Men of progress one thousand biographical sketches and portraits of leaders in business and professional life in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Part 104

Author: Herndon, Richard; Bacon, Edwin M. (Edwin Monroe), 1844-1916
Publication date: 1896
Publisher: Boston : New England Magazine
Number of Pages: 1036

USA > Massachusetts > Men of progress one thousand biographical sketches and portraits of leaders in business and professional life in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts > Part 104

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making were afterward exported to Liverpool, Australia, South America, Cape of Good Hope, and many other foreign parts where before they

OSCAR F. HOWE.

were unknown. Nothing pleased Mr. Howe more than to find a new field into which to introduce bis manufactures and merchandise, and he was the first to introduce many of his class of goods abroad. Ile became prominent among New Eng- land manufacturers early in his career as an enter- prising and progressive business man, and steadily held a leading place. He enjoyed the confidence and esteem of a large circle of business associates, who had high regard for his sterling character and honest, unostentatious life, marked by strict integrity. During the latter part of his life he was a director of the Atlantic National Bank of Boston for four years, and served as vice-presi- dent and a director of a large manufacturing com- pany in New York State for twelve years, resign- ing the trust only on account of declining health. He was well informed on all topics of the day, particularly finance, having through his life taken advantage of every opportunity for the acquisi- tion of business knowledge. Mr. Howe married October 26, 1864, Miss Mary Emily Holder. daughter of Daniel and Mary (Morris) Holder, of Boston, on her maternal side a descendant of the

Morris family of Revolutionary fame. His widow survives him.

HYDE, HENRY STANLEY, of Springfield, man- ufacturer and banker, is a native of New York, born in Mount Hope, Orange County, August 18, 1837, son of Oliver M. and Julia Ann (Sprague) Hyde. When he was a child of three years, his parents moved to Detroit, Mich. ; and there he was educated in private schools, and began his first work, as a clerk in the banking house. Afterward he studied law some time in the offices of Howard, Bishop, & Holbrook, and Jerome Howard & Swift. In 1862 he came to Springfield and en- gaged in the Wason Manufacturing Company, builders of railway cars, with which he has been identified ever since. In 1864 he became treas- urer of the company, the position he still holds. In 1869 he was made president of the Agawam National Bank, one of the oldest banks in New England, which position he still retains. Subse- quently he became interested in numerous other corporations ; and he is now (1895) president of the

HENRY S. HYDE.

E. Stebbins Brass Manufacturing Company, presi- dent of the Springfield Printing and Binding Com- pany, vice-president of the New England Tele-

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phone and Telegraph Company, treasurer of the Springfield Steam Power Company, director of the Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company, and vice-president of the Hampden Savings Bank. Of Springfield he has long been one of the foremost citizens. He has served in both branches of the city government, has been president of the Board of Trustees of the Springfield City Hospital since its incorporation in 1883, and is a generous sup- porter of other local institutions. In 1875 he represented the First Hampden District in the State Senate. In politics he is an earnest Repub- lican, for many years counted with the party leaders. He has served for a long period on the Republican State Central Committee, was a mem- ber of the National Republican Conventions of 1884 and 1888 and the Massachusetts member of the Republican National Committee from 1888 to 1892. Mr. Hyde has been twice married. He married first, in 1860, Miss Jennie S. Wason, daughter of Thomas W. and Sarah Longley Wason, of Springfield, by whom he had four chil- dren : Jerome W .. Henry S., Thomas W., and Fayolin Hyde ; and second, in 1892, Ellen Trask Chapin, daughter of the Hon. Eliphalet Trask, of Springfield. ITis residence is at Brush Hill Farm, West Springfield.

JONES, ELBERT ARCHER, M.D., of Uxbridge, was born in East Douglass, April 2, 1871, son of Seth N. and Rosina M. (Emerson) Jones. His ancestors on the paternal side were among the earliest settlers in Maine. On the maternal side he is in the tenth generation from a family which landed from England about 1660. His education was received in the public schools of his native town, and he graduated from the High School. After that he took a business course. At the age of seventeen he began work as a book-keeper in one of the largest decorating establishments in Brooklyn, N.Y. But, desiring to follow a profes- sional life, he finally left that position in the autumn of 1889, and entered the New York Homeopathic Medical College and Hospital. Upon his graduation therefrom in medicine and surgery, April 7, 1892, he settled in a Rhode Island town, and practised there for about two years. Then he removed to Uxbridge, where he has since been actively engaged. Dr. Jones is a member of the Worcester County Homeopathic Medical Society and of the Alumni Association

of the New York Homeopathic Medical College and Hospital. During his senior year in college he held the position of editor of obstetrics on the

E. A. JONES.

editorial staff of the Chironian. He was married June 7, 1893, to Miss Lizzie E. C'apen, of Hop- kinton. They have one son : Edgar Ross Jones.

