Men of progress one thousand biographical sketches and portraits of leaders in business and professional life in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Part 130

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 130

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ALBERT HALLETT.

to the present quarters at No. 185 Franklin Street, the plant considerably enlarged, and a commodi- ous, model printing house established for success- ful work in the finest grades and varieties of job printing. Mr. Hallett also owns several patents for reproducing imitation typewriter letters, and holds licenses in most of the large cities in the country. Mr. Hallett is an Odd Fellow, member of the Paul Revere Lodge : and he is connected with the Excelsior Council of the Royal Arcanum. In politics he is a Republican. He was married in Fall River, March 1, 1877, to Miss Mary How- land Wady. They have one son : Waldo 1). Hallett.

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HAMLIN, CHARLES SUMNER, of Boston, .Is- sistant Secretary of the United States Treasury in the second administration of President Cleveland, was born in Boston, August 30, 1861, son of Edward Sumner and Anna Gertrude Hamlin. He is a direct descendant of Major Eleazer Hamlin, of Westford, Mass., who led a regiment in the Revolutionary War, and is a cousin of the late Hannibal Hamlin, Vice-President of the United States under the administration of President Abraham Lincoln. He was fitted for college at the Roxbury Latin School, Roxbury District, Boston ; graduated from Harvard in the class of

C. S. HAMLIN.

1883, and from the Harvard Law School in 1886, with the degree of LL. B. and A.M. Admitted to the Suffolk bar that year, he at once engaged in the active practice of his profession in Boston. Subsequently he formed a partnership with Marcus Morton, grandson of Judge, afterward Governor Morton, and son of Chief Justice Morton of the Massachusetts Supreme Court, under the firm name of Morton & Hamlin. Mr. Hamlin became an early student of economic questions, especially devoting himself to the sub- ject of the tariff ; and in the national campaign of 1888 he was a frequent contributor to the press and a speaker on the stump in behalf of tariff

reform, displaying a happy faculty in presenting his arguments in a clear and attractive fashion. In subsequent campaigns his work covered a more extended field, and he was recognized as one of the foremost of the younger leaders of the Democratic party of Massachusetts. In 1892 his name was placed on the Democratic State ticket as candidate for secretary of state. the convention nominating him by acclamation. During the years 1891 and 1892 he served on the Massachusetts Democratic State Committee as chairman of the finance committee. He is a member of the New England Free Trade League, of the Young Men's Democratic Club of Massachusetts, of the Massa- chusetts Reform Club, of the Civil Service League, and of the New York Reform ('lub. His appoint- ment to the Assistant Secretaryship of the Treas- ury was from President Cleveland, in April, 1893. He has general charge of the United States Custom Service, the Revenue Cutter Service, the United States Special Agents, the Light-house Board, the United States Secret Service, and the general system of accounting in the United States Treasury.

HIGGINSON, THOMAS WENTWORTH, of Cam- bridge, author, essayist, speaker, reformer, was born in Cambridge, December 22, 1823, son of Stephen and Louisa (Storrow) Higginson. He is in the seventh generation from the Rev. Francis Higginson, one of the earliest settlers at Salem, coming from England in 1629, "teacher" of the First Church in Salem, 1629-30, and author of "New England's Plantations." His paternal grandfather, Stephen Higginson, born in Salem, was a merchant, for ten years immediately before the Revolution a successful shipmaster, a delegate to the Continental Congress, and navy agent at Boston from 1797 to 1801, and the reputed author of the "Laco " political letters. His father, Stephen, 2d, was also a merchant, and a noted philanthropist in Boston, and from 1818 to 1834 held the position of steward, or bursar, of Harvard College. His mother was the daughter of Cap- tain Thomas Storrow, a British officer, and Anne Appleton, of Portsmouth, N.H. Thomas Went- worth was educated in Cambridge, at the prepara- tory school of William Wells, where James Russell Lowell and William W. Story were among his schoolmates, and at Harvard, where he was graduated with honors in 1841, before the age of eighteen, the youngest in his class and the second

MEN OF PROGRESS.

