USA > Massachusetts > Massachusetts of today; a memorial of the state, historical and biographical, issued for the World's Columbian exposition at Chicago > Part 68
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In 1890 the population of Medford was 11,079, and during the past two years it has increased to nearly 13,000. The valuation of real and personal estate in 1892 was $11,250,000. The new city council is composed of a mayor, a Board of Aldermen of six members and a Common Council of eighteen members. Medford is the only city in the State that elects its mayor biennially. Aldermen are also clected for terms of two years, the terms of one half the members expiring annually. The councilmen are elected for terms of one year.
537
MEDFORD.
S AMUEL CROCKER LAWRENCE, the first mayor of the city of Medford, was born in Medford Nov. 22, 1832, the son of Daniel and Elizabeth (Crocker) Lawrence. Obtaining his early education in the public schools of his native town and in Lawrence Academy, Groton, he was graduated from Harvard with honors in the celebrated class of 1855. For two years after graduation he was partner in the banking firm of Bigelow & Lawrence, of Chicago, and then at the request of his father he returned to Med- ford to engage in business with him as one of the firm of Daniel Lawrence & Sons, distillers, of which he has for many years been the sole proprietor. He was commissioned lieutenant in the Massachusetts Vol - unteer Militia in 1855, captain in 1856, major in 1859, and in 1860 colonel of the Fifth Regiment of Massa- chusetts Militia, which was one of the first regiments in the country to volunteer for service when the war broke out. He tendered his regi- ment to Governor Andrew on the 15th of April, 1861, and on the 19th was or- dered to report for duty. His regiment fought with credit in the first battle of Bull Run, where Colonel Lawrence was severely wounded. In June, 1862, he was commissioned briga- dier-general in the Massachusetts Militia, which rank he resigned in August, 1864. A term of service as com- mander of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Com- pany, in 1869, closed his meritorious career as a soldier. On the financial shipwreck of the Eastern Railroad, in 1875, General Lawrence was chosen president of the
company, and was eminently successful in keeping the property intact, and harmonizing the creditors and shareholders into arrangements which saved their inter- ests from the devastation of a struggle in bankruptcy and the valuable leaseholds of the company from dis- ruption. It is one of the few instances in which a rail- road corporation in a condition of temporary insolvency has been saved from the hands of the spoiler. General Lawrence has been a zealous worker for the interests of the Masonic frater- nity, and has been repeatedly honored by election to its highest offices. A characteristic feature of his Masonic labor has been the estab- lishment of perma- nent charitable funds in every body with which he has been associated in the working offices. He was three times elected Grand Master of Masons in Massa- chusetts, and it was largely through his efforts that the heavy debt on the Masonic Temple in Boston was finally paid in full. His Masonic library is one of the most complete in the country. General Lawrence has a strong hold upon the esteem and gratitude of his fellow-towns- men of Medford, for no man has done more to preserve its integrity, promote its prosperity and, by his own generous example, quicken its charities. In memory of the patriotic service he rendered his country, the Grand Army Post of Medford is called by his name. On the incorporation of Medford as a city, in 1892, he was, by the spontaneous movement of his fellow-citizens, called to the chief executive office as the first mayor of the new municipality.
SAMUEL C. LAWRENCE.
538
MASSACHUSETTS OF TO-DAY.
