USA > Massachusetts > Massachusetts of today; a memorial of the state, historical and biographical, issued for the World's Columbian exposition at Chicago > Part 66
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PHILIP K. A. RICHARDSON.
expected by those who had loyally given him their votes, and showed a grasp of the requirements of his position that was bound to make him a political factor henceforth to be considered in the conduct of his city's affairs. Courageous when the occasion was one to demand the courage of unpartisanship, he made for himself a record that immediately dignified his individ- uality as that of the most available man his party could put forward for mayoralty honors in the succeeding election. His nom- ination, therefore, fol- lowed as the logical sequence of the ser- vice he had rendered, and in the municipal contest of 1892 he was elected Woburn's fourth and present mayor in one of the closest and most ex- citing struggles that his city has ever known, a contest in which there were two other candidates, and in which all three polled an unusually heavy vote. In 1891 Mr. Richardson mar- ried Miss Roxanna Baker Christy, and his home life is as happy as his political career has been for- tunate. Socially, he is one of the most genial and compan- ionable of men, - one whose frankness is the natural reflec- tion of his sincerity of character, and as such is prop- erly understood and appreciated by all who know him. No better evidence of such appreciation could be found than the fact at so early an age and after so brief an introduction to official affairs, he is to-day the executive head of the city where his boyhood and manhood have been spent, and where his character has developed and unfolded under the eyes of the very people by whom he has been honored with the chief gift at their disposal.
522
MASSACHUSETTS OF TO-DAY.
E DWARD FRANCIS JOHNSON, son of John and Julia A. (Bulfinch) Johnson, was born in Woburn, Mass., Oct. 22, 1856, and is a direct descendant of Captain Edward Johnson, who served as the first town clerk and chairman of the first Board of Select- men in Woburn. The subject of this sketch received his early education in the public schools of his native town, and upon his graduation from the high school in 1874, entered Harvard College, where, in 1878, he obtained the degree of A. B. The suc- ceeding year was spent in rest, en- livened by travel abroad, and upon his return he entered Harvard Law School, graduating therefrom in 1882 with the de- gree of LL. B., hav- ing been the year previous admitted to the Suffolk bar. The very year that he graduated from the Harvard Law School he was appointed clerk of the Fourth District Court of Eastern Middlesex, and held that posi- tion until his resig- nation in 1888. In 1887 he was elected town treasurer of Woburn, and was again elected the succeeding year, and in 1888, when Wo- burn was incorpo- rated as a city, he was elected as the first mayor of the new municipality, being elected for a second term the succeeding year. To the work accomplished by its young mayor in those two first crucial years, during which the city was enjoying its first lessons in city gov- ernment, exceeding credit is due. With a keen com- prehension of the requirements consequent upon the assumption of municipal dignity, Mayor Johnson brought into practical requisition a knowledge and grasp of
EDWARD F. JOHNSON.
municipal law that placed the newly-fledged city on a secure and creditable foundation, and removed the occasion for friction among the various departments. He was the man for the time, and the city owes him a debt of gratitude for the signal manner in which he demonstrated that fact. Rarely, indeed, has the guid- ance of a city in its first days of municipal dignity, with methods of government so distinct from those of the town, been entrusted to so young a hand, and rarer still, to one better able to rise to the full stature of the re- quirements. In February, 1891, Mr. Johnson was chosen justice of the Fourth District of Eastern Middlesex, the same tribunal of which he had been clerk for six years, prior to his resignation in 1888. All of Judge Johnson's American ancestors, excepting the first two genera- tions, were natives of Woburn, and like his paternal ances- tor, Captain Edward Johnson, whose " Wonder-Working Providence " is the earliest record of Woburn, having been written in 1651, the subject of this sketch has contributed not a little by his re- searches to throw light on Woburn's history. With a love for the place with which the fortunes of his family have been asso- ciated from the settlement of the town, he has published many papers dealing with old landmarks, while a decidedly important contribution is the record of births, marriages and deaths in Woburn, from its settlement to the present, compiled with great care and accuracy, published in three volumes, and which are of incalcul- able value to the genealogical student.
523
WOBURN.
