Men of progress one thousand biographical sketches and portraits of leaders in business and professional life in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Part 115

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 115

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COLEMAN, CORNELIUS AMBROSE, of Boston, manufacturer, is a native of Boston, born October 14, 1849. son of John and Ellen (Corbett) Cole- man. He was educated in the Boston grammar and Latin schools. He began active life, start- ing as a boy in 1865, in the Boston office of the Salisbury Mills, - a large woollen mill, - and after six months there entered the office of the

C. A. COLEMAN

Hamilton Woollen Company, with which he has ever since been connected. Beginning as a clerk in the office, he steadily advanced, until in April,

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1885, he became treasurer of the company. the position he still holds. He has also for some years been connected with banking and other interests. being a director of the Columbian National Bank of Boston, the Worcester Manu- facturers' Mutual Fire Insurance Company, and other corporations. He is a member of the Al- gonquin, Boston Athletic, and Country clubs. He was married October 14, 1879, to Miss Hen- rietta Sargent Gray, of Boston. They have two sons : Francis II. and Harold C. Coleman.

COLVIN, JAMES ANTHONY, of Worcester, iron- master, is a native of Rhode Island, born in Cranston. June 20, 1833, son of Caleb and Dor- othy ( Burgess) Colvin. His ancestors on both sides came from England to New England in the latter part of the seventeenth century. He was educated in the common schools of his native town. His boyhood was spent on his father's farm, where he did the usual work of a farmer's boy until his eighteenth year. Then in 1851 he was apprenticed to learn the foundry business in a Cranston foundry. He began business on his own account in 1863, establishing himself in Danielson, Conn. Five years later, in 1868. his foundry in that place was burned ; and soon after he removed to Worcester, where he has since remained. His business here has steadily in- creased, and his operations have been enlarged by the addition of the business of other works. In June, 1891, he purchased the W. H. Warren Machine Tool Works, and in 1894 bought the G. H. Bushnell Press Works. The W. H. War- ren Machine Tool Works make large bodial drills and shaping machines. The latter are sold largely to the United States government. An order was filled about two years ago for the Water- vellett Arsenal of over $14.000. They are also used in other United States arsenals. The G. H. Bushnell Press Company, at Thompsonville. ('onn., make presses for manufacturers for press- ing cloth goods. cider-making, rendering tallow. lard, etc., oil machinery, and presses for making cotton-seed oil. and presses for almost all kinds of work where power is needed and from one thousand pounds to ten thousand tons are re- quired. Mr. Colvin's foundry business is carried on under his individual name of J. A. Colvin. He is not a member of any society or chib. nor has he held any public office, preferring to devote

himself entirely to his business. In politics he is a Republican. He was married in 1864 to Miss Amy A. Johnson, by whom were three chil-

J. A. COLVIN.

dren : James Byron, Lewis AAnthony, and Theresa Colvin. She died in 1867. He married second, in 1879, Mrs. Anna Dorman: and the children of this marriage are Anna Lee and Florence Dorothy Colvin. His second wife and all of his children are now living.

CRAIG. DANIEL HIRAM, M.D., of Province- town, is a native of Maine, born in Readfield. June 30. 1870. son of David White and Flora Elizabeth (Van Campen) Craig. His paternal ancestors were of Scotch descent, his great-great- grandfather coming from Scotland and settling in Roxbury, Mass., and his maternal ancestors were Holland Dutch. He lived in Readfield until he was eight years old, the next four winters in New York City. the family spending the sum- mers at the old homestead at Lake Maranacook (Readfield ). Maine, and thereafter in Malden, the summers as before in Maine, until 1893, when he established himself in Provincetown. His early education was acquired mostly in private schools in New York and Boston, and he finished in the

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Malden Grammar and High schools. He entered the Harvard Medical School in 1889, and gradu- ating in 1892, subsequently took a post-graduate

DANIEL H. CRAIG

course. During his post-graduate year he was assistant to the surgical staff of the Malden City Hospital, and associated with Dr. Godfrey Ryder, of Malden, especially in his surgical practice. Hle began regular practice in Provincetown in 1893, and has since been engaged there with grat- ifying success. He is a member of the Massa- chusetts Medical Society, and of the Malden So- ciety for Medical Improvement. He is connected with the Masonic order, member of Converse Lodge in Malden. During his High School term he was for two years president of the Malden High School Literary Society. Dr. Craig was married June 30, 1893, to Miss Lily Christine Trayes. They have one child : David Van Cam- pen Craig.

