Melrose, Massachusetts, 1900-1950; commemorating the one hundredth anniversary of the founding of the town of Melrose and the fiftieth anniversary of the incorporation of the city of Melrose, Part 12

Author: Kemp, Edwin Carl, 1884-
Publication date: 1950
Publisher: [Melrose] Fiftieth Anniversary Committee
Number of Pages: 214


USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Melrose > Melrose, Massachusetts, 1900-1950; commemorating the one hundredth anniversary of the founding of the town of Melrose and the fiftieth anniversary of the incorporation of the city of Melrose > Part 12


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CHARLES J. BARTON died at his home on Meridian Street September 28, 1923, following several weeks illness. He was born in Boston in 1855, attended the public schools and then entered the grocery business with the Charles Emery Company, where he remained for over thirty years.


He served as selectman in Melrose in 1899, alderman at large from 1900 to 1904, as chairman of the Executive Committee of the Massachusetts State Democratic Committee in 1905, elected Mayor of Melrose in 1906, defeated as candidate for Lieutenant Governor in 1908, was active in forming Wilson and Marshall Clubs in the national campaign of 1912, and in 1914 was appointed a member of the Metropolitan Park Commission.


He was also very active in the fraternal organizations, espe- cially the Elks, of which he was District Deputy of Massachusetts Northeast, and Exalted Ruler of the Melrose Lodge. He was also active in Masonry and with the Odd Fellows, and was president of the Melrose Athletic Club.


Mayor Provandie, Ex-Mayor Larrabee, and the Elks attended his funeral, which was held in his home by Rev. Richard H. Bennett, pastor of the First Congregational Church, and Rev. Thomas Sims, pastor emeritus. He was survived by his wife, Mrs. Mary C. Barton, and one daughter.


SIDNEY H. BUTTRICK died May 11, 1917, at the Melrose Hos-


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pital following an operation. He was born in Acton, Massachu- setts, December 25, 1850, and was brought to Melrose seven years later. He graduated from Melrose High School and entered business in 1865 with a Boston firm importing millinery. In 1874 he became a partner and in 1892 retired and engaged in managing trusts and estates in Boston and Melrose.


He was a selectman for several years and chairman in 1898 and 1899. He became the third Mayor of Melrose and was elected for three terms 1903, 1904, 1905. He was elected alderman from Ward Four in 1914, 1915, 1916, 1917 and was chairman of the com- mittee on appropriations. He was active in the Melrose Hospital Association and served as president; an original member of the Franklin Fraternity; founder of the Melrose Athletic Club and for ten years its president; a charter member of the Sons of Union Veterans and of the Siloam Temple of Honor; a trustee of the Melrose Savings Bank; an Odd Fellow; a member of the Melrose City Club; active as a Mason and in the Republican Party.


The funeral services were from the Universalist Church in which he had been an active member. Representatives of the Masons and other organizations were present. Resolutions of sor- row were voted by the Board of Aldermen. He was survived by his wife, the former Sarah E. Swan, and five children, among them S. Homer Buttrick, who became City Treasurer and Collector.


CHARLES M. Cox was born in Dedham, Massachusetts, December 18, 1859, was engaged in the grain and feed business in Boston in 1885 and for many years carried on a foreign and domestic wholesale business for which he became nationally known in the grain trade. He was president and director of a number of New England grain firms; a director of the Melrose Savings Bank for many years; elected State Senator from the Fourth Middlesex District as a Progressive during the Bull Moose sweep of 1914; a trustee of the Pine Banks Park; active in the Public Franchise League; a member of the Boston Chamber of Commerce and of the Flour and Grain Exchange. In 1889 he mar- ried Gertrude Day and about 1900 built a residence on Franklin Street in the Highlands. He presented the Franklin, Warren, Lincoln and Messengers Meadows playgrounds to the City, and at his death in 1944 left three trust funds for welfare work among colored people.