G EORGE FREMONT BEAN, second mayor of University Law School, from which he graduated in Woburn, is the only child of Stephen Sibley 1885, being admitted to the Suffolk bar in June of that year. He immediately took up the practice of his pro- fession in Boston, devoting himself especially to com- mercial, probate and corporation law matters. Although a Democrat and a resident of the strong Democratic city of Woburn, Mr. Bean never took an active part in politics until the municipal campaign of 1890, at which time he was elected on a citizens' ticket for mayor, defeating an opponent who went into the campaign with the dual ad- vantage of Republi- can and Democratic nomination. A new and untried man, he gave his city a good administration under circumstances that were particularly try- ing and difficult. The succeeding year he received the Democratic nomina- tion but was defeated by his Republican opponent through factional opposition in his own party. In the campaign of 1892 Mr. Bean was again the candidate of his party, and polled within thirty- seven votes of the successful Republi- GEORGE F. BEAN, can candidate, not- withstanding the fact that there was an in- dependent candidate in the field who polled a heavy Democratic vote. Mr. Bean took an active and promi- nent part in the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the founding of Woburn. In 1886 Mr. Bean mar- ried Miss E. Maria Blodgett, a lady prominent in the educational affairs of Woburn, having been before her marriage a teacher in the high school of that city, and who is and has been for some time a member the Woburn School Board. Bean and Nancy (Colby) Bean, and was born in Brad- ford, N. H., March 24, 1857. His early education was obtained in Warner, N. H., whither his family removed when he was very young and where he attended the dis- trict school and subsequently the high school. He fitted for college at Colby Academy, New London, N. H., and entered Brown University in 1877, gradua- ting there from as second in his class, and consequently salutatorian in 1881. While at college, Mr. Bean was managing editor of the Bruno- nian, one of the leading university publications, was a member of the Delta Upsilon Fraternity, and took an active part in the athletic sports whereby phys- ical development is designed to keep pace with the mental improvement inci- dent to the mind- broadening curricu- lum. The year after graduation was spent as principal of a gram- mar school in Wo- burn, which was Mr. Bean's first introduc- tion to a place over which he was to be the chief executive about ten years later. Teaching was in his case, as in the case of so many others, but the breathing-spell ere taking up the career that is to prove a life-work, and therefore after a single year's service in the school-room, he took up the study of law, entering the office of the Honorable Samuel C. Eastman, at Concord, N. H., where the succeeding year was spent in exploring the mysteries of Blackstone, Coke and Lyttleton, as well as the works of American jurists. The following year Mr. Bean entered Boston
MARLBOROUGH
MARLBOROUGH
A TOW
LUX ENE do Basson
N EITHER the pioneer of the seventeenth century nor the patriot of the eighteenth could possibly have con- ceived the growth and development of the farming community scattered over the hills and valleys of the western part of Middlesex County into one of the foremost manufacturing communities in Massachusetts. While many of the old farms yet remain, unimpaired in area, on the outskirts of the territory embraced in the city limits, another aspect than that of an agricultural community is presented by the modern Marlborough to the world at large. A young and growing city, whose natural advantages are supplemented by the enterprise and industry of her citizens, Marlborough is to-day an exemplification of what may be accomplished by the union of the progres- sive ideas of the nineteenth century with the solid, Puritan stock of her founders. From the days when her farmers, in common with those of so many New England towns, possessed a skill in the fashioning of footwear, to the modern days of machinery, Marlborough has kept pace with the march of improvement and is to-day in the first rank of the manufacturing cities of New England.
To the shoe industry alone Marlborough owes her growth and her material prosperity. Almost without exception such other manufacturing plants as are established within her borders are connected in one way or another with the one great industry, while it is the weekly pay-roll of the shops that maintains her mercantile establishments, supports her public schools and contributes to her churches. The manufacture of boots and shoes on a large scale was first commenced by Samuel Boyd, and until his death, in 1892, he was one of the leading figures in the life and business of Marlborough, while the plant which he established is one of the largest in the city. Other manufactories have grown up, until to-day there are many of them all over the city, the largest being that of the S. H. Howe Shoe Manufacturing Company, whose three large factories, located in the western part of the business portion of the city, give employment to two thousand hands. In the immediate vicinity of the Howe shops are located those of John A. Frye, T. A. Coolidge & Co., Chase, Merritt & Co. and J. Desmond, while the large plants of the Boyd-Corey Manufacturing Company, John O'Connell, Rice & Hutchins and J. B. Billings are located in the central and eastern portion of the city. Smaller establishments for the manufacture of a finer grade of shoes than those made in the large shops are being started, that of Hollis & Dearborn being an example. Elmer Loring, leather remnants ; T. J. Beaudry, die manufacturer ; Frank Billings, leather remnants ; Henry Parsons, John Davey, Anderson & Dailey, M. C. Wheeler, Wood & Willard, machinists ; George A. Howe, E. F. Longley, E. M. Low and Frank & Duston, box manufacturers ; Malcolm Mclane and J. W. Strattard, foundries, and the Marlborough Last Company - all are dependent on the one great industry for their maintenance and their business.
