Men of progress one thousand biographical sketches and portraits of leaders in business and professional life in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Part 126

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 126

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MEN OF PROGRESS.

he was for three terms, 1886-87-88. a member of the Executive Council for the Fifth Councillor District. In the House he was active and infu- ential on the floor, and served on the committees on the judiciary, on banks and banking, on re- districting the State, and on the special commit- tee to investigate the charges against Joseph M. Day, judge of probate of Barnstable County. In the Executive Council he was a member of the committee on pardons, two of his three years clerk of that committee. In politics he is an ar- dent Republican, and has done effective work for his party in committees, conventions. and on

FRANK D. ALLEN.

the stump. In 1885-86-87 he was a member of the Republican State Committee, representing the First Essex Senatorial District. and served on the executive committee of that body. He is president of the Massachusetts Temperance Home, which he organized, a member of the Bap- tist Social Union of Boston. and of the Yale Alumni of Boston and vicinity, of which he was president in 1892. In Lynn he is president of the Lynn Gas and Electric Company, and con- nected with other institutions. He was married January 9, 1878, to Miss Lucy Rhodes, youngest daughter of Everett M. and Eliza M. Rhodes, of Lynn.

AMES. OLIVER. of Easton and Boston, manu- facturer and capitalist, was born in Easton, Feb- ruary 4. 1831 : died there October 22. 1895. He was the second son of Oakes Ames, the builder of the Union Pacific Railroad. and Eveline (Gil- more) AAmes, and grandson of the founder of the great shovel works of Oliver Ames & Sons. He was educated in the public schools of his native town, at the academies of North Easton, North Attleborough, and Leicester, and at Brown Uni- versity, taking at the latter a special course in logic, history, rhetoric, moral philosophy and po- litical economy. Before entering college, he served an apprenticeship of five years in his father's fac- tory, mastering all the mechanical details of the business, and upon finishing his studies at Brown. at the age of twenty-two, returned to the works to complete his training. During this period he worked for a time at his bench for mechanic's wages, his hours at the shop being from seven in the morning to six at night, and won a reputation among his fellow-workmen as a thorough crafts- man. After perfecting himself in the various de- partments of the factory, he turned his attention to the machinery. and shortly introduced various improvements, adding new devices to the ma- chines in use. and inventing numerous new ones, for which medals were subsequently awarded at industrial exhibitions. At length, graduating from the shop. he became travelling agent for the firm. and in that capacity travelled extensively through the country. In 1863, upon the death of his grandfather. he was admitted to the firm of Oliver Ames's Sons, and for several years there- after personally superintended the internal work- ings of the immense establishment. and had charge of the orders and sales. In 1873. when his father died, the numerous financial trusts hell by the latter devolved upon him as executor of the estate, valued at about six millions, and he became concerned in a fiduciary capacity with numerous large corporations, banks, and other monetary institutions. This estate not only in- volved many and diversified interests in various parts of the country. but was burdened with a heavy debt ; and his able management of the property, resulting in the settlement in full of every obligation, the payment of a million or more of legacies, every bequest which his father had implied as well as formally willed. and the divi- sion of a large surplus among the heirs, brought him a wide reputation as a financier and the con-

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fidence of leading business men of the country. Among his notable achievements in this work was the development of the Central Branch of the Union Pacific Railroad in Kansas, the prospects of which at the time he took it in hand were of the darkest, the hundred miles of track then in operation barely paying running expenses, the capital stock of the company having not even a quotable value, and the mortgage bonds, with coupons unpaid for five successive years, selling at 30 per cent. Satisfied, after a thorough inspec- tion of the road, in 1877, of its possibilities of success, he interested capital, himself making the largest subscription recorded, and prosecuted the work of upbuilding with vigor. The track was rapidly extended to a total length of three hun- dred and sixty miles, branches were built, and business was fostered ; and within three years the property had so increased in value that Mr. Ames sold to Jay Gould and associates five-eighths of the entire capital stock at $250 a share. Mr. Ames first entered public life as a member of the State Senate, to which he was elected in 1880 for the Bristol District, and re-elected in 1881. During

OLIVER AMES.