ROY M. CUSHMAN was born in Providence, Rhode Island, graduated from the Worcester English High School in 1900, and then obtained an A.B. from Clark University in 1905. He was


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employed by the Grafton and Knight Manufacturing Company in Worcester before doing post-graduate work at the University of Pennsylvania in 1906-1907. In 1907 he was appointed proba- tion officer in the Boston Juvenile Court where he served until 1915, when he became a director of the Norfolk House Centre in Roxbury. In 1917 he was engaged in the organization of the Red Cross work at Camp Devens. From 1917 to 1929 he was employed in various posts in the American Red Cross, New England Divi- sion and Boston Metropolitan Chapter, and finally as executive director of the Chapter. In 1929 he became executive secretary of the Boston Council of Social Agencies, which merged with the Greater Boston Community Council in 1944 as the United Com- munity Services of Metropolitan Boston, from which he retired as secretary, becoming a consultant in 1949. In 1933 he was given leave of absence to take direction of the Social Services Depart- ment of the Emergency Relief Administration. He has been chair- man of the Melrose Board of Public Welfare since 1932.


DR. JOHN DIKE died at his home on West Emerson Street on January 3, 1934, after three months illness. He was born in Bath, Maine, December 27, 1856, his father, Dr. Samuel Fuller Dike, being a well-known physician, and his mother, Miriam (Worcester) Dike, the daughter of Rev. Thomas Worcester, who established the Swedenborgian Church of The New Jerusalem on Bowdoin Street in Boston.


Dr. Dike graduated from Bowdoin College in 1881, and Boston University School of Medicine in 1888, practiced a short while in Wellesley Hills and then came to Melrose to assist Dr. McIntosh. He was an active member of the Masons, Elks and Grange; an early golfer, helping to lay out what became the Bellevue Golf Club course, and was the first chairman of the committee that built the clubhouse. He was an amateur pho- tographer, a member of the Melrose Arts and Crafts Society, the Melrose Club, and chairman of the Republican City Committee. He served on the Board of Health, the School Committee, and was an alderman for thirteen years, president of the Board in 1926-1927. He was also president of the Boston Dining Club. He was buried from the Swedenborgian church in Boston, and sur- vived by his wife, five children and nine grandchildren.


GEORGE W. Dow was master of the seven mast schooner Thomas W. Lawson which left the Delaware River November 20, 1907 for London with oil in bulk. On December 13 they anchored off the Scilly Isles for a pilot and tow to London. The pilot came


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aboard and a boat was sent ashore to cable Falmouth for a tow. Heavy wind arose during the night, and about 2.00 A.M. the anchors broke away and the vessel was forced aground and broken up. All the nineteen men aboard were fast in the rigging, and all but two drowned, including the pilot. Captain Dow was thrown into the water and, although with a broken arm and nearly frozen, swam for three hours to cover the two miles to the rocks, where he found the engineer, Edward Rowe, who had drifted ashore on a stanchion. A boat came from ashore and took off Rowe, but it was not until 7.30 P.M. that they returned for Captain Dow. He was nursed for three weeks in the home of Israel Hicks on St. Agnes Island, and then taken to St. Mary's Island for another three weeks in the home of Miss Sarah Mumford, until he was fit to return home. He arrived in New York February 2, 1908, and at his home in Melrose the night of the same day.


NEHEMIAH MAYO DYER Was born in Provincetown, Massa- chusetts, on February 19, 1839, went to sea when he was fifteen years of age, and in 1861 joined the Army, but in April 1862 was appointed Master's Mate in the Navy and sailed on the U.S.S. R. R. Cuyler in August for the Gulf Squadron. Promoted Acting Ensign in 1863, he was assigned to command of the U.S.S. Glasgow, blockading Mobile, where, for gallant service, he was assigned to U.S.S. Hartford, the flagship of Admiral Farragut, and in December 1864 was given command of the U.S.S. Randolph.


