USA > Massachusetts > Massachusetts of today; a memorial of the state, historical and biographical, issued for the World's Columbian exposition at Chicago > Part 8
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Closely allied with philanthropic work is the medical profession, and many women physicians and surgeons in Boston have demonstrated their fitness for a calling which, until a few decades ago, was closed to them. Dr. Susan E. Crocker is one of these women. She graduated from the Woman's Medical College of the New York Infirmary, in 1874, and was subsequently one of the founders of the Lawrence (Mass.) General Hospital, its first physician, and the medical and surgical supervisor of all its departments. Since 1888 she has lived in Boston. She is a member of the Massachusetts Medical Society, the New England Medical Society, and the American Medical Association.
Women are not numerous in the legal profession, but there are a few who have overcome the obstacles and established a successful practice. Miss Alice Parker, a
native of Lowell, Mass., was admitted to the bar in California, practised there a year, and returned to Massa- chusetts in 1890. She has a general practice in Boston, doing a large amount of probate work. She is a frequent contributor to the newspapers and magazines, and lec- tures on laws concerning women.
Miss A. M. Lougee is one of the many conspicuous examples in Massachusetts of successful business women. She has been in commercial life since 1868, and has organized a large business for the manufacture and sale of rubber clothing, being at present treasurer and man- ager of the Clifton Manufacturing Company. This company gives employment to about two hundred and fifty persons, and has ten salesmen in its employ.
The president of the New England Woman's Press Association is Mrs. Estelle M. H. Merrill, who exchanged teaching for journalism and won a wide reputation by her articles in the Boston Globe over the nom de plume of "Jean Kincaid." She has been president of the Wheaton Alumnæ Association, and is an active worker in many charitable and other organizations.
Of the living women singers of Massachusetts, Lillian Nordica is perhaps the most famous. Her debut on the concert stage was made in Boston in 1880, and on the operatic stage in New York, as Marguerite in " Faust," three years later. Since 1884, her name has been as familiar in Europe as in America. In private life she is Mrs. Lillian Norton Gower, her husband having been an aëronaut who lost his life in 1886. Since then she has lived abroad nearly all the time.
Mary Shaw (Mrs. De Brissac) began her histrionic career at the Boston Museum, and has risen in the dramatic profession solely by the force of her own will and ability. She has supported Fanny Davenport, Mod- jeska, Julia Marlowe, and Helen Barry in leading roles, and the influence of her strong, pure character and her brilliant talents has been widely felt.
The Durgin sisters - Miss Harriet Thayer and Miss Lyle-have done much valuable work in art. 'They studied in Paris from 1879 till 1886, and for the last six years have lived in Boston. They have both exhibited at the Paris Salon. Miss Lyle Durgin's specialty is por- trait work, in which department of art she has won deserved recognition, while her sister has taken high rank as a water-color painter.
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THE largest church or hall, no matter where it is, is always crowded when Phillips Brooks preaches. On business and on professional men, on student and on laborer, on skeptic and on believer, his hold is equally strong. He once wrote to the secretary of his class at Harvard : "I have no history, no wife, no children, no particular honors, no serious misfortunes, and no adven- tures worth speaking of." Very particular honors, how- ever, have been showered upon him since those words were written, and this is a brief outline of his career : He was born in Boston, Dec. 13, 1835, the son of William Gray and Mary Ann (Phillips) Brooks. On both the paternal and the maternal side he is descended from Puritan clergymen, on his father's side from Rev. John Cot- ton, and on his moth- er's side from the Phillips family which founded the two famous Phillips academies. His father was for forty years a hardware merchant in Boston, and Bishop Brooks is one of four broth- ers ordained to the Episcopal ministry. He was educated at the Boston Latin School and at Har- vard College, which he entered at the age of sixteen. After graduation, in 1855, he taught a year, and then entered the Protestant Episcopal Theological Seminary at Alexandria, Va., being ordained in 1859. Becoming rector of the Church of the Advent in Philadelphia, and three years later going to the Church of the Holy Trinity in the same city, he remained there until 1869, when he was called to Trinity Church, Boston. For twenty-two years he was rector of Trinity, and in 1891 was elected bishop
PHILLIPS BROOKS.