CRONAN, JOHN FRANCIS, of Boston, member of the Suffolk bar, was born in Boston, April 9, 1856, son of Dennis and Hannah (Collins) C'ronan. He is of sturdy Celtic stock, of honest and unflinching purpose, of strong physique and great courage. He was educated in the Boston public schools, at French's Commercial College,

and in the Evening High School, and received his degree of LL.B. from the Boston University Law School, graduating in June, 1879. As a boy, he labored in general work about stores, and from this rose to be the chief shipping clerk in the house of Dodge, Collier, & P'erkins, of Boston, which position he left in 1875 to prepare himself for the legal profession. He first became a law student in the office of Francis A. Perry, and while a student was appointed a messenger in the Massachusetts House of Representatives, in which capacity he served through the sessions of 1877 and 1878. From his earnings in this ser- vice and from work as a reporter for local news- papers, from lecturing, and from reciting before societies, he was enabled to pursue his studies in the law school to completion. He was admitted to the bar May 27, 1879, a week before his gradu- ation from the law school, and has been steadily engaged in the practice of his profession from that time with marked success on both the civil and criminal side of the court, and is in the en- joyment of a large business. He was elected a senator for the Eighth Suffolk District in 1894.

JOHN F. CRONAN.

In politics he is a Democrat, and from his youth has been active in the interests of his party. When twenty years of age, he took the stump for

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Samuel J. Tilden in Massachusetts and in Penn- sylvania, and has appeared on the platform in the several campaigns since. As senator he served on the committees on the judiciary, elections, and constitutional amendments, and took a prominent part in the important legislation of that session. By reason of his power and ability as an advocate and public speaker, he is well known in the State. The only organization with which Mr. Cronan has been identified is the Charitable Irish Society, of which he was made vice-presi- dent in 1894. He was married October 4, 1882, to Miss Annie G. Murphy. They have one child : Alice Marie Cronan.

CROSSLEY, ARTHUR WILDER, of Boston, pat- ent solicitor and counsellor, was born in Montour County, Pennsylvania, August 23, 1848, son of William and Mary (Flick) Crossley. He first learned the printer's trade, and subsequently en- tered the newspaper and publishing business. Burned out in the Boston fire of 1872, he soon after went to Washington, where he was a short time employed in the Government Printing office. and for a longer period in the Patent Office. When the late Zach Chandler was made secretary of the interior, Mr. Crossley was called to aid in reorgan- izing certain departments of the Patent Office ; and one result of the work was the present issue divi- sion, which he organized, and of which he became the first chief. After several years' service in this position he entered the examining corps of the Patent Office, assigned to the textile department : and here he began the special study of textiles and textile machinery, which he has since pursued assiduously, becoming a highly skilled expert in them. While employed in these various branches of department work, Mr. Crossley studied law in the National University Law School at Washing- ton, and he duly graduated therefrom, receiving his diploma from the hands of President Hayes, who was cx-officio chancellor of the university. He was admitted to the bar in 1879. In 1885 he resigned his position in the government service. and joined the Boston firm of Wright & Brown. established in 1866 by Colonel Carroll D. Wright, the statistician, the name of which was then changed to Wright, Brown, & Crossley. The firm has a branch office in Washington, which is man- aged by a former examiner of the Patent Office : and it enjoys a large and important practice.

Among its clients are such concerns as the Ameri- can Waltham Watch Company. the National Tube Works Company, the E. Howard Watch and

ARTHUR W. CROSSLEY.

Clock Company, the Smith & Anthony Stove Company, the Jones & Lamson Company of Springfield, Vt., the Laconia Car Company of Laconia, N.H., and a large number of textile concerns all over New England. Mr. Crossley was married January 20, 1886, to Mary Chandler, daughter of Senator William E. Chandler, of New Hampshire.

CUNNINGHAM, JOSEPH TROWBRIDGE, of BOS- ton, hotel proprietor, is a native of New Hamp- shire, born in Portsmouth, October 28, 1864, son of James and Maria (Savage) Cunningham. He was educated in the Portsmouth public schools and at Dartmouth College, graduating in the class of 1887. He entered the hotel business soon after his graduation from college, employed first at the Wentworth House, New Castle, N.H. Sub- sequently he was connected with hotels at the Isles of Shoals, N.H., and at Campobello, N.B. In 1890 he became manager of the Hotel Pocahontas, Kittery Point, Me., which he carried through that season, and afterward was with the Hotel Vendome and the American House in Bos-

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ton. He first entered the business on his own account on the ist of July, 1893, as proprietor of the Hotel Oxford and the Exeter Chambers, Back

JOSEPH T. CUNNINGHAM.