W HEN the Commonwealth of Massachusetts suc- ceeded in getting out of the railroad business, not many years ago, and in disposing of the stock it had held in various companies, it was considered by all as a most fortunate thing, and no one was more deservedly complimented upon the result than Daniel A. Gleason, who was at that time State treasurer. Mr. Gleason was born in Worcester, Mass., May 9, 1836, the son of John F. and Maria (Tourtelotte) Gleason. His ancestors were among the first settlers of the town in 1715, the first of the Gleason family coming to Massachu- setts from England in 1652. On his mother's side Mr. Gleason is of Hugue- not descent. After attending the public schools of his native city, and fitting for college in the Wor- cester High School, he entered Yale in 1852, went from there to Harvard in 1853, and graduated from the latter insti- tution in the class of 1856. Among his classmates were Charles Francis Adams, Governor George D. Robinson and Judge Smith, formerly of the New Hampshire Supreme Court, but now pro- fessor in the Harvard Law School. After graduation Mr. Gleason taught school in Western Pennsylvania and read law. After being admitted to the bar he returned to Massachu- setts, studied at the Harvard Law School, and received his degree of LI. B. in 1860. A year in the law office of Chandler & Shattuck followed, after which, in 1861, he was admitted to the Suffolk bar, and began practice in an office with ex-Attorney-General Stephen H. Phil- lips. Mr. Gleason edited several law books and for a
time was editor of the "Law Reporter." In 1862 he became assistant to Attorney-General Foster, remaining with him until the fall of 1863. In 1864 he took charge of the tax commissioner's office, and was deputy tax commissioner and commissioner of corporations until 1881. From January of that year until January, 1886, or just as long as the constitution would permit, Mr. Gleason held the office of State treasurer. His adminis- tration of the State's finances was successful in the highest degree. It was during his long term of office that the State changed its Boston & Albany Railroad stock for bonds, sold out its New York & New England stock, and the act was passed providing for the consolidation of the State's interest in the Troy & Green- field and the Hoosac Tunnel and connec- ting lines. Mr. Glea- son also drew up the general corporation act, which is now on the statute books. Upon the expiration of his term of office as State treasurer, he resumed the practice of law for a time, and in March, 1887, was elected treasurer of the Fitchburg Railroad Company, an office which he still holds. Mr. Gleason has lived in Medford since 1863, and has always been interested in town affairs. Hle served on the School Committee from 1864 until 1885; was one of the commissioners that built the water works in 1869, and is still on the board, and has been a trustee of the savings bank since it was estab- lished in 1869. He was married in 1863 to Miss Annie L. Hall, of Roxbury. They have five children, the two eldest sons being in business and the third in college.
DANIEL A GLEASON.
T `HE planting of Lynn in 1629, its interesting colonial life, the establishment there of the first successful iron
works in America in 1643, the development of the town into the greatest producer of women's shoes in the world, its becoming a city in 1850, are matters each of which could furnish material for a most picturesque illus- trated article.
The Lynn of to-day representing this represents so much more of recent development that the figures which bear witness to the remarkable yet wholesome growth of this city in the last decade are worthy of profound attention. These figures, moreover, are eloquent and reliable. They are taken from a "Special Bulletin " of Robert P. Porter, superintendent of census, dated Oct. 12, 1892, giving statistics of manufactures, 1890, for the city of Lynn, from city reports and from the annual report of the Board of Trade for 1892.
But before devoting the mind to a study of these figures, Lynn Beach and the Lynn Woods claim their due tribute of historic mention. A brilliant writer says of them : " It is doubtful if any other tract of forest on this side the ocean is so rich in associations of this kind - full of the romance of the primitive days of witchcraft and piracy and of the modern delusion of spirit revelation, together with its interest as the haunt of various peculiar characters, while the early settlers have left their traces on every hand, both visibly and in the quaint nomenclature of the region. One must cross to old England, to the haunts of Robin Hood, to Epping Forest, to the New Forest, and other woodland places of the mother country, for the like of Lynn Woods in these respects."
Lynn has now, in the opinion of those best qualified to judge, a population of over sixty thousand and the increase is going on at such a phenomenal rate that the day of one hundred thousand cannot be far away. Well known as Lynn was previous to 1883, especially for its shoe and leather industry, the advent of the electric busi- ness in that year gave it a fresh impetus, brought new life, new blood and new brains, into the community, and made the city famous all over the world. The great fire, late in 1889, although looked upon at first and for a long time as a terrible calamity, was really the turning point in the modern history of the city. It brought its people more closely together, and, as it were, burned out personal selfishness, and out of the ashes and ruins has risen a fairer and more progressive Lynn. Aside from its three great interests of shoes, leather and electricity, it numbers to-day scores of others that place it in the very forefront of manufacturing and commercial centres.
The report of the inspector of buildings shows that over one thousand permits for new buildings have been issued in the city within the year ending Dec. 31, 1892, or more than three for every working day in the year, including holidays. This, however, is but one indication of Lynn's wonderful growth. Others can be seen or found on every hand. As a city it has increased in population from 38,274 in 1880 to 55,727 in 1890, or 45.60 per cent. In assessed valuation it has increased from $22,487,864 in 1880, to $40,721,028 in 1890, or 74.14 per cent. And, as some would claim that the increase in a community's debt is the best indication of its growth, one has only to consider that the " net debt " of Lynn in 1880 was $2,072,815, and in 1890 it was $2,278,959, or an increase of 9.95 per cent. It is probable it would have been very much larger but for the law regulating the bor- rowing limit of municipalities. The increase in population, assessed valuation, etc., has been proportionately greater since the census of 1890.
