USA > Massachusetts > Massachusetts of today; a memorial of the state, historical and biographical, issued for the World's Columbian exposition at Chicago > Part 40
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chine, one of the greatest labor-saving devices of the boot and shoe industry. The machine utilizes waste leather by turning it under pressure into heels, at the same time shaping, piercing and nailing the heel. In 1875 the interest of the Bigelow Heeling Machine Company and those of the Mckay Heeling Machine Company were consolidated. Mr. Bigelow became in- terested in real estate on Lake Quinsigamond in 1872, but not until 1883 did he acquire control of the West, or Worcester Shore, and of the Worcester & Shrewsbury rail- roads, which gives access to it. He im- mediately began to improve his property. The railroad bed and the rolling-stock were renewed, build- ings erected, and the whole aspect of things changed. As a result, the lake became a popular summer resort. Mr. Bigelow has added to his property at the lake from time to time. In conjunc- tion with Hon. Ed- ward L. Davis, he presented to the city for a park a beautiful tract of woodland comprising over one hundred acres. The village of Lake View, a flourishing suburb of cottages, chiefly the homes of Worces- ter mechanics, was built up by Mr. Bigelow's encour- agement. In 1882 Mr. Bigelow purchased of the Boston & Albany Railroad the site of the old Worcester depot on Foster and Mechanic streets, the largest sin- gle purchase of real estate ever made in Worcester. Here, in addition to a roller-skating rink, he established the first electric-light plant in Worcester. He is still interested in the Worcester Electric Power Company, which furnishes power to forty or more minor industries.
H. H. BIGELOW.
.
318
MASSACHUSETTS OF TO-DAY.
JAMES A. NORCROSS and Orlando W. Norcross comprise the firm of Norcross Brothers, whose reputation as contractors and builders is now as firmly established as a block of their own favorite Longmeadow brownstone, and whose names are known all over the country wherever a fine building is to be erected, or where the fame of a fine structure has extended. The Norcrosses came naturally by their calling, for they inherited a constructing ingenuity and love of building from their father. He was Jesse S. Nor- cross, a man of great mechanical ability, whose chief business was setting up saw- mills in the Maine woods. James A. Norcross was born in Winslow, Me., March 24, 1831, and Orlando was born in Clinton, in the same State, Oct. 25, 1839. The early death of their father threw the boys upon their own resources. They be- came carpenters and builders, finally es- tablishing themselves in Swampscott, Mass., in 1864, after the return of the younger brother, Or- lando, from three years' service with the First Massachu- setts Heavy Artillery in putting down the Rebellion. Four years later they removed to Worcester, Mass., and began laying the foundations of the vast business enter- prise of which they are now the proprietors and man- agers. The first important contract undertaken was for the Congregational Church in Leicester, Mass., in 1866. It was not a large structure, but it proved the beginning of a long series of successful buikling operations, and ยท the firm have ever retained a warm regard for the Leicester society, and those of it who gave the contract
to them. In the next four years they had taken and successfully completed the contracts for the Crompton Block, the First Universalist Church and the Classical High School, all in Worcester, and in all their work established a reputation for honesty, faithfulness and trustworthiness. In the erection of the high school, they came in contact with the late H. H. Richardson, the master architect of America, and the close relations that continued between the architect and the firm until the death of the former showed his appreciation of the skill with which the Norcrosses carried out his designs. The monuments of his genius are no less the monuments of the skill and faithful- ness of the contrac- tors who erected them. The Norcross contracts are usually of the kind that in- cludes all portions of the structure to the completed building. To be able to take these they have gath- ered together a large force of clever arti- sans in all kinds of work that pertains to building. 'They have large shops, where the finest in- terior finish is turned out, skilful carvings and beautiful tracery in wood, stone and metal. They own quarries at Milford, Mass., whence comes the famous pink Worcester granite, which is growing in public favor as a material. They also own quarries at Longmeadow, where they procure the com- pact, and firm, yet soft and warm-looking Longmeadow brownstone, which they were the chief means of intro- ducing. They also own quarries of red granite at Stony Creek, Conn., where the granite quarried is commonly known as " Branford Red." They also operate quarries
JAMES A. NORCROSS.
