Men of progress one thousand biographical sketches and portraits of leaders in business and professional life in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Part 11

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 11

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ROBERT TREAT PAINE.

till his death in 1875, at the age of eighty- five, as the missionary of the Episcopal City Mission), the largest workingmen's club in the country, embracing a loan association, two co-oper- ative banks. and a building association ; and sub- sequently he raised the various subscriptions.

MEN OF PROGRESS.

amounting to go,ooo, for the memorial building of the Institute, completed in 1883. In 1887 he gave Sto,ooo to Harvard College to endow a fellowship for " the study of the ethical problems of society, the effects of legislation, governmental administration, and private philanthropy, to ameli- orate the lot of the mass of mankind"; and in 18go, in connection with Mrs. Paine, he created and endowed a trust of about $200,000, called the Robert Treat Paine Association, the trust deeds providing that the charities established are always to be carried on by the founders and their children. He is a member of the vestry of Trin- ity Church, of the executive committee of the Episcopal City Mission, and of the Watch and Ward Society; is one of the trustees of donations to the Protestant Episcopal Church ; is vice-presi- dent of the Children's Aid Society, of which his mother was one of the founders and a director as long as she lived ; president of the Wells Me- morial Institute, the Workingmen's Co-operative Bank, the Workingmen's Building Association, and the Congress of Workingmen's Clubs. He has built two hundred or more small houses for workingmen, which are sold to them on easy terms ; published many pamphlets and addresses dealing with social problems; and striven in vari- ous ways to raise the unfortunate, and especially to improve the condition of the working classes. In 1884 Mr. Paine represented Waltham, where his country seat is, in the lower house of the Legislature ; and the same year was Democratic and Independent candidate for Congress in the old Fifth District. He had been a Republican (and Free Soiler) until the nomination of Mr. Blaine for the Presidency. Mr. Paine was mar- ried in Boston, April 24, 1862, to Lydia Will- iams Lyman, daughter of George Williams and Anne (Pratt) Lyman. Her father was the son of Theodore Lyman, a distinguished Boston mer- chant at the beginning of this century. They have five children : Edith (now Mrs. John H. Storer), Robert Treat, Jr., Ethel Lyman, George Lyman, and Lydia Lyman Paine. Mr. Paine's town house is at No. 6 Joy Street, Beacon Hill.

PHILLIPS, HENRY MOSES, of Springfield, treasurer and receiver-general of the Common- wealth, 1894, was born in Athol, August 11, 1845, son of Alonzo D. and Mary A. (Robinson) Phil- lips. Ile is descended from the Rev. George

Phillips, who came to America in 1630, at the same time with Governor Winthrop and Sir Rich- ard Saltonstall. The Rev. George Phillips was a graduate of Cambridge College, England, and became the first minister at Watertown, Mass. Among his numerous descendants were John Phil- lips, the first mayor of Boston, Wendell Phillips, and the Rev. Phillips Brooks. Henry M. Phillips was educated in the public schools of Athol and Fitchburg, at the Deerfield Academy, and at the Military University of Norwich, Vt. At the age of sixteen, when at Norwich, he enlisted in the volunteer service, joining the Seventh Squadron,

H. M. PHILLIPS

Rhode Island Cavalry, and later the Fourth Mas- sachusetts Cavalry, and served through the Civil War till the spring of 1865, when he was mus- tered out. As lieutenant of the Fourth Massa- chusetts Cavalry, he served on the Tenth Army Corps staff, under Generals Gilmore, Birney, and Terry, also on the Twenty-fifth Army Corps staff. under General Weitzel,- principally in the Army of the James, in its operations south of Richmond. He began business life as private secretary to the Hon. Henry Alexander, Jr., then mayor of Spring- field. taking his position immediately after his discharge from the army. In 1871 he was ap- pointed deputy collector in the United States in-

8 1

MEN OF PROGRESS.

