Men of progress one thousand biographical sketches and portraits of leaders in business and professional life in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Part 121

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 121

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THOS. O'CALLAGHAN.

familiar with the stock of carpets carried ; and, be- ing ambitious to become a salesman, he obtained a chance. In the latter position he speedily showed his capacity, and became so successful that he commanded a high salary at the age of eighteen years. Not contented with his oppor- tunity for further development here, having at- tained the high-water mark, he determined to go with a larger house at an increase of salary. There he remained till the spring of 1886, when he en- gaged in business for himself. Beginning in a small way, taking half of the first floor at No. 601 Washington Street, by the end of the first season he found it necessary to enlarge his quarters, and

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he occupied the entire floor. His business stead- ily and rapidly increasing, he soon secured the second floor, and within a few years was occupy- ing the whole building. Still extending, the busi- ness outgrew this building, and in August, 1893, was removed to the present building, Nos. 558, 560, & 562 Washington Street, where it has made remarkable strides during the past two years. Mr. O'Callaghan attributes his success to hard and constant work of mind and body, honesty and integrity in all business dealings under all circum- stances. Mr. O'Callaghan is a member of the Merchants' and Clover clubs, the Catholic Union, the Irish Charitable Association, and the Boston College Association of Boston, and of the Old Quarterly Club of Charlestown, of which he was one of the original members. He was married June 19, 1889, to Miss Mary Wall, of Boston, a school-teacher of superior mental qualities and thorough education.

OLNEY, RICHARD, of Boston, Secretary of State in the second cabinet of President Cleve- land, succeeding the late Secretary Gresham in 1895, was born in Oxford, Worcester County, September 15, 1835, son of Wilson and Eliza L. (Butler) Olney. He is a descendant in the direct line of Thomas Olney, who came to New England from St. Albans, county of Hertford, England, in 1635, settled first in Salem, and, sharing the sen- tence and expulsion of Roger Williams, of whom he was a strong adherent, became one of the founders of Rhode Island and the Providence Plantations, and a foremost man in that commu- nity. Secretary Olney's grandfather, Richard Olney, born in 1770 at Smithfield, R.I., was a leading merchant in Providence for some years ; was one of the pioneers of the New England cot- ton manufacturing industry, establishing mills in East Douglass, Mass., as early as 1811 ; in 1819, moving to Oxford, became there prominent as a citizen as well as a merchant and manufacturer, holding numerous town offices; and died in the neighboring village of Burrillville in 1841. His father, eldest son of Richard, born January 10, 1802, in Providence, died February 24, 1874, in Oxford, was also a manufacturer and man of af- fairs, engaged during his active life in the manu- facture of woollen goods and in the management of the Oxford Bank. On the maternal side Secre- tary Olney is of French Huguenot descent through

his mother's grandmother, Mary Sigourney Butler, great-grand-daughter of Andrew Sigourney, who fled from France at the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, and was a leader in the settlement of Oxford by the Huguenots in 1687. His mother's grandfather was James Butler, and her father Peter Butler, both leading citizens of Oxford in their day. He is the eldest of five children, the others being Peter Butler, now a prominent member of the New York bar; George W., who succeeded the father as a Worcester County woollen manufacturer, and died February 28, 1894; Frederick A .; and Gertrude, wife of the

RICHARD OLNEY.

Hon. Eben S. Stevens, of Quinebaug, Conn. Secretary Olney was educated at Leicester Acad- emy and at Brown University, graduating with honors in the class of 1856. He studied law at the Harvard Law School, taking his degree in 1858, and was admitted to the Suffolk bar the following year. Entering the office of Judge Ben- jamin F. Thomas, he continued in association with the judge until the latter's death in 1878, after which he practised alone. Although en- gaged at the outset in all branches, he early de- voted himself especially to the law of wills and estates and the law of corporations, becoming upon both a recognized authority. Prompt and

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thorough in his legal work, he speedily gained an enviable reputation as a chamber counsel. It has been declared that, in his presentation to the court of a question of law, he is not excelled by any lawyer in New England. In the earlier part of his career he was a frequent trier of causes before juries : but of late years his practice has been mostly confined to that of an adviser of large corporate interests and in the settlement of estates. and his appearances in court have been rare. Ilis characteristics as an advocate have been thus described by a competent pen : " His logic is clean-cut, his diction is wonderfully pure, his rhetoric is always perfectly adapted to his subject; his power of condensation is remark- able : his argument presents a view of the case that is a perfectly adjusted series of perspective." Mr. Olney has two or three times been offered a judicial place, but has declined to serve because of the extent of the interests by which he has been retained. He has for long periods been counsel for the Chicago, Burlington, & Quincy. the Atchison, Topeka. & Santa Fe, and the Boston & Maine Railroads. He served one term, 1874, as a member of the lower house of the Massachu- setts Legislature. He was appointed by Presi- dent Cleveland United States Attorney-general in 1893, entering upon his duties on the 6th of March, that year: and was made Secretary of State June 10. 1895. Mr. Olney married March 6, 1861, Agnes Park, a daughter of his long-time partner, Judge Thomas. They have two daugh- ters, both of whom are married.