319
WORCESTER.
of marble at Tuckahoe, N. Y., where a beautiful white marble is secured, and from which many prominent buildings in New York City have been built in the last twenty years. James A. Norcross married, in 1852, Mary Ellen Pinkham, of Peabody, Mass. They have four sons and two daughters. Mr. Norcross, though a very busy man, takes a good citizen's interest in the affairs of the city, which he served as councilman in 1877. Orlando W. Norcross married in 1870, Ellen P. Sibley, of Salem, Mass. They have three daughters. Mr. Norcross was se - lected by General Grant as an expert on the commission to examine the con- dition of the Federal Building in Chicago. The task was diffi- cult but its result will long be remembered by builders, for no suggestion or finding of the commission has failed to be sus- tained by subsequent events. The follow- ing are some of the buildings erected by this enterprising firm. The list includes only some of the larger kind, but it will be seen to in- clude almost all vari- eties of buildings.
PUBLIC BUILDINGS : 1872, Hampden County Court House, Springfield, Mass., cost, $175,000; 1877, Woburn Library, cost, $80,000 ; Ames Library, North Easton, Mass., cost, $36,000 ; 1879, Town Hall, North Easton, Mass., cost, $50,000 ; 1880, Crane Memorial Library, Quincy, Mass., cost, $44,000 ; City Hall, Albany, N. Y., cost, $295,000 ; 1885, Allegheny County Court House, Pittsburg, Pa., cost, $2,500,000 ; Malden, Mass., Library, cost, $90,000 ; 1887, Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce, cost, $530,000 ; Howard Memorial Library, New Orleans,
ORLANDO W. NORCROSS,
La., cost, $98,000 ; 1889, State House Extension, Boston, Mass., cost, $700,000 ; 1892, Bloomingdale Asylum, White Plains, N. Y., cost. $1,135,000.
CLUB HOUSES : 1879, Union League, New York City, cost, $255,000 ; 1881, Boston Art Club, cost, $54,000 ; 1886, Algonquin Club, Boston, Mass., cost, $177,000.
EDUCATIONAL : 1870, Worcester High School, cost, $120,000 ; 1878, Boston Latin School, cost, $170,000 ; Hemenway Gymnasium, Harvard College, cost, $91,000 ; Sever Hall, Harvard College, cost, $ 104,000 ; 1882, Austin Hall, Harvard College, cost, $136,000; Union Theological Semi- nary, New York City, cost, $286,000 ; 1883, Vermont University, Burlington, Vt., cost, $92,000 ; Lawrence- ville School, N. J., cost, $320,000 ; 1886, Durfee High School, Fall River, Mass. (stone work), cost, $200,000 ; 1888, Crouse Memorial College, Syracuse, N. Y., cost, $220,- 000 ; Yale Memorial Building, New Haven, Conn., cost, $135,000; 1892, Princeton College, Commencement Hall, cost, $214,000, Walker Art Building, Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Me., cost, $107,000. The business structures erected by them include the Marshall Field Building, Chicago, $900,000 ; N. Y. Life Ins. Co.'s buildings at Omaha and Kansas City, $750,000 each ; Exchange Building, Boston, $1,410,500 ; Ames Building, Boston, $704,000 ; Youth's Compan- ion, Boston, $464,000. Their celebrated churches are : Trinity, Boston, $390,000 : St. John's, N. Y., $419.000 ; South Congregational, Springfield, Mass., $150,000. They built the B. & A. station at Springfield, $375,000.
320
MASSACHUSETTS OF TO-DAY.
JAMES JOHNSON WARREN was born in Brimfield, Mass., March 23, 1822. His ancestors were of good old Puritan stock. His grandfather, Philemon Warren, was a cousin of General Joseph Warren, the patriot who fell at Bunker Hill. Philemon Warren set- tled at Brimfield, and began as a tanner and currier the successful leather industry which his descendants until recently maintained there. John M. Warren, the father of the subject of this sketch, continued the business, and to make a market for the leather that ac- cumulated in the tannery, started a boot and shoe shop in Brimfield in 1818. Their factory, which was one of the first established in Mas- sachusetts, became the main industry of Brimfield and its vi- cinity. James J. Warren grew up in the atmosphere of leather, and naturally turned to it for a means of livelihood. He acquired his ele- mentary education in the schools of Brim- field, and in acade- mies at Ellington, Conn., and Monson, Mass. In 1834 he came to Worcester and completed his education in the Worcester Manual Labor High School, now Worcester Academy. Here he passed two years, and then entered active business in the leather trade, in which he has ever since, in one branch or another, been engaged. He began his business career in 1838 as clerk in a New York leather house. Three years later he was clerk for P. Warren & Sons, in the Brimfield factory, after which he started with his brother in a wholesale and retail boot and shoe store in Petersburg, Va., but less than a year of Southern life contented him, and he disposed of
his business and returned to Brimfield. Here he estab- lished himself in the tanning and manufacture of card leather. This industry he carried on successfully for a number of years, and finally removed it to Worcester in 1867. Here he went into partnership with O. H. Wes- ton, who then carried on a produce business, and the two industries were continued together for a dozen years. Perceiving the advantages of a location near the pro- jected union station, Mr. Warren purchased property on Washington Square, and erected the Warren Building, a handsome granite structure overlook- ing the square. He moved his leather business into it, dis- solving his part- nership with Mr. Weston. He next purchased the busi- ness of the Harrell Manufacturing Com- pany in Boston, and changing the name to the J. J. Warren Company, of which he became president, moved it to Worces- ter in 1887. This concern has built up - a comparatively new industry in this coun- try in the manufac- ture of fine leather goods of all descrip- tions which promises to be permanent, the business having already outstripped that of J. J. Warren & Son. The company uses many varieties of leather, and makes all sorts of articles into which this material enters. Mr. Warren is a modest gentleman, and has always refused public office. The only exception he made was when he accepted the trus- teeship of the Hitchcock Free High School in his native town. Mr. Warren married, in 1844, Mary Emmons, of Hinsdale, Mass. They have three daughters and one son, the latter associated with his father in business.
