USA > Massachusetts > Men of progress one thousand biographical sketches and portraits of leaders in business and professional life in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts > Part 124
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Sprague has been engaged in, was the movement culminating in the act of 1893. compelling the sale at market value of increased capital stock of railroad and street railway corporations, and the several acts of 1894, applying to all quasi-public corporations,-railroads, street railways, gas, elec- tric light. telephone, telegraph, and water com- panies, - preventive of stock and debt watering : thus placing Massachusetts far ahead of any other State in legislation tending to place corporations upon a sound basis, to secure fair rates for ser- vice rendered the general public, and to save the investing public from loss resulting from irrespon- sible management and inflated capitalization. In this subject he became interested as a member of the New England Shoe and Leather Association. and when, after consolidation of the Boston street railways, the West End Railway attempted nearly to double its stock without additional payment of money. he took a leading part in defeating this and other similar propositions. In the following years Mr. Sprague and his associates continued their interest in the subject. meeting sometimes with success and sometimes with failure, the publie in the mean time being educated to the im- portance of the issue. But it was not until 1893. after the formation of the Massachusetts State Board of Trade. Mr. Sprague then being chairman of the committee on transportation, and as such also of a special committee to secure anti-stock watering legislation, that the support of practically all the boards of trade and leading newspapers of the State was secured, and thereby a combination insured sufficiently powerful to cope successfully with the allied opposing corporation interests, and to bring about the enactments of 1893-94, above mentioned. In 1877 and later Mr. Sprague took the initiative in most of the measures which re- sulted in the defeat of the successive attempts to establish free ferries at the expense of the city of Boston. In the early days of the civil service re- form movement he took an active part as an off- cer of the Boston Civil Service Reform Associa- tion : and he has of late years been a director of that association, and also of the Massachusetts Civil Service Reform League. He has from time to time been actively interested in various soci- eties, committees, and measures, other than those named, to the extent that his business connections would permit. Mr. Sprague is a logical writer. and has written much on the subjects in which he has been interested. - editorial articles and news-
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paper communications, reports, etc. As chair- man of a committee of the New England Shoe and Leather Association, he wrote a notable pamphlet on " The Dating Ahead System," which has had a wide circulation in all parts of the country. Mr. Sprague is a member of the Union, St. Botolph, Art, and Unitarian clubs of Boston. He was married April 18, 1881, to Miss Elizabeth Searle Davis, daughter of brevet Briga- dier-General Hasbrouck Davis, son of Governor John Davis, who, entering the army in 1862 as colonel of the Twelfth Illinois Regiment, per- formed brilliant and meritorious services in the Civil War. They have had four children : Edwin Loring, Jr., Ruth Davis, Henry Bancroft, and Richard Warren Sprague.
SPRAGUE, HENRY HARRISON, of Boston, member of the Suffolk bar, and chairman of the Metropolitan Water Commission, was born in Athol, August 1, 1841, son of George and Nancy (Knight) Sprague. [For ancestry, see Sprague, Edwin Loring.] He attained his early education in the public schools of Athol, and was fitted for college in the Athol High School and at the Chauncy Hall School in Boston. Entering Har- vard, he graduated in due course in the class of 1864. After graduation he went to Champlain, N.Y., as a private tutor, and remained there until the summer of 1865. In the following autumn he entered the Harvard Law School, becoming at the same time a proctor of the college. A year later he became a law student in the office of Henry W. Paine and Robert D). Smith in Boston, and on February 25, 1868, was admitted to the Suffolk bar. Thereupon he began the practice of his profession in Boston, where he has been es- tablished since. His first public service was in the Boston Common Council, to which he was elected in 1873. He was a member of that body for the municipal years of 1874, 1875, and 1876, acting more especially on the committees on ordi- nances, claims, and revision of the city charter : also serving during his second and third terms as one of the trustees of the City Hospital, on the part of the City Council. In 1878 he was elected one of the trustees at large of the hospital, and continued as such till the establishment of the board as a corporation in 1880, when he was appointed a trustee by the mayor, in whom the power of appointment was then vested. He has
held this position since by successive reappoint- ments, and since 1878 has also acted as secre- tary of the board. In ISSo he was elected to the lower house of the Legislature, and twice returned, serving through the sessions of 1881, 1882, and 1883. In that of 188t he was a mem- ber of the committees on the revision of the stat- utes, on probate and chancery, and on library ; in 1882, chairman of the committee on bills in the third reading ; and during that and the sub- sequent year also a member of the committee on the judiciary. In 1884 he was a member of the executive committee of the Municipal Reform
HENRY H. SPRAGUE.