In April 1865 he was promoted to Acting Volunteer Lieu- tenant and was in command of several vessels until the end of the war; on special duty in the Bureau of Navigation from 1866 to 1868, when he was appointed Lieutenant Commander in the regu- lar Navy, and appointed Commander in 1883. In 1897 he was made Captain and assigned to the command of the cruiser Phila- delphia and afterwards to the Baltimore, on which he displayed bravery during the Battle of Manila on May 1, 1898, for which he was presented with a sword of honor by the City of Balti- more.


He retired in 1900, but filled various posts of responsibility at the Charlestown Navy Yard, and was made Rear Admiral in 1901. He was taken ill on January 27, 1910, upon his return from a trip to Washington, and died the same day. He was buried from his home on Vine Street, Rev. Willard T. Perrin of the Methodist Church officiating. Navy officers from Charlestown, and other prominent officials attended. Flowers were sent by Governor


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Draper, and the city flags were at half mast. He was buried in Wyoming Cemetery.


VICTOR A. FRIEND Came from Brooklin, Maine, and estab- lished a firm of bakers and canners in Melrose in 1892. He was active in the Universalist Church, where he taught a Sunday School class for fifteen years, was president of the Massachusetts Universalist State Convention, and in 1932 was made president of the Universalist General Convention. On January 19, 1932, he was tendered a testimonial dinner and reception in Marshall Hall in recognition of his long service to the Church. Rolliston W. Linscott was toastmaster, and Mayor Perkins brought the greet- ings of the City.


On November 7, 1948, a reception was tendered Mr. and Mrs. Friend in Memorial Hall on the occasion of their golden wedding, attended by some two thousand citizens. President Daniel L. Marsh of Boston University was master of ceremonies, and a gold vase was presented by Dr. Leonard Carmichael, presi- dent of Tufts College. A gift of money for his favorite charity, the Melrose Hospital, was presented by Dr. Harold Margeson, and immediately handed over to Dr. Ralph Leonard. The heads of over fifty organizations read citations of honor and presented their good wishes for the couple. The reception was in charge of Mrs. Howard M. LeSourd of Newton, Mrs. Edith Weye Wilson of Boston and Mrs. Harold L. Margeson of Melrose.


Mr. Friend was elected a trustee of Boston University in 1937; a member of the executive committee of Tufts College, where he was given an honorary degree in 1940; chairman of the Massachusetts Committee of Catholics, Protestants and Jews for over twelve years; president of the Melrose Orchestral Associa- tion since its organization in 1919; chairman of the Board of Dean Academy and Junior College in Franklin, Massachusetts, and a member for four years of the Governor's Council of Massachusetts.


JOSEPH ALOYSIUS GAINARD Was born in Chelsea, October 11, 1889, and served in the Navy during World War I, having enlisted in the United States Naval Reserve as Quartermaster 3d Class on November 23, 1917, at New York, and was commissioned Ensign March 25, 1918. He was on board the Navy Transport President Lincoln when it was torpedoed off Sicily May 31, 1918, and spent five days on a raft. He served on Navy colliers and transports until June 30, 1922, when he was released from active duty. He was given an honorable discharge November 22, 1925, and com- missioned Lieutenant Commander on April 27, 1929.


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While master of the S.S. City of Flint, a Maritime Commis- sion cargo vessel, he picked up two hundred nineteen survivors of the S.S. Athenia on September 3, 1939. Captured by the German battleship Deutschland on October 3, 1939, he was released with his vessel by the Norwegian government and returned to the United States. For this he was awarded the Navy Cross. Upon his return to Melrose he was tendered a banquet in Memorial Hall on February 8, 1940, with five hundred present, followed by a reception with one thousand two hundred present. The committee, headed by Charles M. Cox, presented him with a gold watch and chain, and gave flowers to his wife.