JAMES J. WARREN.
321
WORCESTER.
JOHN DAVIS WASHBURN was born in Boston, March 27, 1833, the eldest son of John Marshall and Harriet (Kimball) Washburn. The family removed to the town of Lancaster, in Worcester County, in 1838, and there Mr. Washburn passed his boyhood and received his earlier education. He was an apt student, finishing the course at Harvard when only twenty years of age, being graduated in the class of 1853. He en- tered upon the study of law with Hon. Emory Wash- burn, afterward in the office of Hon. George F. Hoar, and finally in the Harvard Law School, where he re- ceived the degree of LL. B. in 1856. Ad- mitted to the Worces- ter bar, he practised his profession in partnership with the late Hon. Henry C. Rice. He early turned his attention to insurance, and be- came prominent a s an insurance attor- ney, finally succeed- ing the late Hon. Alexander H. Bul- lock as attorney and agent for several large companies. His title of colonel he received as a member of Governor Bullock's staff, on which he served from 1866 to 1869. In 1871 he was ap- pointed trustee of the Worcester Lunatic Hospital, and served continu- ously until 1881. From 1875 to 1885 he was a trustee of the Massachusetts School for Feeble-Minded. He was in the lower branch of the State Legislature from 1876 to 1879, and served one term in the Senate from the Worcester city district in 1884. Politically, Colonel Washburn has always been an ardent Republican, taking an active interest in the success of his party, and being a valued participant in its councils. Mr. Washburn has
held many positions of trust. He was a director of the Citizens' National Bank from 1866 to 1880; a member of the Board of Investment of the Worcester County Institution for Savings since 1871 ; trustee, and for fif- teen years treasurer, of the Washburn Memorial Hos- pital ; a director, since 1862, of the Merchants' and Farmers' Insurance Company, in which he succeeded the late Hon. Isaac Davis as president in 1883. He is also councillor and recording secretary of the American Antiquarian Society, councillor of the Massachusetts His- torical Society, an original member of the American His- torical Association, corresponding mem- ber of the Georgia Historical Society, trustee and first sec- retary of Clark Uni- versity, and for many years was a director of the Harvard Alumni Association. In 1889 he was ap- pointed United States minister to Switzerland by Presi- dent Harrison, a po- sition which he filled until his resignation in the autumn of 1892, having held it a year longer than he had at first intended. Colonel Washburn married, in 1860, Mary, daughter of Charles L. Putnam, and has one daughter, Edith, wife of Richard W. Greene, of Worcester. Colonel Washburn is a man of scholarly tastes, and possesses a hearty and genial manner which renders him a popular attendant on gatherings of a so- cial character. He is an excellent presiding officer on all occasions, and his presence always assures the suc- cess of any movement or meeting in which he partici- pates. He is considered one of the best authorities in the State on historical questions.
JOHN D. WASHBURN.
322
MASSACHUSETTS OF TO-DAY.