Association, and was senior counsel of the asso- ciation for the purpose of securing the passage by the Legislature of 1885 of the important amendments to the charter of the city of Boston by which the executive authority of the city was vested in the mayor. In 1888, 1889, 1890, and 1891 he was a member of the State Senate, elected for the Fifth Suffolk District. During his first term as a senator he served on the commit- tees on the judiciary, on rules, on cities, and on election laws: and, as chairman of the latter, he drafted and introduced the new ballot act, the passage of which accomplished ballot reform. The next year he was made president of the Sen-
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ate, and was re-elected presiding officer in 1891, when the two parties were equally divided. by an increased vote. In 1892 he was appointed chair- man of a commission to revise the election laws of the Commonwealth. In 1895 he was ap- pointed a member of the Metropolitan Water Commission, and made chairman of the board. He was one of the promoters of the Boston Civil Service Reform Association (formed in 1880), which was the first or among the earliest organizations effected in the county to advocate that reform; and he served as one of the ex- ecutive committee until the year 1889. when he was elected president of the association, which office he still holds. He has been a member of the board of government of the Boston Young Men's Christian Union since 1867. when, in connection with a few others, he brought about a return to new and active operations of this in- stitution, acting as secretary from 1867 to 1879. and since 1879 as vice-president, a trustee of the Boston Lying-in Hospital since 1879 and of late years one of the executive committee of the board ; and since 1883 secretary of the Massa- chusetts Charitable Fire Society. He is a mem- ber also of the general committee of the Citizens' Association of Boston, of the Historic Genealogi- cal Society, of the Bostonian Society, of the Bos- ton Bar Association, and of the Harvard Law School Association ; member of the Union, St. Botolph (for four years treasurer), Tavern (one of the original members and one of the trustees to hold its real estate), and the Unitarian clubs: is one of the trustees appointed to hold the build- ings of the Woman's Educational and Industrial Union on Boylston Street, and acting as treasurer of the trustees ; and is a member of the Board of Overseers of Harvard College, elected in 1890 for the term of six years. He has published in pamphlet form treatises entitled "Women under the Law of Massachusetts, their Rights, Privi- leges, and Disabilities" (brought out in 1884). and "City Government in Boston, its Rise and Development " (1890): and he compiled for its one hundredth anniversary " AA Brief History of the Massachusetts Charitable Fire Society." Mr. Sprague is unmarried.
STANWOOD, EDWARD, of Brookline, manag- ing editor of the Youth's Companion, is a native of Maine, born in Augusta, September 16, 1841, son
of Daniel Caldwell and Mary Augusta ( Webster) Stanwood. His ancestry is pure Yankee, having no direct or collateral ancestor who came to New England later than 1675. He was educated in the common schools and High School of Augusta, and at Bowdoin College, where he graduated in the class of 1861. He began journalistic work at the age of sixteen, in his freshman year, as re- porter of the proceedings of the Maine Legisla- ture for the Augusta Ige; and that work he con- tinued winters until his graduation from college. In 1862 he entered the office of the Kennebec Journal as assistant editor. After five years' ser-
EDWARD STANWOOD.
vice in that office, acting also as the Augusta cor- respondent of the Boston Daily Advertiser, he became an assistant on the editorial staff of the latter journal. This position he held for fifteen years, the greater part of that time as a regular editorial writer, second in rank to the chief. the late Delano A. Goddard : and then upon the death of Mr. Goddard in January, 1882. he was inade editor-in-chief. Retiring from the Advertiser in November. 1883. the following January he joined the editorial staff of the Youth's Companion as an assistant, and a few years later was ad- vanced to the managing editorship. the position he still fills. He has been a frequent contributor
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to many magazines and other periodicals; has lectured occasionally, including a course in the Lowell Institute on " Early Party Contests," pas- sages in our political history from Washington to Jackson : and has published " A History of Presi- dential Elections" (Boston : Houghton, Mifflin, & Co.), which has passed through several editions. As special agent of the Eleventh Census, he eol- leeted the statistics of and prepared a report upon the Cotton Manufactures of the United States. He is a member of the New England Historie Genealogical Society and of the American Statis- tieal Society, a trustee of the Public Library of Brookline, and secretary of the Arkwright Club ; and he has been a member of the St. Botolph ('lub. Mr. Stanwood was married November 16. 1870, to Miss Eliza Maxwell Topliff. They have two children : Ethel and Edward Stanwood, Jr.