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in rank. The next six years were spent in teaching and in further study. He had been expected to follow the law as a profession ; but instead of that he spent two years as resident graduate at Har- vard and two years at the Harvard Divinity School, graduating in 1847. He was shortly after ordained as pastor of the First Religious Society, Unitarian, of Newburyport, and was settled there for about two years and a half, when he was obliged to leave the church on account of his pronounced anti-slavery views, which he never hesitated boldly to express whenever occasion offered. The same year, 1850, he was nominated as a Free Soil candidate for Congress. In 1852 he became the first pastor of the Free Church in Worcester, a wholly non-sectarian and reformatory organization, and was settled there until 1858, when he retired from the ministry to devote him- self exclusively to literary pursuits. During the entire period covered by his career as a preacher he was among the most active in the anti-slavery movement. He was the head of a company of self-enlisted men who organized to protect Wen- dell Phillips from the attack of mobs. He took a conspicuous part in the attempted rescue of the fugitive slave. Anthony Burns, in 1854, and, a constable being killed in the riot which ensued about the old County Court House, Court Square, was, with Wendell Phillips, Theodore Parker. and others, indicted for murder ; but, through the able defence of John A. Andrew, John P'. Hale, and others of defendants' counsel, the indictments were quashed. Later he was active in the strife in Kansas: was appointed brigadier-general on the staff of James H. Lane in the Free State forces, was a friend of John Brown, organized an expedition into Virginia to rescue some of John Brown's companions, which was unsuccessful, and performed other aggressive acts. At the outbreak of the Civil War he was active in recruiting com- panies for the service ; and in September. 1862, he became captain of Company B of the Fifty-first Regiment, Massachusetts Volunteers. A fortnight later, on November to, he was commissioned colonel of the First South Carolina Volunteers, subsequently renamed the Thirty-third United States Colored Troops, which was the first regi- ment of freed slaves mustered into the United States service. The regiment captured Jackson- ville, Fla., in 1863, and performed other gallant deeds ; but Colonel Higginson, being severely wounded in a skirmish at Wiltown Bluff, S.C., in

August, 1863, was obliged in October, the follow- ing year, to resign its command on account of disability. Upon his retirement from the army Colonel Higginson settled in Newport, R.I., and engaged in literary work. He resided there twelve years, during that period producing a num- ber of his most notable books, chief among them "Malbone : An Oldport Romance," published in 1869 ; " Army Life in a Black Regiment " (trans- lated into French by Mme. de Gasparin), in 1870 : "Oldport Days " (1873) ; and " Young Folks' His- tory of the United States " (1875), the latter hav- ing an extraordinary circulation, which continues

T. W. HIGGINSON.

to this day, and being subsequently translated into French, German, and Italian. He removed from Newport in 1878 to Cambridge, where he has since lived. Soon after taking up his resi- dence in Cambridge, he was elected to the lower house of the Legislature. and returned for a second term, served through the sessions of ISSo and ISS1, at the same time holding the first place on the staff of Governor Long. In the House he took an active part in debate, and served as chair- man on the committees on education, on expedit- ing the business of the house, and on constitu- tional amendments. After his legislative service he was for two years, 1881-83, a member of the

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State Board of Education. Although always in- dependent in politics, he affiliated with the Repub- lican party until 1884, when, upon the nomination of Blaine by the Republicans and of Cleveland by the Democrats, he parted company with his old political associates, and gave his hearty sup- port to Cleveland. In 1888 he was the Demo- cratic candidate indorsed by Independents for Congress in his district ; but, after a brilliant and spirited canvass, he was defeated, the district being strongly Republican, though he ran ahead of his ticket. He has been a hearty and constant supporter of civil service reform from the begin- ning of the movement, an earnest advocate of woman suffrage, and a helper in all movements for the higher education and advancement of woman. As a literary worker. Colonel Higginson has long held first rank. His first essays were published in the earliest volumes of the Atlantic Monthly, during the editorship of Lowell, the most striking of which was on "Saints and their Bodies," treating in a fresh and captivating style the subject of physical developments and its re- lation to moral and intellectual health. A few years before, in 1853, he had published his first volume, a compilation with Samuel Longfellow, of poetry for the seaside. His list of publications, besides those already mentioned, include " Atlantic Essays " (1871). " The Sympathy of Religions " (1872), " Young Folks' Book of American Explor- ers " (1877), "Short Studies of American Authors " (1879), "Common Sense about Women" (trans- lated into German) (1881). " Life of Margaret Fuller Ossoli " (1884), "Larger History of the United States " (1885), " The Monarch of Dreams " (translated into French and German) (1886). " Hints on Writing and Speech-making " (1887). "Women and Men," a volume of essays contributed to Harper's Basar (1888), " Travellers and Outlaws " (1888), " The Afternoon Land- scape," a volume of poems (1889), "Life of Francis Higginson " (1891), " The New World and the New Book " ( 1892). "Concerning .All of Us" (1892). He has also translated the " Com- plete Works of Epictetus " (1865), reprinted in two volumes (1892), and edited the Harvard Memorial Biographies," two volumes published in 1866, " Brief Biographies of European Statesmen," in four volumes (1875-77), and the history of Massachusetts Regiments in the Civil War, for the State. He has frequently appeared upon the lecture platform, and is one of the most popular of

