fresh, bright, and amusing, while he is, at the same time, a most forcible and eloquent speaker. He counts as his highest honor in this line an invitation to speak on Forefathers' Day at the dinner of the New England Society of New York, in 1890, and again in 1892. As a journalist he takes high rank, while his popularity as a public officer is not confined to any party, but is emphasized by the cordial respect that is felt for him throughout the State, irrespective of party. Mr. Mar- den was married Dec. 10, 1867, to Mary P. Fiske, of Nashna, N. Il. They have two sons.
GEORGE AUGUSTUS MARDEN.
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MASSACHUSETTS OF TO-DAY.
G I ENERAL JOHN W. KIMBALL, State auditor of Massachusetts, has been in the public service, military and civil, since he was eighteen years of age. He is a native of Fitchburg and was born Feb. 27, 1828. His education was obtained in the public schools of the town, and on leaving school he learned the trade of scythe-making in his father's shop. He followed this vocation until the outbreak of the war, when he took the Fitchburg Fusileers into the United States service, he being captain of the company at that time. From May, 1858, to January, 1860, he was adju- tant of the Ninth Regiment,Massachu- setts Volunteers, and was then, for the sec- ond time, elected cap - tain of the Fusileers. As lieutenant-colonel of the Fifteenth Regi- ment he commanded that body in the Army of the Poto- mac in all the battles of the Peninsular campaign, Second Bull Run, South Mountain, Antietam, and down to Fred- ericksburg, when he was ordered to Mas- sachusetts to take the colonelcy of the Fifty-Third Regi- ment. He com- manded that regi- ment in the Depart- ment of the Gulf, in 1863, and was in the siege of Port Hudson. In the assault of June 14, he was dangerously wounded in the thigh. General Kimball served nearly three years in the army and was made brevet brigadier-general of the United States Volunteers, "for gallant and distin- guished services in the field during the war." After his return from the front he re-organized the Fitch- burg Fusileers, in 1866, and again took command as captain. He continued in the State Militia almost con-
JOHN W. KIMBALL.
tinuously until 1878, and was colonel of the Tenth Regiment from 1876 to 1878. General Kimball has served the public in a number of important offices and has always had a reputation for the most faithful and efficient service. One of the most responsible positions he ever held was that of custodian of rolls, dies and plates, etc., used in the printing of bonds, treasury notes, national currency, and all the securi- ties of the government, in the bureau of engraving and printing at Wash- ington. He had the honor of being rec- ommended for this position, unknown to himself, by Gen- eral Charles Devens, colonel of his first regiment, whose im- plicit confidence in General Kimball was such that he said in his recommendation, that he "not only recommended his appointment, but would become per- sonally responsible for his honesty and integrity." General Kimball's public career embraces a period of nearly forty years, during which time he has represented his na- tive town and city seven years in the Legislature, and Jan. 1, 1893, entered upon his second term as auditor of the Commonwealth, a position in which he has given entire satisfaction to all, irrespec- tive of political affiliations. While in the Legislature he served upon the military, finance, and railroad com- mittees, being chairman of the Military Committee in 1872, and chairman of the Railroad Committee in 1890-91, two of the three years that he served on that important committee. He was commander of the Department of Massachusetts, G. A. R., during 1874.
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MASSACHUSETTS OF TO-DAY.
IN the year 1818 four governors of Massachusetts were born, two of whom - George Sewell Boutwell and Benjamin Franklin Butler - belong as much to the nation as to the Commonwealth. Few citizens of Mas sachusetts, in the whole course of her history, have occupied more responsible and influential positions in public life than Mr. Boutwell; and certainly there are none now living of her honored sons who have brought to the fulfilment of their official duties greater energy of spirit, purity of character, or loyalty to imposed trust than has this widely known and universally re- spected representa- tive of the old Bay State. He was a farmer's son, and was born in Brookline, being a lineal de- scendant of James Boutwell, who immi- grated from the neighborhood of London, England, and became a " free- man " in Lynn, Mass., in 1638. The early years of Ex-Governor Boutwell's life were passed upon his fath- er's farm in Lunen- burg, Mass., and at the age of thirteen he was employed in a country store at Lunenburg. At eighteen he began the study of law, but was not admitted to the bar until he was thirty-four years of age. At nine- teen he delivered his first public lecture before the Groton Lyceum. In 1840 he supported Van Buren, and the following year was elected to the Legislature. From 1842 to 1850, inchisive, he served seven years in that body. From that time on official positions were crowded upon his acceptance. Governor in 1851 and 1852 ; member of the State Board of Education for five years from 1853; overseer of Harvard College from
GEORGE S. BOUTWELL.