PARKER, WALLACE ASAHIEL, M.D., of Spring- field, is a native of Vermont, born in the town of Wilmington, September 7, 1864, son of Francis William and Emily Jane (Gore) Parker. His grandparents, William and Lydia (Colgrove) Par- ker, and Asahel and Mary (Colton) Gore, were of good New England stock. His grandfather Gore's mother, Barbara (Ballou) Gore, was a niece of the Rev. Hosea Ballou, the eminent Uni- versalist preacher and one of the "fathers " of that church. Wallace A. attended a village school at Readsborough, Yt., up to the age of seventeen, then for a year and a half was a pupil in the Stevens High School of Claremont, N.H., and afterward went to Phillips (Exeter) AAcademy, where he completed his preparation for college in June, 1885. Before entering college, he taught

for four terms in a village school. His medical studies were begun in 1886: and for two years, 1886-SS, he attended lectures in the department of medicine and surgery of the University of Michigan. In September of the latter year he entered Harvard, and was graduated there A. B. in June, 1891, with high honors. In June, 1892. he received the degree of M.D. from the Univer- sity of Michigan. After an experience through the summer and autumn of 1892 in the New York eye and ear hospitals, he established himself in North Adams, and began practice. In April, 1894. be removed to Springfield to succeed to the

W. A. PARKER.

practice of Dr. John Morgan, oculist, who then removed to Boston. While living in North Adams, Dr. Parker was appointed attending ocu- list and aurist to the North Adams Hospital. which position he held for more than a year and until his removal to Springfield, when he resigned. He is now consulting oculist and aurist to the House of Providence Hospital of Holyoke and to the Holyoke City Hospital. Owing to his con- nections with these hospitals and the duties they involve, he has recently removed from Spring- field to Holyoke. Hle is a member of the Berk- shire and Hampden district divisions of the Massachusetts Medical Society. In politics he

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was originally a Republican, and voted the Re- publican ticket for the first two years after he reached the voting age. Then he became a Dem- ocrat, and has since voted with that party. Dr. Parker is unmarried.

PARKHILL, SAMURL JAMES, of Boston, printer, was born in Boston, June 23, 1840, son of William and Margaret (Wells) Parkhill. His father was of the Parkhills of Edinburgh, Scot- land, where many of the family are still living ;

S. J. PARKHILL.

and his mother's ancestors were English. His education was begun in the country school of Minot, Me., and at the age of nine he entered the Boston public schools. He began work at the age of fourteen in the printing-office of John Wilson & Son. After a year there he took a press in the office of Allen & Farnham, Cambridge, and continued in that establishment till 1861, when he became foreman for Rand, Avery, & Frye, then at No. 3 Cornhill, Boston. In 1875, leaving the latter position, he started in business for himself ; and from that time his work steadily increased and expanded. In 1878 his establish- ment, then in the Cathedral Building on the cor-

ner of Franklin and Devonshire streets, was burned out, but he immediately started again at No. 218 Franklin Street. His plant has grown from year to year, until now it occupies three buildings at Nos. 218, 222, and 226 Franklin Street. Besides printing all kinds of books for the general trade, - novels, histories, illustrated books for children, and magazines,- his firm pro- duces yearly thousands of educational and draw- ing books for the use of the schools in Boston, New York, Chicago, and other cities. He has never held any political office. He is a Knight Templar, also a thirty -second degree Mason in the Scottish Rite. Mr. Parkhill was married in 1863 to Elizabeth Whelden Lothrop, daughter of Charles B. Lothrop, of Boston. They have one son only : Charles Lothrop Dexter Parkhill, now associated with his father in business.