JOYNER, HERBERT CURTIS, of Great Barring- ton, member of the Berkshire bar, was born in New Hartford, Oneida County, New York, July 12, 1838, son of Newton and Mary A. (Curtis) Joyner. Ilis great-great-grandfather was Robert Joyner, who came with his brother, William Joyner. from Cornwall, Conn., to Egremont, Mass., about 1738, purchased a large tract of land in the latter place, and lived and died there. He was the first captain commissioned in that town. His son, Octavius Joyner, great-grandfather of Herbert C., also lived and died in Egremont. Octavius was a member of the Massachusetts General Court in 1815. His son, Philo Joyner, Herbert C.'s grand- father, lived in the same place, and was a member of the Massachusetts General Court in 1840. His son, Newton Joyner, father of Herbert C., was born in Egremont, but moved to Oneida County,

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N.Y., when a young man. Herbert C. was edu- cated in the public schools of his native town and at the Charlotteville Seminary in Charlotteville, N.Y., and in the Troy Conference Academy, spending one year at each of the last-mentioned institutions. He afterward taught school two years in New Jersey, and in 1860 entered the law office of Thomas Twining in Great Barrington, Mass .. as a student. The outbreak of the Civil War caused an interruption in his law studies, but after a creditable service in the army he was ad- mitted to the bar at Pittsfield in 1865. He estab- lished himself in Great Barrington, and has there continued in active practice, with a clientage scattered over the whole county of Berk- shire. Ilis large practice and success have been in criminal law, and chiefly in the defence of alleged criminals. Since his admission to the bar he has appeared for the defendant in every capital case tried in his county except two, and has de- fended in a large majority of cases of homicide where the indictment was for something less than murder. As a criminal lawyer, his reputation began with the Nolan case, tried in 1871. Nolan was killed in that part of Great Barrington called Housatonic, on the Fourth of July, 1871. On the morning of that day he had in a quarrel with Lane, the defendant, slapped his face ; and Lane, with boyish indignation and resentment, had said. " I will live long enough to get even with you for this, you old brute : I will kill you." On the evening of that day some one of a group of boys. among whom was Lane, threw a stone at Nolan, fracturing his skull and causing his death. Upon the fact of this threat, and upon evidence of a colored boy, who said that he saw Lane throw the stone. Lane was indicted. The prosecution was conducted by the late George M. Stearns ; and Mr. Joyner secured a verdict of acquittal, largely through the claim that another boy who had left the State fled to escape arrest, and was really the guilty party. After the acquittal of Lane the other boy was arrested and brought to trial, Mr. Joyner appearing in his defence. In the trial of this case the counsel threw the crime back upon Lane, and this boy was also acquitted. The suc- cessful issue of these two cases established Mr. Joyner's reputation, and added to his increasing practice. There have been other cases in his practice indicating ingenuity and skill, among which may be incidentally mentioned Teneeyki. the Sheffield murderer, who killed two old persons

in their home on the night of Thanksgiving Day in 1877. The Berkshire Eagle, published at Pittsfield, said of Mr. Joyner's closing argument in this case that " it will long be remembered as the most able, ingenious, and eloquent argument ever heard in the Berkshire Court House." On the civil side of the court Mr. Joyner was associated as junior counsel with Samuel W. Bowerman and Marshall Wilcox in the somewhat noted " Minor Will case" which went from court to court in Massachusetts and New York for many years. The senior counsel for the will, which was finally sustained after the property involved had been substantially exhausted in the contest, was Charles N. Beale of Hudson, N.Y., an ex-member of Congress, and known as one of the ablest attorneys of the Empire State. Mr. Joyner was a member of the School Board of Great Barrington from 1866 to 1878, and was recognized by the secretary of the State Board of Education, Joseph White, as an efficient promoter of the welfare of the schools in that place. During his term of membership the ordinary mixed schools kept for two terms in the year, at a cost of $3,000 per

HERBERT C. JOYNER.

annum, gave way to a system of graded schools, and to the establishment of a High School, for which a new and commodious building was