public speakers. As an orator, he is specially effective. He belongs to many literary and other societies, is president of the American Free Re- ligious Association, of the Round Table Club of Boston, and has been president of the Harvard Phi Beta Kappa Society, and also of the Associated Chapters of Phi Beta Kappa. Colonel Higginson was first married in 1857 to Mary Elizabeth, a niece of William Ellery Channing. She was for many years an invalid, and died in Newport in 1877. He married second, in 1879, Mary Potter Thacher, daughter of Peter Thacher, Esq., and niece of the first wife of the poet Longfellow, with whom he published in 1893 a volume of poems, entitled " Such as They Are." They have one daughter : Margaret Waldo.

HUDSON, JOHN ELBRIDGE, of Boston, presi- dent of the American Bell Telephone Company. was born in Lynn, August 3, 1839, son of John and Elizabeth C. ( Hilliard) Hudson. He is a de- scendant on the paternal side of Thomas Hudson (of the family of Henry Hudson, the navigator), who came from England about 1630, and settled in the Massachusetts Bay Colony; and on the maternal side is from early New England families. His maternal great-grandfather was the Rev. Samuel Hilliard, a pioneer in Universalism, and a soldier of the Revolution, serving at Bunker Hill and at the battle of Bennington ; and his mother's maternal grandparents were the Rev. Dr. Hall, Orthodox minister of the town of Sutton for sixty years, and Elizabeth ( Prescott) Ilall, daughter of Dr. John and Rebecca (Bulkley) Prescott, of Concord. His early education was acquired in the Lynn public schools, and he fitted himself for college. Entering Harvard, he was graduated in the class of 1862. valedictorian, summa cum lande. As a student, he was especially proficient in Greek, the best Greek scholar in his class ; and before he received his degree he was appointed to a Greek tutorship in the college upon the recommendation of Professor William W. Goodwin. He held this tutorship for three years, and with such success that he was urged to continue and follow the profession of a classical scholar. But he was drawn more directly to the law, and accordingly entered the Harvard Law School. His studies there finished with his grad- uation in 1865, he further read in the Boston law office of Chandler, Shattuck, & Thayer, and on

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October 25. 1866. was duly admitted to the Suffolk bar. He continued with Chandler, Shat- tuck. & Thayer, acting as clerk of the firm and as an assistant in its legal work. largely devoted to corporation matters, till February, 1870, when. upon the withdrawal of Mr. Shattuck. he was ad- mitted to partnership, the firm name becoming Chandler, Thayer, & Hudson. Four years later the name was changed to Chandler, Ware, & Hud- son. Mr. Thayer withdrawing, having been made Royall Professor of the Harvard Law School, and Darwin F. Ware taking his place: and it so re- mained till 1878, when the firm was dissolved.

JOHN E. HUDSON.

Thereafter Mr. Hudson continued in general practice alone till 18So, when he became general counsel of the American Bell Telephone Com- pany, that year formed, and devoted himself ex- clusively to its interests. In the early stages of the development of the company he displayed exceptional administrative ability, and his advice was much relied on by the executive department. In 1885 he was appointed general manager of the company; in 1887 he was elected vice-presi- dent, while still holding the positions of manager and general counsel: the same year was made president of the American Telephone and Tele- graph Company for long distance service : and in