of the diocese of Massachusetts. He had declined many calls while at Trinity -in 1881 to the Plummer professorship in Harvard College, and later the office of assistant bishop of Pennsylvania. In 1880, in 1882-83, and again in 1892, he was in England, where his popu- larity is as great as in America. He has also extended his travels to India, China, and Japan. Of Bishop Brooks's characteristics as a preacher, the first quality that strikes a hearer is his copiousness. He is like a colossal reservoir that seems full almost to bursting. The parting of his lips is like the breaking open of a safety valve by the seething thoughts and words behind, and out they rush, so hot in their chase the one of the other, that at times they appear to be almost side by side. From the abrupt be- ginning to the abrupt end he simply pours out his words. Great torrents and waves of appeal and aspiration and eloquence rise and fall, and whirl and eddy, through- out the church, till they seem to become almost visible and tangible and to beat upon the eyes and foreheads of his hear- ers, as they do against their hearts. He wrote his first sermon at the theological school, on " The simplicity that is in Christ," of which he himself says that a classmate criticised it by saying "there was very much simplicity in it, and no Christ." But Bishop Brooks's sermons are full of humanity, broad, tender, and helpful. He has been said by an eminent theologian to occupy a middle ground between Unitarianism and Orthodoxy, and that he thus reaches the ears of both as no other living preacher does.
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M OST REV. JOHN J. WILLIAMS, fourth bishop and first archbishop of Boston, was born in that city April 27, 1822. His early education was received in the public schools of Boston, and his classical and ecclesiastical studies were made at Montreal and at St. Sulpice, Paris. He was ordained priest by Bishop Fenwick, in 1843, and immediately entered upon the work of assisting in the care of the spiritual needs of the Catholics of the city and diocese, being stationed at first at the Cathedral, which was then, and up to 1860, on Frank- lin Street. In 1852 Father Williams took charge of the chapel on Beach Street, where were first gath- ered together, two years before, the Catholic residents of that quarter of the city. During the three years he ministered to this congregation it in- creased so in num- bers as to outgrow the capacity of the chapel and to de- mand a commodious church, its wants in this direction being met by the erection of the first church of St. James, on the corner of Albany and Harvard streets, Bos- A ton, the site of which is now occupied by the Boston and Albany Railroad. On Jan. 20, 1855, he became rector of the Cathedral and filled this important office until 1857, when he was assigned to the Church of St. James, the charge to the early growth and development of which he had contributed so much. He was vicar- general during the last years of the life of Bishop Fitz- patrick, was administrator of the diocese during the latter's extended visit to Europe in search of health, and, Jan. 19, 1866, was appointed coadjutor with right
of succession, being named Bishop of Tripoli in partibus in fidelium. Bishop Fitzpatrick died Feb. 13, 1866, and his successor was consecrated bishop of Boston, March II, 1866. In 1875 Boston was elevated to the dignity of a metropolitan see, and on May 2, of that year, Bishop Williams received the pallium of an archbishop, the ceremony of conferring the same being performed by the late Cardinal McCloskey. The work of the church in Boston has fructified abundantly under the adminis- tration of Archbishop Williams ; the Cath- olic population has grown and new churches have arisen to accommodate the growth. The very year that witnessed the elevation of Bos- ton into an arch- bishopric also wit- nessed the dedica- tion of the new Cathedral, which was solemnly devoted to Catholic worship Dec. 8, 1875. This marked the practical completion of one of the crowning labors of the archbishop's life, and the impos- ing edifice will always be a monument to his zeal, and an honor to his people and to the city. He has introduced into his archdiocese the Sisters of the Good Shepherd and Little Sisters of the Poor, and the Redemptorist and Oblate Fathers, while he has greatly advanced the interests of the benevolent institutions under his care. Next to the building of the Cathedral, as an evidence of what he has accomplished, stands St. John's Diocesan Semi- nary at Brighton, conducted by the Sulpician Fathers for the preparation of candidates for the priesthood, and which will always honor the memory of its distinguished founder and Boston's present zealous archbishop.
JOHN JOSEPH WILLIAMS.