H JOMER TAYLOR FULLER was born in Lemp- ster, N. H., Nov. 15, 1838, the son of Sylvanus and Sarah M. (Taylor) Fuller, and is a direct descendant of Dr. Samuel Fuller, the physician of the " Mayflower" company who settled Plymouth. Mr. Fuller finished his preparatory studies at Kimball Union Academy, Meriden, N. H., and was graduated at Dartmouth in 1864. He had taught school at intervals during his college course, and on graduation continued to do so. He was principal of Fredonia (N. Y.) Academy for three years. With a view to entering the ministry, he studied at Andover Theo- logical Seminary and at Union Seminary in New York for portions of two years ; also devoting part of this time to teaching at Meriden and at St. Johnsbury, Vt. From 1869 to 1871 he was acting pastor of the Con- gregational Church at Peshtigo, Wis., but then decided to adopt teaching as his profession, and accepted the princi- palship of St. Johns- bury (Vt.) Academy. This school under his guidance in- creased in numbers from fifty to two hundred and fifty pupils, and came to the very front rank of schools for secondary instruction. In 1879-80 he spent a year in study and travel abroad, and visited England, the Con- tinent, Greece and its islands, Egypt, Palestine, Syria and Asia Minor. In 1882 he became principal - after- wards president-of the Worcester Polytechnic Insti- inte, and before entering upon his duties spent five months in the examination of scientific and technical schools in Europe. In that time he visited similar
institutions in Manchester, Birmingham, Bradford and London in England, in Paris, Aachen, Zurich, Munich, Vienna, Dresden, Hanover, Berlin, Hamburg, Copen- hagen, St. Petersburg and Moscow, and in his inaugural address in June, 1883, showed how much technical training had done, or was beginning to do, for the indus- tries of these foreign countries. Dr. Fuller received the degree of Ph. D. from his alma mater in 1880. The institute has greatly prospered since he took charge of it, the numbers of students and instruc- tors and the accom- 1 modations having fully doubled in the ten years of his ad- ministration. He reads five or six lan- guages with facility, and has some knowl- edge of two or three more. He has made geology, mineralogy and metallurgy spe- cial studies from the college on, and has read widely in his- tory and economics. He is devoted to his administrative work and to instruction, and has published little except occa- sional scientific pa- pers and addresses. He is now preparing a monograph on Russian technical education. He is a member of the American Institute of Mining Engineers, of the American Academy of Political Science, and a fellow of the Geological So- ciety of America, and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He has also, for some years, been one of the vice-presidents of the American Institute of Instruction, is a member of the Worcester Club, and has served on the School Committee of Wor- cester. He married, June 20, 1870, Miss Etta Jones, of Fredonia, N. Y., and has two daughters and one son.
HOMER T. FULLER.
323
WORCESTER.
J. EVARTS GREENE was born in Boston, Nov. 27, 1834, son of Rev. David and Mary Evarts Greene. The family removed to Roxbury soon after Mr. Greene's birth, and he received his education in the public schools and the excellent Latin School of that town. In 1849 Mr. Greene entered the University of the City of New York, and after a year at that insti- tution went to Yale College, where he was graduated in the class of 1853. He taught school for four years, in Connecticut and in Iowa, and then spent two years in the employ of the government, survey- ing public lands in Kansas. At that time the plains were still covered with buffalo, and the Indians met with there were still armed with the primi- tive bow and arrow. Mr. Greene returned to Massachusetts in 1859, and after less " than a year's study was admitted to the Worcester bar. He settled upon North Brookfield for a loca- tion, and began to practise his profes- sion there. When the call for volunteers came, in 1861, Mr. Greene was the first man in North Brook- field to enlist. He aided in raising a company in the Fif- teenth Regiment, and was commissioned first lieutenant of the company. Oct. 2, 1861, the regiment partici- pated in the disastrous battle of Ball's Bluff, in which it was badly shattered. Lieutenant Greene, with a de- tachment of his company, remained on the south bank of the river, covering the escape of his comrades, and with his little force was taken prisoner. With other officers taken in the battle, Lieutenant Greene was held prisoner of war in Richmond for four months. Re-
leased on parole, the prisoners left Richmond, Feb. 22, 1862, the day Jefferson Davis was inaugurated. Mr. Greene's gallant service at Ball's Bluff had been recog- nized by a captain's commission, issued while he was in prison. Finding it impossible, however, to secure an exchange, and weary of waiting, Captain Greene re- signed and returned to North Brookfield, and resumed the practice of his profession. In April, 1864, Mr. Greene married Mary A. Bassett, of New Haven. He continued in prac- tice at North Brook- field until May, 1868, when he removed to Worcester to become the associate of Hon. John D. Baldwin in the editorship of the Worcester Spy. On Mr. Baldwin's death Mr. Greene became editor-in-chief, a po- sition which he filled until 1891. It was a post for which his scholarly tastes, well- trained mind, and ready knowledge of men and events emi- nently fitted him. His style is direct and forcible, and he possesses a readiness and aptness of ex- pression which makes his written English a delight to the reader. Mr. Greene was ap- pointed postmaster of Worcester, Feb. 5, 1891. Under his administration the efficiency of the service has materially improved, owing to the systema- tizing of the work. The carrier service has been im- proved and extended, and the number of collections increased. Mr. Greene is a member of the American Antiquarian Society, and of the St. Wulstan Society, and has twice been president of the Board of Directors of the Free Public Library of Worcester. In politics Mr. Greene is a Republican.