1889 he was elected president of the American Bell, from which time he has been at the head of its immense business. During his direction of affairs as manager and president, the operations of the company have been increased from about two hundred and fifty million exchange connec- tions in :885 toward seven hundred million in 1895 : and a notable triumph has been achieved in the development and perfection of the long- distance service, now extended to the great com- mercial centres of the country. The first "long line " was built from New York to Philadelphia, and was immediately extended from New York to Boston. The system was rapidly developed until a line between New York and Chicago was opened for business in October, 1893, the line being continued in the following winter to Boston, where it was formally opened on the 7th of Febru- ary, when Governor Russell talked from the Bos- ton office with officials in the Chicago office, over wires extending above twelve hundred miles. Further extensions in various directions immedi- ately followed : and in the report of the directors in 1894 it was announced that it was then possi- ble to talk from the Boston office north and east to Augusta, Me., north to Concord. N.H., and to Buffalo, N.Y., west to Chicago, and south to Washington, over a territory embracing more than one-half of the population of the United States. Mr. Hudson has contributed somewhat to the law reviews : and in 1879 he edited, jointly with George Fred Williams, the tenth volume of the United States Digest. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Antiquarian Society. British Association for the Advancement of Science. New England Historic and Genealogical Society. Colonial Soci- ety of Massachusetts, Bostonian Society. Ameri- can Institute of Electrical Engineers, Selden Soci- ety, the Bar Association of the City of Boston. the Virginia Historical Society, and also of the Boston Art. the St. Botolph. and the University clubs. He was married August 21, 1871. to Miss Eunice W. Healey, daughter of Wells and Eliza- beth ( Pickering) Healey. of Hampton Falls, N.H.

HUMPHREY, WILLIAM FRANCIS, of Boston, was born in Dorchester. July 28, 1839. son of Micah and ('elia (Marsh ) Humphrey. His father. a native of Cohasset, was a ship-master, sailing out of Boston, and traced his descent to John

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Humphrey, a deputy governor of Massachusetts Bay Company, and Susan, his wife, the daughter of the Earl of Lincoln. His mother belonged to the Marshs of Hingham. A happy childhood was spent in the old Humphrey mansion at Dor- chester, and he was educated in the Dorchester public schools. His preparation for college was terminated by the financial crisis of 1857, when he entered business life in the employment of the Boston & Sandwich Glass Company. After six months, his health failing, he made a winter voyage on one of his father's ships to the West Indies ; and, returning the following spring,

W. F. HUMPHREY.

he entered the office of A. A. Fraser & Co. on State Street. After a few months a return of ill- health necessitated another voyage to the West Indies. Thriving at sea, he determined to follow it as an occupation. Rising rapidly in rank, he became captain of the ship " Dolphin " in 1861. One of his earliest voyages was to Christinestadt, in Northern Russia, with the first cargo of cotton that ever entered that port. After making several voyages to Europe and South America, Captain Humphrey purchased in 1865 an interest in the ship " Horatio Harris " (then building in Med- ford), in connection with James Sturgis and James (. Curtis, the builder ; and on her completion he

took command, sailing first to San Francisco, and thence to Bolivia for a cargo of guano, which he discharged in Edinburgh, from which latter port he returned home with restored health, and retired from the seas. His next venture was in manufacturing, in Lewiston, Me., in which he continued for about two years. In 1872 he re- turned to Boston, and engaged in the shipping business as partner of Samuel Weltch, under the firm name of Weltch, Humphrey, & Co .. which he followed successfully until 1887, when he became treasurer of the Boston Tow-boat Company, the position he now holds. He is a director of the Philadelphia Steamship Company and of the Boston & Bangor Steamship Company. He is a member of the Boston Marine Society (which was chartered in 1742), and served as its president for several years. While in Edinburgh, he became a Freemason, and was entered under the Scottish rites. In politics he has occupied the independent position of voting for the best man and purest government, regardless of party preju- dice. Mr. Humphrey was married in 1868 to Mary Lilley Campbell, daughter of Benjamin F. Campbell, who died in 1888, leaving two children, Celia Campbell (born 1872) and Campbell Humph- rey (born in 1879). In October, 1892, he married Ellen Lizette Fowler, widow of M. Field Fowler, and daughter of John Gilbert, who traces her de- scent back to Sir Humphrey Gilbert, the past, sin- gularly enough, combining the two family names. Mr. Humphrey has been a resident of Brookline for the last fifteen years, and is much interested in the growth and development of that beautiful suburb.

