Men of progress one thousand biographical sketches and portraits of leaders in business and professional life in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Part 131

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 131

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Very respectfully yours, S. F. BAIRD, Director United States National Museum.

SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, WASHINGTON, July 20, 1882.

Dear Sir,- Being aware of your experience and interest in all matters connected with nautical affairs, and especially with the subject of the ocean fisheries, I beg that during your forthcoming visit to Europe you will continue to render, as in the past, your valued services to the National Museum by securing such objects for display therein as you may collect from time to time. The specimens already contributed by you are of very great importance, and will occupy a conspicuous place in the National Museum. Any models of boats, vessels, apparatus illustrative of improve- ments in the operations of the fisheries, devices for capt- uring and utilizing the fish, etc.,- in short, all models whose subjects bear in the smallest degree upon the fishery in- dustry will be very highly valued.

Very respectfully yours, SPENCER BAIRD,

Captain II. W. Hluxr, United States Fish Commissioner. Neponset, Mass.

In 1885, when again abroad, he bore a letter from William E. Chandler, then Secretary of the Navy, under date of February 9, as follows : -

Captain HENRY W. HUNT:

Sir,- During your proposed visit to Europe this Depart- ment will be glad to receive from you any information which you may obtain concerning ships, and all articles

connected with their construction and use, also to receive your observations thereon. At the time of the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia, in 1876, your nautical exhibit in the Massachusetts section was highly commended ; and further researches and efforts of yours in the same direction cannot fail to be of value. Wishing you all possible suc- cess in your mission, I am,

Very respectfully, WILLIAM E. C'HANDLER, Secretary of the Navy.

In later years Captain Hunt has been engaged in large real estate operations. During the period between 1890 and 1895 his conveyances included nearly a hundred valuable pieces of property in Norfolk County alone. These were mainly to large investors and holders of trust funds. In 1895, having acquired the interests of various owners of a tract of land in Squantum, with a deep water front of two and a half miles and an area of over seven hundred and seventy acres, he carried through a deal with the New York, New Haven, & Hartford Railroad Company by which this tract becomes a freight terminal for the sys- tem. The same year he began the development of Harbor Bluffs, Hyannis, one of the largest and most beautiful tracts of shore property on the south shore of Cape Cod. Captain Hunt is an experienced yachtsman, having been familiar with yachts from boyhood, and has long been promi- nently connected with local yacht clubs. He now owns the fast schooner yacht " Breeze." He is a member of the Massachusetts Yacht Club, vice- president of the Hyannis Yacht Club, member of the Forty-fourth Massachusetts Regiment Associa- tion, of the Quincy Historical Society, of the Barn- stable County Agricultural Society, and of the Minot Club. In politics he is a Democrat. He is unmarried.

HYDE, WILLIAM ANDREW, of Boston and Woburn, first assistant appraiser of the port of Boston, was born in Boston, August 6, 1857, son of James and Hannah (Manning) Hyde. His father's ancestors were of Hertford, England, and in the time of Cromwell went to Baltimore, Ire- land, to escape persecution, later coming to this country with Lord Baltimore. His mother's went from London to Baltimore, Ireland, for the same reason, with the Cardigans ; and the two families intermarried there. Both families were devout Catholics, and their descendants have always held fast to that faith. Mr. Hyde was educated in the Boston public schools and at Columbia St.

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MEN OF PROGRESS.

Mary's, graduating in 1878. Although a student. his tastes led him to a mercantile career. He began in the dry-goods commission business

WM. A. HYDE.

with Parker, Wilder. & Co., where he remained for some time. Subsequently he engaged in electrical enterprises, and in 1890-91 was con- nected with the Boston Electric Light Company. On July 7, 1894. he was made superintendent of United States Bonded Warehouses in Boston, and on February 15, 1895, was appointed by President Cleveland to his present position of first assistant appraiser of the port of Boston. Mr. Hyde is a Democrat in national and State politics, and has been secretary of the executive committee of the Young Men's Democratic ('lub of Massachusetts, having previously held the posi- tion of executive clerk of the committee ( 1892 93). He is president of the Young Men's Auxili- ary, Archdiocese of Boston, a member of the Catholic Union of Boston, of the American His- torical Society, the Charitable Irish Society of Boston, and secretary of Baldwin Council, Royal Arcanum. He is not a club or society man, but spends his leisure time in his library with his books. He is a regular writer for several of the leading Catholic newspapers and magazines. He resides in Woburn. Mr. Hyde is unmarried.

