USA > Massachusetts > Massachusetts of today; a memorial of the state, historical and biographical, issued for the World's Columbian exposition at Chicago > Part 5
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Roxbury, in 1846, he opened his first law office, taking soon a leading position at the bar. He continued his practice there until 1865, when he formed, with the late Harvey Jewell and the present chief justice of the Supreme Judicial Court, Hon. Walbridge A. Field, the famous and successful law firm of Jewell, Gaston & Field. This firm continued until the election of Mr. Gaston to the gubernatorial chair in 1874. His politi- cal career began in 1853, when he was elected to the State Legislature. He was re-elected the following year, and again in 1856. While mayor of Rox- bury, in 1861-6 2, he was very active in raising troops for the preservation of the Union. He went to the front several times, and was enthu- siastically patriotic during the entire crit- ical period. In 1868 he was State Senator from Roxbury, and in 1871, after the an- nexation of Roxbury, was mayor of Bos- ton, and was re- elected the following year. Much against his own inclinations, he was prevailed upon to be a candi- date in 1872, and his Republican oppo- nent was declared elected mayor by only seventy-nine plural- ity, a fact indicative of his great popularity. In 1874 he was elected governor of Massachusetts, being the first Democratic executive since the Republican party came into power. Resuming his law business, Ex-Governor Gaston, in 1879, took Mr. C. L. B. Whitney into partner- ship, and in 1883, Mr. William A. Gaston, the governor's son, was admitted to the firm. Ex-Governor Gaston re- ceived the honorary degree of LL. D. from Brown Univer- sity, his alma mater, and from Harvard College in 1875.
WILLIAM GASTON.
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MASSACHUSETTS OF TO-DAY.
M ASSACHUSETTS has been prolific in public men who, from scholarly attainments, inherent abil- ity and acquired experience, reflect honor upon the State when called upon to exercise high and executive functions. Such a man-and he is one of the most conspicuous figures in the later history of the Com- monwealth -is Ex-Governor Alexander Hamilton Rice. He was born in Newton, Mass., Aug. 30, 1818, the year that saw the birth of three other future governors. After going through the preparatory course of study in public schools and academies, he en- tered Union College in New York State, and was graduated in 1844, being the commencement ora- tor of his class. Three years later that institution con- ferred upon him the degree of A. M., and he was made Doctor of Laws by Harvard University, in 1876. After graduation he began business life in the house of Wil- kins, Carter & Co., paper manufacturers, Boston, and has con- tinned in the same line up to the pres- ent time. Ile has built up an extensive business and is now president of the Rice-Kendall Com- pany, paper dealers and manufacturers. He was the first Republican mayor of Boston, having been elected in 1855, when that party was formed. His term of office, lasting two years, was one of the most important of any since the city of Boston was incorporated. Many great public improvements were begun, including the development of the Back Bay district, many street widenings, the building of the City Hospital, and the completion and dedication of the Public Library build-
ALEXANDER HAMILTON RICE
ing. Ex-Mayor Rice's address on the latter occasion was a masterpiece of oratory. From 1859 to 1867 he was a member of the National House of Representatives, where he exerted a powerful influence during the recon- struction period. From 1875 to 1879 he was governor of the Commonwealth, and his administrations were marked for their business ability. He is vice-president of the Webster Historical Society ; a member of the American Archæological Society and American Histori- cal Association ; a trustee of the Mas- sachusetts Institute of Technology, of the Art Museum of Boston, and of the Episcopal Theologi- cal School at Cam- bridge ; a director of the American Loan and Trust Company, of the Massachusetts National Bank, and of the Bunker Hill Monument Associa- tion ; president of the National Soldiers' Home, and honorary chancellor of Union University, New York, 1881. During recent years Ex- Governor Rice has devoted himself al- most entirely to busi- ness, living a quiet life with his family, apart from the tur- moil of politics, though his counsels are sought and highly valued by the Republican party leaders. In commer- cial circles his judgment and experience find scope and exercise upon the numerous boards with which he is connected. Pre-eminently a man of affairs, he has, nevertheless, found time for the graces of intellectual life, and his marked characteristic is the combination of business sagacity and mental accomplishments. He has been twice married. Ex-Governor Rice lives in Boston, and has a summer home at Nantasket.
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MASSACHUSETTS OF TO-DAY.
