Men of progress one thousand biographical sketches and portraits of leaders in business and professional life in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Part 113

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 113

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BREED, RICHARD, of Lynn, merchant, is a native of Lynn, born March 21, 1818, son of Sam- uel and Annie ( Allen) Breed. His birthplace was

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the family homestead, an ancient dwelling still standing, at the corner of Summer and Orchard Streets, West Lynn, called Breed's End, part of which is over two hundred years old. The house is on a part of the grant of land made to Allen Breed in 1638, when the town lands were divided, which originally embraced two hundred acres, and is still in the possession of the family. Mr. Breed is a direct descendant, the seventh in line, of Allen Breed, who came to Lynn in 1630. When a lad of ten, his father having died three years before, leaving his mother with five children and no property except twenty-five acres of land then not marketable, he was sent to his grand- father's home in Eliot, Me. He started in the old stage-coach alone, for a long day's ride ; and, as he tells it, a more lonesome, homesick little boy - for he was small of his age - never left home. lle remained in Eliot four years, going to school a small part of the time, and working hard on the farm the remainder, in many things being obliged to do a man's work; for the folk of those days were hard taskmasters, who thought that hard work was about the only thing in life. Upon his return to Lynn he learned the shoemaker's trade, on the seat, in the old-fashioned way. At the age of seventeen, his mother helping him to buy a horse, he gave up shoemaking, and undertook farming, doing odd jobs with his team whenever opportunity offered. In a year or two he was able to buy a second horse, and he continued at this work until he reached his majority. Then he worked on neighboring farms until the building of the old Eastern Railroad was begun from Boston to Salem, in 1836, when his teams were employed on that work. After the completion of the road to Salem, and its opening in 1838, he became fore- man of teamsters for the contractor building from Salem to Newburyport. His next venture was in the milk business in 1844, keeping ten or a dozen cows. Four years later, in February, 1848, he began, in connection with his brother Aza, to run teams over the turnpike to Boston, having bought out a small express business. When the return loads were light, they bought small lots of flour and grain in Boston, and peddled them around Lynn the following forenoon, making their regular trips to the city in the afternoon ; and this was the modest beginning of the extensive flour and grain business with which Mr. Breed has from that time been identified. The express business was continued until 1872, when, having largely de-

veloped, it was sold out at a profit. In 1857 the firm moved into the old Lynn hotel building in Market Square. Two years later larger quarters were taken in the Taylor Building. In 1871 re- moval was again made, this time to Lynn Com- mon, and the hay business was added. In 1888 the Rhodes estate, so called, across the way, was purchased. and more room obtained for the grow- ing business ; and in 1892 the firm built new and larger storehouses, so that at the present time its plant is second to none in its trade in New Eng- land. In 1887 Mr. Breed's brother Aza retired from the firm on account of ill-health ; and Rich-

RICHARD BREED.

ard's son, Charles Orrin Breed, who had been for many years with the concern, was admitted to part- nership in the firm of Breed & Co. During his forty-eight years in the flour and grain trade Mr. Breed has kept in line with the foremost. He was the first to introduce cotton seed meal into Lynn as a cattle-feed ; he bought the first carload of wheat for hen-feed; and he bolted the first meal for baker's use in Lynn. He is the oldest business man in Lynn to-day, still in active life, and engaged without change in the business which he started on the first of February, 1848. He is hale and hearty, and enjoys work and business as well as ever. He has never failed, but has always

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lived up to his obligations. He passed safely through the panies of 1857 and 1872, when so many succumbed under the financial pressure. On a long shelf in his office stands forty-seven boxes, each one marked " Paid bills for a year," which tell well the story of the way in which his house has weathered all the financial storms, and paid in the old-fashioned way, always one hun- dred cents on the dollar. Mr. Breed has also been a large purchaser of land within the city limits, and at one time, with his brothers, owned over one hundred acres. What is now known as Orchard Park was a part of their holdings, sold by them in 1890. Mr. Breed served in the Lynn Common Council in 1864 and 1865, the War Council, and was for some time a member of the Board of Overseers of the Poor. In politics he was always opposed to slavery, and joined the old Liberty party ; was one of only twenty-five in Lynn to vote for James G. Birney, the first candi- date of the anti-slavery party. From this party sprang later the Republican party, whose fortunes he followed until 1880. Since then he has been a strong Prohibitionist. Born a Quaker, since 1842 he has been a Methodist, for upward of fifty years an officer in the South Street Methodist Church of Lynn. For more than a quarter of a century he held the office of treasurer of the society. Mr. Breed was married January 26, 1843, to Miss Eliza Ann Breed, of another branch of the Breed family so long identified with Lynn. Their union was a long and happy one, closing with Mrs. Breed's death in September, 1890. They had four children, three of whom are still living : Laura E. (deceased). Annie E., now Mrs. J. A. Flint. Matilda, and Charles Orrin Breed.