Bay, Boston, in partnership with Sanford B. Sar- gent. Through the season of 1894 he and his partner were lessees also of the Hotel Langwood. on the borders of picturesque Spot Pond. Melrose, and the Middlesex Fells ; and they are now (1895). in addition to the Hotel Oxford and Exeter Chambers, Boston, proprietors of the Haynes Hotel, in Springfield. Mr. Cunningham is a Dem- ocrat in politics, and active in the party organiza- tion. having been a member of the Democratic ward and city committee of Boston since 1893, and a member of the Young Men's Democratic Club of Massachusetts for some years. He was married December 14, 1893, to Miss Isabel Sey- mour Hemenway, of Boston. They have no children.

CURRY, GEORGE ERASTUS, of Boston, member of the Suffolk bar. is a native of East Tennessee, born in Cleveland. February 13. 1854, son of James Campbell and Nancy ( Young) Curry. He is of Scotch ancestry. His early education was acquired in the schools of his native town, and he graduated from the High School there. Then,

coming to Boston, he fitted for college at the Bos- ton Latin School, and graduated from the Boston University College of Liberal Arts in 1881. Sub- sequently entering the Boston University Law School, he graduated there LL. B. in 1884. Mean- while he was engaged in office practice. having begun in 1882 in the office, Equitable Building, in which he is still established ; and in February pre- ceding his graduation he was admitted to the Suf- folk bar. His practice is a general one. Mr. Curry is a Freemason, member of Revere Lodge. He is an experienced yachtsman, and for three years, 1890-92-93, was commodore of the Dor- chester Yacht Club. He is a member also of the Minot Club of Dorchester, and in 1894 was chair- man of its house committee. In politics he is a sterling Democrat, but he has never sought nor

GEO. E. CURRY

accepted political office. He was married July 16, 1885, to Miss Clara Neal, of Dorchester. They have no children.

DAVIS, SAMUEL ALONZO, M. D., of the Charles- town District, Boston, is a native of Maine, born in Bridgton, September 7, 1837, son of Samuel and Olive (Holmes) Davis. His great - grand- parents on both sides were English, and upon

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coming to this country settled in Jefferson, N.H., and Lunenburg, Mass. He was educated in the public schools and at the academy of Bridgton.

SAM'L A. DAVIS.

He began the study of medicine at the age of twenty-one, under the tutorship of Dr. John 11. Kimball, of Bridgton, a prominent physician in that place. The following year he entered the medical department of Bowdoin College, and took a first course of lectures, and in 186; entered the Harvard Medical School, where he was graduated in March, 1862. In May of the same year he settled in Charlestown, and began practice. The following August. however, he was commissioned assistant surgeon in the Thirtieth Regiment. Massachusetts Volunteers, then stationed at New Orleans, and entered the United States service for the Civil War. He served as assistant sur- geon for two years, most of that time being in full charge of the regiment, and during the period en- gaged in the battles of Plains Store, the forty-two clays' siege of Port Hudson, and Cox Plantation. La., and in 1864 was commissioned surgeon of the same regiment. Thereafter he was engaged in the battles of Winchester, Fisher's Hill, and Cedar Creek, Va., and was an eye-witness of General Sheridan's famous ride. In the spring of 1865, after Lee's surrender, he participated in

the grand review at Washington, and subse- quently served with his regiment in South C'aro- lina until July. 1866, when it was mustered out .-- the last Massachusetts regiment to return. Dr. Davis resumed his practice in Charlestown in March, 1867, and has since continued in its active pursuit. He is a member of the Massachusetts Medical Society, of the Harvard Alumni Associa- tion, and of the Charlestown Club. He is con- nected with the Masonic order, being a member of Faith Lodge, and of Cœur de Leon Command- ery, Knights Templar; is an Odd Fellow, member of Bunker Hill Lodge; a member of the Royal Arcanum and of the Home Circle, and member of the Grand Army of the Republic, Post I1. He cast his first vote upon attaining his majority for Abraham Lincoln, and has been identified with the Republican party since that time. Dr. Davis was married in Charlestown, December 28. 1870, to Miss Ella Cushman, daughter of the late Robert W. Cushman, D.D., of Boston.