his two terms he served on the committee on rail- roads, and in his second term was a member also of the committee on education. He was instru-

mental in securing the passage of the Cottage City incorporation bill. In 1882 he received the Republican nomination for lieutenant governor on the ticket headed by the Hon. Robert R. Bishop for governor, and was elected with General Ben- jamin F. Butler, the opposing candidate for the governorship, the latter defeating Mr. Bishop. In 1883 he was renominated and re-elected with the Hon. George D). Robinson, who that year headed the Republican ticket, and defeated General But- ler : and again in 1884 and 1885, serving through 1885 and 1886. In 1886, upon the retirement of Governor Robinson, he was advanced to the head of the Republican ticket, and through repeated re-elections served as governor for three terms (1887-89). His administration was especially marked by the beginning of the State House Ex- tension, which was upon his recommendation ; and his last official act as governor was in the lay- ing of the corner-stone of the new building on the 21st of December, 1889. His connection with large concerns, in which he was an impor- tant factor, continued until his death. He was for many years president of the Sioux City & Pacific Railroad; a director of the Union Pa- cific, the Central Branch of the Union l'acific of Kansas, the Atchison, Topeka, & Santa Fe, the Chicago, fowa, & Nebraska, the lowa Falls & Sioux City, the Cedar Rapids & Missouri River, the Fremont & Elkhorn Valley, the Hast- ings & Dakota, the Atchison & Denver, the Waterville & Washington, the Republican Valley, the Solomon Valley, the Atchison, Colorado, &' Pacific, the New Orleans, Mobile, & Texas, the Boston, Hoosac Tunnel, & Western, the Toledo & St. Louis, and other railroads; president of the Brayton Petroleum Motor Company ; director of the Turner Falls Water Power Company, the Maingona Coal Company of lowa, and the Mis- souri Valley Land Company; a director of the Commonwealth National Bank of Boston, the Eas- ton National Bank, and the Bristol County Na- tional Bank of Taunton ; a trustee of several say- ings-banks : and actively interested in numerous other financial and manufacturing corporations. He was also connected with a number of histori- cal, scientific, and benevolent societies, and was a member of the leading Boston clubs. In 1886 he was president of the Boston Art Club, and in 1885 and 1886 president of the Merchants' Club of Boston. In his younger days he served in the Massachusetts Volunteer Militia, successively as

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second lieutenant, major, lieutenant colonel, re- signing in 1860, after a service of seven years. In his native town he was a foremost citizen. served twelve years on the School Board, and did much for the improvement and welfare of the town and its people. In 1881 he erected in Eas- ton, in company with his brother, Oakes A. Ames. to the memory of their father, the Oakes Ames Memorial Hall, a building of red sandstone, gran- ite, and brick, which, with the Oliver Ames Library Building near by, built in memory of the elder Oliver Ames, is an ornament to the place. This was presented to the town, and formally dedicated " to the use and for the benefit of the people of Easton " on November 17, 1881, upon which occasion the governor, the Senate, and many members of the House of Representatives. with a large number of prominent business and professional men. were present, and speeches were made by Governor Long, the Rev. Edward E. Hale, ex-Senator Boutwell, and others of dis- tinction. In religious faith Mr. Ames was a Unitarian, but his substantial help was given to various other religious organizations in his town. He was especially fond of music and the fine arts. and his collection of paintings and statuary was choice and valuable. Mr. Ames was married March 14, 1860, in Nantucket, to Miss Anna Coffin Ray, daughter of Obed and Anna W. Ray. and adopted daughter of William Hadwen, of Nan- tucket. They had two sons and four daughters : William Hadwen, Evelyn, Anna Lee, Susan Evelyn, Lilian, and Oakes Ames. The family residence in Easton was Mr. Ames's summer seat, his town house being on Commonwealth Avenue in Boston, one of the largest dwellings and most elaborate in architectural design in the Back Bay District.

ANGIER, THE REV. LUTHER HORNE, D.D., of Boston, was born in Southborough, January 26. 1810, son of Calvin and Annie (Parker) .Angier. He is of Huguenot descent, his ancestors refu- gees, it is supposed, from France to Kent County, England, and thence to Massachusetts. His early education was acquired in the common school in his native town ; and he was fitted for college at Kimball Union Academy, Meriden, N.H. He entered Amherst College, and graduated in the class of 1833. Shortly after his graduation he re- ceived an appointment as instructor in English

literature and languages in the then noted French Academy in New York City, conducted by the Brothers Peuquet. In that connection he con-