A N educated student of politics, a polished orator for any occasion, a ready talker on any subject, a lover of literature, a patriotic statesman, and an able lawyer lives in Hingham, Mass. His name is John Davis Long, and he has been speaker of the Massachu- setts House of Representatives three years, lieutenant- governor one year, governor three years, and member of Congress three years. He is a born worker, and to his tremendous capacity for toil are added versatile talents of a high or- der. He came by his ambition hon- estly. His father was Zadoc Long, a leader in Buckfield, Me., public spirited and sturdy, the Whig can- didate for Congress in his district in 1838, the year his boy was born. His mother was a relative of John Davis, who was gov- ernor of Massachu- setts, once just be- fore John Davis Long was born, and twice when the future gov- ernor was a baby. The boy, John Davis Long, went from the Buckfield schools to the Hebron Acad- emy, and from there to Harvard College in 1853. He stood second in his class at college in the sen- ior year. His poeti- cal faculty found early expression, and he wrote the ode for class day. After graduation he taught at Westford Academy two years ; then studied law, and was admitted in 1861. Going home to Buckfield, he put his shingle out, and, as he says, " made twenty-five cents the first day, and next to nothing after that." He came to Boston in 1862, and soon formed a law partnership with Stillman B. Allen, which lasted until 1879. Before he left the bar for po- litical life, his practice had grown to be far more remu-
JOHN D. LONG.
nerative than was the salary of any office he has ever filled. His rise in politics, when once he got started, was wonderfully rapid, and the year 1875 found him in the Massachusetts Legislature, where he remained until 1878, when he was elected lieutenant-governor. The next year he was chosen governor, and in 1879 and 1880 was re-nominated by acclamation and re-elected by heavy pluralities. He was made a doctor of laws by his alma mater in 1880, and in 1882 delivered the one hundredth Fourth of July oration in Bos- ton. Then followed his Congressional career, with the great Whiskey Bill speech, and the Chicago Con- vention of 1884, with the famous speech nominating Senator Edmunds for the presidency. He has always retained his taste for the classics, and in 1879 published a translation of Vir- gil's " Æneid," which is said by critics to preserve the spirit of the original and to possess strong poetic feeling. His inaugu- ral addresses were lit- erary masterpieces, and as an orator on a wide range of top- ics, he is always in demand. Since his retirement from Con- gress he has prac- tised law in Boston. In 1870 Mr. Long married Mary W., daughter of George S. Glover. His second marriage was with Agnes, daugh- ter of Rev. Joseph D. Pierce, in 1886. He has three children. He is now senior member of the law firm of Long & Hemenway, in Boston, and although actively engaged in the practice of his profession, involving the direction of an extensive business, Ex-Governor Long finds leisure to devote to the larger public questions of the day, political, social, and philanthropic.
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MASSACHUSETTS OF TO-DAY.
NE masterful personality has left its imprint upon the legislation, the opinions, the character of New England, and has made its influence felt through- out the country. Though belonging to a generation that is passing away, and though the zenith of his fame was reached years ago, Benjamin Franklin Butler is still a vital part of the Massachusetts of to-day. The glory of his early triumphs at the bar, in the political life of State and nation, in war and peace, has not faded or been dimmed by the animosities which a positive na- ture like his ever arouses. Though the innumerable her- culean tasks which he has accomplished - enough to con- sume the vitality of a regiment of men - have told on his physical powers, he still preserves that marvellous keenness of mind and quick- ness of perception that have made him one of the foremost of American lawyers. There are a score of episodes in his event- ful life, any one of which would furnish material for a vol- ume. Almost from the day he was born, Nov. 5, 1818, up among the hills of Deerfield, N. H., through boyhood, youth, and early manhood, he displayed the germs of those characteristics which have marked his later life. He got his first lessons in politics from his grandmother ; he went to Phillips Exeter Academy, and later to Water- ville College, where he got into a theological conflict with the authorities ; he narrowly escaped becoming a preacher ; he studied law, and in Lowell, where he was practising both law and politics, he raised, by his advocacy of the Ten-Hour Bill, a terrific storm, the
BENJAMIN F. BUTLER.