DAVISON. ARCHIBALD T., M.D., of South Boston, is a native of Nova Scotia, born in the town of Portaupique. Colchester County, Febru- ary 23, 1847, son of Archibald and Sarah (Crow) Davison. On his father's side he is of Scotch descent, and on his mother's side of the north of Ireland. His education was begun in the public schools of his birthplace, and continued in the Bos- ton Latin School, the family moving to Boston in his boyhood. He studied for his profession at the Harvard Medical School, and immediately after graduation therefrom, on March 18, 1871, began practice, established in South Boston, where he has since been engaged, with a steadily growing business, a period of twenty-five years. A good part of this time Dr. Davison has also been ac- tively interested in politics as a member of the Republican party. He was president of the Ward Fourteen Republican Club for four years. treasurer of Ward Fourteen ward and city com- mittee four years, and was a delegate from Massa- chusetts to the Republican National Convention at Minneapolis in 1892. In 1894 he was elected to the Boston School Committee, upon which he is still serving. He is a member of the Massa- chusetts Medical Society ; prominent in the Ma- sonic fraternity, being a member of the Adelphi Lodge, South Boston. of St. Matthew's Royal Arch Chapter, of St. Omer Commandery Knights

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Templar, and of the Lafayette Lodge of Perfec- tion ; and a member of Bethesda Lodge of Odd Fellows. He was married December 31, 1872, to

A. T. DAVISON

Miss Lucy Kelley. They have four children : Arthur Howard, Julie Gertrude, Lucy Cecilia, and Archibald Thompson Davison.

DAWES, HENRY LAURENS, of Pittsfield, United States senator from 1875 to 1893, was born in the town of Cummington, Hampshire County, October 30, 1816, son of Mitchell and Mercy (Burgess) Dawes. He was educated in the com- mon schools, where he fitted for college, and at Vale, graduating in the class of 1839. For the first two years after his graduation he taught school, and then became an editor, first editing the Green- field Gasette, and afterward the Adams Tran- script, While successful in journalistic work, his inclination was toward the law; and, finally de- termining to follow that profession, he left the newspaper, and entered the law office of Wells & Davis. in Greenfield, as a student. He was ad- mitted to the bar in 1842, and at once engaged in active practice, established in North Adams, which place was his legal residence until 1864, when he removed to Pittsfield. His long and

notable public career began in 1847, with his elec- tion to the lower house of the Legislature. He served in that body for two terms, 1848 and 1849, and then, sent to the Senate, served there one term, 1850, ranking in both houses among the leaders. In 1853 he was a member of the State Con- stitutional Convention. The same year he was made district attorney for the Western District, which position he held till 1857, when he was elected to Congress. Through repeated re-elec- tions he remained in the house till 1873, serving through the Thirty-fifth, Thirty-sixth, Thirty- seventh, Thirty-eighth, Thirty-ninth, Fortieth, Forty-first, Forty-second, and Forty-third Con- gresses, and then declined to stand for another term. In 1875 he was elected to the Senate to succeed Charles Sumner (the unexpired term of Senator Sumner having been filled by William B. Washburn). In 1881 he was re-elected, and again in 1887 ; and then with the close of his third term he retired, having served his district and the Commonwealth at Washington for upward of a third of a century. Throughout this long period his place in Congress was a foremost one. He

HENRY L. DAWES.

was chairman for many years of the committee on ways and means and as such was the author and advocate of numerous tariff measures. Later, as

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chairman of the Senate committee on Indian af- fairs, he rendered conspicuous service in securing reforms in the administration of Indian affairs through various measures, making possible the present system of Indian education, and advanc- ing materially the cause of Indian rights. In 1883 he was appointed at the head of a special committee to investigate the disturbances of that year in the Indian Territory, and made a valuable report thereon, which was the basis of subsequent legislation. Other committees of which he was at one time or another an active member were those on fisheries, naval affairs, public buildings and grounds, appropriations, and civil service. He has been prominent in the Republican party since its birth, and had an influential part in shaping its policy. In 1866 he was a delegate to the Loyalist Convention in Philadelphia. Upon his retirement from the senatorship after his forty-five years of public life he received marked courtesies from his fellow-citizens of both parties, in Boston, in Springfield, and at his own home. being given complimentary dinners at which Democrats and Republicans alike paid tribute to his worth. He received the honorary degree of LL. D. from Will- iams College in 1869. Senator Dawes was mar- ried in Ashfield, May 1. 1844, to Miss Electa A. Sanderson, daughter of Chester and Anna (AAllis) Sanderson, of that town. Of their children three are living : Anna Laurens, Chester Mitchell, and Ilenry Laurens Dawes, Jr. Miss Dawes is well known as an author, and from her connection with educational work. In 1893 she was a mem- ber of the Massachusetts Board of World's Fair Managers.