J. EVARTS GREENE.
324
MASSACHUSETTS OF TO-DAY.
G ENERAL ROBERT HORACE CHAMBERLAIN, sheriff of Worcester County, was born in Wor- cester, June 16, 1838. His ancestors on both sides of the family had been for several generations residents of Worcester, so he may truly claim to be born of old Worcester stock. His father was General Thomas Chamberlain, one of the solid men of Worcester County, who, like his father before him, was a select- man of the town and a citizen of prominence. When the town became a city he was president of its first Common Council. The mother of the subject of this sketch was Hannah Blair, also of an old county family. Rob- ert H. Chamberlain received his educa- tion in the public schools of Worcester, and at Worcester Academy and West- field Academy. At eighteen he entered upon an apprentice- ship to Ball & Bal- lard, machinists, and learned the trade thoroughly, as he al- ways does everything. Then the war broke out, and Mr. Cham- berlain enlisted in Company A, of the Fifty-first Regiment. He was sergeant while in the Fifty- first, but later re- enlisted in the Six- tieth and was commissioned captain of Company F. The taste for military affairs, which he acquired in the service, induced him to continue after the war ended. Hle was active in State militia circles for over a decade. Hle was captain of the Worcester City Gnards, major and afterward colonel of the Tenth Regiment, and finally was brigadier-general of the State militia, a posi- tion he resigned in 1876. He was active in organizing Battery B, of Worcester, which still retains the name of
Chamberlain Light Battery. General Chamberlain has received high Masonic honors. He joined the order in 1862 and the commandery in 1865. He has taken the thirty-second degree, Scottish Rite, and holds one of the highest offices attainable in Knight Templarship, - that of grand commander of the Grand Commandery of Massachusetts and Rhode Island. He is treasurer of the Worcester Masonic Relief Fund. General Chamberlain was a charter member of Post 10, G. A. R. For three years he was presi- dent of the Worces- ter County Mechan- ics' Association. His public service began in 1869, when he represented Ward Three in the Com- mon Council, an office to which he was re-elected in the following year. Then Mayor Blake, to whom the city is chiefly indebted for its excellent sewerage system, made him superintendent of sewers. Asexecutive officer of this impor- tant department of the city, General Chamberlain was most efficient. Dur- ing his sixteen years of service he ex- tended the system some sixty miles. He continued in charge of the sewer depart- ment until 1888, when he resigned to become deputy- sheriff and keeper of the House of Correction. Although Sheriff Sprague, who appointed him, was defeated for re-election, Sheriff Nye wisely retained General Cham- berlain in his position at the jail. In the fall of 1892, after a spirited canvass, General Chamberlain received the Republican nomination for sheriff and was elected. He married Esther Browning, of Hubbardston, and they have two daughters.
ROBERT H. CHAMBERLAIN.
325
WORCESTER.
F RANCIS HENSHAW DEWEY, second of the name, was born in Worcester, March 23, 1856. He is the son of the late Judge Francis H. and Sarah B. (Tufts) Dewey. He received his early education in private schools, and then entered St. Marks School, at Southboro, in 1868. Here he spent four years in prepa- ration for college, and then entered Williams College, his father's alma mater. Mr. Dewey took a high rank in college, being one of the first six of his class, and so became a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society, the one col- lege society in which membership is deter- mined by rank. Mr. Dewey graduated in the class of 1876, and three years later received from his college the degree of master of arts. As Mr. Dewey's an- cestors for several generations had been engaged in the pro- fession of the law, it was natural that upon graduation he should choose the same profession, and he began his studies in the office of Staples & Goulding, in Wor- cester. After a year of office study he entered the Harvard Law School, and by assiduous work cov- ered the two years' law course in that institution in one year, receiving the degree of LL. B. in 1878. After a few months more in the office of Staples & Goulding he was admitted to the Worcester bar in February, 1879. He began the practice of his profession in Worcester, where he has since continued. Mr. Dewey is a man of the firmness and stability of character that invites confidence, and probably occu- pies more positions of trust than any other among the young professional men of the city. He became solic-
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