JENNEY, WILLIAM THATCHER, of Boston, mer- chant, was born in Boston, September 15, 1867, son of Francis H. and Martha C. (Thatcher) Jenney. He is descended from early settlers in New England. His great-grandfather was com- mander of several vessels at different times during the Revolution ; and his grandfather and father were merchants closely identified in their day with the business interests of Boston. He was edu- cated in Boston private schools, by tutors, and at boarding-school. Leaving school at the age of seventeen, he travelled round the world, spending a year through the South Sea Islands, Southern Asia, and Australia. Upon his return, at the age of twenty, he entered the employ of C. M. Clapp & Co., rubber goods, and remained there until June. 1892. when he started in business for him- self as a partner in the Enterprise Rubber Com- pany. Beginning in a small way, on Essex Street, by good management his business steadily in- creased ; and he now has large warehouses on Congress Street and a branch house in New York City. Mr. Jenney is an ardent Democrat in poli- ties, and is active in party management, being a

WM. T. JENNEY.

member of the executive committee of the State Democratic Committee. to which organization he has been three times elected : and also a member

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MEN OF PROGRESS.

of the executive committee of the Young Men's Democratic Club of Massachusetts. He is a member of the Algonquin, Exchange, and several dining clubs of Boston, and the Reform Club of New York. He was married, June 22. 1892, to Miss Mary G. Tufts, of Medford.

JORDAN, EBEN DYER, of Boston, merchant, founder of the great dry-goods house of Jordan, Marsh, & Co., was born in Danville, Cumberland County, Me., October 13, 1822; died in Boston, November 15, 1895. His father was Benjamin Jordan, also a native of Danville, born in 1788, a farmer, and his mother Lydia (Wright) Jordan, both of sturdy New England stock. He was in the seventh generation from the Rev. Robert Jor- dan, who came from England to this country about the year 1640, and for a long period held a leading position among the settlers in the region adjacent to Cape Elizabeth. having been, as the early history of the district now Maine shows, a man able successfully to conduct large enterprises and to administer important trusts in a new com- munity. Eben D. was one of a large family of children early left fatherless ; and, his mother being unable to maintain them all on the pittance left by his father, the lad was placed with a neighbor- ing farmer's family. There he lived, working in- dustriously on the farm, and attending the dis- trict school through the brief summer and winter terms, till he had nearly reached the age of four- teen, when he resolved to leave the country for the broader field of the city. Starting with his small savings in his pocket, he made his way to Portland, and thence reached Boston by boat with few possessions and little cash, but with sound health, strong muscles, good habits, ambition, and a de- termination to get on. He was willing to turn his hand to anything that he could do; and the first opportunity offering being work on a farm at Mit. Pleasant, Roxbury, he promptly embraced it, con- fident that a more promising opening would ap- pear in time. He remained on the Roxbury farm, receiving as wages four dollars a month and board, nearly two years ; and then the chance for which he had been looking came in a place in a dry- goods store in Boston on Hanover Street, at that time kept by William P. Tenney & Co. After two years' experience there, getting a fair knowl- edge of the small retail business, he went into another store in the same line of trade, kept by a

Mr. Pratt, on a salary of two hundred and seventy- five dollars a year. At the age of nineteen his energy, assiduity, and quick business sense at- tracted the attention of Joshua Stetson, then a leading Boston dry-goods merchant ; and through the latter's aid he was enabled to engage in business on his own account in a little store on the corner of Hanover and Mechanic Streets. His rent here was at the rate of two hundred dollars a year, and the first year his receipts reached $8,ooo. At that time, before the advent of the railroad, steamers from Maine and the Provinces arrived early in the morning: and, in

EBEN D. JORDAN.

order to capture the trade of their passengers, the young merchant had his store open at four o'clock, and did a thriving business before breakfast. He was enterprising also in other ways, and the store became soon one of the most popular on the street. At the end of two years he repaid Mr. Stetson, and at the end of four years he had increased his annual sales from $8, ooo the first year to $100,000. When he reached the age of twenty-five, being desirous of obtaining a practical knowledge of methods of buying goods in larger markets, and of the broader lines of trade, he sold out his store, and took a position in the widely known and suc- cessful house of James M. Beebe & Co. By hard

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MEN OF PROGRESS.