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T WENTY-THREE years of reform and new con- struction in Harvard University have been fruitful in educational improvements for the whole country. To Charles William . Eliot, its present president, is due a part of the credit for the best two decades of the uni- versity. President Eliot, the son of Samuel Atkins Eliot, a former mayor of Boston and a former treasurer of Harvard University, was born in Boston, March 20, 1834, was fitted for college at the Public Latin School, and was graduated at Harvard in 1853. He was a pupil of Profes- sor Benjamin Peirce in mathematics, and of Professor Josiah P. Cooke in chemistry. In 1854 he was ap- pointed tutor in mathematics in Har- vard College, and in 1858 assistant pro- fessor of mathe- matics and chemis- try. In 1861 he was placed in charge of the chemical depart- ment of the Law- rence Scientific School. His appoint- ment expiring by limitation in 1 863, he spent the years 1863-65 in Europe in the study of advanced chemistry and in the examination of sys- 1 tems of public in- struction in France, Germany, and Eng- land, and on his re- turn was appointed professor of analytical chemistry in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, then first organized as a technical school. At commencement, 1868, he was chosen by the alumni of Harvard College a member of the Board of Overseers. In 1868 Rev. Dr. Thomas Hill resigned the presidency of Harvard Uni- versity, and in 1869 Mr. Eliot was chosen to the office against a vigorous opposition in the Board of Overseers. The most notable change in Harvard College since his
CHARLES W. ELIOT.
advent is that the elective system has completely sup- planted the old-time curriculum. In the professional departments of the university the standards of admis- sion and graduation have been much advanced. The Graduate School in Arts and Sciences has been created. In 1869 there were in all departments one thousand and fifty students ; in 1892, two thousand, nine hundred and sixty-eight, beside about five hundred in the summer courses. The number of professors and other instruc- tors has proportion- ately increased. In 1868-69 the gross income proper (apart from gifts and be- quests) was $325,- 846.21; in 1890-91 it was $966,026.50. President Eliot re- ceived the degree of LL. D. from Williams and Princeton in 1869, and from Yale in 1870. He is a Fellow of the Ameri- can Philosophical Society, the Ameri- can Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Massachu- setts Historical Society. Many oc- casional addresses have been given by him, notably those at the first com- mencement of Smith College, at the inaug- uration of Daniel C. Gilman as president of Johns Hopkins University, at the opening of the American Museum of Natural History of New York, and before the Phi Beta Kappa Society in Cambridge in 1888. His brief remarks at the Museum were described by Professor Youmans as "having summed up in a few lines the greatest charac- teristics of modern sciences." President Eliot is a frequent speaker at educational gatherings and before literary clubs, and is always a welcome guest at univer- sity dinners. His published works are widely read,
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W ILLIAMS COLLEGE, one of the leading edu- cational institutions of the State and country and the alma mater of men prominent in the history of the nation, is located at Williamstown, the most north- western town in the State. The college was founded by Colonel Ephraim Williams, who fell in battle at Lake George in 1755, and was chartered in 1793. The in- stitution has grown very rapidly during the adminis- tration of President Carter, and last year had 354 students enrolled against 227 in 1881, while the whole num- ber of graduates is ! nearly 3,500. The invested funds of the college now amount to $835,954, and the annual in- come is $81,128. The total financial gain since President Carter assumed con- trol is $1,000,000, of which nearly $500,- 000 is in buildings and land. Franklin Carter, the son of Preserve Wood and Ruth Wells (Holmes) Carter, was born at Waterbury, Ct., Sept. 30, 1837. He was married to Sarah Leavenworth, daugh- ter of Charles Den- ison Kingsbury, Feb. 24, 1863, and four children have been born to them. A boarding school fur- nished the beginning of President Carter's education, followed later by a course of study at Phillips Academy, Andover, whence he graduated as valedictorian of his class. He entered Yale the same year, 1855, but after remaining two years was compelled to leave on account of ill health. He travelled for three years and entered Williams College in 1860, graduating two years later. He was appointed professor of Latin and French in 1863, but travelled in Europe for eighteen months
FRANKLIN CARTER.
before entering upon his duties. In 1872 he was chosen to the chair of German literature at Yale, and occupied the position for nine years, or until he was elected president of Williams College, in 1881. In 1883 President Carter also assumed the duties of a professor- ship in theology. Several colleges have honored him by granting him degrees. He received the degree of A. B. from Williams, 1862 ; A. M. from Dickinson, 1863, Wil- liams, 1865, Yale, 1874 ; Ph. D. from Williams, 1877,
and LL. D. from Union, 1881. Presi- dent Carter has also done considerable 7 work, other than that connected with the colleges, with which he has been asso- ciated. He was president of the Gos- pel Union at New Haven for three years, and chairman of the International Committee of Work for Boys ; is a trustee of Andover Theolog- ical Seminary and of Clarke Institution for Deaf Mutes at Northampton, and Fellow of the Amer- ican Academy. He was also president of the Modern Lan- guage Association of America from 1884 to 1886. Dr. Carter has also found time to add not a little to the world of litera- ture, although almost all of it has been done for the maga- zines. Among his articles are "The New 'Translations of Laocoon," " Mr. Lettsom's Version of the Middle Ger- man Epic," " Recent Faust Literature," "Science and Poetry," "Bayard Taylor, Posthumous Books," "The Col- lege as Distinguished from the University," " Iphigenie anf Tauris," " A Biography of Mark Hopkins," "Sketch of the Character of Dr. E. S. Bell," "Two German Scholars on one of Goethe's Masquerades."