The only prominent industry that is entirely distinct from the shoe trade is that of the Germania Electric Company, whose plant is on Maple Street. This concern, finding itself cramped for lack of room at its former location in Cambridge, was forced to look elsewhere, and through the efforts of the Marlborough Board of Trade was induced to remove to Marlborough, the buildings and engine of the Commonwealth Shoe Company being placed at its disposal, the latter concern having removed to Whitman in order to consolidate its various branches. The Germania Company went to Marlborough in 1891, and immediately commenced the manufacture of dynamos, incandescent lamps and other electric-light apparatus on a large and constantly increasing scale. In addition to the force of experts that are required in this business, a large force of girls is constantly employed.
Marlborough is looked upon by the leaders of organized labor as one of the strongest labor-union cities in the country, but wise and conservative management has always been the rule, and there is very little friction between the employers and the employed, arbitration being the means employed to settle particularly knotty cases.
Marlborough has nothing to boast of in the line of public buildings, but the number of fine business blocks is large and constantly increasing, some of the more notable structures being Frye's Block at the corner of Mechanic and Lincoln streets, the People's Bank, Burke's, Warren's, Hunter's, and the Grand Army of the Republic blocks on Main Street, while others are designed for construction in the near future.
525
MARLBOROUGHI.
A MONG those of her adopted citizens, Marlborough holds none higher than William Nathaniel Daven- port, born in Boylston, Mass., Nov. 3, 1856. He is the son of William J. and Almira (Howard) Davenport, having been born on the original tract of land granted to the Davenports by the colonial Legislature. He is the direct descendant of Captain Richard Davenport, commander of the King's forces, whose remains now rest in King's Chapel Burying-ground, Boston. The senior Davenport died in 1858, leaving his wife with three little children, two of them daughters. Attending school until eleven years old, William N. left it forever, to work in a cotton mill. Going to Hudson when thirteen, he worked a year in a shoe shop, going thence to Marlborough, where he worked in a similar place nine years. He had studied during his spare time, and at the age of twenty- three left the shoe shop with one thou- sand dollars, the sav- ings of three years, and entered the law office of J. T. Joslin, Hudson, remain- ing there a year. Thence he went to Ann Arbor, attend- ing the law depart- ment of the Michigan University. In 1882 the Police Court of Marlborough was formed, and Mr. Davenport was appointed clerk. In 1883 he entered into partner- ship with E. F. Johnson, the union lasting one year, at the end of which time he resigned his clerkship. He was admitted to the Michigan bar in 1882 and to the Massachusetts bar in 1883, upon examination. In 1884 he was elected to the Legislature by a large plurality, and was re-elected in 1885 by a large majority, in the
WILLIAM N. DAVENPORT.
face of an opposition majority in the town. He was defeated for the Senate in 1886, was elected in 1888, and was re-elected in 1889, running ahead of his ticket in all cases. In the Legislature he served on the follow- ing committees : House Committee on Labor, Probate and Insolvency, Election Laws (chairman) and Bills in the Third Reading ; Senate Committee on Judiciary, Probate and Insolvency (chairman) ; Bills in the Third Reading (chairman), and Railroads ; Joint Standing Committee of Inves- tigation of Commis- sioner of Province Laws, and Contested Elections, 1889, and chairman of the Committee on the Investiga- tion of Bribery Charges made by George Fred Wil- liams in 1890. He was a member of the Republican State Central Committee two years, of the Ninth District Con- gressional Committee six years, chairman of the Marlborough Republican Town Committee three years, and now (1892) member of the Republican Councillor Commit- tee. He was Grand Commander of the American Legion of Honor for two years and grand leader of the Home Circle for one year. At present he is Supreme Representative to the Supreme Council of the Home Cir- cle, and a Supreme Trustee of the American Legion of Honor. He is likewise a member of the Masonic Fra- ternity, Lodge and Chapter, and of the Improved Order of Red Men. He was married, on Jan. 1, 1887, to Lizzie M., daughter of Lyman P. Kendall, of Boylston. Politically, professionally and socially, Mr. Davenport occupies a front rank in the esteem of his fellow-men.