1851 to 1860 ; a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1857 ; member of the Peace Con- gress in 1861 ; member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society, 1861 ; delegate to the Chicago conventions of 1860 and 1880; organizer of the Department of Internal Revenue, and serving as commissioner until 1863 ; member of the Thirty-eighth, Thirty-ninth, Fortieth, and Forty-first Congresses ; Secretary of the Treasury under President Grant, and originator of the plan of refunding the na- tional debt, which has been followed by his successors ; elected to the United States Senate in 1873 ; commissioner to revise the Statutes of the United States in 1877; attorney to defend the Federal Government before the International Commission created to dispose of claims of French citizens against the United States and of United States citizens against France, in 1880- that is work enough for a score of ordinary lives, but it does not represent the whole of Ex-Governor Boutwell's industry. Among his many pub- lications are a trea- tise on the internal revenue and excise system of the United States, which is still an authority in the department ; a volume entitled "The Lawyer, Statesman, and Soldier "; a volume on educational topics and institutions : a volume of speeches and essays on the Rebellion, and a volume entitled " Why I am a Republican." Ex-Governor Bout- well is still engaged in the practice of law in Boston. His home is in Groton. He was married in 1841 to Sarah Adelia, daughter of Nathan Thayer, of Hollis, N. H., and has two children.
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MASSACHUSETTS OF TO-DAY. 1507844
T THE oldest, and one of the most distinguished, of the living ex-governors of the Commonwealth is Nathaniel Prentiss Banks, who was born in Waltham, Jan. 30, 1816, the son of Nathaniel Prentiss and Re- becca (Greenwood) Banks. After receiving the rudi- ments of a common school training, he went to work, when about ten years of age, as bobbin boy in a cotton factory of which his father was superintendent. In this factory the first cotton cloth was made that was manu- factured in the United States. He subse- quently learned the machinist's trade, de- voting, however, all his leisure hours to reading and study, and early developing an aptitude for pub- lic speaking. He be- came editor of a local paper, and was con- cerned in newspaper ventures in Waltham and Lowell. Having studied law in the office of Robert Ran- toul, Jr., he was ad- mitted to the bar, but he never prac- tised much in the courts. His first pub- lic service was as in- spector in the Bos- ton Custom House. In 1849 he was elected to the Legis- lature, and was speaker of the House in 1851 and 1852. He was president of the State Constitutional Convention in 1853, and in the same year was elected to Congress as a coalition Dem- ocrat. Being re-elected to the next Congress by the American party, he was chosen speaker of the National House of Representatives, after an unparalleled contest, lasting over two months, and resulting in the casting of one hundred and thirty-two ballots before the deadlock was broken. He was governor in 1858-60. In 1861 he was commissioned a major-general of volunteers,
NATHANIEL PRENTISS BANKS.
and assigned to the command of the fifth corps in the Army of the Potomac. His corps participated in the battle of Cedar Mountain, holding its position against a largely superior force. In the same year General Banks was placed in command of the defences of Wash- ington, and subsequently succeeded General Butler in the command of the department of the Gulf. The Red River expedition, undertaken against his remonstrances, proved a failure, and military critics exculpate General Banks from all blame for the result. Re- lieved of his com- mand in May, 1864, he resigned his com- mission, returned to Massachusetts, was again elected to Con- gress from his old district, and was re- elected to the suc- cessive Congresses until 1877, failing only in 1872, when he allied himself to the fortunes of Hor- ace Greeley. He was for a long time chair- man of the Commit- tee on Foreign Re- lations. After his retirement from con- gressional service, he was appointed United States mar- shall, and served until President Cleve- land's administra- tion. In 1888 he was once more elected to Congress from his old district. General Banks was married in Waltham, April 11, 1847, to Mary, daughter of Jeduthan and Sarah (Turner) Palmer. Of this union there are three children living, - Joseph W., a civil engineer, settled in the West; Mary Binney, wife of Rev. Paul Sterling, and Maud Banks, the well-known actress, who, inheriting her dramatic tastes from her father, has so successfully devoted herself to histrionic art. General Banks continues to reside at Waltham.
