USA > Massachusetts > Memorial encyclopedia of the state of Massachusetts > Part 18
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On June 1I, 1862, Mr. Beaman entered the United States Navy as acting paymaster, and later rose through the grades of assistant paymaster, pay- master and pay-inspector until in April, 1899, he was made pay director, and on May 7th of the same year he was retired with the rank of rear ad- miral, his retirement being due to his age. He served in the South Atlan- tic and Gulf blockading squadrons and on the Mississippi river during the Civil War, and was in several engagements. After serving on various ships and at various stations, he was made general storekeeper at the Boston and Mare Island Navy Yards, in 1887 and 1893, and made his last cruise on the flag-ship "New York" as fleet paymaster of the North Atlantic station. He was one of the officers serving under Rear Admiral Evans when the latter represented the United States at the opening of the Kiel Canal.
On May 2, 1866, Rear Admiral George William Beaman was united in
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marriage with Rebecca Swift Goldsmith, of Louisville, Kentucky, a daughter of Surgeon-General Dr. Middleton Goldsmith and Frances (Swift) Gold- smith, then of Louisville, but afterwards for many years a resident of Rut- land, Vermont. The union of Admiral and Mrs. Beaman was blessed with four children, as follows: 1. William Major, who was born at Annapolis, Maryland, February 20, 1867; after studying at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he became widely known as a topographic engineer, and in- vented the Beaman stadia arc; at present he is connected with the United States Geological Survey in Washington, D. C., and is now a major in a corps of engineers, United States Reserve; the corps to which he belongs was recruited very largely, if not entirely, from the Geological Survey. 2. Frances Middleton, born June 18, 1868, became the wife of Walter Safford Burke, formerly of the United States Navy, now Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Inspector of Grounds and Buildings of Harvard University. 3. Bessie Eleanor, born in Norfolk, Virginia, September 10, 1873, died July 2, 1874. 4. Middleton Goldsmith, born in Rutland, Vermont, September 25, 1877; graduated from Harvard University with the class of 1899, and from the Harvard Law School in 1892; he resides in New York, where he is prac- ticing law.
Admiral Beaman was one of those men who felt strongly the ties of family affection, and might well serve as a model of the domestic virtues, and indeed of the virtues of wellnigh all the relations of life. It was one of his greatest pleasures to pass the time in the home circle, surrounded by the family to whom he was so devoted. Always tender and loving in the home circle, his heart was no less filled with love toward all humanity. He was a delightful companion, as he remembered and recounted with vivid power the many interesting experiences he had passed through during his long career of usefulness. He was indeed a strong character, and was greatly interested in the affairs of the community, making an ideal citizen, and one that any community should hold up as a type for its future generations to imitate. He seemed to derive great pleasure through the informal intercourse with his fel- low-men which was given to him at the numerous clubs of which he was a mem- ber, and among which should be mentioned that he belonged to the Loyal Le- gion, the St. Botolph Club of Boston, and the Army and Navy Club of New York. He had belonged to other clubs, but his failing health caused him to re- sign from several of them. His friends were many, and he was the possessor of that magnetic charm which was able to retain friendships, while he himself, if once a friend, was always a friend. His personality was one that will not quickly be forgotten by the great host of those who called him their friend. He was a man who combined gentleness and firmness, yielding easily where his sense of right and justice was not concerned, but inflexible enough where his conscience had rendered its decision. His whole career may well be characterized by the term of faithfulness, as he was faithful to life's near- est duties, and faithful to the demands of his work and home. His friends
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and associates learned to prize him for his unassumed worth and his sterling integrity. Such were the qualities of his mind and heart and the forces of his character that in any calling and even under adverse conditions Rear Ad- miral George William Beaman would have occupied a commanding position, and the record of his achievements was extended and most honorable. He was a liberal, tolerant, broad-minded gentleman, whom it is neither adulation nor exaggeration to call a "great man."
henry Sabage Chase
THE late Henry Savage Chase was one of those men whose lives are object lessons to the youth of our land. Not only did he rise above the standard in business life, but he possessed in a high degree those excellencies of character which make men worthy of the regard of their fellow-men. The business of manufacturing and selling bags and bagging, organized by Mr. Chase, one of the foremost of its kind in the country, and of which he was the head, constantly advanced under his able leadership un- til the Boston office became headquarters for importing and manufacture with branch houses in St. Louis, Chicago and Kansas City, and connections in Calcutta, India, and Dundee, Scotland. One important factor of his success was the genial, obliging disposition which won friendship for him under all conditions. But above all, his undertakings from the outset rested firmly upon the sure foundation of unimpeachable honor and incorruptible integrity.