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erected. The present advanced condition of the schools in this town is largely due to suggestions and arguments contained in the school reports of which he was the author, followed up by his earnest and unremitting efforts. He has served also for many years as an overseer of the poor, and in this capacity has been able to induce the town to adopt wise and benevolent methods of caring for the suffering and needy. In 1869, 1870, and 1883 he served in the House of Repre- sentatives, and in 1884, 1885, and 1886 in the Senate. While serving as senator, he was chair- man of the committee to investigate the sale by the governor and council of the New York & New England bonds. The investigation was based on a petition of Cyrus W. Field; and during its prog- ress questions of law were raised by eminent counsel, among whom were David Dudley Field, Sidney Bartlett, William Gaston, and Edgar I. Sherman, the rulings upon which by Mr. Joyner exhibited a legal knowledge and its prompt dis- play which attracted general notice. In 1886 he was the Democratic candidate for Congress from the then Twelfth District, and came nearer to an election than any defeated Democratic candidate had ever come before. He is a Freemason, and has been a member of the Cincinnati Lodge of Great Barrington since 1869, for six years its secretary. He was a charter member of the first post of the Grand Army of the Republic (organ- ized in Great Barrington in 1869), and was its commander from 1870 to 1875. Mr. Joyner was married at Norton, January 5, 1885, to Miss Mary E. Wild, daughter of George W. and Elizabeth B. (Tucker) Wild. They have five children. His office and home are in Great Barrington.

KELLY, EDWARD ALBERT, of Boston, member of the Suffolk bar, is a native of Maine, born in that part of Frankfort which is now Winterport, May 30, 1831, son of Albert Livingston and Car- oline (Peirce) Kelly. He is a descendant of John Kelly, probably of Newbury, England, supposed to have belonged to a branch of the Devonshire family, which either derived its name from the dis- trict of " Kelly " in that county or gave its name to the district, who settled in Newbury, Mass., in 1635. John Kelly received a grant of land in Newbury in 1639, and died there December 28, 1644. His son, John, born July 2, 1642, married first, in 1664, Sarah Knight, and second, 1716,

Lydia Ames, of Bradford, and died in what is now West Newbury, March 21, 1718. His son, John, was born in West Newbury, June 17, 1668, married Elizabeth Emery, November 16, 1696, and died in West Newbury, November 29, 1735, leaving a handsome estate. His son, John, the fourth of the name, was born in West Newbury, October 9, 1697, married December 31, 1723, Hannah Somers, of Gloucester, removed to Atkin- son, N.H., and there died April 27, 1783. His son, Moses, born in West Newbury, March 15, 1739, married November 10, 1757, Lydia Sawyer, daughter of Dr. William and Lydia (Webster) Sawyer, the latter daughter of Israel Webster, a near relative of the father of Daniel Webster, re- moved to Atkinson, N.H., thence to Goffstown, N.H., and thence to Hopkinton, N.H., where he died August 2, 1826. He commanded the Ninth New Hampshire Regiment of Militia in the Revo- lutionary War, and was high sheriff of Hillsbor- ough County for thirty years. His son, Israel Webster, was born in Goffstown, January 4, 1778, married about 1800 Rebecca Fletcher, daughter of Rev. Elijah Fletcher, of Hopkinton, and sister of Grace Fletcher, the first wife of Daniel Web- ster, was high sheriff of Merrimac County from 1814 to 1819, marshal of the district of New Hampshire during the administration of Harrison and Tyler, and pension agent under Taylor and Fillmore ; removed to Concord in 1841, and died there March 10, 1857. His son, Albert Living- ston, father of Edward A. Kelly, was born in Bristol, August 17, 1802, graduated at Dartmouth in 1821, married February 18, 1829, Caroline l'eirce, daughter of Waldo Peirce, of Frankfort (brother of Silas Peirce, the founder of the long- time house of Silas Peirce & Co., Boston), studied law in Portland in the office of Stephen Longfel- low, was admitted to the bar in 1825, that year also, at the age of twenty-three, delivered the city oration on the Fourth of July, later the same year was appointed on the recommendation of Mr. Webster agent of the "T'en Proprietors' Tract " in Eastern Maine, owned by David Sears, William Prescott, and Israel Thorndike, of Boston, there- upon moved to Frankfort, attained there a high rank in his profession, and died August 18, 1885. His brother, Israel Webster Kelly, was a gradu- ate of Dartmouth in 1824, enjoyed a successful legal practice in Frankfort and Belfast, Me., in 1851 became a member of the Suffolk bar, and died in Henniker, N.H., July 3, 1855. He mar-

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ried Lucilla S. Peirce. Edward A. Kelly, the subject of this sketch, received his preparatory education at the Military School of Lieutenant Whiting in Ellsworth, at Foxcroft Academy, and at North Yarmouth Classical Academy, Maine. and, entering Bowdoin College at the age of fif- teen, remained there until the middle of his junior year. He began the study of law in the office of George F. Farley, of Groton, Mass .. in 1851, and was admitted to the Suffolk bar in 1853. He there practised in copartnership with Mr. Farley until the latter's death in 1855, and thereafter alone, continuing in Groton until 1861, when he