PERABO, JOHANN ERNST, of Boston, pianist, teacher, and musical composer, was born in Wiesbaden, Germany, November 14, 1845, son of Johann Michael and Christiane (Hübner) Perabo. He was educationally directed, first at home, later at Eimsbüttel, near Hamburg, in Johannes Andre- sen's boarding-school ( 1858-62), lastly at the Conservatory of Music, Leipzig, Germany, from 1862-65, and again from 1878 to 1879. He came to this country with his parents in 1852, and was settled for two years in New York City. There he made the acquaintance of William Scharfen- berg, whose music store, at No. 758 Broadway, for many years was the rendezvous of prominent musicians, and who later did everything to de- velop the talents of the boy. In 1845 he made his first appearance before the public in a concert given by Professor Heinrich in New York, and gave uncommon promise. From New York the family went to Dover, N.H., and remained there two years. Thence they removed to Boston, where they resided for a year, during which time young Perabo received instruction of Frank Hill, and also on the violin of William Schultze, of the Mendelssohn Quintette Club. He played in pub- lic on one occasion at a concert in Music Hall under the direction of Carl Zerrahn. Then the family moved to Chicago. The father was poor, but the purpose of educating his son was a sacred and serious one with him. After the manner of foreign governments he hoped to find assistance from the American government ; and, sanguine of

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success, mother and son in May, 1858, went to Washington, where they were accorded an inter- view with President Buchanan. Amused at the advent of his callers and their errand, the P'resi- dent informed them that neither the executive de- partment nor Congress was particularly interested in the promotion of the fine arts. Then they went to New York to confer with Mr. Scharfenberg about education abroad. At first he objected, declaring that pupils there wasted their time in frivolous amusements instead of attending to their studies. But objections were finally overcome ; and through his exertions young Perabo left New York in the steamship " Saxonia," Captain Ehlers, September 1, 1858, and entered the schools noted above. At Eimsbüttel, a poetic hamlet three miles from Hamburg, under the tender care of Mrs. Henriette Andresen, and Messrs. Johannes An- dresen, August Schüler, Meyerhof, Mönch, Schulz, and Ileinrich Joachim, - teachers remarkable for their excellence and good judgment, -he spent the four happiest years of his life. His teachers at Leipzig were Professors Ignaz Moscheles and Ernst Ferdinand Wenzel, piano; Papperitz, Richter, and Hauptmann, harmony ; at a later period, Carl Reinecke, composition. At the pub- lic examination of the Conservatory. May 4, 1865, he played the second and third movements of Norbert Burgmüller's Concerto in F-sharp minor, then just published by Kistner & Co., and per- formed for the first time in public. Leaving Leipzig November 1, 1865, he took passage in the " Allemannia," Captain Trautmann, for New York, where he was met by Mr. Scharfenberg and other friends, who assured him that they expected no recompense for what they had done in his behalf. He then proceeded to Sandusky, Ohio. where his parents at that time resided, giving several very gratifying concerts in that city, and also at Lafayette, Ind., Chicago, and Cleveland. In March, 1866, he returned to New York. While there, he was invited to play at the last concert of the season given by the Harvard Musical Association in Boston. He played Hummel's Septette, op. 74, which met with such a marked degree of critical favor that his reputation in Bos- ton was at once established. Here he has since remained, devoting his attention faithfully to giv- ing instruction, editing and fingering six collec- tions of piano music, making arrangements and transcriptions, for two hands, of vocal and in- strumental works, including selections from Sir

Arthur Sullivan's operas, " Jolanthe " and " l'a- tience "; publishing some original compositions, and giving and playing at many concerts at home and elsewhere. For thirty years he has played the Chickering piano, the musical and poetic tone of which he considers a worthy response to the immortally beautiful thoughts bequeathed to us by the old and ever new composers who wrote for that instrument. His great benefactor, Mr. Scharfenberg, died at Quogue, L.I., on the even- ing of August 8, 1895. He was a native of Cassel, Germany, born February 22, 1819, and in 1838 came to New York, where he held the highest

ERNST PERABO.

position as pianist and musician, and was directly interested in strengthening the young Philhar- monic Society, which since that time has done much admirable work in planting true art among New York's excellent citizens. Upon his death Mr. Perabo published in the Boston Evening Transcript (August 19, 1895) a grateful tribute to his memory, of which the following was the clos- ing part : "His name meant the highest recom- mendation, his interest thoroughness, his instruc- tion accurate knowledge. His pupils idolized him ; and many poor youths found in him a loving and wise father, who steered their little craft safely through the rocks into the open sea of disciplined

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manhood. His publie work was done with the fervor of a private citizen, who thought only of excellent performance, not of the publicity accru- ing from it. In his private life he was equally great, preparing his children for that future that alone stands unchallenged under the blue sky of a spotless life. May God inspire those who knew him to continue his work, bequeathed to us on such a lofty plane!" Of his own personal in- debtedness to Mr. Scharfenberg, Mr. Perabo has said: " If there be now in the world any one who is or has been benefited through my existence, let him be grateful for it to Mr. Scharfenberg. He gave me my health, endangered by constant night study when young, and every high-minded, rational enjoyment since 1858. On September I of that year he sent me abroad to study under rare teachers, enabling me . to graduate,' -i.e., to know my littleness ; to wed thought to affection, - i.c., to be useful to others ; to love, - i.c., to learn sacrifice. But for my beloved mother and this friend my little candle would not have thrown its beams upon the long pathway of life ; for what were a ship without water, appetite without food, and colors without light?" Mr. Perabo was mar- ried in East Boston, June 1, 1889, by the Rev. William R. Alger, to Miss Louisa Elizabeth Schmidt.