effects of which have even yet not wholly died away ; he was elected to the Massachusetts Legislature and kept the House from stagnating; during the decade from 1850 to 1860, he was one of the liveliest and most potent factors in Massachusetts politics. His military record ; his controversy with Governor Andrew ; his successful recruiting of soldiers in New England, against the will of the governor ; the fascinating story of his vigorous administration of affairs in New Orleans ; his career as congress- man, and the part he took in the national councils - these are all invested with the peculiar in- terest that attaches to everything General Butler has said or done. His adminis- tration as governor of Massachusetts, in 1883, with his famous Thanksgiving proc- lamation and the in- vestigation of the Tewksbury alms- house, is green in the memory of every voter. The cam- paign of 1884, when he was nominated for the presidency by the Greenback party, was the close of his political life. Since then he has devoted himself ex- clusively to the prac- tice of law. In 1892 he published his antobiography, entitled " Butler's Book," which, though it has been most severely handled by some of his critics and enemies, is undoubtedly the most entertaining vol- ume of reminiscences that was ever printed. General Butler resides in Lowell, but is frequently seen in the courts of Boston and at his office in Ashburton Place. He was married in 1844 to Sarah, daughter of Dr. Israel and Dolly (Jones) Hildreth. Mrs. Butler died in 1876. Of this union were Blanche, Paul, and Ben-Israel.
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MASSACHUSETTS OF TO-DAY.
THE public career of Ex-Congressman and Ex- Governor George Dexter Robinson is familiar to the nation. In many respects he is the best type of New England character. Believing that talent is worth- less unless developed by industry, work has been the motto and, to a great extent, the enjoyment of his life. He worked as college student and as teacher in his native town ; he worked for nine years as principal of the Chicopee High School, bringing, out of the chaos of a big village school, the order, system, and capacity for ex- tended instruction of the modern graded school ; he worked so hard as a law stu- dent that he devoted only one year to a preparation that or- dinarily requires three. To sustain this labor he brought a splendid physical development from the old farm in Lex- ington, where he worked as a boy, lay- ing then the founda- tions of a constitu- tion which has stood the wear of nearly forty years of unre- mitting devotion to the duties of man- hood, with hardly a day of illness, and which promises many years more of active professional life. Born of an old colo- nial family, Jan. 20, 1834, his childhood days were passed in Lexington. He prepared for college at the Hopkins Classical School, Cambridge, and graduated at Harvard in 1856. The following nine years he had charge of the Chicopee High School; then studied law with his brother, and in 1866, having been admitted to the bar in Cambridge, began the practice of law at Chicopee ; elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1873, and to the Senate in 1875 ; in 1878, elected to
Congress, and re-elected in 1880 and 1881 ; elected governor of the Commonwealth in 1883, and re-elected in 1884 and 1885. Those are the dry facts of Mr. Robinson's career. Behind them lies a character that has won for him not only worldly success, but esteem and confidence. In Congress he applied himself to understanding the business of the House, and speedily became an authority upon it and upon parliamentary law. Although not an adherent of Speaker Keifer, the latter frequently called him to the speaker's chair, where he made a most effective presid- ing officer, many of his rulings having since been incorpo- rated in the manual of the House. Mr. Robinson's first cam- paign for the govern- orship is green in the memory of every Massachusetts man. The masses of facts and figures, with which he combated Ex-Governor Butler on the stump night after night, were compiled by his own labor on the State House records dur- ing the day. As gov- ernor, his adminis- trations were singu- larly able and above the reproach of ex- treme partisanship. He never missed town meetings in Chicopee, going home regularly while he was governor to preside over them. Nor did he per- mit his gubernatorial duties to clash with those of super- intendent of the Chicopee Unitarian Sunday School, but went home Saturday nights to conduct the exercises. Since 1887 Governor Robinson has devoted himself to the practice of law. His family consists of his wife, a son, who is his law partner, and a daughter. In 1889 he was a special Indian commissioner.
GEORGE D. ROBINSON.
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MASSACHUSETTS OF TO-DAY.
O LIVER AMES, shovel manufacturer, three times elected governor of Massachusetts, was born in Easton, Bristol County, Mass., on Feb. 4, 1831, his parents having been Oakes and Eveline Ames. He was educated in the public schools of his native town, in the academies of North Attleboro and Leicester, and at Brown University, Providence, R. I., from which he has received the degree of LL. D. Early in life he began to show that interest in men and affairs which has been the source of his success both in bus- iness and in civic matters. He entered the shops of Oliver Ames & Sons as an apprentice, acquiring a thorough knowl- edge of the business, and developing it by many improvements. He also travelled for, and became an active member of, the firm, which has since been changed into a cor- poration. On the death of his father, whose fame as a statesman and a bus- iness man is world- wide, he was called upon to adjust the affairs of his large estate, and this he did with marked abil- ity. In doing this difficult work he gained an experience that has been of great value to him, and to thousands of others, in the management of numerous railroad, mining, manufacturing, and banking corpora- tions, of which he has been president or director. He has also been president of the Merchants' Club, of Boston, and of the Boston Art Club. In the welfare of his native town, and the education of its people, he has taken an active interest. He was member of the Easton School Committee for many years. He planted thou- sands of shade trees along Easton's public ways. He
OLIVER AMES.