EDWARD A. KELLY.

removed to Boston. He held a leading position at the Middlesex and Suffolk bar, and was en- gaged successfully in a large, general practice, handling many important cases until his retire-

ment in 1884. Before his admission to the bar he appeared in court at Worcester as counsel for Pliny H. Babbitt, a deputy sheriff, who had been indicted as accessory before the fact to a burglary in Barre; and the argument which he made was complimented by John H. Clifford, then attorney- general, who appeared for the Commonwealth, in his address to the court. In 1866 he was counsel for Charles Robinson, ex-governor of Kansas, in an action of contract brought by Joseph Lyman.

of Boston, treasurer of the Kansas Land Trust. on a number of promissory notes, the plaintiff being represented by Sidney Bartlett and Caleb W. Loring. Trial by jury being waived, the case was argued in the Supreme Court ; and Mr. Kelly obtained a decision in his favor. His argument on this occasion received the compliments of bench and bar. Among other important cases which Mr. Kelly successfully conducted were those of the Massachusetts National Bank a. Nathan Matthews, an action of contract brought by Mr. Matthews to recover $25,000 on a forged certifi- cate of stock of the Boston & Albany Railroad, in which he was counsel for the bank, and the Commonwealth 7. the Lancaster Savings Bank, argued before the Supreme Court. The latter case turned on the legality of a tax levied on the bank, under the law authorizing a tax on savings- banks, in May, five months after the bank had been placed in the hands of receivers. Mr. Kelly, as attorney for the bank, advised that the tax was illegal, Attorney-general Train advised that it was legal : hence the suit. The arguments were made before the court at Taunton in Octo- ber, 1877, and the opinion of the court given the following January, sustaining Mr. Kelly's conten- tion, the substance of the decision being that the tax on savings-banks is a tax upon the privilege of transacting business ; and, consequently, if at the time the tax is to be assessed and is de- clared to accrue the bank has, for the purpose of transacting its business, practically ceased to exist, then no tax is to be exacted. In writing of Mr. Kelly, Mr. Joseph A. Willard, for so many years the clerk of the Superior Court. character- ized him as a standard lawyer and natural gentle- man. Since his retirement from practice Mr. Kelly has devoted himself to his private affairs

and those of others intrusted to his care, and to the pursuit of literature. He was for some time a quite frequent contributor to magazines and newspapers, writing on political, historical, and general subjects. He was an intimate friend of the late Judge Josiah G. Abbott, Charles R.

Train, and Peleg W. Chandler; and while the latter's son, Horace P. Chandler, was editor of the Every Other Saturday, he contributed to its columns some notable papers on practical topics,

one of which entitled " Advice to Young Law- yers," recalling an unpublished incident in the first appearance in court of Sergeant S. Prentiss, to illustrate the writer's point of the necessity of

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exhaustive preparation of a cause for trial and then of absolute self-reliance, attracted special at- tention. During the Hayes-Tilden controversy he published, among other influential newspaper communications, a strong article, which appeared as an editorial leader in the Daily Advertiser, under the title of "It is the First Step that costs," and excited much favorable comment. Mr. Kelly is a graceful speaker as well as a fin- ished writer, and is frequently called upon for oc- casional addresses on historical and other topics. On the occasion of the celebration of the seventy- fifth anniversary of the establishment of the old Boston house of Silas Peirce & Co., whose founder, as has been stated, was a brother of the maternal grandfather of Mr. Kelly, his speech, giving sketches of several of the older members of the firm, was the chief feature. Mr. Kelly is a corresponding member of the Maine Historical Society, and was trustee of Lawrence Academy in Groton, first elected to the latter position in 1855, which he has resigned. He received the honorary degree of A.M. from Bowdoin College. In politics and other affairs he is a man of inde- pendence in the truest sense of the term, and has always refused to accept public office. It has been said of him that he avoids "the shackles of party, the responsibilities of trusts, any and all entangling alliances liable to interfere with inde- pendent action. The words of Chapman,-

. Who to himself is law no law doth need. Offends no law, and is a king indeed."

are to him specially applicable." He was mar- ried at Groton, November 15, 1854, to Miss Mary Farley, daughter of George Frederick and Lucy ( Rice) Farley.