L. H. ANGIER.

tinued three years, when he joined the Union Theo- logical Seminary, New York, one of the thirteen that constituted the first class that entered that institution in 1836. and graduated therefrom 1839. He was ordained to the gospel ministry in 1840 ; and in the fifty-six years from that time to the present he has occupied pastorates in Buffalo, N. Y., Port Gibson, Miss. (in the latter place also successfully filling the position of principal of an academy). Concord, Rockport. Edgartown, Litch- field (N.H.). South Boston. Holbrook. Turner's Falls, and Holyoke. At the present time (1895). at the age of eighty-five, he is one of the preachers at Cornell University : and his services for the pul- pit are in constant demand. During this long period of pulpit work he has engaged in much literary work, and has achieved wide reputation as a lecturer, having delivered his most noted lecture on "The Struggles and Triumphs of En- thusiasm " over two hundred times between New Brunswick, Canada, and Natchez, Miss. He is just twenty-eight days younger than Gladstone, to whom he is said to bear a striking resemblance. and, like him. is remarkable for vigor and fresh-

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ness with the weight of years. He yet preaches with ease and strength, earnestness and power. From February to July, 1894, his eighty-fifth year, he served as acting pastor of the Presbyterian church in Windsor, N.Y., taking the pulpit left vacant by the death of his brother, the Rev. M. B. Angier, on the 25th of February that year, preach- ing regularly, performing other pastoral duties, and manifesting a keen interest in the affairs of the town ; thence going to Saratoga, where he has spent his summer vacations, with few breaks, for sixty years, preached there; and before the close of the summer filled the pulpit of the Pres- byterian church in Holyoke several Sundays. On the 19th of April, 1895, he joined the Sons of the American Revolution in celebrating the one hun- dred and twentieth anniversary of the battle of Lexington, and on that occasion made a notable after-dinner speech. Dr. Angier has been the in- structor and adviser of several young men who have become successful preachers, notably the Rev. George A. Gordon, now pastor of the Old South Church, Boston, who, when a young man of eighteen, and engaged in daily labor in South Boston when Dr. Angier was settled there, made the latter's acquaintance, and was by him and his estimable wife encouraged to pursue theological studies. Young Gordon then became an inmate of Dr. Angier's family, and was fitted for the Bangor Theological Seminary, which he entered in 1874. Dr. Angier married in 1839 Miss Annie Louisa Lanman, seventh daughter of the Hon. Jamies Lanman, of Norwich, Conn. They had no chil- dren. Mrs. Angier died in February, 1893. She was a woman of fine literary culture and rare accomplishments. She was the author of numer- ous poems, a volume of which was published in 1883. Her funeral was conducted by Dr. Gor- don, of the Old South Church, who in his re- marks referred to her influence over himself in his youth, saying that he "would never forget the voice that first made him believe in himself, and that first convinced him that he had a mission to his fellow-men," nor fail to revere " the hand that cleared a path for him to education," and " the insistent sympathy that followed him all through the years of struggle."

BAILEY, HOLLIS RUSSELL, of Cambridge, member of the Suffolk bar, was born in Andover, now North Andover, February 24, 1852, in the

ancient Governor Bradstreet house, son of Otis and Lucinda Alden (Loring) Bailey. His father, also a native of Andover, born April 14, 1806, was a descendant in the seventh generation of James Bailey, who, born in England about 1612, came to New England, and settled in Rowley about 1640. John Bailey, of the second generation, perished in 1690, in the expedition against Canada ; and Samuel Bailey, Jr., of the fifth generation, was killed in the battle of Bunker Hill. His mother, born in Duxbury, August 5, 1809, was a descend- ant in the seventh generation of Thomas Loring, a native of Axminster in Devonshire, England,

HOLLIS R. BAILEY.

who settled in Hingham about 1635. Her grand- mother was Alethea Alden, a descendant of John Alden. Hollis R. was educated in the public schools of North Andover, the Punchard High School of Andover, Phillips (Andover) Academy, and Harvard College, graduating A.B. in 1877 and A.M. in 1879. At Phillips he had the Latin oration in the graduating exercises (1873). Much of his early youth was passed in farm work and in the management, to a considerable extent, of a farm devoted to raising hay, market produce, and milk. While at the university he devoted his time not given to his studies to work as a private tutor for students. He was also a proctor