BROOKS, PHILLIPS, sixth bishop of Massachu- setts Protestant Episcopal Church, was born in Boston, December 13. 1835 : died in Boston, January 23, 1893. He was a son of William Gray and Mary Ann (Phillips) Brooks, and descended on both sides from Puritan clergymen. - on the pa- ternal side from the Rev. John Cotton, and on the maternal side from the Phillips family, founders of the famous Andover academies, in which were three eminent ministers : the Rev. Samuel Phillips, who came from England in 1630, and was pastor of the Watertown colony ; his son, the Rev. Samuel Phillips, of Rowley. Mass., and his grand- son, the Rev. Samuel Phillips, of Andover, who

was grandfather of Samuel Phillips, who gave the larger part of the funds for the foundation of the Andover Theological Seminary. He was also of a family of clergymen, having been one of four brothers ordained to the Episcopal ministry. His father, for forty years a hardware merchant in Bos- ton, was a leading member of St. Paul's Church. Phillips Brooks's boyhood was passed in Boston. He was educated in the Boston Latin School and at Harvard College, which he entered at the age of sixteen. After his graduation, in 1855. he was usher in the Boston Latin School for about a year. and then, deciding to enter the ministry, went to Alexandria, Va., where he pursued a course of study in the Protestant Episcopal Theological Seminary of that city. He was ordained in 1859, and his first settlement was as rector of the Church of the Advent in Philadelphia. Three years later he was called to the Church of the Holy Trinity in the same city, where he remained until his call, in 1869, to the rectorship of Trinity Church, Boston, with which he was identified for nearly a quarter of a century. He early became one of the prominent figures in Boston, and from the pulpit of Trinity his fame spread far and wide. During his long service he declined numerous calls to other churches. and also the Plummer Professorship of Christian Morals and Preacher to the University, which office was offered and urged upon him in 1881. In 1880, in 1882-83. and again in 1892 he made extended visits to England, where he preached in notable places to notable congregations. During the tour of 1882- 83, which was of a year's duration and extended to the continent, he was accompanied by his brother, the Rev. John Cotton Brooks; and both of them preached in St. Botolph Church in old Boston, Lincolnshire, where their ancestor, John Cotton, preached two and a half centuries before. He also delivered, by invitation of Dean Stanley, a sermon before the queen in the Chapel Royal at the Savoy. London, and preached in numerous other London churches, among them St. Mark's, Upper Hamilton Terrace ; Westminster Abbey : St. Margaret's Church, Westminster; Christ Church, Lancaster Gate: St. Mark's, Kensing- ton ; St. Paul's Cathedral, Temple Church, and Christ Church, Marylebone; besides in Wells Cathedral, Lincoln Cathedral, and St. Peter-at- Archer, Lincoln. After his return home these sermons were published in book form, under the title of " Sermons preached in English Churches."

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His later journeyings were extended to India and Japan. In 1886 he was elected assistant bishop of Pennsylvania, but declined the office. He was elected bishop of the diocese of Massachusetts in 1891 to succeed Bishop Paddock, who died the previous year, and entered into the arduous work of the bishopric with zeal and energy. His death, occurring suddenly after a brief illness, was a great shock to the community, in which he was universally beloved ; and his public funeral, part of the services being performed in the open air in front of Trinity, was attended by a multitude. Soon after his burial a generous fund was raised

PHILLIPS BROOKS.