ternal revenue service, and assistant assessor of the Tenth Massachusetts District. The same year he organized the firm of Phillips, Mowry, & Co., for the manufacture of steam-heating appa- ratus, in which he has been engaged since, his firm being succeeded in 1876 by a corporation under the title of the Phillips Manufacturing Com- pany, of which he is the president. He is also a director of the Second National Bank of Spring- field, of the Springfield Five Cents Savings Bank, and of the Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company,-on the finance committee of each of the three institutions. He has also been a direc- tor of the Springfield Board of Trade since its organization. His public career began as a mem- ber of the Springfield City Council, in which he served for two years. In ISSo and 1881 he was a representative of Springfield in the lower house of the Legislature; in 1883-84-85 was mayor of Springfield ; in 1886-87 a member of the State Senate for the First Hampden District; and in 1894, as treasurer and receiver-general elected to that office by a large vote, he became a member of the executive department of the State. In the Legislature he served, when a representative, on the committee on railroads in ISSI, and again when a senator, in 1886-87; in 1886 he was also chairman of the committee on towns, and in 1887 chairman of the committees on insurance and on the treasury. From 1890 to 1894 he was postmaster of Springfield (appointed January 23. 1890), resigning the position November 30, 1893. (resignation not accepted till January 6, 1894). to assume the duties of State treasurer. Mr. Phil- lips is a member of the Massachusetts Comman- dery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion, a member of the Grand Army,- for two years com- mander of Wilcox Post, Springfield, and one year senior vice-department commander,- a Knight Templar, and a Mason of the thirty-second de- grec. He was married in Springfield, December 29, 1874, to Miss Julia (Bowles) Alexander. They have one son : Henry Alexander Phillips, a mem- ber of the class of 1897, Harvard.

PLYMPTON, NOAH ALLEN, of the firm of Plympton & Bunting, general managers of the New England department of the Penn Mutual Insurance Company of Philadelphia, is a native of Massachusetts, born in Shrewsbury. September 7, 1841, son of John B. and Hannah E. (Allen)

Plympton. He is of American descent in the ninth generation on both sides. At sixteen, having already worked some time in his father's shoe factory, he was apprenticed to learn the trade of watchmaker and jeweller, and served till he reached his majority. Thereafter he fol- lowed this trade, the greater part of the time en- gaged in the watch and jewelry business for himself, in Worcester, until 1878, when he en- tered the insurance business. He first became associated with the Penn Mutual Life in 18So, acting as local agent at Worcester. Two years later he was made general agent of the company

NOAH A. PLYMPTON.

at Boston. This position he held until May, 1883, when he resigned to take the office of ex- aminer for the State Insurance Department, to which he was appointed by Insurance Commis- sioner Tarbox. After a year's service here he resigned (May, 1884), and returned to the Bos- ton office of the Penn Mutual Life as general agent ; and shortly after he was appointed to his present position of general manager of the com- pany's New England department. In 1885 he was elected to the Board of Trustees of the com- pany, and has since been re-elected from year to year ; and he is chairman of the committees on medical department and on accounts. In poli-

MEN OF PROGRESS.

tics he was a Democrat, voting the "straight" Democratic ticket up to 1884, when he differed with the Democratic party on the tariff question, and since that time he has voted for protection whenever and wherever he could find a candidate who was for it. He was a member of the Demo- cratic State Committee from 1880 until June, 1884, when he resigned, during the " Butler years " of 1882 and 1883 being chairman of the executive committee and having entire charge of the campaigns of those years. In 1883 he was nominated for insurance commissioner of the Commonwealth by Governor Butler, but was not confirmed by the Republican Executive Council. He was never an applicant for public office nor a candidate except when nominated for insurance commissioner, and his candidacy then was only at the request of Governor Butler. He is presi- dent of the Boston Life Underwriters' Associa- tion, a member of the Algonquin Club, of the Butler Club (president since its organization in May, 1887), and of the New England Club (vice- president) ; and he is connected with the Masonic order, member of the Athelstan Lodge of Worces- ter, and the Worcester Chapter R. A. M. He was married at Kewanee, Ill., September 17, 1862, to Miss Helen M. Flint. They have five children : Herbert F. (now in business with his father), Harry A. (now a student of law), Alice L., Lucy A., and Frederick K. Plympton. He resides at Wellesley Hills.

POPE, ALBERT AUGUSTUS, founder of the bi- cycle industries in the United States, was born in Boston, May 20, 1843, son of Charles and Eliza- beth (Bogman) Pope. He received his education in the public schools of Brookline, to which town the family moved early in his childhood. When he was nine years of age, his father met with busi- ness reverses ; and young Albert at once began to earn something towards his support. At the early age of twelve he started as a successful trader in fruits and vegetables among his neigh- bors. At fifteen he was employed in the Quincy Market, Boston, and later became a clerk in a shoe-finding store on Blackstone Street. At nine- teen he joined the volunteer forces of the Union army, going to the front as second lieutenant in the Thirty-fifth Massachusetts Regiment. He was promoted to the rank of first lieutenant, March 23, 1863 ; to captain, April 1, 1864: was