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in 1878 and 1879. After graduating from the college, he entered the Harvard Law School, where he was graduated LL. B. in 1878. He fur- ther read in the Boston law office of Hyde. Dick- inson, & Howe from August, 1879. to March, 1880, when he began practice, having been ad- mitted to the bar the previous month, occupying offices at No. 30 Court Street with William R. Richards and Richard H. Dana. During the fol- lowing summer he served as private secretary to the Hon. Horace Gray, then chief justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. From the time of his admission to the bar he has been actively engaged in practice in all the branches of the law and in all the courts of the State, with occasional cases of importance in New Hampshire and Rhode Island, having his office since 1891 at No. 53 State Street. In 188t he assisted in pre- paring the Index to the Public Statutes of Massa- chusetts, and he has from time to time contributed articles to the Harvard Law Review. Mr. Bailey was a member of the Everett Athenaum in 1874. and later of the Cambridge Chapter of the P'hi Beta Kappa Society. He is now a member of the Boston Bar Association, the New England Frec Trade League, the Bostonian Society, the Colonial ('lub of Cambridge, and the Library Hall Associa- tion, Cambridge. In 1895 he was chosen presi- dent of the Bailey-Bayley Family Association. In politics he was until 1884 a Republican, and since that time has been a Democrat. In religious faith he is a Unitarian, a member of the First Parish in Cambridge. He was married February 12. 1885. to Mary Persis Bell, daughter of ex-Gov- ernor Charles 11. Bell, of Exeter. N.H. They have one child: Gladys Loring Bailey (born July 11, 1887.) Mr. Bailey was a resident of North Andover until 18So, after that date of Bos- ton until 1890, and since 1890 of Cambridge, his home, since 1893. being on Buckingham Street.

BAIRD, JOHN CALDWELL, of Boston, merchant, was born in Boston. August 16, 1852. son of James and Sarah ( Howard) Baird. His father was of Scotch descent, and his mother of English. He was educated in public schools in Boston and at Cosgrove Academy. Immediately after leaving school, he entered the stained-glass business, and he has continued in that line ever since, a period of twenty-seven years. He began in the then small establishment of James M. Cook, which

later came under the firm name of Cook, Redding. & Co., and since 1883 has been under that of Redding. Baird, & Co. During his connection with the partnership the business has been devel- oped from small beginnings to extensive propor- tions, the products of the house going to foreign countries as well as throughout the United States : and it has attained a leading position, largely through his artistic ability and the knowledge of the trade which he has acquired. He has trav- elled extensively in Europe in the interest of his house and for study and observation, and has also visited the West Indies. India, and Africa. Mr.

JOHN C. BAIRD.

Baird is interested in military affairs as a member of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company. and a fine member of the Cadets. He is con- nected with the Royal Arcanum, a trustee of War- ren Council, also with the Home Circle, and is a member of the Bostonian Society, the Quincy School Association, and the Boston Art, Archi- tectural, Athletic, and Bostoniana clubs. In pol- itics he is a Republican. He is active in mu- nicipal reform movements, and is at present a member of the executive committee of the Citi- zens' Municipal Union. He was married June 18. 1888, to Miss Isabel V. Stewart, of Farmington. Mc. They have one son : Stewart Baird.

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BALDWIN, WILLIAM HENRY, of Boston, presi- dent of the Boston Young Men's Christian Union, was born in Brighton (now of Boston), October 20, 1826, son of Henry and Mary (Brackett) Baldwin. His father, born in Phillip- ston. Worcester County, in 1790, coming to Bos- ton when a lad to engage in business, became in course of time a wholesale grocer, during the lat- ter part of his life in partnership with Daniel Weld, under the firm name of Weld & Baldwin. He died in 1833. Mr. Baldwin's mother was a native of East Sudbury (now Wayland), born in 1795. He was educated in Brighton public and private schools, and at a local academy kept by Jonas Wilder, finishing in the High School, from which he graduated in 1843. He began business life as a clerk in a dry-goods and clothing store in Brighton, then known as Kelly & Springs. After four years' experience in that place he obtained a position in the prominent Boston house of James M. Beebe & Co., importers and jobbers of dry goods, where he remained till 1846, when - changes being made in the firm, and that of Gan- nett, Balch, & Co., the senior partner of which had been of the old firm, being organized - he left to become a salesman for the new house. He con- tinued in that capacity till 1850, when he engaged in business on his own account, forming in April the firm of Baldwin, Baxter, & Co. (his partners being John J. Baxter and Cadwallader Curry), im- porters and jobbers of woollens. This partner- ship held till the death of Mr. Baxter in 1858. and thereafter the business was continued by the surviving partners, under the firm name of Bald- win & Curry. till 1865. Then, disposing of his in- terest, Mr. Baldwin engaged in the dry-goods com- mission business, which he followed till 1868. when he retired to devote his whole time and energies to the work of the Boston Young Men's Christian Union, having been chosen president of the Board of Government of that institution, that year reorganized. The Union had then been in existence for seventeen years, having been insti- tuted in 1851 and incorporated the following year, but its work had been temporarily suspended in consequence of the interruption caused by the Civil War; and the establishment of the new Board of Government, with the choice of Mr. Baldwin at its head, was the result of an energetic and ably directed movement of several of its life members and friends for its revival on a broad scale. Mr. Baldwin addressed himself heartily and