for a statue or monument to his memory, to be placed in the green in front of the church portal; and the commission for the work was given to the sculptor, St. Gaudens. Of Dr. Brooks's character- istics and power as a preacher a well-known journalist and critical writer has given this admi- rable and just estimate: "There is little in his oratory, -- that lifting of the head and throwing out of the broad chest, or that, to the hearer, terribly rapid reading of his manuscript, - there is little in that to account for the power of this modern Chrysostom, any more than there was anything in the manuscript delivery of spectacled Theodore Parker to account for his success. In each case

the sermon is cast at a heat, forged for the occa- sion, the product of a full heart and mind, couched in the simplest language, and burdened with the glow of a nature that feels the importance of its message, and yearns to bring it home to the in- most heart of that humanity which it believes in and loves. If anybody has magnetism, kindling power, rapport, glow, it is Phillips Brooks. It is an enthusiasm derived from his faith in his work and from his love for souls. His daily bearing is that of delicate yet genial seriousness; he is al- ways in high atmospheres ; always in his sermons you get the sweep and freshness and scope of the broadest views, the subtlety of common truths seen in a new light, a nourishment like that of sweet bread, and a way of winning a truth into your heart before you are aware of it. He is frank, simple, clear, logical, earnest." Dr. Brooks published numerous volumes of sermons and lectures, the list including the following : " The Life and Death of Abraham Lincoln" (Philadel- phia, 1865); "Our Mercies of Reoccupation " (Philadelphia, 1865); " The Living Church" ( Philadelphia, 1869); "Sermon preached before the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Boston " (Boston, 1872); " Address delivered May 30, 1873, at the dedication of Andover Memo- rial Hall" (Andover, 1873): " Lectures on Preach- ing, Yale College " (New York, 1877); "Sermons" (New York, 1878); "The Influence of Jesus," the Bohlen lecture delivered in Philadelphia in 1879 (New York, 1879); " Pulpit and Popular Scepti- cism" (New York, 1879); " The Candle of the Lord, and Other Sermons" (New York, 1883); "Sermons preached in English Churches " (New York, 1883); "Twenty Sermons" (New York, 1886); and " Tolerance," two lectures to divinity students ( New York, 1887). Dr. Brooks received the degree of D.D. from Harvard in 1877. He was unmarried.

BROWN; CHARLES FREEMAN, of Boston, patent attorney, is a native of Maine, born in Hampden. October 21. 1848, son of John and Deborah ( Freeman) Brown. His great-great-grandfather. John Brown, was one of the Scotch-Irish colonists who emigrated from Londonderry, Ireland, and settled in Londonderry, N.H., about 1750, and be- came one of the first settlers and one of the first selectmen of Belfast, Me., settling there in 1760. He was one of the three who refused to take the

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oath of allegiance to the British king prior to the Revolution, and for this reason was compelled to abandon his land at Belfast until the close of the

CHARLES F. BROWN.

war. Mr. Brown's great-grandfather and grand- father were each named John, were born at Bel- fast, and lived uneventful lives there. His father, also named John, was born in Belfast, and re- moved to Hampden in early life, where for many years he was a neighbor, friend, and political sup- porter of the late Vice-President, Hannibal Ham- lin. Mr. Brown was educated in the common schools of Hampden and at Hampden Academy. His training for professional life was in patent law offices at Washington, D.C., and in the office of the Hon. Carroll D. Wright (now commissioner of labor) in Boston. He first entered the patent law office of Brown & Beadle, Washington, in 1867, and remained there till 1869, then came to the Boston office of Mr. Wright, later returned to Washington, and in 1874 returned again to Boston, and formed a partnership with Mr. Wright, under the firm name of Wright & Brown. patent attorneys and solicitors. This partner- ship continued till 1877, when Mr. Wright re- tired to devote his entire time to statistical work. Thereafter Mr. Brown continued in business alone for several years under the same firm name, and

in 1894 formed a copartnership with William Quinby, of Washington. under the firm name of Wright, Brown, & Quinby. Mr. Brown has served one term ( 1881) in the lower house of the Legislature, representing Reading, North Reading, and Wilmington, and two terms (1893 and 1894) in the Senate, senator for the Sixth Middlesex District ; and in Reading, where he resides, he was a member of the School Com- mittee from 188o to 1884. lle was a director of the First National Bank of Reading from 1892 to 1894. In politics he is a Republican. He is a Freemason, member of the Good Samaritan Lodge, and a member of the Pine Tree State, the Middlesex, and the Reading Athletic clubs. Mr. Brown was married September 24, 1874, to Miss Elizabeth A. Harrison, of Newark. N.J. They have three children : Arthur H., Gertrude C., and Sidney F. Brown.