In 1880 there were 343 establishments of different kinds, with an aggregate capital of $5,894,575, employing 12,420 hands, paying $5,833,849 in wages and producing goods valued at $26,828,023. In 1890 there were 1,343 establishments, with an aggregate capital of $12,930,755, employing 19,792 hands, paying $11,328,797 in wages and producing goods valued at $38,310,585. The average annual wages per hand increased from $470 in 1880 to $609 in 1890, or 29.57 per cent.
The Thomson-Houston Electric Company was brought to Lynn late in 1883, and had at that time a capital of $125,000, and employed less than one hundred hands. It represents to-day in its plant and business something more than $3,000,000, with a prospect of a very large increase within the next twelve months upon the completion of what are known as the " New River Works."
540
MASSACHUSETTS OF TO-DAY.
E LIHU BURRITT HAYES, the present mayor of Lynn, was born in West Lebanon, Me., April 26, 1848. He was educated in the common schools of his native town and at West Lebanon Academy. At six- teen he taught school for a term in Farmington, N. H. The following year he came to Lynn and began working in a shoe factory. With his savings he purchased a periodical and stationery business, which he continued successfully for ten years. His health failing, he sold his store and stock, reserving the whole- sale agency of daily and weekly newspa- pers, which he still retains. He was soon after engaged as an editorial writer upon the Lynn Daily Bee and Reporter, and later became a part owner in these newspapers. He disposed of these in- terests to take the management of the Boston Daily Adver- tiser and Boston Record. He con- ducted them success- fully for the year 1884, when a serious illness obliged him to resign. Since then Mr. Hayes has been interested in real estate matters, and in the manage- ment of his news- paper agency. His public career began in 1883, as a member of the Lynn Board of Aldermen. He represented Ward Four and Nahant in the Massa- chusetts Legislatures of 1887, 1888 and 1889. He was the author of the Australian ballot law, so called, which was adopted in Massachusetts in 1888, and has since been adopted in different forms in thirty-five States. This was accomplished in his first term. The next year he introduced an amendment to the Massachusetts con- stitution so as to prevent the disfranchisement of voters
because of change of residence from one town or city to another within the State limits. This amendment passed through two Legislatures and was adopted by a very large majority in 1890. The same year he intro- duced a bill to provide a fire-escape, consisting of a knotted rope attached to the window casings in hotels and boarding-houses. This has been the means of saving many lives. In 1889 he introduced and carried through a bill providing that the State shall give one hundred dollars' worth of books to each town in the State unprovided with a public library. This bill has resulted in the establishment of public libraries in the small towns, until Massachusetts has to-day more public libraries than all other States of the Union. This law has been adopted and is in successful opera- tion in three other States, and is likely to become as univer- sally adopted as the ballot law. Mr. Hayes has always taken a very active interest in public matters, being prominent in Repub- lican party contests and management. He was elected mayor of Lynn, Dec. 15, 1891, and was inaug- urated Jan. 4, 1892. He was re-elected in 1892, receiving the largest majority that any local candidate ever received. For nine years he has been president of the Board of Trustees of the Lynn Public Library. In 1873 he married Amy A. Far- num, of Lynn. They have one child, Eugene, and reside on New Ocean Street. Those who really know Mayor Hayes feel that his career has only just begun, for his energy, firmness of purpose and character, combined with courtesy, predicate still greater honors.
ELIHU B. HAYES.
541
LYNN.