526
MASSACHUSETTS OF TO-DAY.
FEW, if any, of Marlborough's sons have been hon- ored with public offices of trust and responsibility to the extent of the subject of this sketch. He is by birth and education a typical specimen of Marlborough's best men, and as such is known and respected through- out the State. James W. McDonald was born May 15, 1853, being the son of Michael and Jane (Mulcahy) McDonald, and has always lived in his native place. He received his school education there, graduating from the high school. At the end of three years' study he was admitted to the bar, after passing the ex- amination by the Middlesex exam- iners. His practice has been a lucrative and constantly in- creasing one. For several years he was town counsel of Marl- borough, and has been city solicitor since the formation of the city govern- ment. For twelve years he was a mem- ber of the School Committee. He was elected to the Mas- sachusetts House of Representatives, and served during the session of 1880, be- ing a member of the committees on Li- quor Laws and Con- stitutional Amend- ments. In 1891 he served in the State Senate from the Fourth Middlesex District, being chairman of the Committee on Manufac- tures and a member of the committees on Constitu- tional Amendments, Probate and Insolvency, the special committee on Congressional Redistricting and the special committee which sat during the recess on the formation of a general city charter, and which reported a bill adopted by the Legislature of 1892. Re-elected to the Senate, he served as chairman of the Committee on
Probate and Insolvency, and was a member of the com- mittees on Judiciary, Constitutional Amendments and the special recess committee on the revision of the judicial system of the State. At the close of the ses- sion of 1892 he was appointed chairman of the State Board of Gas and Electric Light Commissioners, resign- ing at that time from the Committee on Revision of the Judicial System. During the session of 1891 Mr. McDonald was chairman of the committee that drafted the bill permitting cities and towns to construct and oper- ate their own plants for gas and electric lighting, which was known as the McDon- ald Bill, and which became a law. A Democrat in politics, Mr. McDonald has never failed to re- ceive Republican support whenever he was a candidate for office, such was the confidence in his in- tegrity and ability displayed by those familiar with his course as a public official. For several years he was asso- ciate justice of the Marlborough Police Court. He has been for a long time the chairman of the Dem- ocratic City Com- mittee of Marlbor- ough, and is always called upon to render service to the party during the campaign. He is a most convincing speaker on politi- cal subjects, being thoroughly versed in economic ques- tions. Mr. McDonald is a member of two fraternal organizations, - the Royal Arcanum and the Ancient Order of Foresters of America. He is unmarried, re- siding with his mother on Prospect Street in his native city. As city solicitor of Marlborough, he keeps in close touch with all municipal affairs.
JAMES W. McDONALD.
527
MARLBOROUGH.
IT was said, when Marlborough voted in July, 1890, to 1
accept a city charter, that S. H. Howe was practi- cally chosen mayor, so strong was his hold on the respect and confidence of his fellow-citizens. It is safe to say that not one of Marlborough's prominent men has, to a greater degree, the esteem of all classes and conditions of men than has Simon Herbert Howe, the subject of this brief biographical sketch. He is the son of Samuel and Charlotte Howe, his mother's maiden name being likewise
Howe. Born Dec. 21, 1835, he grew up to youth and man- hood on the breezy hills of Marlborough. He began shoemak- ing at the age of eleven, and is famil- iar with all the de- tails of the craft. He graduated from school at the age of twenty. In 1855 he commenced the manufacture of shoes in a shop on Pleas- ant Street, in com- pany with his brother, Lewis A. Howe. He subsequently pur- chased his brother's interest and removed the business to the corner of Pleasant and Elm streets, the site of what is now the main shop in the trio of large factories operated in his name. This shop has been enlarged many times, until it stands as one of the largest in Eastern Massachusetts. On March 12, 1878, he purchased the "Diamond F" shop on Pleasant Street from James Tucker. This shop, too, has been successively enlarged. On June 4, 1889, he purchased the " Diamond O" shop from C. L. & L. T. Frye and added it to his already large plant. The S. H. Howe Shoe Company, of which he is the president, now operates these three factories, the daily output being
SIMON H. HOWE.