BROWN, DANIEL JOSEPH, M.D., of Springfield, was born in Milford, January 28, 1861, son of George G. M. and Helen (Cronan) Brown. His

DANIEL J. BROWN.

ancestors were among the early settlers of Quincy, and a portion of his early life was spent there. He attended the Milford grammar and High

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schools, and entered the Montreal College, taking the full classical course, remaining there seven years. He then entered Harvard for special courses, and received the degree of M.D. from Harvard Medical School in 1886. He has had an extensive hospital experience, having attended the clinics in many of the hospitals of the United States. He established himself in Springfield in 1889, and has since been engaged in a steadily increasing practice among leading families of the city. He has been especially successful in sur- gery, which branch he prefers. He is now medi- cal examiner for the National Life Insurance Company of Montpelier, Vt. Dr. Brown is a member of the Massachusetts Medical Society, and was councillor for the society from the Hamp- den District ; and he belongs to the Masonic and Odd Fellows orders. in the former advanced to the thirty-second degree, including the Mystic Shrine. His club affiliations are with the Nyas- set, the Bicycle, and the Sheomet clubs of Spring- field. While in college he was interested in gym- nasium work. He indulged heartily in all athletic sports. In politics he is a Republican. He was married June 24, 1892, to Miss Mary Ethel Marden, daughter of George and Lucy Manley Marden, of Potsdam, N.Y.

BUCKINGHAM, JOHN DUNCAN. of Boston, professor, New England Conservatory of Music, is a native of Pennsylvania, born in Huntingdon. Juniata County, May 17, 1855, son of the Rev. N. S. Buckingham and Margaret Morris (Dun- can) Buckingham. His father was an eloquent preacher, member of the Baltimore Conference and Central Pennsylvania Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, widely known and universally beloved. He is on the paternal side of an old Virginia family, dating from the early settlement of Virginia, of English descent, and on the maternal side of an equally old Pennsylvania family of Scotch descent. He was educated in the Dickinson Seminary, Williamsport, Penna., and the Wyoming Seminary, Kingston, Penna. He gave evidence of musical ability at an early age, and began regular lessons when a boy of twelve. At the age of eighteen, in the autumn of 1873, he came to Boston to perfect his musical education, subsequently entering the Boston University Col- lege of Music (New England Conservatory), and graduating in 1879. During his training he

evinced talent of a high order as a performer on both pianoforte and organ, and was much thought of by the then director, the late Dr. Eben

J. D BUCKINGHAM.

Tourjee, who employed him to teach as early as 1876. He became a full professor of the piano- forte in the institution upon his graduation in 1879, and has held the position from that time. He has also served as superintendent of the Nor- mal Department of the Conservatory. He is popular with pupils and faculty, and has attained a respected name among musicians. Many of his pupils have established reputations as concert players and as teachers throughout the West as well as in New England. He has composed much, but has published little. He is especially well known as an organist, having held several prominent positions in Boston churches during the past twenty years. He has travelled quite ex- tensively, visiting various parts of the United States and making several trips to Europe, and has met many distinguished European musicians. He was president of the Alumni Association of the New England Conservatory in 1893 ; and, re- signing after one year's service, he became chair- man of the board of directors, which position he had held for a number of years prior to his elec- tion as president. During his term as president

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he was instrumental in having erected a memorial tablet by the alumni to Dr. Tourjee, the founder of the Conservatory. For a number of years he was a member of the Boston Art Club, the Rox- bury Club, the Boston Athletic Association, the Faculty Club (a local club connected with the Conservatory, of which he was treasurer), and of the Clefs (a club of one hundred prominent Bos- ton musicians). Mr. Buckingham was married June 8, 1875, to Miss Anna M. Cummings, of New Hampshire. They have one son : John D). Buckingham, Jr. (born in 1878).

BUCKNER, JAMES, of Boston, superintendent of the lamp department of the city. is a native of Scotland, born in Aberdeen, August 9, 1845, son of James and Marjory (MePherson) Buckner. He came to this country when he was six years old, and was educated in the Boston public schools, which he attended until his fourteenth year, and not graduating, through an accident, finished at a private school. After leaving school, he entered the profession of mechanical engineer-

JAMES BUCKNER.

ing, and spent seven years in it. At twenty-one he engaged in the grocery, produce, and com- mission business, which he followed successfully

for three or four years. Then he was induced to leave that business, and take the superintendency of the South Boston Ice Company. . After three ycars there he bought out the Concord Ice Com- pany. Three years later he sold that business to take a position as export agent for the George H. Hammond Company. He remained with the Hammond Company for ten years, resigning when it was sold to an English syndicate. Then he entered the electrical field, taking the general management of an electrical business ; and he was thus engaged when he was appointed in 1895. by Mayor Curtis, to his present position of super- intendent of lamps. In politics he is a Republi- can. He is connected with the order of Odd Fellows, and is a member of the Allston Club. He was married August 25, 1870, to Miss Ellen Frances Tripp. daughter of Abner and Anna (Kelleran) Tripp. They have three children : Ellen May, Blanche Isabelle, and Malcom Doug- las Littlefield Buckner.