STEDMAN, GEORGE, M.D., of Boston, was born in Boston, January 27, 1850, son of Daniel Baxter and Miriam (White) Stedman. His ances- tors were originally from Scotland, as indicated by
GEORGE STEDMAN.
the thistle in the coat-of-arms. He was educated principally in the Boston schools, and at Harvard College, graduating in the class of 1871. Enter-
ing then the Harvard Medical School, he was graduated there in 1875, with his degree of M. D., after having passed one year in the Massa- chusetts General Hospital, as surgical interne. In 1876 he was elected superintendent of the Massachusetts Charitable Eye and Ear Infirmary, Boston, which position he held till the summer of 1895, when he resigned. In 1880, on the 13th of April, he was appointed by Governor Long asso- ciate medical examiner for Suffolk County, in 1887 was reappointed by Governor Ames, and in 1894 again reappointed by Governor Green- halge, each term being for a period of seven years. Prior to the adoption of the medical examiner system he held the office of coroner. He was hospital steward of the Boston Indepen- dent Corps of Cadets for several years, and subse- quently assistant surgeon of the Fourth Battalion until the reorganization of the militia, when the Fourth Battalion was made part of the First Regiment, Massachusetts Volunteer Militia. Dr. Stedman is a member of the Massachusetts Medi- cal Society, of the Massachusetts Society for Medieal Observation, of the Massachusetts Med- ieo-Legal Society, the Harvard Medical Associa- tion, and the Harvard Medical Library Associa- tion. He has been much interested in Masonry, and is now member of the Boston Commandery of Knights Templar, and of the Massachusetts Con . sistory, thirty-second degree, and member of the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts. He was among the early members of the Algonquin Club : and he belongs also to the Papyrus, the University, and the Athletic elubs, and to the Bostonian Society.
STILLINGS, EPHRAIM BAILEY, of Boston, printer, is a native of New Hampshire, born in the town of Somersworth, May 18, 1846, son of Rook and Mary ( Hodsdon) Stillings. He is of rugged New England ancestry, hard-working, fru- gal farmers of the Granite State. He was the youngest of a large family reared on the farm. attaining his education in the public schools of the town. At the outbreak of the Civil War he was a lad of fifteen, attending the High School ; and he at onee enlisted, but was rejected because of youth. Repeated attempts to join the army following with the same results, and, becoming unsettled in consequence, he was soon sent by his father to Holyoke, Mass .. to learn the ma- chinist trade with his brother Rufus, who was
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then in that place. He applied himself diligently to his new work, but the war fever was still on him; and finally he succeeded in enlisting and successfully passing there as a member of Com- pany B, Forty-sixth Regiment, Massachusetts Volunteers, for nine months' service. Mustered out at the end of his term, he at once re-enlisted for three years, or till the close of the war, in Company A, Second Massachusetts Heavy Artil- lery. He was mustered out the second time in October, 1865, at the age of nineteen, having served thirty-eight months. To this long service Mr. Stillings always refers modestly, with the sim- ple remark that he was ready for any and every duty to which he was called. He saw all kinds of service, and was in the battles of Kinston. Whitehall, and Goldsborough, North Carolina. Upon his return from the army he came to Bos- ton, and looked for work. He then had no home. the New Hampshire farm having been disposed of and the family scattered, and no friends in the city: and he had no knowledge as to what he was best adapted for. After a varied and hard experience - finding work at first with difficulty, his return from the war being late, after most of the good places had been secured by the other soldiers who had come before him, -he entered the service of Cutter, Tower, & Co., stationers, as cashier. Here. learning thoroughly the sta- tioner's trade, a few years later he engaged in the business on his own account, establishing himself at the corner of Summer and High Streets. He was developing a good trade, with steadily improving prospects, when the great fire of 1872 came, and he was burned out, suffering a total loss. After that he continued in a small way till 1884. when he bought out a small print- ing-office at No. 58 Federal Street. In October. 1886, he moved to his present location, No. 55 Sudbury Street, corner of Bowker Street. Here he has met with unusual success in view of the sharp competition in his hne of business, and has won a reputation for good work and fair dealing. llis establishment now occupies four entire floors, and employs an average of seventy-five persons ; and it is said by competent judges to -be one of the most orderly and best conducted offices of its kind in the country. Mr. Stillings is prominent in the Masonic order, being a member of Will- iam Parkman Lodge, of Woburn Royal Arch Chapter ; of Lafayette Lodge of Perfection, Bos- ton ; of Giles Vates Council, Mt. Olivet Chapter
of Rose Croix, Massachusetts Consistory, St. Bernard Commandery, Knights Templar, and Aleppo Temple. He is also a member of E. W.