Henry Savage Chase belonged to the seventh generation from Aquila Chase, who is believed to have come originally from Hundridge Manor, par- ish of Chesham, Buckinghamshire, England, to Hampton, New Hampshire, as early as 1640, and who removed to Newbury, Massachusetts, in 1646. Henry Savage Chase was born in Washington, D. C., in 1825, and was the third child of Professor Irah Chase, D. D. and Harriet (Savage) Chase. Henry Savage Chase entered a store in Boston as an apprentice, at the age of twelve or thir- teen years, gaining some little knowledge of life before entering Phillips Acad- emy, Andover, which his own earnings enabled him to do. There he came un- der the strong influence of its able head-master, popularly known as "Uncle Sam" Taylor, and prepared for entering college. At the close of his junior year Mr. Chase was forced to leave Harvard College and assume the respon- sibilities of his father's family. In those days some people were distrustful of a "collegian" buckling down sufficiently to make a good clerk, and he met with discouraging receptions in his search for work. At last, in one office, he found a man struggling with a stove-pipe, either putting it up or taking it down; quietly young Chase took hold and gave him timely aid, so that the man, although in no need of a clerk, was moved to offer him desk-room, while he continued his quest. This man was in the shipping line, and finding it was of some moment to him to get early intelligence that a ship flying his private flag was coming up the harbor, Mr. Chase volunteered to keep about the wharves and bring him instant tidings. This convenience was so apparent to the neighboring merchants that several asked him to have an eye kept out for the return of their ventures as well, and it was from this small beginning, we understand, that the present system of Marine Exchange was established.
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Meanwhile it had occurred to Mr. Chase, as he stood about the wharves and saw the cargoes put off and on, that there was room for improvement in handling the great quantities of flour and grain passing through the port of Boston, by substituting bagging for barrels. This led to the starting of his bag business, about the year 1850, and the adaptation of the newly invented sewing machine to the purposes of bag manufactury through the skill of his partner, John E. Batchelder. Into this practically new field was carried an energy, a soundness of judgment, and an absolute integrity which would have made any business successful. In later years his brother, Heman Lincoln Chase, became associated with him under the firm name of H. & L. Chase, and still later, his son, the late William Leverett Chase. Notwithstanding the attention neces- sary in setting a young and growing business on its feet, Mr. Chase continued reading for his degree from Harvard, which he received in due time. His comrades of the class of 1848 showed their appreciation by choosing him sec- retary of his class, an office which he filled until his death.
On December 25, 1852, Henry Savage Chase married Sarah Gano Lev- erett, a daughter of the Rev. William and Mary Ann Brown Jackson ( Cole) Leverett, temporarily resident in North Grafton, Massachusetts, then known as New England Village. Mr. and Mrs. Chase became the parents of five chil- dren, as follows: I. William Leverett, born at the home of his grandparents in North Grafton, Massachusetts, December 4, 1853, and died October 7, 1895. He was educated in Brookline, Massachusetts, graduating from Harvard Uni- versity with the class of 1876, becoming secretary of his class and remaining so until his death. Although his life was brief it was full of activity, as may be seen at a glance by the offices he filled with marked ability. Interested in public affairs, he served as inspector general on the staff of two Governors of the Commonwealth representing both political parties. He was a director of the Third National Bank, of the Fitchburg Railroad and of the Boston Wharf Company; vice-president of the State Street Trust Company; president of the Commercial Club, and a member of the Metropolitan Park Commission. He was also president of the Papyrus Club, and first president of the Massachu- setts Society of the Sons of the Revolution. He married, at Syracuse, New York, Mary Frances Elizabeth Greenough, and they had six children, name- ly: (A). Mary Greenough Chase, born in Longwood, Brookline, who died in 1886; (B). Helen Leverett Chase, born in Longwood, Brookline, in 1878, who married Laurence Bertram Flint, in 1906. They are the parents of Frances Carnes Flint, born in Needham, in 1907; Laurence Bertram Flint, Jr., born in Needham, in 1909; Vasmer Leverett Flint, born in Brookline, in 1915; and Putnam Phillips Flint, born in Milton, Massachusetts, September 6, 1918. (C). William Henry Chase, born in Brookline, in 1881, and graduated from Harvard University with the class of 1904. (D). Patience Chase, who was born and died in Brookline, in 1886. (E). Sarah Gilroy Chase, born in Brookline, in 1888, and married, in 1914, to Theophilus Parsons Chandler, 2nd, now serving with the American Expeditionary Force in France. They