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A MHERST COLLEGE, which ranks next to Yale and Harvard among the colleges of New England, was established in 1821 and chartered four years later. It has sixteen buildings, besides the ten fraternity houses for students' use ; a library of sixty thousand volumes, fine laboratories and collections, and a gymna- sium with an athletic field ; three hundred and ninety students and thirty professors. Among its prominent graduates in the ministry have been Henry Ward Beecher, Richard Salter Storrs, Ros- well D. Hitchcock, and Charles H. Park- hurst. Merrill Ed- ward Gates, Ph. D., LL. D., L. H. D., the sixth president of Amherst College, was born at Warsaw, N. Y., April 6, 1848. His father was Hon. Seth M. Gates, a noted anti-slavery member of Congress from 1837 to 1841 ; while his mother was a descendant of Rev. Jonathan Edwards, the celebrated New England divine. President Gates was married to Mary C. Bishop, daughter of Hon. William S. Bishop, of Roches- ter, N. Y., in 1873. They have three children. President Gates was graduated from the University of Rochester in 1870, winning highest honors in mathe- matics, Latin and Greek, and the senior English essay, with honorable mention in French and German. His standing was the highest which had ever been attained at the university. On graduation he became principal of the famous old Albany Academy, and under his management the attendance increased from seventy to over three hundred. In 1872, and again in 1886, he spent some time in England; and in 1878-1879 he
MERRILL E. GATES.
travelled on the Continent and in the Levant for a year. He was president of Rutgers College, at New Brunswick, N. J., from 1882 to 1890. His work in this field was remarkably successful. The course of study was en- riched, the number of students was nearly doubled, the number of professors was increased from fourteen to twenty-three, the income of the college was doubled, new buildings were erected, and the public school sys- tem of the State was permanently connected with the
State College, the scientific school of Rutgers. President Gates was also largely instrumental in se- curing the passage of the Ballot Reform Law. In July, 1890, he was elected to the presidency of Oberlin College. While considering this election, he was chosen president of Amherst. The same ability to inspire and direct educational work characterizes his administration at Amherst. The college is already feeling the effect of his presence in the standard of work maintained, in in- creased endowments, new buildings and greater attendance. Among other im- provements are the revision of the curri- culum, the engagement of several new and strong pro- fessors, instead of tutors, the opening of a thoroughly liberal course in natural science, etc. President Gates is in constant demand as a speaker ; as a writer he con- tributes occasional articles to the magazines and reviews on literary subjects. He is chairman of the United States Board of Indian Commissioners, president of the Mohonk Conference on Indian Affairs, and president of the American Missionary Association.
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O N one of the most sightly spots about Boston, in the newly born city of Medford, is Tufts Col- lege, which, under the management of President Elmer Hewitt Capen, has made for itself a place among the leading institutions of learning in the country. It was opened in 1854. Rev. Hosea Ballou, 2d, D. D., was the first president, and for over twelve years Rev. Dr. A. A. Miner was at its head. It is well endowed, enjoying the revenue of about one million and a quarter of dollars, and has upwards of fifty-three scholar- ships. President Capen was born April 5, 1838, in Stough- ton, Norfolk County, Mass. He was the son of Samuel (2d) and Almira (Paul) Capen. After a pre- paratory course of study at the Pierce Academy, Middle- boro, Mass., and at the Green Mountain Liberal Institute, Woodstock, Vt., he entered Tufts Col- lege in 1856 and graduated in 1860. In his senior year at college, he was clected to represent Stoughton in the lower House of the Massachusetts Legis- lature, where he was the youngest member of that body. A year at the Harvard Law School followed his graduation from Tufts, and after completing his legal studies in the office of Thomas S. Harlow in Boston, he was admitted to the bar in 1863. Mr. Capen immedi- ately began the practice of law. The natural bent of his mind, however, was rather toward theology, and he became interested in religious activities. After a year's practice at the bar, he exchanged law for divinity and took a course in theology under Rev. Dr. Chambre. Ordained to the ministry, Oct. 5, 1865, he was called to