DILLAWAY, WILLIAM EDWARD LOVELL, of Boston, member of the Suffolk bar, was born in Boston, February 17, 1852, son of William S. and Ann Maria ( Brown) Dillaway. He is a descend- ant of one of the oldest of Boston families. He was educated in the Boston public schools, and, after graduating from the English High School. entered the Harvard Law School, where he was graduated in 1871. Two years of further study in the Boston law office of Ranney & Morse fol- lowed, and in 1873 he was admitted to the bar. He had already had quite an experience, and he won success as a jury lawyer. While still a stu- dent with Messrs. Ranney & Morse, and only in his twentieth year, he argued his first brief before the Full bench of the Supreme Court of the Com-

monwealth. After remaining with Messrs. Ran- ney & Morse for a time succeeding his admission to the bar, he opened his own office, and en- gaged in general practice. Besides being the attorney for several banks and corporations, he became prominently identified with numerous no- table cases. He was counsel for the West End Street Railway Company, having entire charge of its legislative matters, was sole counsel for the Bay State Gas Company in all its controversies for admittance to the right to do business, and he had charge of the negotiations, oftentimes delicate and complicated, which brought about the consoli-

W. E. L. DILLAWAY.

dation of Boston gas companies. In ISSS Mr. Dillaway, then but thirty-six, retired from general practice, having found that his private business and that of the corporations with which he is con- nected called for his entire attention. He is a director of the Mechanics' National Bank of Bos- ton, of which his brother. C. O. L. Dillaway is president. In ISSS he was selected to deliver the Fourth of July oration for the city of Boston. He is an enthusiastic collector of bric-à-brac, piet- ures, etchings, and prints, possessing of the latter one of the finest collections in Boston. Mr. Dil- laway was married June 16, 1874, to Miss Ger- trude St. Clair Eaton.

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DONNELLY, CHARLES FRANCIS, of Boston, member of the State Board of Lunaey and Char- ity since 1875. is a native of Ireland. born in Athlone, County Roscommon, October 14, 1836, son of Hugh and Margaret (Conway) Donnelly. His ancestors on the paternal side were of an old Irish sept of the north, and on the maternal side of Welsh-Irish stock of the west of Ireland. His parents came to Canada when he was a year old, and thence removed to Rhode Island in 1848. He was educated in private schools and in the New Brunswick Presbyterian Academy. At twenty he began the study of law in the office of Ex-Congress-

CHAS. F. DONNELLY.

man Ambrose A. Ranney in Boston, and at the Harvard Law School, graduating with the degree of LL. B. in 1859, when he was admitted to the Suf- folk bar, and at once began practice. Important cases came into his hands early, notably several civil suits instituted against the archbishop and other Catholic ecclesiastics in Massachusetts ; and soon in his career he became prominent through his arguments drawn to show the harmonious rela- tion of Catholic ecclesiastical, or canon, law to the spirit of American law and institutions. He has been connected with the administration of State charities since 1875, when he was appointed by Governor Gaston to the State Board of Charities,

which preceded the present Board of Lunacy and Charity, and for over four years was chairman of the board. During his service he wrote the sharp and spirited politico-legal public correspondence had by the board with Governor Butler (in 1883), which was employed to advantage in the successful canvass against the latter by his opponents when a candidate for a second term ; and Mr. Donnelly proposed and drafted (in 1884) the act subjecting dipsomaniacs to the same restraint and treatment as lunatics, which was adopted by the Legislature of 1885, the first legislation of the kind either in Europe or America. In i889 further effect was given the new law by the Legislature, largely through his influence, in authorizing the erection of a hospital for men coming under its provisions, and establishing a board of trustees for the man- agement of the institution. Mr. Donnelly has long been a member of the Charitable Irish So- ciety, the oldest Irish- American society in existence (founded in Boston in 1737), and was for several terms its president. He was one of the founders of the Home for Destitute Catholic Children, and many of the other Catholic charitable institutions of Boston. In 1885 he received the honorary degree of LL.D. from St. Mary's College, Mary- land, the oldest Catholic seat of learning in the country. In politics he is a Democrat, influential in his party. Although repeatedly sought as a candidate for the mayoralty of Boston and other elective office, he has invariably declined to stand. At the request of the committee of distinguished prelates representing the Catholic Church at the World's Parliament of Religions, held at Chicago in 1893, he wrote an exhaustive study of the " Relations of the Roman Catholic Church to the Poor," from its beginning. It was a comprehen- sive survey of the whole subject, and it was read with high commendation before the Parliament, Bishop Keane, rector of the Catholic University of America at Washington, reading it. In the sessions of 1888 and in 1889 an exciting contest was waged in the Legislature of Massachusetts against the movement in favor of establishing parochial schools. Mr. Donnelly was retained by the Catholic clergy and laity to advocate and defend the right to maintain private schools and the right of parents to choose them for the train- ing of their children. It is only justice to say he conducted the interests he had in charge with- out rancor and judiciously and successfully before the legislative committee on education. Mr. Don-

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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 115

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