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Denry Savage Chase
have two children, both born in Dedham, Massachusetts: Theophilus Parsons Chandler, 3rd, in 1915, and James Greenough Chandler, in 1917. (F). Lil- ian Chase, who was born in Brookline, Massachusetts, in 1889, and married Daniel Hiram Craig, M. D. They have one child, Barbara Craig, born in 1916. 2. Henry Savage Chase, Jr., who was born and died in Roxbury, Massachu- setts, in 1858. 3. Ellen, born in Brookline, Massachusetts, in 1863. For six years, during 1886 to 1893, she was associated with the noted philanthropist, Octavia Hill, in her work of managing tenement houses in London, England. Miss Chase has retained her interest in civic improvement and has served on the board of the Boys' City History Club. She is the author of "The Begin- nings of the American Revolution," Doubleday, Page & Company. A member of the Society of Mayflower Descendants, she has served on the board of the Massachusetts Society of the Colonial Dames as recording secretary ; and was the first regent of the Hannah Goddard Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, in Brookline. 4. Sarah, associate member of the Massachusetts Society of the Colonial Dames, and a member of the Daughters of the Ameri- can Revolution, was born in Brookline, 1866, and married Lincoln Clifford Cummings, in 1892. His father, Enoch Lincoln Cummings, was a classmate of Henry Savage Chase, the subject of this memorial. The five children of Mr. and Mrs. L. C. Cummings were born in Portland, Maine: (A). Rosa- mond Cummings, born in 1893. (B). Lincoln Clifford Cummings, Jr., born in 1895, and died in 1916, while a member of the class of 1917 at Harvard Uni- versity. As his work for the three years had entitled him to the degree of B. A. it was awarded after his death. (C). Margaret Atherton Cummings, born in 1896, died in 1897. (D). Henry Savage Chase Cummings, born in 1898, who entered the United States Navy in 1918 as a volunteer. (E). Wil- liam Leverett Cummings, born in 1900, an undergraduate of the class of 1921 at Harvard University. 5. Mary Leverett, who was born and died in Brook- line, Massachusetts, in 1868.
After his marriage, Mr. Chase made his home with his father in Boston, then for a few years in Roxbury, Massachusetts, where he became interested in the Episcopal church, and was confirmed at Saint James's Church; before this he had belonged to the Baptist church with which his father was identi- fied. During the year 1860 Mr. Chase built the stone house in Brookline, Massachusetts, which is occupied by his son's heirs at the present time, in the immediate neighborhood of Saint Paul's Church. The Rev. John Seeley Stone, D. D., was then the rector, and so much regarded by Mr. Chase as to be a guide in his choice of a permanent home, the house being carefully placed where Mrs. Chase, an invalid at the time, could Walk to church with the greatest ease. In the years that intervened between his establishing himself in Brookline in 1860, and his death in 1885, there were no marked incidents except those common to all households.
It is very true, however, that while some men make a wide mark in their day, there are others that make a deep one, and in this latter group Mr. Chase
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is numbered. His entire life, full of goodwill and strength, made him trusted and loved beyond the common lot, and drew forth a singularly united expres- sion of feeling at his death. His classmate, the late General Charles Greeley Loring, wrote: "It would seem as if the link of sympathy that kept us bound together had snapped when '48 could no longer greet him." Another class- mate, Henry Saltonstall, wrote: "He held us together, more than any man or thing could." The Commercial Club expressed its sense of his "elevated character as a merchant and man of affairs, whose purity of purpose, whose patriotic impulses, and generous spirit were constantly manifested through many years of fellowship, and whose Christion character is remembered with pride and regarded as a subject of emulation."