ELMER. H. CAPEN
the pastorate of the Independent Christian Church at Gloucester, Mass., which was founded in 1774 by Rev. John Murray. Mr. Capen remained with the Gloucester church four years, and then accepted a call to a Univer- salist Society at St. Paul, Minn., where he stayed one year. In 1870, he became pastor of the First Universal- ist Church at Providence, R. I. From this pastorate he was called, in 1875, to the presidency of Tufts College, and was inaugurated June 2d of that year. His manage- ment of the college has been signally successful in various directions. Endow- ments and buildings have been added, and the number of stu- dents has constantly increased. Since 1876, President Capen has been a trustee of the Uni- versalist General Convention. He re- ceived the honorary degree of doctor of divinity from the St. Lawrence University of New York in 1877. Since 1886 he has been president of the Law and Order League of Massa- chusetts. He is pres- ident of the Com- mission on Ad- mission Examina- tions, a body created by the New England colleges, to secure and promote uni- formity in the requirements for admission, and in 1888 Governor Ames appointed him as member of the State Board of Education. President Capen takes a decp interest in the political affairs of State and nation, and in 1889 he was prominentamong those suggested for the Republican nomination for governor. He has been twice married, the first time to Letitia H. Mussey, of New London, Conn., and in February, 1877, to Mary L., daughter of Oliver Edwards, of Brookline, Mass.
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B OSTON UNIVERSITY, with its seven faculties and more than a thousand students, occupies a most honorable position among the great institutions of learning in America. Founded in 1869,-though its theological department, the oldest Methodist Episcopal Divinity School in this country, was established in 1839, -its growth has been phenomenally rapid. The uni- versity comprises a College of Liberal Arts, a School of Law, a College of Agriculture, a School of Medicine, and a School of All Sciences. Its presi- dent, William Fair- field Warren, is not only one of the pro- foundest theologians and most original philosophical and pedagogical thinkers, but he is also one of the most versatile authors of the day. He was born at Wil- liamsburg, Mass., March 13, 1833, the son of Mather and Anne M. Warren. Graduated from Wesleyan University in 1853, he was, in 1855-56, in charge of a church in An- dover, and from 1856 to 1858 studied in Berlin, Halle, and Rome. He trav- elled in Greece, Egypt and Palestine, residing abroad, at different times, more than seven years. From 1861 to 1866, he was professor of systematic theology in the Missionsanstalt, Bremen, Germany ; from 1866 to 1873, acting president of Boston Theologi- cal Seminary. In the latter year he became first presi- dent of Boston University, professor of the history of religions, comparative theology, and the philoso- phy of religion, which position he has held to the present time. His writings have been numerous. Six were written and published in the German language.
WILLIAM F. WARREN.
Of these the more important were : "Anfangsgruende der Logik" (1863) ; "Einleitung in die systematische Theologie " (1865) ; and “Versuch einer neuen ency- klopædischen Einrichtung und Darstellung der theolo- gischen Wissenschaften " (1867). The following are some of his essays and addresses : " De Reprobatione " (1867); "Systems of Ministerial Education " (1872) ; "The Christian Consciousness" (1872) ; " American Infidelity" (1874) ; "The Taxation of Colleges, Churches, and Hos- pitals ; Tax Exemp- tion the Road to Tax Abolition " (1876) ; "The Gateways to the Learned Profes- sions " (1877) ; " Re- view of Twenty Arguments Em- ployed in Opposition to the Opening of the Boston Latin School to Girls" (1877); "The Lib- eration of Learning in England " (1878) ; "Joint and Disjoint Education in the Public Schools" (1879) ; "Hopeful Symptoms in Medi- cal Education" (1880); "New Eng- land Theology" (1881); "True Key to Ancient Cos- mology and Mythi- cal Geography" (1882); "Homer's Abode of the Dead " (1883) ; "All Roads Lead to Thule " (1886) ; "The Quest of the Perfect Religion " (1887) ; "The True Celebration of the Four Hundredth Anniversary of the Discovery of America by Columbus " ( 1888) ; "The Cry of the Soul, a Baccalaureate Address" (1888) ; "The Gates of Sun- rise in Babylonian and Egyptian Mythology " (1889) ; "Giordano Bruno and Liberty " (1890) ; " The Mastery of Destiny " (1892). His other works are numerous. President Warren married, in 1861, Harriet M. Merrick.
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