E. B. STILLINGS.
Kinsley Post. No. 113. Grand Army of the Re- public. Mr. Stillings has a son, Charles A. Still- ings, now twenty-four years of age, associated with him in business : and he cheerfully accords much of his prosperity to the son's earnest and loyal efforts.
TAYLOR. RANSOM C., of Worcester, the largest owner of business real estate in that city, is a native of New Hampshire, born in Win- chester, February 24, 1829, son of Charles and Susan ( Butler) Taylor. His parents were both of old Winchester families. When he was four years old. his father moved to a farm in Northbridge. Mass .; and here his boyhood was passed. He attended the village school during the winter sea- sons, and in summers worked on the farm and assisted his father in the meat business, in which the latter was also engaged. At twelve he was driving his father's meat-cart, delivering meat through the neighboring villages. At seventeen he came to Worcester, where he began the manu- facture of neat's-foot oil, glue stock, and tallow, and dressing tripe for the market on his father's
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account ; and at eighteen, buying his time of his father for three hundred dollars, he engaged in the same business on his own account, establish-
RANSOM C. TAYLOR.
ing himself in the town of Sutton. Here he re- mained for four years, and then removed his busi- ness to Worcester, where he has since resided. Within a comparatively short time his business establishment became the largest of the kind in this part of the country. Beginning with a force of but two men and two teams, his trade so in- creased that before many years he was employing a hundred men and as many horses ; and he had branches in New York City, Albany, Troy, New Haven, Hartford, Springfield, Milford, Taunton, Randolph, and other places. He early made in- vestments in Worcester real estate: and, when in 1871 he disposed of his extensive works to de- vote his attention wholly to real estate, he was already a large holder. He is now owner of the granite Taylor Block on Main Street, the First National Bank Building, the Chase Building, the Forrest Block, the Brunswick and Sherwood Houses, Opera houses on First and Pleasant Streets, and other valuable properties. He built the first five-story. the first six-story, and the first seven-story blocks in the city; and he has done much to improve the architectural appearance
of its principal business streets. Besides his real estate interests he has large holdings in the First National Fire Insurance Company, of which he was one of the original stockholders, and has been a director since its incorporation. He was also one of the projectors of the First National Bank, and on its board of directors for twenty years. He is a public-spirited citizen and active in local affairs: but, with the exception of two years as a member of the Board of Aldermen, which position he reluctantly accepted, he has not held public office. In politics he is a Repub- lican, positive in his political views. Mr. Taylor was first married in 1850 to Miss Mary Louise Chase, daughter of Captain Abraham Chase, of Sutton. She died in 1878. He married second, in 1880, Miss Mary S. Stevens, daughter of Mer- riek R. Stevens, a flour merchant of Newton. He had four children by his first wife, two sons and two daughters, and by his second wife one son and one daughter. The two oldest sons are now associated with him in business.
ROBERT H. TEWKSBURY.
TEWKSBURY, ROBERT HASKELL, of Law- rence, cashier of the Essex Company, is a native of New Hampshire, born in Hopkinton, April 11, 1833, son of Joseph and Eliza (Butler) Tewks-
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bury. He is a descendant of the Tewksburys and Butlers, early families in Manchester and Essex, Essex County, Mass. He was educated in the common schools. He has been connected with the Essex Company for a long period, and has held the position of book-keeper and cashier of the corporation since 1875. He has also held several leading municipal positions. In 1863 and 1864 he was assessor of taxes; for ten years, from 1864 to 1874, he was city treasurer and collector of taxes : in 1875 mayor of the city, and from 1875 to 1880 a member of the Water Board. In politics he has always been a stanch Republi- can. He has been a member and secretary of the Old Residents' Association since its organization, and for many years an Odd Fellow, connected with Monadnock Lodge. Mr. Tewksbury married first, November 18, 1859. Miss Angelia C. Hawthorne. by whom he had two children : Willis H. and Robert L. Tewksbury. lle married second, in June, 1894, Miss Amelia Burkinshaw.