The present Bishop of Massachusetts, the Right Rev. William Lawrence, one of his old Sunday school boys, adds his testimony to the "beauty and no- bility of his character"; and his immediate associates recur again and again to his leading traits: "He was a merchant in every sense of the word, strictly honest, upright and reliable." "In all the petty annoyances of business he was always the same, always striving to act honestly and fairly to others, even to his own pecuniary loss at times, and I never heard but one opinion expressed about him, and that was that he was a good man." "What a head of the house and of the business he was!" "His business acquaintances were emphatically his friends as well. I think I never knew a man so uniformly genial and agreeable in his intercourse with his fellow-men or who was more consistent and upright in his business dealings. A settled principle, a Christian principle, was evidently at the foundation of all of his words and actions." "His word was as good as his bond, and in addition to that he was possessed of such charming manners as drew all hearts to him. I have never had dealings with a man who knew better his ideas and plans, or who had a more reasonable and amiable way of making them known to others."
In closing, we quote from a letter of John C. Grafflin, of Baltimore, Mary- land, written to William L. Chase, the surviving member of the firm:
My acquaintance with Mr. Chase began long before the Civil War and I have always found him the same, a conscientious, upright Christian gentleman. Although we were com- petitors in the same business, he was always frank, confiding, and generous, and spoke freely of improvements and changes in the trade. Naturally I came to regard him as the foremost man in our country in his line of business and now that he has gone, I look around for his equal, and find none. You must not think that I am given to flattery, for I am not, but think you, his son, should know from me and others, just how your dear father stood before his contemporaries, and I can offer no friendly advice better than to follow him and preserve the traditions of your ancestry as left you in his living.
It is this calling upon the generations that follow to Up and play the Man in their Day that makes the worth of annals such as these.
Erastus Worthington
B EYOND doubt one of the most prominent figures in the intel- lectual life of Dedham, Massachusetts, and its environs during the past generation, as well as one of the leaders of his pro- fession, was Erastus Worthington, whose death on January 20, 1898, was felt as a very real loss by the entire community. Few citizens have equaled him in the number of affairs with which he was identified, or in the disinterestedness and capabil- ity of his leadership, for Mr. Worthington was a leader in whatever movement he undertook, and his fellow townsfolk recognized this and readily submitted to a leadership which was always exerted for their good. He was one of the best known figures of the bar in that region for many years and was equally distin- guished as a local historian and as a citizen of public spirit. For many years he was vice-president of the Dedham Historical Society, and in this capacity did an immense deal toward the collection and preservation of the local rec- ords, which are so numerous and of such interest in that part of the community.
Born at Dedham, November 25, 1828, Erastus Worthington was a son of Erastus and Sally ( Ellis) Worthington, and through them came of splendid old New England stock, the virtues and typical traits of character of which were well exemplified in him personally. His father, Erastus Worthington, Sr., was an attorney before him, a graduate of Williams College and a man of mark. He was a member of the General Court of Massachusetts, 1814-1815, and a pro- motor of the incorporation of the Norfolk Mutual Fire Insurance Company and its first secretary, an office which he held for fifteen years. He was well known in legal circles as the author of an essay written in 1810 on the establishment of a chancery jurisdiction in Massachusetts. In this work he advocated a sys- tem of jurisprudence, at that time held in very little esteem by the people of the State but which, half a century later, was incorporated by statute into the law of the Commonwealth. The elder Mr. Worthington was also keenly interested in local history and indeed wrote a history of Dedham, covering the period be- tween 1635 and 1827, and which has been looked upon as a competent author- ity since that time. His wife, Sally (Ellis) Worthington, was a New England woman of the old school, possessing all those higher Christian virtues which were so marked in the character of her son and which he inherited from her.