PETERS, CHARLES JOSEPH, JR., of Boston, head of the firm of C. J. Peters & Son, electro- typers and half-tone engravers, is a native of Boston, born November 14. 1840, son of Charles Joseph and Ann Eliza (Gardner) Peters. He is a direct descendant of Joseph Peters, of Halifax, N.S., judge of the Supreme Court. His great- grandfather, Alexander Abercrombie Peters, eld- est son of Joseph, born in 1762, was a Boston merchant, having a store for the sale of drugs and medicine on Marlborough (then a part of what is now Washington Street, corner of Winter), "one door north of the Buck and Glove," as an adver- tisement in a Boston paper of 1789 announced. His grandfather, Joseph Thompson Peters, was born in Boston, March 23, 1792, and died in Boston, .August 6, 1824: he married Abigail Trask, of Gloucester. His father was also born in Boston, October 28, 1819, and was identified with the city during his active life. He died in Gloucester, July 4. 1888. Charles J., Jr., was educated in the Boston and Cambridge public schools. His start in active life was in the mer-

cantile business, as a clerk in the dry-goods com- mission house of Gardner Brewer & Co. After six months' experience there, he was for some time with Williamson & Smith, dry and fancy goods. In 1859 he became associated with the Boston Stereotype Foundry, then in Spring Lane, his father at that time being the agent and treas- urer of the concern. Before reaching the age of twenty-one, and before the completion of his ap- prenticeship, he became foreman of the shop, and continued in that position until the first of Oc- tober, 1864, when, with his father, he entered business on his own account, buying out the con-

C. J. PETERS.

cern of R. Wheeler & Co., and establishing the firm of C. J. Peters & Son at No. 13 Washington Street. The firm remained on Washington Street until after the great fire of 1872, when it removed to the Franklin Building on Federal Street. In 1879 the firm purchased the Boston Stereotype Foundry, and incorporated that firm in its busi- ness. In 1882 removal was made to the larger and present quarters at No. 145 High Street. In 1884 George E. Peters was admitted to the firm, the style, however, remaining the same. Beginning thirty-one years ago with a modest force of about ten hands, the establishment now regularly employs from one hundred and twenty-

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five to one hundred and fifty hands. The opera- tions of the firm have been extended from time to time into broader fields. It was among the earli- est to introduce the plant for half-tone engraving, and now executes fine work in this class; also wax engraving and book composition. Mr. Peters is a member of the Royal Arcanum and the Mas- ter Printers' Club of Boston, and of the Colonial Club of Cambridge. In politics he is a Repub- lican. lle was married first, January. 1864, to Miss Mary E. Bates, daughter of Abner L. and Mary (Gray) Bates, by which union was one daughter, Mary Lizzie, now Mrs. John F. Gil- more. He married second, November 18, 1874. Miss Helen M. Southard, daughter of Zibeon and Helen M. (Trescott) Southard, of Boston. Their children are : Arthur G., Edward S., Charles A., and Helen F. Peters.

PILLSBURY, ALBERT E., of Boston, attorney- general of the Commonwealth 1891-93, is a native of New Hampshire, born in Milford, son of Josiah W. and Elizabeth (Dinsmoor) Pillsbury. His father was educated for a professional career, graduating from Dartmouth in 1840; but the state of his health required outdoor life, and he became a farmer. Albert E. was accordingly brought up on a farm, and his boyhood was passed between the farm and the school. His early education was ac- quired in the common and high schools of Milford : and he fitted for college at the Appleton Academy in New Ipswich, N. H., and the Lawrence Academy in Groton, Mass. He entered Harvard in the class of 1871, but did not finish his course, leaving to teach school and to study law in the West. He taught for a year at Sterling, Ill., and pursued his law studies with the Hon. James Dinsmoor, his uncle. He was admitted to the Illinois bar, but returned to New England, and was admitted to the Massachusetts bar, and opened an office in Boston in 1871, where he has been since engaged in a steadily growing practice. Mr. Pillsbury en- tered public life in 1876 as a member of the lower house of the Legislature from Ward Seventeen, Boston. He served there three years, 1876-78, in his first session taking rank with the leaders. During that term he was chairman of the commit- tee on elections and member of the committee on federal relations, and in the two succeeding terms a member of the committee on the judiciary and other leading committees. In 1883 he was elected