has contributed liberally, and planned wisely, for the erection of handsome and substantial public buildings, and in many ways has aided in the development of local improvements. He was elected a State senator in 1879, and was re-elected in 1880. In 1882 he was elected lieutenant-governor, and was three times re- elected. Then he was elected governor. During the three years which he was chief executive magistrate of Massachusetts, he gave her people a business adminis- tration of her affairs which has seldom been equalled and never surpassed. Notably good were his appointments to office. In these he made use of his wide and thorough knowl- edge of men, to the permanent advantage of his fellow-citizens. While he was gov- ernor he solved suc- cessfully a problem that for several years had confronted the people of the State. As a business man, as one who appre- ciated the impor- tance of bringing all the departments of a great business-such as that of a common- wealth - under one roof, and with ample room for its transac- tion, he recom- mended officially a magnificent enlarge- ment of the State House. This recommendation was approved by the Legislature, and under this authority the governor provided plans for, and on Dec. 21, 1890, laid the corner stone of, the new State House. At a cost of less than three millions of dollars, Massachu- setts will have a State House that will be an ornament to the city in which it stands, and a credit to the Com- monwealth. Here, if in no other place, is an enduring monument to Oliver Ames.
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MASSACHUSETTS OF TO-DAY.
L AWYER, legislator, and ex-governor, John Quincy Adams Brackett stands in the first rank of the sons of Massachusetts. He was born at Bradford, N. H., June 8, 1842, and is the son of Ambrose S. and Nancy Brackett. He studied in the public schools of his native town and Colby Academy, from which he was graduated in 1861. He then entered Harvard, and, with high honors, was graduated in 1865, being the class orator. He entered the Harvard Law School, and in 1868 was admitted to the bar in Boston, where he still con- tinues to practise. In 1871 he was elected president of the Mercantile Li- brary Association, of Boston. In 1882 he was again honored with the same office. Mr. Brackett was one of the first promoters of the young men's Republican move- ment, and presided at the first meeting held at Faneuil Hall, in 1877. By this time his public speeches had made him prominent. In 1874 he was ap- pointed judge-advo- cate upon the staff of General I. S. Burrell, of the First Brigade of Massachusetts Volunteer Militia, and retained the po- sition until the re- organization in 1876. From 1873 to 1876, inclusive, he served in the Common Council of Boston, the latter year being unanimously chosen president. In the same year he was elected to the Massachusetts House of Rep- resentatives, and remained a member until 1881. He again served from 1884 to 1886, inclusive. During that time he was identified with some very important legisla- tion, prominent among which was the bill establishing co-operative banks. Mr. Brackett was chairman of num-
J. Q. A. BRACKETT.
berless committees, including that on Rules and the special committee of 1881 on the Revision of the Stat- utes. In 1885 he was unanimously nominated for speaker of the House, and was elected, and re-elected in 1886. Probably no speaker in Massachusetts was ever put to a more severe test than that which Mr. Brackett encountered the first year - that of the famous filibustering movement against the Metropolitan Police Bill." By his firm action and spirited determination the bill was reached and passed, and both par- ties accorded him much praise for his ability in presiding over this strong de- bate. In the fall of 1886 he was elected lieutenant-governor, re-elected in 1887 and 1888, and the next year he suc- ceeded Oliver Ames as governor. Ex - Governor Brackett, in his inaugural ad- dress, approved the abolition of the con- tract system of labor in the prisons, and recommended that a law be passed that prisoners be paid a proportion of their earnings while serv- ing their sentences, and suggested many other wise measures. He also suggested that the Legislature, by resolution or otherwise, urge Congress to cause uniform couplers and continuous brakes to be used on all freight cars employed in interstate commerce as a protection to the brake- men. Governor Brackett also advocated biennial elec- tions, but not biennial sessions of the Legislature. These two propositions had been considered identical. but he explained the difference and showed why the change should be effected. He was married in 1878 to Angie M. Peck, of Arlington.