Erastus Worthington, Jr., attended the local public schools of Dedham for the first part of his education, and was later sent by his father to the Attlebor- ough Academy, where he was prepared for a college course. He matriculated at Brown University in the year 1846 and soon established for himself a rec- ord for excellent scholarship and an earnest ambition to make the best of his op- portunities. In the meantime he had decided to follow the law as a profession,
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Erastus Worthington
and upon his graduation from Brown University, with the class of 1860, he entered the law office of his eldest brother, Ellis Worthington, who had gone out West and established himself as one of the leading members of the bar in Mil- waukee, Wisconsin. Here the younger man read law for a time and then re- turned to his native Dedham, where he pursued his studies in the office of Ezra Wilkinson, a well known attorney of that region. Still later he entered the law school of Harvard University, from which he graduated in 1853 with the de- gree of LL.B. He was admitted to the bar at the February term of the Su- preme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, held at Dedham in 1854, and at once es- tablished himself in practice, in partnership with the Hon. David A. Simmons. a leading attorney of Boston. In the year 1856 he was made registrar of the Court of Insolvency in that district, an office which he held until July, 1858. He then established his office in Dedham and embarked upon his successful practice there. It was in 1858 that the office now known as that of trial jus- tice was established and Mr. Worthington was appointed one of the first of these by Governor Nathaniel P. Banks. For nine years he held this office, and was then elected clerk of courts for Norfolk county. The latter office Mr. Worthington filled with distinction for a period of thirty-two years. He did not, however, give his entire attention to his legal profession and maintained all his life the keenest kind of an interest in educational matters, taking an active part in the same. In 1862, after he had been engaged in law practice for some time, he actually took a position as teacher in the Dedham High School and filled that post satisfactorily during the spring season of 1862. For many years he was connected with the School Committee of Dedham and in that ca- pacity did much to improve educational conditions in the region. In the year 1867, at the request of the School Committee, Mr. Worthington prepared an article, giving the names applied to the several schools in the district, together with the reason that had influenced the committee in adopting them. This was published as an appendix to the School Committee's report for 1866-67. In the matter of his politics, Mr. Worthington supported the principles and policies of the Republican party, and was known as an active member of the same, but he was a man of extremely independent mind and did not hesitate to criticize the management of his party and its candidates, sometimes to the point of endangering his own office. Like his father before him, Mr. Worthington was a lifelong member of the Episcopal church, to the interests of which he was actively devoted. He attended the church of this denomination at Dedham, and for more than twenty years held various positions in connection with it, such as clerk, vestryman and warden, and he was also superintendent of the Sunday school for a number of years. He was a most conscientious and consistent at- tendant on divine service and was one of those men who carry their religion with them through the week and make it a guide for the practical affairs of everyday life.
One of the matters in which Mr. Worthington was best known was the history of his native region, a subject in which his father had distin-
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guished himself before him. Mr. Worthington was regarded as one of the best read and most deeply versed students of the records of that whole district in Colonial as well as more recent times. His studies embraced the entire State of Massachusetts, but were more particularly devoted to Norfolk county and the town of Dedham. His careful research and accurate knowledge of details were admirably shown in his works, "The Bench and Bar" and the "History of Dedham," which formed sections of his history of Norfolk county, and the en- tire volume is a very valuable contribution to the history of the region. On the invitation of the town of Dedham, Mr. Worthington delivered the principal ad- dress at the dedication of Memorial Hall in that town, September 29, 1868, and also the historical address at the celebration of the Two Hundred and Fif- tieth Anniversary of the incorporation of the town, which was held September 21, 1866. Both of these addresses added to his note as an orator and were con- sidered fine examples of appropriate eloquence by the community-at-large. They were printed and in this more permanent form were widely distributed in Dedham and its environs. Mr. Worthington's connection with the Dedham Historical Society was a long and notable one and is well told in the "Dedham Historical Register," the publication of the society, which reads as follows:
Of Mr. Worthington's worth to the Dedham Historical Society, it is difficult to speak within the bounds of moderation. It is true that he was not one of its founders, but very early in his life he became a very active and efficient associate member. In the act of the General Court to incorporate it, approved April twenty-third, 1863, his name appears as a corporator ; he was its vice-president from 1888, and one of its curators from 1865 up to his death, and one of its chroniclers from 1879 to 1882. Of the thirty-five papers read before the society to January eighth, 1890, he wrote and read seven and since that date he has contributed nine carefully prepared papers for the Register besides numerous reports which are valuable contributions to local history. They evidence careful and thorough research, and an earnest and successful endeavor to recover from dread forgetfulness facts which must ever be interesting and instructive to our people. These are indeed the most conspicuous labors of Mr. Worthington in the interest of this society, but they meagerly portray his constant and thoughtful and well directed efforts in promoting and upbearing every purpose and object for which it was established. It may be truly affirmed that in this work his zeal never flagged and his hand never grew weary.
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