On July 30, 1941, Captain Gainard was again called to active service, was made a Commander on January 5, 1942, and on April 3, 1942, was ordered to the Navy Yard in connection with the conversion of a merchant vessel into a Navy tanker, the U.S.S. Big Horn. He was promoted Captain June 9, 1943, to date from June 20, 1942, and was transferred to the command of a Navy transport in the Pacific. Taken ill with pleurisy, he was brought to San Diego for hospitalization, and died there in the Navy Hospital December 23, 1943. His body was returned to his home in Melrose Highlands, and Requiem Mass was celebrated at the Most Blessed Sacrament Church in Greenwood, Wakefield on December 30, 1943. He was survived by his wife, Mrs. Ethel M. Gainard, a brother in New York and a sister in Dorchester. Mrs. Gainard, who died in 1948, was also well known in Melrose in her own right, as a teacher for over twenty years.


REV. FRANCIS J. GLYNN, pastor of St. Mary's of the Annun- ciation Roman Catholic Church for forty-three years and a priest for fifty-nine years, died at the rectory on Myrtle Street February 6, 1938, at the age of eighty-seven, following a long illness.


Father Glynn was born in South Boston in 1851, attended the public schools, graduated from Holy Cross College and stud- ied for the priesthood in St. Joseph's Seminary in Troy, New York. He was ordained December 21, 1878, and appointed curate of St. Stephen's Church in Boston, then assistant in the Church of St. John the Divine in Hopkinton, and then three years as assistant at St. Patrick's Church. In 1894 he was appointed pastor of St. Mary's Church in Melrose. At that time the Church had a debt of $20,000, which was cleared by 1903.


With the burden of the church debt lifted, Father Glynn began work on a parochial school which was completed in 1909. At the same time a convent for the Sisters of the Holy Child Jesus


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who teach in the parochial school was built. He also organized the Holy Name Society in Melrose.


Father Glynn remained in charge of the Parish until 1936, when failing health necessitated Rev. Joseph F. Bonner becoming administrator, later appointed pastor in April 1938.


Known as an eloquent speaker, Father Glynn was chosen to make the speech of welcome in Memorial Hall to the service men returning from World War I. He was also active in other civic work, and was respected and admired by all faiths in Melrose. At his funeral Mayor Robert A. Perkins headed a delegation of city officials, with a large number of clergymen also present. Rev. James A. Brewin, pastor of the Sacred Heart Church in Lynn, delivered the eulogy. Burial was in Holywood Cemetery in Brookline.


ANGIER L. GOODWIN of Sheffield Road, was born in Fair- field, Maine, graduated from Colby College, studied law in Har- vard Law School and began his practice in Maine, later practis- ing in Boston. He came to Melrose in 1906, was named trustee of the Public Library, a member of the Planning Board, and first chairman of the Board of Appeals. He was elected Alderman from Ward Two for six years, then Alderman-at-Large and Presi- dent of the Board in 1920. He was elected Mayor in 1921 and 1922, State Representative for Melrose four years, and Republican Senator for several terms. He was especially active in the Grange, but was also a member of the Elks, Odd Fellows, Knights of Pythias, and Masons, where he was Master of Fidelity Lodge. Angier Goodwin was elected to Congress from the 8th Congres- sional District in 1942. He is still serving as Representative.


On April 15, 1941, Senator Goodwin was tendered a banquet at the Copley-Plaza Hotel in Boston as the newly appointed Presi- dent of the Massachusetts Senate. Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr., Congressman Joseph W. Martin, Governor Saltonstall, Ex- Governor Channing H. Cox, Mayor Tobin, Ex-Senator Claude L. Allen, and Mayor Robert A. Perkins of Melrose were at the head table. Attorney-General Jay R. Benton introduced Mr. Cox as toastmaster. Mrs. Goodwin was presented with roses.