brevetted major for "gallant conduct at the battle of Fredericksburg, Va.," and then lieutenant colonel for "gallant conduct in the battles of Knoxville, Poplar Springs Church, and front of Petersburg." He served in the principal Vir- ginia campaigns, was with Burnside in Tennessee, with Grant at Vicksburg, and with Sherman at Jackson, Miss. He commanded Fort Nell before Petersburg, and in the last attack led his regi- ment into the city. After the war he entered business for himself, dealing in shoe manufact- urers' supplies. In 1877, having already founded the Pope Manufacturing Company and become an enthusiastic bicyclist, he started out in the industry which has grown to such extraordinary proportions. At that time the demand for the wheel was limited, and in many quarters there was marked opposition to its use in the public thoroughfares. Accordingly, it was Colonel Pope's mission, at the outset, to overcome the prejudice against it, and to foster a popular interest in bi-

ALBERT A. POPE.

cycling. These ends were accomplished in vari- ous ways, and with them sundry public benefits were secured. Opposition, wherever it showed itself, was promptly met and ably checked and dispelled ; the amendment or repeal of adverse city ordinances was secured, and the rights of

MEN OF PROGRESS.

wheelmen in the public ways were defended and established in the courts; trained tongues and pens were brought to champion the bicycle and to promote the public good will towards it; the liter- ature of the subject was widely distributed, and the best foreign publications were imported and circulated gratuitously ; local periodical publica- tions were encouraged and sustained ; Colonel l'ope's company published "The American Bi- cycler," which did much to awaken popular inter- est in intelligent bicycling, and to correct popu- lar misconception regarding it. The first journal devoted exclusively to bicycling, the Bicycling World, started in the autumn of 1879, was sub- stantially advanced by the patronage of the com- pany ; and it founded, at an expense of several thousand dollars, the illustrated magazine, The Wheelman, which subsequently became the Out- ing. Colonel Pope is also pioneer in the move- ment for highway improvement in town and coun- try. Besides his interest in the bicycle industry, he is concerned in several other lines of business. He is a director of the American Loan & Trust Company and of the Winthrop Bank, and is con- nected with a number of other corporations and companies. He is a member of the Algonquin, Country, Athletic, and Art clubs of Boston ; is president of the Beacon Society; commander of the Massachusetts Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion; prominent in the Grand Army, and a life member of several chari- table organizations. For two years he was a member of the Newton city government. Colonel Pope was married September 20, 1871, to Miss Abby Linder. They have five children : Albert Linder, Margaret Roberts, Harold Linder, Charles Linder, and Ralph Linder Pope.

PRATT, ISAAC, JR., president of the Atlantic National Bank of Boston, is a native of North Middleborough, born June 27, 1814, son of Isaac and Naomi (Keith) Pratt. He is a descendant in the eighth generation of Phineas Pratt, who came from England to Massachusetts Bay in the third ship, " Ann," and died in Charlestown, April 9, 1680, at the age of eighty-six years. He was educated in the town school of North Middle- borough and at Bridgewater Academy. At the age of sixteen he entered his father's counting- room in Wareham, where he remained till 1834. Then he came to Boston ; and after a year with

Warren Murdock, in the commission hardware business, he joined B. L. Thompson on Long Wharf, becoming a partner in the firm in 1836, the business being chiefly the manufacture of cut nails and dealing in hops. He continued in this business till 1843, when he connected himself with

ISAAC PRATT, Jr.

the Weymouth Iron Company. Here he was engaged for forty-three years, for a considerable part of the time president of the company. He was also some time president of the Bridgewater Iron Company. His official connection with the Atlantic National Bank began in 1866, when he was elected a director ; and he has held the office of president since 1869. He is also a director of the National Bank of Wareham. In 1875 he was a member of the lower house of the Legislature, representing the Brighton District of Boston. In politics Mr. Pratt is a Republican, always voting the regular ticket of the party ; but he has not had much time to give to the organization as a member. He is active in local enterprises, and has served as president of the Charles River Embankment Company, and as treasurer of the East Boston Company. He was married June 9, 1840, to Miss Hannah Thompson, daughter of B. L. Thompson, his early partner in business. They have had five children : Ellen Jane Oakes,

MEN OF PROGRESS.

Isaac Lowell, David Gurney, Edmund Thompson, and Marland Langdon Pratt.