VINAL, CHARLES ALBERT, of Boston, mer- chant and manufacturer, was born in Cambridge, January 2, 1849, son of Albert and Eliza A. ( Mellus) Vinal. He was educated in the Cam- bridge public schools, graduating from the High School, and remaining in the latter, working out some mathematical problems, until his sixteenth year. His business career was begun as a clerk in the wholesale house of Colonel Albert A. Pope, who was at that time engaged in the leather trade, making a specialty of glove calf, patent leather, and shoe manufacturers' goods; and upon his twenty-first birthday he was admitted a partner in the business, the firm name then being changed to Albert A. Pope & Co. He remained with Colonel Pope for about ten years, when, the latter retiring, he formed a partnership with Colonel Pope's brother. Arthur W. Pope, which continued until 1883, at first under the old firm name, but later under the style of Vinal, Pope, & Co. From 1883 to 1889 he conducted the large and steadily growing business alone, and then, admit- ting to partnership Walter H. Holbrook and Samuel W. Bates, organized the present firm of Charles A. Vinal & Co. Under his conduct the business expanded into a general shoe manufact- urers' goods and leather business, and the house is now one of the most extensive in its line. Be- sides dealing largely in manufacturers' goods,
importing directly from leading European houses, it is engaged in the manufacture of Dongola goat curing skin received direct from Calcutta. Mr.
C. A. VINAL.
Vinal has travelled extensively in England and on the continent in connection with his house, and has established close business relations with European manufacturers. In politics he is an In- dependent, supporting what he deems to be the best in policies and candidates, with no personal aspirations for public life. Mr. Vinal was married in October, ISSo, to Miss Helen B. Furber, of Dover, N.H. Their children are: Ethel, Charles A., Jr., and Albert Vinal.
WATTS, CHARLES AUGUSTUS, of Boston, en- graver, is a native of Maine, born in Ellsworth, March 9, 1854, son of Francis M. and Susan B. (Moore) Watts. He is of English ancestry on the paternal side, and of Scotch on the maternal side. His paternal great-grandfather and grandfather were owners and masters of brigs in the West India trade. He was educated in the public schools of his native city. His training for active life began at an early age as assistant to his father, who was a mechanic of wide experience and ability. After acquiring a fair knowledge of the mechanical arts, he started out to seek his
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fortune in Massachusetts. He came to Boston in 1884. and engaged as foreman in a photo-engrav- ing house. He continued in that position for
C. A. WATTS.
seven years, and then in 1891 entered the same business on his own account, established on State Street under the firm name of the Boston Illus- trating Company. A short time later this business was consolidated with that of Samuel E. Blanch- ard, and incorporated under the Massachusetts laws as the Blanchard & Watts Engraving Com- pany. Mr. Watts is a member of the Masonic order and of the Ancient Order of United Work- men. He was married December 23, 1880, at West Newton to Miss Miriam Dolliver, formerly of Mt. Desert, Me. They have no children.
WEST, CHARLES ALFRED, of Boston, was born in Boston, April 4. 1850, son of Samuel and Lydia B. West. He was educated in the Boston gram- mar and English High schools. He began work as an office boy in the wholesale drug house of Reed. Cutler, & Co., subsequently Cutler Brothers & Co., Boston, and here rose rapidly to responsi- ble positions, becoming thoroughly acquainted with every detail of the business. He remained with this house for twenty years. In January, 1887. forming a partnership with Bernard Jenney,
Jr., a fellow-salesman, he established the firm of W'est & Jenney, and engaged in the same business on Broad Street, corner of Franklin Street. By able management, and having a wide acquaintance in the trade, the firm rapidly developed its busi- ness, and shortly controlled the largest importing trade of any drug house in New England. It has secured supremacy especially in the refining of camphor, having now two camphor refineries, a factory for subliming camphor, a pharmaceutical laboratory, and a large warehouse; and it is a heavy holder of stock in the Dana Sarsaparilla Company, one of the largest manufacturers of pro- prietary medicines in the United States. Mr. West is the treasurer of this company, and with Mr. Jenney one of its directors. He has been president of the Boston Druggists' Association ; is a member of the American Pharmaceutical Association ; and since 1890 has been a trustee of the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy. In Somerville, where he resides, he is a trustee of the Public Library and an ex-president of the Central Club. He is a member also of the Algonquin, Exchange, and Taylor ('lubs of Boston, and of the
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