KINGSLEY, CHESTER WARD, of Cambridge, merchant, was born in Brighton, now a part of Boston, June 9, 1824, son of Moses and Mary (Montague) Kingsley. He is of English and French descent. Left fatherless at the age of four years, he was thrown upon his own resources when but ten years old. For the next five years he lived and worked in the then wilds of Mich- igan. Then, returning to his native place, he re- sumed his studies in the common schools, which he had attended for some time before he went West, and went through the High School. Upon leaving school, he learned the carpenter's trade ;

but, this not being to his liking. he turned to other fields, and soon found a place as messenger in the old Brighton Bank. He continued in that posi- tion for two years, when he was promoted to a higher place, and subsequently was for three years teller of the bank. At the age of twenty-seven, in 1851, he became cashier of the Cambridge Market Bank, where he remained five years. In 1856 he entered mercantile life, engaging in the wholesale provision business ; and nine prosperous years followed. Retiring in 1865, he became treasurer of an anthracite coal mining company, which position he still holds ; and he was for eight years president of the National Bank of Brighton, the successor of the old Brighton Bank in which he began his business career. Mr. Kingsley has taken a prominent part in municipal affairs in Cambridge, where he has long resided; and he has served in both branches of the General Court. He has been a member of the Cambridge Board of Aldermen, a member of the School Board, and for twenty-nine years a member of the Water Board, president of the latter for many years. His service in the Legislature covered three years

C. W. KINGSLEY.

in the House of Representatives, 1882-83 84, and two in the Senate, 1888-89, as senator for the Third Middlesex District. In politics he has

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been a lifelong Prohibitionist and Republican, and in religious faith a Baptist. He has long taken a prominent part in Baptist denominational work, and held official positions in institutions and societies. He has been president of the Ameri- can Baptist Home Missionary Society, and is now one of the trustees of the Newton Theological In- stitution, of the Colby University in Maine, of the Worcester Academy, and of the Massachusetts Baptist State Convention ; and he was for some time one of the executive committee of the Amer- ican Baptist Missionary Union, and president of the Boston Baptist Social Union. He is a mem- ber, also, of the Cambridge and Massachusetts clubs. Mr. Kingsley was married in Boston in May, 1846, to Miss Mary Jane Todd, daughter of Daniel and Hannah Todd, of Brighton. They have had seven children, four of whom are living : Ella Jane (now Mrs. M. Clinton Bacon), Addie May (Mrs. D. Frank Ellis), Luceba Dorr (Mrs. Parker F. Soule), and C. Willard Kingsley.

KLAHRE, EDWIN, of Boston, pianist, is a native of New Jersey, born in the town of Union, Hudson County, May 2, 1866, son of Oscar and Caroline (Leismann) Klahre. He is of German descent, and comes of a musical family. His father is a teacher of the piano, and director of ser- eral Gesang Vereins of Hudson County, New York. lle was educated in public and private school and abroad. Manifesting in childhood a strong musi- cal tendency, he was early given piano lessons by his father, this instruction beginning when he was but five years old. At the age of fourteen his progress was so marked that he attracted the at- tention of Rafael Joseffy, and for some time after he studied with that eminent virtuoso. At sixteen he went to Stuttgart, and there came under the in- struction of Lebert and Pruckner, taking lessons in harmony from Percy Goetschius. Afterward, desiring to become familiar with all styles and schools, he studied several months in 1883-84 with the famous Xaver Scharwenka; and his ad- vancement was so rapid that Scharwenka advised him to go to Franz Liszt at Weimar. Accord- ingly, armed with warm letters of introduction from Scharwenka, he sought Liszt, and became a pupil of that master, his youngest at that time. From him he also won golden opinions, and upon parting was given a letter in which Liszt ex- pressed his affection for his talented young pupil,

and the interest and pleasure he had taken in his playing. His first appearances on the concert stage were made in 1873. in Jersey City; and his

EDWIN KLAHRE.

success was complete. Upon his first appearance in New York, in the spring of 1888, the press were unanimous in his praise, noting especially his lightness and brilliancy of touch and fine display of technique. He has a large repertory, and excels particularly in works of the modern and romantic school. He has played at the New York Lieder- kranz, the Arion and Progress societies, besides engaging with the Teresina Tua Concert Com- pany : and has given occasional concerts in Stein- way and Chickering halls. Since 1890 he has been a graduating teacher in the New England Conservatory of Music. Mr. Klahre was married September, 1890, to Miss Seraphina von Engel- berg.

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Men of progress one thousand biographical sketches and portraits of leaders in business and professional life in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Part 104

Author: Herndon, Richard; Bacon, Edwin M. (Edwin Monroe), 1844-1916 Publication date: 1896 Publisher: Boston : New England Magazine Number of Pages: 1036

Author: Herndon, Richard; Bacon, Edwin M. (Edwin Monroe), 1844-1916
Publication date: 1896
Publisher: Boston : New England Magazine
Number of Pages: 1036