PRINCE, FREDERICK OCTAVIUS, mayor of Bos- ton 1877, 79-81, was born in Boston, January 18, 18IS, son of Thomas and Caroline ( Prince) Prince. He comes of English stock on one side and Scotch on the other, and his ancestors were among the earliest settlers in New England. The first to come to this country was Elder John Prince, son of John Prince who was rector of East Sheffield as far back as 1584, when the Prince family was living in Shrewsbury upon their estate known as " Abbey Foregate." Elder John Prince came here

in 1633, and settled in Hull. His grandson, Thomas Prince, graduated from Harvard in 1707, and in 1718 was ordained as colleague of Dr. Samuel Sewall (minister of the Old South Church of Boston for fifty-six years), which position he

F. O. PRINCE.

held for forty years, until his death. James Prince, the grandfather of Frederick O., was well known in his day and generation as a prominent merchant in Boston. He was appointed by Presi- dent Jefferson as naval officer at the port of Bos- ton, and afterward United States marshal for the

district of Massachusetts. He held the latter office under the administrations of Madison and Monroe. Frederick O. Prince was educated at the Boston Latin School and Harvard College, entering the former in 1827 and graduating in 1832 (receiving the Franklin medal and two other

medals for scholarship), and graduating from the

college in 1836. He was the secretary of his col- lege class, and the class poet. A year after his graduation he began the study of law in the office of Franklin Dexter and William H. Gardiner, and in 1840 was admitted to the Suffolk bar, when he began the practice of his profession in Boston. He was an ardent Whig, and early in his career took an active part in politics. Maintaining his law office in Boston, in 1848 he made his resi- dence in Winchester, Middlesex County, and rep- resented that town in the lower house of the State Legislature in 1851, 1852, and 1853. The latter year he was a member of the Constitutional Con- vention, taking a leading part in its proceedings. In 1855 he was elected to the State Senate, and in this body at once became prominent and influ- ential. In 1860, upon the disruption of the Whig party, he allied himself with the Democratic party ; and he has since been a conspicuous member of that organization. He was a delegate from Mas- sachusetts to the memorable National Democratic Convention at Charleston, S.C., in 1860, and, ad- hering to the Douglas wing of the party, was made secretary of the National Democratic Com- mittee for the presidential campaign of that year. This position he held through the succeeding campaigns until 1888, being unanimously elected each time. That year, although again elected unanimously, he resigned the office ; and upon his retirement he received from the National Dem- ocratic Convention a resolution of thanks for the " unflagging zeal and distinguished ability " which had characterized his twenty-eight years of ser- vice. Meanwhile Mr. Prince had become again a citizen of Boston ; and in 1877 he entered upon his first term as mayor of the city, having been elected by a large vote in the December election of 1876, although his party was at the time of his nomination in the minority. Renominated for a second term, he was defeated after one of the most hotly contested elections in the city, his competitor being Henry L. Pierce. The next year, however, when he was again put in the field, he was returned by a handsome majority, and thereafter was twice re-elected (for the terms of

MEN OF PROGRESS.

ISSo and [SS1 ). For ISS2, though earnestly pressed, he declined renomination. His adminis- tration was especially marked by the adoption of the scheme of public parks embraced in the "publie parks system," the development of which is seen in the chain of beautiful pleas- ure grounds now almost encircling the city; and by the measure providing for the "improved sewerage system,"- that fine piece of engineering known as the great intercepting sewer, which takes to Moon Island, outside the harbor of Bos- ton, the sewage of the city proper and the district lying south of Charles River. The great building for the Latin and English High schools, the largest structure in the country for the use of pub- lic schools, was also erected during his administra- tion, and largely through his efforts. In 1885 Mr. Prince was named as the Democratic candidate for governor of the State, and was defeated upon a strictly party vote. In 1888 he was made a member of the Board of Trustees of the Boston Public Library, under whose supervision the classic and richly embellished new Library Build- ing in Copley Square has been constructed; and in 1893 he was reappointed for a second term of five years. During his mayoralty Mr. Prince was often called to make orations and addresses on occasions of municipal interest, which were highly commended by the press and the citizens gener- ally. Among these may be mentioned the ora- tions on the dedication of the statue of Josiah Quincy in front of City Hall : on the dedication of the statue of President Lincoln in Park Square ; and on the celebration on the 17th of September, ISSo, of the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the settlement of Boston. He made also eloquent addresses at the dedication of the public Latin and English High school-house, at the dedi- cation of the Soldiers' Monument on Boston Com- mon, and at the laying of the corner-stone of the new Public Library Building on Copley Square. Mr. Prince was first married, in 1848, to Miss Helen Henry, daughter of Barnard Henry, of Philadelphia, for many years United States consul at Gibraltar, where Mrs. Prince was born. Their children were: Gordon and Bernard (deceased), twins, Charles Albert, Morton Prince (M.D.), Helen Susan (deceased), and Frederick Henry Prince. Mrs. Prince died in 1885; and in 1889 Mr. Prince married again, his second wife being the widow of Mr. Samuel P. Blanc, a distin- guished member of the bar of New Orleans.