HUNT, HENRY WARREN, of Dorchester ( Bos- ton), real estate operator, is a native of Dorchester, born December 23, 1844, son of Charles and Lou- isa Minot (Wilson) Hunt. He is of the early New England Minot and Billings families, and lives on an estate that has been in his family since 1631. Ancestors of his were in every war that has been fought since the early settlement of the country ; and among numerous interesting histor- ical treasures which he possesses are the weapons and other articles used by those of his family who were in the Revolution, with the continental money with which they were paid for their ser- vice. His father was a man of prominence in Dor- chester town affairs, serving at different times as selectman, postmaster, engineer of the fire depart-

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ment, and in other local offices. Henry W. was educated in the Dorchester schools, graduating about the year 1859. Subsequently, desiring to enter the navy, he studied at the Nautical School in Boston, and graduated in 1862, at the head of his class. When the Civil War broke out, he was too young for a commission, although success- fully passing examination ; and, accordingly, he volunteered, and served on land and sea. He participated in a number of spirited naval and land operations, and on one occasion received honorary mention from General Foster for daring work in helping to pick up torpedoes. He also received a complimentary letter from Admiral Flusser. Meanwhile his father had established stores in various parts of the interior of the South ; and after the close of the war he went there to manage a number of these enterprises. penetrating into some of the roughest sections of the Southern country. then in an unsettled and turbulent condition. After remaining South about two years, he returned to Massachusetts, and became interested in large business enterprises in company with prominent men of affairs, among them General Benjamin F. Butler, in which he was engaged for the next twenty years. In 1875-76. when plans were forming for the Cen- tennial Exhibition at Philadelphia, he was selected by the Massachusetts State Commissioners to ar- range an exhibit representing the great marine in- terests of the State,- a task for which he was ex- ceptionally qualified, having an intimate acquaint- ance with their various features. As a result of his efforts, a most notable and unique collection was brought together, including models of the ocean and river craft used for purposes of com- merce, the fisheries, war, and pleasure, from the settlement of the colonies to modern times,- models of a single scull skiff to a ship of the line, of merchant vessels of a century ago and the swift clipper ships of the forties and fifties, of historic war - ships, the old - style frigates, the "Constitution," the "Ohio." with an Ericsson monitor and the "Kearsarge," of whaling ships and ancient and modern fishing vessels, of the first American steamer that ever weathered the passage of Cape Horn, of apparatus for life-sav- ing, of a great variety of beautiful yachts, - the whole constituting the most complete and exten- sive marine exhibit ever made at an international exhibition. Captain Hunt had charge of the ex- hibit at Philadelphia : and he also took a leading

part in the arrangement for the international re- gatta, introducing among other striking features a whale-boat race between crews composed of vet- eran New Bedford whalers. While in Philadelphia, he became especially acquainted with the Russian and Brazilian commissioners; and at the close of the exhibition, during which he made himself use- ful to them in various ways, he accompanied the Russians on a tour through the principal cities of the country. Subsequently the Emperor Dom Pedro offered him a position in the Brazilian navy, and shortly after he received a similar offer from the Russian government. Accepting the lat-

HENRY W. HUNT.

ter, he went to Russia toward the close of 1876 : and in recognition of the civilities he had shown the Russian commissioners in America, and ser- vices rendered by him, was decorated there by the czar with a gold medal representing the order of Saint Stanislaus. He remained in Russia several months, travelling extensively in the country, and then returned to the United States in May, 1878, as one of two special agents of the Russian gov- ernment accredited with powers to assist in exam- ining and selecting fast-sailing steam-craft to be fitted as cruisers for the Russian service, in antici- pation of war with England, at that time believed to be imminent. Their advent and proceedings

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made a great commotion in American newspaper offices, and were the occasion of many sensational reports. Captain Hunt's interest in marine mat- ters has been constant ; and this has been notably displayed in his work in behalf of the National Museum at Washington, toward the upbuilding of which he has been a valued contributor. Among other letters on the subject he has received the following from Professor Spencer Baird of the Smithsonian Institution : -

UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM, WASHINGTON, January 22, 1885. Captain 11. W. HUNT, Neponset, Mass. :

Sir,- I desire to call your attention to the extent and importance of the section of naval architecture in the United States National Museum. In this department there has already been arranged a large collection of builders' models and rigged models of American and foreign vessels. especially of those used in the fisheries of the world. At the time of the Centennial Exhibition I was much inter- ested in the collection gathered and displayed under your direction in the Massachusetts section. I should be very glad to have your co-operation in our efforts to bring to- gether a complete and exhaustive display of materials relat- ing to this department, whether obtained in the United States or in foreign countries. Whatever you may secure for us will be fully credited to your agency on the records of the United States National Museum.

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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 130

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