ELBRIDGE HENRY Goss died of pneumonia in the home of his daughter Mrs. Edward E. Babb on East Emerson Street on Octo- ber 10, 1908. He was born in Boston December 22, 1830, and attended the Boston English High School. At the age of sixteen he worked for a clothing firm in Boston, and later as a book- keeper with A. L. White and Company, where he remained for


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thirty years. He came to Melrose in 1857 soon after his marriage, and on June 11, 1858 became a member of the First Congrega- tional Church, of which he was a deacon at the time of his death. He served the Town as water registrar and as town auditor, was elected to the Legislature in 1874-1875 and as alderman from Ward Three. He was a trustee of the Public Library, treasurer of the Melrose Savings Bank in 1875, and was treasurer of the First Congregational Church for fifty years.


Mr. Goss was president of two literary clubs in Melrose, the Roundabout and the Centennial, and also treasurer of the Lyceum during its twenty-one years of existence from 1874 to 1895. He was a member of other clubs and societies, and author of a num- ber of books and articles pertaining to Melrose and Massachu- setts, particularly of a "Life of Paul Revere." He was author of the "History of Melrose" which was completed June 30, 1902 and published by the City of Melrose. He was married December 22, 1853 to Hannah June Baker of Boston, who died in 1906. He was survived by his son Frank H. Goss, a daughter and a grandson.


WILLIS C. Goss was born in Melrose June 8, 1870, the son of Curtis C. and Augusta M. Goss, attended Melrose High School and Philips Academy in Andover, and then for forty-six years was engaged in manufacturing and wholesaling men's neckwear in Boston, until his retirement in 1939. He became a member of the corporation of the Melrose Savings Bank in 1907, and in 1909 was elected a trustee. He was president of the Young Men's Christian Association for five years, chairman of the city ceme- tery committee for fourteen years, and a member of the Park Board for three years. He has also been very active in the Con- gregational Church since joining in 1889.


LEVI S. GOULD died at his home on Main Street on March 22, 1917, after a week's illness. He was born in Dixmont, Maine, March 26, 1834, educated first in Wilmington, Massachusetts, and then in Melrose, where he had lived since 1843. He was employed first as a shoemaker, then as an accountant, and then for many years as a furniture manufacturer and dealer in Boston, retiring in 1889. He served as a clerk in the Treasury Department in Washington in 1861, returning later to Melrose, where he was a selectman in 1869; chairman of the Board from 1885 to 1892; Town Moderator from 1865 to 1899, being re-elected one hundred eight times. He was the first Mayor of Melrose, in 1900; a mem- ber of the House of Representatives 1868 to 1869; a member of


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the Board of County Commissioners of Middlesex County from 1897 to the date of his death. He was president of the Melrose Cooperative Bank; vice-president and director of the Melrose Trust Company ; president of the New England Furniture Exchange in 1883-1884, and of the Furniture Club of Boston in 1886. He was active in Masonry, the Knights of Pythias, the Grange, the Society of Colonial Wars, Sons of the American Revolution, and president of the Melrose Historical Society, the Association of County Commissioners of Massachusetts, and of the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Association.


His funeral was held in Memorial Hall, with twelve hun- dred persons present, including Mayor Charles H. Adams, who delivered the eulogy, the City Government, the Masons, the Knights of Pythias, the Commissioners, and representatives of the banks, fraternities and clubs to which he belonged. He was survived by his wife, the former Mary Eliza Payne of Melrose, and two daughters, Mrs. Frederick L. Putnam of Melrose and Mrs. Joseph Remick of Winchester, and also by a brother, Edwin E. Gould.


EDWIN E. GOULD died December 27, 1919, at his home on West Wyoming Avenue. He was born in Wilmington, Massa- chusetts, August 19, 1840 and was educated in the public schools of Bath, Maine, and later in Conner's Commercial College in Boston. He then worked on the first Melrose newspaper, the Melrose Advertiser.


He went to Kansas in 1857, crossed the plains in 1860 and in 1861 enlisted in Company F, First Colorado Cavalry. He was wounded at Glorietta, New Mexico, and after his discharge on October 16, 1864, was postmaster at Fort Lyons, Colorado for three years. After the war he returned to New England and located at Bridgeport, Connecticut, in the rubber business for fourteen years. He then returned to Boston and for twelve years was accountant with the F. M. Holmes Furniture Company in which his brother Levi S. Gould was a partner. He was chosen Town Auditor in 1891, and held that office until his death. He was a Son of the American Revolution, a member of the G.A.R., and served as tyler of Wyoming Lodge of Masons for many years.