PROCTOR, THOMAS WILLIAM, city solicitor of Boston 1891-94, is a native of New Hampshire, born in Hollis, November 20, 1858, son of Thomas and Susan R. (Pool) Proctor. He is-a direct de- scendant of Robert Proctor, who came from Eng- land and settled in Concord in 1635. He was

T. W. PROCTOR.

educated in the public schools of his native town, in the Lawrence Academy of Groton, Mass., where he was fitted for college and graduated in 1875, and at Dartmouth, graduating therefrom in the class of 1879. The next year he came to Boston, and began the study of law, reading in the office of the Hon. John H. Hardy and attend- ing the Boston University Law School one year (1882-83); and in October, 1883, was admitted to the Suffolk bar. In 1884 he was clerk to the district attorney for Suffolk from July to October, and then entered general practice as a member of the law firm of Hardy, Elder, & Proctor, which was soon after changed, Mr. Hardy being ap- pointed to the municipal bench, to Elder & Proc- tor. In this relation he continued till 1886, when he was appointed second assistant district attor- ney for the Suffolk District. In December of the following year he was promoted to the first assist- ant district attorneyship: and this position he held until May, 1891, when he was appointed

MEN OF PROGRESS.

assistant solicitor in the law department of the city of Boston. On the first of February, 1894, he resigned from the city law department to take the law practice of the old Boston firm of Blackmar & Sheldon, upon the appointment of Mr. Sheldon to the Superior Bench. Mr. Proctor is a member of the Boston Bar Association, and of the Uni- versity and Curtis clubs. He is unmarried.

RANNEY, AMBROSE ARNOLD, member of the Suffolk bar since 1848, and representative in Congress three terms, is a native of Vermont.

A. A. RANNEY.

He was born in Townshend, Windham County, April 16, 1821, son of Waitstill R. and Phæbe (-Atwood) Ranney. His father was the leading physician of the town, and for two terms the lieutenant governor of the State. He attended the Townshend Academy, where he was fitted for college, and, entering Dartmouth, was graduated in the class of 1844. Then he took up the study of law in the office of Andrew Tracy in Wood- stock, Vt., and in 1847 was admitted to the Ver- mont bar. He immediately removed to Boston, where the following year he was admitted to the Suffolk bar ; and there he has since practised with marked success. Seven years after he opened

his Boston office he was made city solicitor, which position he held for two terms. In 1857 he was member of the lower house of the Legis- lature, and again in 1863 and 1864; and in 1880 he was first elected to Congress. He served in the Forty-seventh, Forty-eighth, and Forty-ninth Congresses, and was one of the most prominent members of the Massachusetts delegation. Dur- ing his first two terms he was a member of the committee on elections; and his third, of the committee on the judiciary and of the special committee to investigate the Pan Electric scheme. He has been a Republican since the organization of that party. In his professional work Mr. Ranney has been eminently successful as a jury lawyer. He was married in Cavendish, Vt., De- cember 4, 1850, to Miss Maria 1). Fletcher, daughter of Addison and Maria (Ingals) Fletcher. They have had one son and three daughters : Fletcher (now a partner in the law firm of Clark & Ranney), Maria F., Helen M., and Alice Ran- ney (now Mrs. Thomas Allen).

RAYMOND, WALTER, of the firm of Ray- mond & Whitcomb, continental excursion pro- jectors and managers, is a native of Boston, born October 13, 1851, son of Emmons and Mehitable Converse (Munroe) Raymond. His paternal grandparents, Asa and Hulda (Rice) Raymond, were long residents of the town of Shutesbury, Franklin County, and celebrated that rare occa- sion, a . diamond wedding, in April, 1862. His education was begun in the old Phillips School in Boston, and, the family removing to Cambridge, continued in the Harvard Grammar and the Cam- bridge High and Latin schools, where he was fitted for college. He entered Harvard, and grad- uated in the class of 1873. In college he was a member of the Pierian Sodality, the Signet, and the Alpha Chapter, Psi Upsilon Fraternity; and among his classmates were Robert Grant, now probate judge, J. M. Laughlin, Charles T. Rus- sell, Jr., J. Cheever Goodwin, and Eliot Lord, editor of the Boston Traveller. He began busi- ness life as a book-keeper for his brother, Charles A. Raymond, then established on Hanover Street, Boston. In June, 1875, he entered the railroad business as cashier in the Boston office of the Montreal & Boston Air Line & Passumpsic Railroad, and two years later became the general agent of the line, in charge of the several New

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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 11

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