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MASSACHUSETTS OF TO-DAY.
PROSPERITY, opulence, and respect, with honors, uation bristled with difficulties, and upon Mr. Claflin, as chairman of the National Republican Committee, devolved the task of surmounting them. It was soon after the close of the war, and the dread of dictatorship was very widely diffused in the North. There was also great doubt concerning General Grant's efficiency on account of his inexperience in civil affairs. There probably has not been since that time any national campaign which has taxed more the efforts and exertion of the National Com- mittee, or which has been more laborious or exhaustive. The overwhelming ma- jority which Grant and Colfax received was in no small degree due to the labors of the Na- tional Committee. Ex-Governor Claf- lin's administration of State affairs was up to the high stand- ard which his ablest predecessors had set. In Congress he was one of the most in- fluential members of the House, his states- manlike manner of dealing with public questions making him respected in both parties, for he always rose above the considerations WILLIAM CLAFLIN. of mere partisanship. Ex-Governor Claflin is connected with both social and civic, have been liberally vouch- safed to Ex-Governor William Claflin, and he has dis- pensed his wealth in the same generous manner. He is one of the four living ex-governors who were born in the same year- 1818. And he is one of the compara- tively few business men who have been distinguished governors of the Commonwealth. He was born at Mil- ford, Mass., March 6, 1818, and was educated at the Milford Academy and at Brown Uni- versity. In 1838 he went into the boot and shoe business at St. Louis, Mo., and remained there seven years. Since then he has been a mem- ber of one of the largest boot and shoe manufacturing estab- lishments in New England. Ex-Gov- ernor Claflin's record of political service may be summarized in a general way as follows : He was a member of the Mas- sachusetts House of Representatives from 1849 to 1853 ; of the State Senate in 1860 and 1861, presiding over that body the second year; was lieutenant-governor from 1866 to 1869 ; governor of the State from 1869 to 1871; member of the National Republican Committee from many business organizations. He has been president 1
1864 to 1876, and member of Congress from 1877 to 1881. He was a Free-soiler in the early fifties, and hekt aloof from the Know-nothing party, which he was urged to join, saying that his particular fight was with slavery. Unsolicited came his nomination as the Republican party's candidate for governor. He himself was then in New York doing yoeman's work to secure the election of General Grant to the presidency. The sit-
of the New England Shoe and Leather Association, is a member of the Boston Wesleyan Association, and president of the trustees of Boston University. Wes- leyan University of Middletown and Harvard College have conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Laws. Like his father he is philanthropic, the best-known of their public benefactions being the endowments of Bos- ton University and of Claflin University at Orangeburg.
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MASSACHUSETTS OF TO-DAY.
E EX-GOVERNOR WILLIAM GASTON belongs to both the past and the present generation. He has seen not a little of public life, but, with the exception of five years, has succeeded in conducting his large and important professional practice for nearly half a century. The five years referred to were the two years- 1861 and 1862 - while he was mayor of the city of Rox- bury ; the two years - 1871 and 1872 - while mayor of Boston, and the year 1875, when he was governor of the Commonwealth. Other positions of trust he has held, both public and pri- vate, and in them all he has shown the qualities of a thor- oughly conscientious and able man. His long career has been successful from the first. He comes of a distinguished ances- try. On the paternal side he is descended from Jean Gaston, born in France about the year 1590, a Hu- guenot, who was ban- ished on account of his religion, and set- tled in Scotland ; and on the maternal side from Thomas Arnold, who, with his brother William, came to New England in 1636, and joined Roger Williams in Rhode Island in 1654. William Gas- ton was born Oct. 3, 1820, in Killingly, Conn., where his father, who had been in the State Legislature, was a merchant. With his parents, William Gaston moved to Roxbury, Mass., in 1838. Graduating with high honors from Brown University in 1840, he first studied law in Roxbury, in the office of Judge Francis Hillard, and afterwards in Boston with the distinguished lawyers and jurists, Charles P. and Benjamin R. Curtis, with whom he remained until his admission to the bar in 1844. At
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