to the Senate from the Sixth Suffolk District. and was twice returned, serving, as in the House, three years ( 1884-85-86). In his first term as a sen- ator he held the chairmanship of the joint com- mittee on the Hoosac Tunnel Railroad, and also that of the special committee on the bribery inves- tigation of that year; and was a member of the committee on the judiciary. The next year he was chosen unanimously president of the Senate, and re-elected the following year, again unani- mously. In 1887 he was offered by Governor Ames the position of judge advocate general. but this he declined ; and he also declined most im-

ALBERT E. PILLSBURY.

portant positions subsequently offered him, - the office of corporation counsel of the city of Boston, offered by Mayor Hart in 1889, and a seat upon the bench of the Superior Court, tendered by Governor Ames and later by Governor Green- halge. He was first nominated for the attorney- generalship at the Republican State Convention in 1890, and served by successive re-elections for three years, 1891-92-93, making a notable record. He was prominently mentioned for the Republican nomination for governor in 1892, and was the leading candidate for the nomination against Gov- ernor Greenhalge in 1893. Mr. Pillsbury is vice- president and a director of the United States

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Trust Company, and a trustee of the Franklin Savings Bank. He delivered the annual oration before the city authorities of Boston July 4, 1890, and was given the honorary degree of A.M. by Harvard in 1891.

POOLE, ALVA PACKARD, of Brockton, con- tractor, is a native of Maine, born in the town of Grey, June 17, 1852, son of Nahum Augustus and Sarah Sanders (Mforse) Poole. He is of the Poole family who settled in Weymouth, Mass., in 1635. He descends in the direct line from Captain

A. P. POOLE.

Edward Poole, from Weymouth, England, the first of the family in New England. Samuel Poole of a later generation was the first representative sent from the town of Abington, Mass., to the General Court. His son, Samuel, Jr., was a lieutenant in the Revolutionary War; and Samuel P., grand- father of Alva P. Poole, served in the War of 1812. Alva P. Poole was educated in the common schools of his native town, and when a young man came to Massachusetts, and began here his business career. He was first concerned in con- tracting in Brockton in 1880 ; and he has been en- gaged there since, constructing numerous impor- tant structures. Among the most notable build-

ings erected by him are the City Hall, and the dwelling-houses of W. L. Douglass and M. F. Thomas. Mr. Poole has served in the Common Council of Brockton two terms, 1889-90. He is connected with the Masonic order, member of Paul Revere Lodge, the Royal Arch Chapter, and the Bay State Commandery. He is also a mem- ber of the Commercial Club of Brockton. In poli- tics he has been always a Republican. He was married November 25, 1879, to Miss Susie Hay- ward, of West Bridgewater. Their children are : Ruth Edna, Sarah Maud, Alva Hayward, Alice Clara, Isadora, and Edith Marion Poole.

POSSE, THE BARON NILS, - the Rt. Hon. Nils, Baron Posse of Saeby,-of Boston, was born in Stockholm, Sweden, May 15, 1862, son of Knut, Baron Posse, K.S. (governor of the Army High School), and Sophie, Lady Lilliestrale. The Posse family dates back beyond authentic history, and is one of those whose members have always been illustrious in the making of Sweden. From the thirteenth century to the present time mem- bers of the family have held high office in Sweden, being king's councillors, councillors of the realm, and peers of the realm. The Posses belong to what is called in Europe " most ancient nobility," and are considered the equals of even Hohenzollerns and Rohans. Nils Posse was edu- cated by private tutors, and at the public schools and colleges of Stockholm, graduating B.Sc. from Stockholm's Athenaum in 1880, from the War College in 1881, and M.G. from the Royal Gym- nastic Central Institute in 1885. He had a six years' army training through all the grades from private to lieutenant, being the nineteenth from father to son to serve as commissioned officer (lieutenant in the Life Grenadiers, commissioned November 18, 1881, lieutenant First Artillery, mounted in 1883, honorably discharged 1884) ; and also learned the bookbinder's trade, and worked for six months in a cartridge factory to ac- quire the handicraft of a mechanic. In 1884 he was a teacher in the Stockholm Fencing Club, and during the same year an assistant at clinic of the Royal Gymnastic Central Institute. He came to America in 1885, and here introduced the Swedish system of gymnastics. In 1888-89 he was lecturer to the New England Hospital in Boston, and in 1889-90 to the McLean Asylum. On the first of January, 1889, he organized 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 121

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