S OME archeologist has pointed out the curious fact that there has been more development in the making of shoes and in the shoe industry during the last fifty years than in the preceding fifty centuries. Indeed, among Egyptian pictures antedating Pharaoh, are representations of shoemakers working with all the tools and in the same fashion as prevailed at the begin- ning of our new industrial epoch. With this era of change and growth Lynn has been thoroughly identified by the enterprise and
intellectual activity of certain citizens, and if her trade is now trodden under foot by all the west- ern world, she has to thank a few per- sistent families. A name hereditarily honorable in this story of Massachu- setts enterprise in shoe manufacturing is that of Breed, and Francis W. Breed, of Lynn, has added to the family lustre. He was born in the year 1846, and re- ceived only a com- mon school educa- tion, which, however, he has wonderfully increased by wide reading. The place of his first employ- ment was a singularly responsible position for a mere boy, since it was that of teller in the First National Bank of Lynn. A year later, when only eighteen, he engaged in the shoe busi- ness, and at twenty-one became a partner with Philip A. Chase. At twenty-nine, in 1875, he bought the business and has since continued it alone, increasing it constantly. He has one large factory situated in Lynn and two in the country, and the amount of his production is very large. The extent and consequent exactingness of his private business, nevertheless, have
FRANCIS W. BREED.
not seemed to interfere with his civic and semi-cooper- ative duties, for he is prominent in public and mone- tary affairs, being a director in the Eliot National Bank of Boston, in the Central Bank of Lynn, in the Lynn Institution for Savings, in the Boston Chamber of Commerce, in the Boston Merchants' Association and in the Home Market Club. In the last two, Mr. Breed is a member of the Executive Committee. He is also president of the New England Shoe and Leather Asso- ciation. In addi- tion to a thorough performance of so many and so varied tasks, Mr. Breed has found time for a number of exten- sive tours and has been in every coun- try of Europe and every State of the Union. He visited the Centennial, the last two Paris and the Brussels exposi- tions, and was ap- pointed by President Harrison as Massa- chusetts Commis- sioner to the World's Columbian Exposi- tion at Chicago. By the Chicago authori- ties his singular apti- tude for official work was at once recog- nÃzed and he was put on prominent committees, - exec- utive, electoral and legislative. He was likewise one of those chosen to interview Congress on the loan to the Exposition. In obtaining a site for a shoe and leather building he rendered great service to the leading industry of his town, visiting Chicago several times for the purpose. He likewise succeeded in having the classification arranged so as to put all the shoe and leather exhibits in this building. Mr. Breed is a Republican in politics, and his name has often been mentioned for a high position in the gift of his party.
542
MASSACHUSETTS OF TO-DAY.
T "HE motive power of the present century has been chiefly steam, but now the more mysterious force, electricity, is gradually superseding that cruder chari- oteer of the car of progress. Among the electricians of the world none merits more attention than the famous " wizard of Swampscott." Elihu Thomson was born in Manchester, England, March 29, 1853. His parents settled in Philadelphia when Elihu was five years old. The boy entered school at seven, at eleven was ready for the high school, but, the limit being thirteen, was denied admission. During 1 this enforced idle- ness of the boy the career of the man began. A book tell- ing how to make an electric machine fell into his hands. With a wine bottle for a cylinder, he soon had one in operation, and began experiment- ing. He followed this with more scien- tific appliances, and among other things made a Morse tele- graph circuit, and used wrapping cord for the insulation, never having seen an insulated wire. Soon after graduation from the high school he became an assistant there, and when only twenty - three was made full professor of chemistry and physics. Here he formed that scien- tific fraternity with Professor Houston, now known to fame as the Thomson- Houston Electric Company. In 1878 Elihu Thomson visited the Paris Exposition. The fruits of his study there were many new patents. Next came the formation of a company, The American Elec- tric, with headquarters at New Britain. Then Elihn Thomson resigned his professorships and became at a bound a practical electrician, and in 1883 the transfer
to Lynn took place. The vastness of this business evolution almost rises into the realm of imagination, since it now represents the practical application of over three hundred patents, for the work of this man, who is only forty, has covered the widest possible range of electrical engineering, and has necessitated thousands of experiments in new fields. Many of his inventions, or perhaps original discoveries were the truer term, have gone into extensive use, and his high originality has been appreci- ated by the world. In 1889 he was elected president of the American Insti- tute of Electrical Engineers, and rep- resented that body in London at the British and American Congress. France decorated him that same year with the ribbon of the Legion of Honor, and the grand prize for in- vention was awarded to him at the Paris Exposition. Vale, in 1890, made him M. A., and the Elec- tric Metre Competi- tion of Paris divided its first prize between him and Dr. Acon. Professor Thomson gave his share, five thousand francs, to- wards a new com- petition. Such is the variety of Pro- fessor Thomson's achievements that a mere list would consume pages. One of the most striking is a simple apparatus, recently built on principles discovered by himself. This yields the longest electric sparks ever obtained, closely resembling flashes of lightning five feet long. The recent consolidation of the Edison with the Thomson-Houston Company, as the General Electric, has increased this giant industry. Professor Thomson in 1884 married Miss Mary L. Peck, and has three sons.