enthusiastically to the work of its upbuilding ; and its development into the notable Boston institution of to-day is largely due to his able and skilful man- agement during his nearly twenty-eight years of leadership. Founded on an unsectarian basis, it has always been so conducted, young men of all creeds being admitted to membership and made welcome. Upon the reorganization, rooms were first taken at No. 12 West Street ; but larger quarters were soon demanded, and removal was made to No. 300 Washington Street (nearly op- posite West Street). The membership rapidly in- creasing and the work of the institution broaden-

WM. H. BALDWIN

ing. in the spring of 1874 a public appeal was made for funds with which to purchase land and erect a building for its accommodation ; and this met with such speedy success that within a few months plans for the structure were perfected. The corner-stone was formally laid September 16. the following year : and on March 15, 1876, the main portion of the building, then No. 18 (now No. 48, the street having been renumbered) Boyl- ston Street, was completed, and dedicated to the uses of the Union. Six years later, in 1882, the need of still larger accommodations having become pressing, another successful appeal for funds was made to its friends ; and a substantial extension

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was added, which was dedicated with fitting cere- monies on the 28th of May, 1883. The building now covers over eleven thousand feet. It in- cludes several halls, reading, writing, sitting room, parlor. and room for games, a library containing a carefully selected collection of over 13,000 vol- umes, and a light and spacious gymnasium, one of the largest and best equipped in the city. The work which the Union at present carries on, under Mr. Baldwin's direction, aided by an active and efficient Board of Directors, covers a broad field, - religious, ethical, educational, social, and physi- cal culture. Regular lectures are provided, even- ing classes in various branches of instruction, frequent entertainments, " Practical Talks," and public religious services conducted by clergymen and laymen of the several denominations. Much benevolent work is also done in the city at large, such as the Union's "Country Week " charity,- the sending of poor children into the country for summer vacations,- " Rides for Invalids," the " Christmas Festival for Poor Children," and the finding of employment for members and others, through its " Employment Bureau." Its member- ship is now more than five thousand, the largest in its history ; over one thousand persons are en- rolled in the various evening classes ; and the gymnasium has a membership of about one thou- sand. The rooms are open every day and even- ing in the year from 8 A.M. to 10 P.M. The insti- tution has the beginning of a Permanent Fund under the care of a Board known as the " Board of Trustees of the Permanent Fund of the Boston Young Men's Christian Union," consisting of Samuel Wells, chairman, William Endicott, Jr., treasurer, William H. Baldwin. Edwin L. Sprague, William L. Richardson. While directing the Union work, Mr. Baldwin is active in numerous other philanthropic and educational organizations. He is president of the Children's Mission to the Children of the Destitute. a member of the Board of Directors of the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, a trustee of the Boston Lying-in Hospital, a trustee of the Frank- lin Savings Bank, and an ex-president and mem- ber of the Unitarian Sunday School Society. For twenty-five years he was superintendent of the Sunday-schools of the Church of the Unity and the Church of the Disciples. He is a life member of the American Unitarian Association, a member of the Bostonian Society. of the Boston Memorial Association, of the Law and Order League, of the

Massachusetts Emergency and Hygiene Associa- tion, of the American Peace Society, of the Bos- ton Civil Service Reform Association, of the Bos- ton Citizens' Association, of the Boston Old School Boys' Association, of the Boston Leather Associates (an honorary member), of the Unita- rian Club of Boston, of the Municipal League of Boston, and of the Republican Club of Massa- chusetts. In politics he is an ardent Republican, and has always taken a warm interest in munici- pal as well as in State and national affairs. He has, however, declined to hold public office. beyond that of member of the Boston School Committee, upon which he served for several years. During the Civil War he was an active member of the War Relief Committee of old Ward Kleven, Boston, which cared for many fami- lies of soldiers at the front. Mr. Baldwin was married in Boston, June 17, 1851, to Miss Mary Frances Augusta Chaffee, daughter of Jonathan and Nancy (AAldrich) Chaffee, of Boston. They had a family of nine children, all of whom are living : Mary Chaffee, Maria Josephine. Harry Heath, Frank Fenno, Fannie Aldrich, William Henry, Jr., George Storer, Robert Collyer, and Richard Brackett Baldwin. Mrs. Baldwin died January 9, 1892.

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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 126

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