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MASSACHUSETTS OF TO-DAY.
H ENRY LAURENS DAWES, senior United States senator from Massachusetts, is the son of Mitchell and Mercy (Burgess) Dawes, and was born in Cum- mington, Mass., Oct. 30, 1816. His early education was obtained in the common and preparatory schools, after which he entered Yale College, graduating from the latter in the class of 1839. The next two years he employed in teaching, and later became editor of the Greenfield Gasette, which position he resigned to be- come managing ed- itor of the Adams Transcript. From journalism he turned his attention to law, entering the office of Wells & Davis at Greenfield, and was admitted to the Mas- sachusetts bar in 1842 beginning the prac- tice of his profession in North Adams. In 1864 he removed to Pittsfield, which has ever since been his legal place of resi- (lence. He served in the lower branch of the State Legislature in 1848, 1849, and in the State Senate in 1850. In 1853 he was a member of the State Constitutional Convention, and from 1853 to 1857 was district attorney for the western dis- trict. He was elected to the Thirty-fifth, Thirty-sixth, Thirty-seventh, Thirty-eighth, Fortieth, Forty-first, Forty-second, and Forty-third Congresses, and to the United States Senate in 1875, to succeed Charles Sumner, whose unexpired term was filled by William B. Washburn. He was re-elected in 1881 and again in 1887, his present term expiring March 3, 1893. Mr. Dawes was married in Ashfield, Mass., May 1, 1844, to Electa A. Sanderson, and of this union there are three children living, - Anna Laurens, Chester Mitchell, !
HENRY DAWES.
and Henry Laurens, Jr., - Miss Anna being prominently identified with educational work, and a member of the World's Fair Board of Managers. Senator Dawes has always held a distinguished place in the councils of the nation, and no member of the United States Senate is more generally esteemed among his senatorial colleagues, while he is as well an exceedingly popular man in the State which he has honored and upon which his services have conferred honor in return. No man in Washing- ton is more familiar with the different phases of the Indian question and the re- lationship and duty of the government to its Indian wards, and he has been for years chairman of the Sen- ate Committee on In- dian Affairs. A broad, genial, sympathetic man, he has won the respect of all parties, and in the Senate, whenever he chooses to speak, he receives the most courteous and appreciative hearing, for he is rec- ognized as one of the foremost members of that august body. He has been the per- sonal friend of every President since his first appearance as a member of Congress, while at home in his own State he enjoys the esteem of all who know him, irrespective of party, for there is an honest sincerity about the man, a magnetism to his personality that is as captivating as it is rare. Massachusetts has been well honored by the distinguished sons who have represented her in the national halls of legislation, but none have won more general respect than the present senior senator from the Bay State. In 1869 Williams College conferred upon Senator Dawes the degree of doctor of laws.
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MASSACHUSETTS OF TO-DAY.
U NITED STATES Senator George Frisbie Hoar was born in Concord, Mass., Aug. 29, 1826. His father, Hon. Samuel Hoar, was a contemporary at the bar of Mason, Webster, and Choate, and shared with them the honors of the first rank among the lawyers of Massachusetts. Mr. Hoar's mother was the youngest daughter of Roger Sherman, of Connecticut. Senator Hoar received his early education in Concord, and was graduated at Harvard in the class of 1846. He then entered upon the study of law at the Harvard Law School, and subsequently in the office of the late Judge Thomas, in Worcester. Ad- mitted to the Wor- cester .bar in 1849 he associated him- self in practice first with the late Hon. Emery Washburn, and then with the late Hon. Charles Devens and the late J. Henry Hill. Mr. Hoar's native capac- ity, disciplined by education and sup- plemented by great industry, gave him a high rank in his pro- fession, and when he entered Congress, after twenty years of labor at the bar, his practice was the largest in the State west of Middlesex County. In 1851, at the age of twenty-five, Mr. Hoar was elected a rep- resentative to the Legislature, and though the youngest member of the body, became at once a leader. He was elected State Senator in 1857, and as chairman of the Judiciary Committee drew a masterly report defin- ing the boundaries of executive and legislative authority. Mr. Hoar was first elected to Congress in 1868, having declined at an earlier time to accept an election. He became known at once as a formidable opponent in
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