ten thousand pairs. Mr. Howe has been frequently called to public position by his fellow-citizens. He held the office of town selectman in 1866, 1873, 1875 and 1877 and, as intimated in the opening lines of this sketch, was the choice by an overwhelming majority for the position of the first mayor of the new city. He served in that capacity for one year, retiring with the respect of all citizens. Mr. Howe was for a long time chairman of the School Committee of the town. He represented the district in the lower branch of the Massa- chusetts Legislature in 1877. In the commercial life of Marlborough, Mr. Howe has ever been prominent. He was elected trustee of the Marlborough Savings Bank in 1875, and in 1882 was chosen president of that in- stitution. He was, in 1879, one of the original incorpora- tors of the People's National Bank, and has always been on the Board of Direc- tors thereof. Jan. 1, 1857, he was mar- ried to Harriet A. Brigham. Four chil- dren are the result of this union, the eldest, Louis P., be- ing vice-president of the corporation which bears his father's name. Mr. Howe has always been a promi- nent member of the Unitarian church, standing high in its councils and doing much to further its interests. He stands to-day the foremost citizen of Marlborough, the one to whose business energy, as much as to any other cause, is due her material prosperity. The man who supplies the world with sixty thousand pairs of shoes a week, and finds time to devote to public interests. commands the respect of his fellow-men.
EVERETT®
E VERETT is, with but one exception, the youngest city in the State. Only during the present year has it secured a city charter, and become an incorporated municipality, ranking twenty-ninth in the list of Massa- chusetts cities. But Everett is one of the growing and most prosperous communities in the State. In the past ten years the growth has been phenomenal, yet of a solid, substantial character. The population of Everett is now about 15,000. According to the census of 1880 the population was 4,159, while in 1890 the population was 11,068, an increase of one hundred and sixty-six per cent, the highest of any city or town in the State.
The history of Everett as a distinct community dates only from 1870, when it was separated from Malden and named in honor of the orator, Edward Everett. By an act of the Legislature on March 9, 1870, that part of Malden known as South Malden, with 2,220 inhabitants, was allowed to become a separate town. For more than a quarter century before, the citizens of South Malden had agitated the question of separation, and up to 1870 had made seven ineffectual attempts to get legislative consent. Malden stoutly and persistently opposed the division, but as the two communities had little of common interest, South Malden labored unwillingly under the yoke. So when the division bill was passed, there was great rejoicing in the town, and a celebration on an extensive scale was indulged in, with a banquet, speeches, music and fireworks. However, the new town soon found it had nearly everything to create for itself. Its educational facilities were poor, its school buildings destitute of modern conveniences, its streets and sidewalks in wretched condition ; it had no water supply, and only an old-fashioned hand engine to put out fires.
In the twenty-three years of its existence, Everett has wholly reconstructed its school accommodations, and with the completion of the new high-school building, which will cost over $60,000, it will have eight large, conven- ient and well-ventilated school-houses, representing an outlay of more than $190,000. It has expended for the maintenance of its schools, $397,000 ; for streets and sidewalks, $327,000 ; for its water works, $260,000; and for sewers, $107,000. Through the liberality of two former citizens, the city is soon to have two public library build- ings. The sum of $10,000 was bequeathed by William Shute, of Lynn, for a building in the Glendale district, and a lot of land in Everett Square, valued at more than $6,000, has been presented to the town by Albert N. Parlin, who is also to give $5,000 toward the erection of the building.
The acreage of Everett has many times been the subject of dispute. In 1632 the English and Indians had serious trouble in regard to it, but it was happily ended by the death of the Indian chief Wonohaquahan, or Sagamore John. The following year the territory between Island End River and Malden River, "and soe vpp into the country," was granted to Charlestown. Five years later a division of Mystic-side lands, composing what is now Everett and Malden, was made, and a large tract was set apart for " desirable persons," and for " such persons as may come with another minister." In 1640 the penny ferry, which continued one hundred and forty- seven years, was established, running from a point near the present Malden Bridge to Charlestown, being super- seded by the Malden Bridge. It is recorded in 1643 that Thomas Caule " dwelleth by the water at the Ferry place on mystick side, many people having occasion to come that way," and he did "humbly request leave to sell bread, beare, and other victnalling for the refreshing of such."
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