ELIHU THOMSON.
543
LYNN.
H ENRY A. PEVEAR, of Lynn, who has been the In 1864 they built a large factory on Boston Street in Lynn. The year 1883 beheld a dissolution of this old firm, or transmutation into two new ones, - Pevear & Co., that is, G. K. Pevear and his sons, taking the old factory, the Boston store at 83 High Street and the South American business. The firm of Henry A. Pevear & Sons-Frederick S. and William A. - took possession at this time of the new factory on Boston Street, a building 50 x 200, of five stories, brick and wood, with coloring house, engines and storerooms separate. This factory stands on the spot where the celebrated Lynn hermit, George Gray, lived and died. To commemorate this singular fact, and to preserve the land- mark, they have named their product "Hermit Kid. " They have a Boston store at 61 High Street. The broth- ers of the original firm have always held the land at the cor- ner of Munroe and Washington streets, in Lynn, where their first factory stood, and early in 1892 they built on it the largest block in Es- sex County, a five- story structure, thor- HENRY A. PEVEAR. oughly modern and containing 100,000 a handsome double residence on Washington Street, near the swamp of the Johnson estate. Now this build- ing is surrounded by homes of wealth, and there are no signs left of the swamp, where half a century ago the frogs held concert. Henry A. Pevear has not figured in public life very much, preferring to confine himself to home, church and business duties ; but his opin- ions in city affairs are naturally sought very often. president of the Thomson-Houston Company since its inception, bears also the distinction, in con- junction with his brother, of being the oldest morocco manufacturer in that city. His father, Burnam Pevear, learned his business in Exeter, N. H., and moved his family to Lynn in 1838, his son, Henry A., having been born Sept. 13, 1829, at Tewksbury, Mass. From the father both sons acquired a practical knowledge of their trade, and soon after, 1847, they be- gan manufacturing morocco on their own account. The firm was originally Roberts, Pevear & Co., but Mr. Roberts withdrew, and the new firm soon took that leading place in the business which they have since held, though this original firm, in 1883, divided into two firms. Their first factory was on Monroe Street, in Lynn, and in 1858 they opened a Bos- ton store at 67 and 69 Kilby Street, be- ing the first morocco house in Lynn to take that strong step forward. In the year 1859 they employed only thirty-two per- sons, but had many skins finished in other shops, their manu- facture that year being 103,000 goat skins, and their feet of floor space. About forty years ago they built sales in Boston, including sumac and patent leather, reaching the satisfactory figures of $96,000. About the beginning of the Civil War the firm began to import South American goat skins, especially Paytas, and their operations rose so quickly that they soon reached the million mark, and, when the government assessed in- comes, this house paid the government the largest personal tax of the morocco business in Massachusetts.
544
MASSACHUSETTS OF TO-DAY.
P ERHAPS no man could have been selected by a jury of his peers more truly representative of Massachusetts, in a quiet way, than Arthur F. Smith, of Lynn. He was born, Jan. 6, 1835, in that part of Danvers which is now West Peabody, one of ten chil- dren, most of whom reached maturity. Like all the sturdy stock of New England, he went to school and in the intervals worked on the farm. In the intervals offering he learned shoemaking, and when twenty was running a stitching machine. On the attainment of his majority, 1856, he went to Lynn and started a small stitch- ing shop on Market Street, employing about twenty hands. In two years, with his brother, T. E. Smith, he took the Micajah Pratt Works and employed about sixty girls. This shop was the first one in the country ever fitted up with steam power for run- ning stitching ma- chines. In about six years Mr. Smith began the manufac- turing of the fin- ished product, and the Smith shoes very soon walked to the front in a business way. He took in as a partner his brother, J. N., and five years later their business had so expanded that they built a factory on Oxford Street. Soon after this ex- pansion, the result of so many years of patience, pru- dence and persistence, occurred the great fire of Boston, and that colossal catastrophe came near involving Mr. Smith, like many others outside of Boston ; for all his customers, with one exception, failed. During the three following years Mr. Smith confined himself to a retail trade, and he still retains that kind of business in part,
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