He married Emily H. Underhill of Bronxville, New York, on June 5, 1877, and after her death on January 19, 1905, lived with his sister-in-law, Miss Callie Underhill, until his death. On the day of his funeral the City Hall was closed and the flag at half mast.


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FRANCIS S. HESSELTINE died at his home in Wellesley on February 17, 1916, at the age of eighty-two. He was a graduate of Colby College in Waterville, Maine, in the class of 1863, but had previously enlisted in the Army and performed distinguished service, capturing a gunboat in Texas and holding it against tre- mendous odds, for which he received a medal. He was an officer under General Butler in New Orleans, and finished the war with the rank of colonel.


He came to Melrose in 1870, living on West Emerson Street, but practiced law in Boston. In 1913 he was made an LL.D. by his college. He was active in the Republican Party, but was defeated for Mayor in 1902. He was also active in patriotic affairs, and commander of the Loyal Legion.


In October 1915 Colonel Hesseltine moved from his home in Melrose to Newton. His funeral was attended by Mayor Charles H. Adams, Ex-Mayor Buttrick, Ex-Mayor French, other city officials and members of the fraternal orders. He was buried in Wyoming Cemetery.


DR. HOWARD B. JACKSON Was born in Peterboro, New Hamp- shire, September 25, 1874, the son of Rev. A. Willard Jackson, a Unitarian pastor. He attended grammar school in Livermore Center, Maine, and High School in Concord, Massachusetts; entered Harvard in 1893 and graduated in 1897. He then entered the Medical School and received his M.D. degree in 1901. Fol- lowing service in Boston hospitals, he came to Melrose in 1905 to assist Dr. Odlin, later practising independently. He was a member of the American Medical Association, East Middlesex Medical Society, the Medical Staff of the Melrose Hospital, the Melrose Club, Wyoming Lodge of Eastern Star, and on the stand- ing committee of the Unitarian Church.


He reported for Army medical duty July 15, 1918, and was assigned as captain in the Medical Corps to Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia, where he died of pneumonia October 13, 1918. Funeral service was held in Memorial Hall, with Dr. John Dike presid- ing. The trustees and nurses of the Melrose Hospital, the G.A.R., the East Middlesex Medical Society and several clergymen were present. Mayor Charles H. Adams made the address. He was sur- vived by his wife, Mrs. Mary E. (Smith)Jackson, and four children.


WALTER DEHAVEN JONES died at his home on Porter Street December 2, 1924, after four days of pneumonia. He was born in Melrose August 7, 1856, educated in the public schools of Mel- rose and Brooklyn, New York, employed for seventeen years in


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the railroad business in Boston with the Merchants Transporta- tion Company, served two years with the Board of Selectmen, was a registrar of voters in 1898, assistant town clerk for four years, town clerk for one year, and appointed city clerk in 1900, a position he held until his death.


He was tyler of Wyoming and Fidelity Lodges, a past patron of the Eastern Star, an Odd Fellow, member of the First Method- ist Church, the Melrose Fish and Game Club, president of the Massachusetts City and Town Clerks Association, active in the Republican Party organizations, a director of the Young Men's Christian Association and active in the Sons of Union Veterans for many years. He was survived by his wife and two children. Flags at City Hall and Memorial Hall were at half mast for him.


VICTOR C. KIRMES Was born in Boston in 1857, and brought to Melrose three years later. He graduated from the English High School in Boston in 1873, elected president of the graduating class, and appointed a registrar of voters in 1888. He served as such until elected assistant city clerk in 1915, city clerk in 1924, and was also clerk of the Board of Appeals, the Cemetery Asso- ciation, the Park Commission, and clerk of committees of the Board of Aldermen.




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