BUMPUS, EVERETT C., of Quincy and Boston, member of the Suffolk bar, was born in Plympton, November 28, 1844, son of C. C. and Amelia 1). Bumpus. He was educated in the public schools of Braintrec, to which place his parents removed when he was a child. graduating from the High School. At the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, while preparing for college, at the age of sixteen, he joined the army, enlisting in the Fourth Regiment. Massachusetts Volunteers ; and under subsequent re-enlistment he served through the greater part of the Rebellion as a private soldier and officer. Upon his discharge from the service he took up the study of law, and on May 10, 1867, was admitted to the Suffolk bar. The next year, 1868, he was made trial justice in Wey- mouth. and held that position for four years. when he was appointed judge of the East Nor- folk District Court. In October. 1889. resigning the latter position. he was elected in the following November election district attorney for the South- eastern District. He served as district attorney for some four years, when he resigned, and con- tinued his practice in Boston. In October, 1895. he was appointed by the Supreme Judicial Court a member of the board of commissioners to apportion among the various cities and towns through which the metropolitan sewerage system is constructing, their respective share of the cost

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of the system for the second five years. He has made a specialty of water cases, and is now serv- ing upon several commissions relating to this branch of the law. Judge Bumpus is a member of the St. Botolph, of the Union, Papyrus, and Curtis clubs of Boston, and of the Players' Club of New York. He was married September 22, 1868 to Miss Emma F. Russell, of Quincy, who died May 22, 1867 ; and on April 23, 1869, he married Miss M. Louise Bates, of Canandaigua, N. Y. He has six children, the eldest a graduate of Harvard and of the Lawrence Theological Epis- copal School. Two others are at present at Har-

E. C. BUMPUS.

vard, one preparing to enter Smith College, and the other two are at home. His residence is in Quincy.

BURKE, FRANCIS, of Boston, member of the Suffolk bar, was born in Brighton (now of Boston), March 8, 1861, son of James and Catherine (Dwyer) Burke. He was educated in the public schools, and received private instruction under Professor J. K. Humphreys (late of Oxford Col- lege, England) in Latin and Greek, with the pur- pose of becoming a tutor. Instead, however, he took up the study of law, entering the Harvard Law School. He was graduated in 1882. While

in the law school, he kept books in a store in Brighton. Ile was admitted to the bar in Febru- ary, 1883. and at once opened his office in Bos-

FRANCIS BURKE.

ton. His practice has been general, tending toward commercial matters ; and in late years he has had much business in insolvency and compo- sition cases. In politics he is a Democrat. Ile is a member of the Young Men's Democratic ('lub, of which he was president in 1893 and 1894. He is also a member of the Brighton High School Alumni, and was president of that organi- zation in 1890.

BURRAGE, ALBERT CAMERON, of Boston. member of the Suffolk bar, was born in Ashburn- ham, Worcester County, November 21, 1859, son of George Sanderson and Aurelia (Chamberlin) Burrage. He is of an old New England family. being a direct descendant in the tenth generation of John Burrage, who came from England in 1636, and settled in Charlestown. In England the family is readily traced back to 1559. On the maternal side he comes from early Scotch settlers in Vermont. His early education was acquired in public and private schools in California, where his parents went from Ashburnham in 1862, and from which place he returned to Massachusetts in 1879.

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Fitted for college in California, he entered Ilar- vard, and graduated A.B. in the class of 1883. lle spent two years in the Harvard Law School. and was admitted to the bar in Worcester County September 19. 1884. The following year, Decem- ber 22, he was also admitted to the United States Circuit Court. Soon after his admission to the bar he established himself in Boston, and at once engaged in active practice. He gave attention especially to corporation matters, and in course of time became identified with large interests. He is a member of the Boston Transit Commission, under which the Subway is being constructed, having a five years' appointment, dating from 1894, from Governor Greenhalge. He was a member of the Boston Common Council in 1892. and a State trustee of the Massachusetts Homco- pathic Hospital from 1890 to 1894. In politics Mr. Burrage is a steadfast Republican, and has, during his ten years in Boston, always been active in party work. He has held various local party offices,-the chairmanship of the Republican committee of his ward, and similar positions ; and he was for some time assistant secretary of the

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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 113

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