work, application, and diligent study, he acquired within two years' time a thorough familiarity with the principles of the dry-goods business on a large scale, and of the system which Mr. Beebe had been for a quarter of a century perfecting ; and, thus equipped, he at once entered upon a new career as a Boston merchant. In 1851 he formed a partnership with Benjamin L. Marsh, under the firm name of Jordan, Marsh. & Co., and began the upbuilding of the great establishment through which his name has for many years been widely known. The new house began business in a store on Milk Street, near Pearl Street, as whole- sale dry-goods jobbers. with a reputation for ability. energy, and integrity ; and it was not long before it had built up a permanent and profitable trade. Mr. Jordan introduced the cash system into the jobbing business, instituted other reforms, and improved the methods of trade for the benefit of customers. In order to meet the competition of the importers in the trade who had large credit abroad, he also early went to Europe, and personally established correspondents in Eng- land and elsewhere, and obtained all the credit desired. The house steadily progressed and in- creased its resources, within a few years enlarging its salesrooms and manufacturing departments, and, through its spirit of enterprise constantly maintained, increased its profits and strength- ened its name. In 1857, the "panic year," which the firm successfully weathered, it was established on Pearl Street; and in 1861 it bought the retail store on Washington Street, at the corner of Avon Street, then occupying the ground floor of the building, extending to C'entral Court (now built over in the extension of the es- tablishment). and added the retail to the whole- sale business : in 1863 it moved its wholesale department to the Washington Street building. which it entirely occupied ; in subsequent years additional quarters were taken: and in 1884 thirteen thousand feet of store space was added to its already great retail establishment. making it the largest dry-goods store in this country, and one of the three largest in the world. During his entire career as a Boston merchant Mr. Jordan was one of the most public-spirited of citizens, ready to lead and advance every movement which commended itself to his judgment for the welfare of the city. In the Civil War period he was among the foremost in promoting patriotism and in furnishing substantial aid to the government.

When the first call for troops came, he informed his employees that the firm would pay the cost of outfits of all who should enlist, continue their salaries during their terms of enlistment, and re- tain their situations for them ; and forty-five men enlisted under these terms. He also took a deep interest in the work of the Sanitary Commission, and contributed liberally to its funds. At the time of the Chicago fire of 1872 he was a member of the Boston relief committee, and had an active part in despatching the relief trains ; and after the great Boston fire of the same year he made a liberal contribution of $10,000 for the aid espe- cially of the injured firemen. He was a generous patron and supporter of the Great l'eace Jubilees of 1869 and 1872, and was a ready contributor to numerous other public undertakings. During the latter part of his life he was an extensive traveller, and made frequent trips across the Atlantic. In the conduct of his immense business he was alert and thorough to the close of his life. He did much for the comfort and well-being of his upward of three thousand employees, and kindly relations always existed between them. In 1886 he established a free evening school for the benefit of such of his employees as chose to avail themselves of this privilege to broaden their edu- cation; and two years before he invited twenty- five of them to accompany him on a seven weeks trip to England and France, meeting the entire expense himself. In politics he was a Democrat : but he was not an active party man, and stead- fastly refused to take public place. Mr. Jordan was married in Boston, January 13. 1847, to Miss Julia M. Clark, daughter of James Clark. of Bos- ton. They had five children : Walter (deceased), James Clark, Julia Maria (now Mrs. Dumaresq), Eben Dyer. Jr. (the present head of the house of Jordan. Marsh, & Co.), and Alice Jordan (now Mrs. Arthur N. Foster, residing in England).

KELLY. GEORGE REED, of Boston, merchant. was born in Haverhill. June 30, 1859, son of Ezra and Samantha ( Reed) Kelly. He is of English ancestry, and descends on both sides from early settlers in New England. On the pa- ternal side he is a lineal descendant of John Kel- leigh, as the name was first spelled, who came from Newbury, England, in 1635, and settled in the new Newbury of Massachusetts, and whose descendants long lived there. later generations

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MEN OF PROGRESS.

becoming identified with Haverhill. On the ma- ternal side he traces back to Brianus de Rede, in the year 1139, of Morpeth on Weneback River. Kent. England, whose son William was Bishop of Chichester. And among later ancestors were John Reed, mayor of Norwich in 1388; William Reed, professor of divinity; Bartholomew Reed, mayor of London in 1502: Robert Lord, chief justice of the King's Bench. His first ancestor on the maternal side in New England was Edras Reed, settled in Boston, who was granted land in Muddy River, now Brookline, in 1635, and in 1655 moved to Chelmsford, which was the home

GEO. R. KELLY.

of three generations of his descendants. Colonel William Reed, fourth from Edras. owned Reed's

Ferry at Litchfield, N. H., when that was a fron- tier town. The maternal great-great-grandfather of Mr. Kelly's mother was John Wallace, of Scotch descent, who came from Colivane, County of Antrim, north of Ireland, in 1719 to London- derry, N.H., and there married in 1721 Annis

Barnet, they being the first couple married in

Londonderry: and her maternal grandfather,

lutionary War at the age of seventeen. George Judge James Wallace, was enrolled in the Revo-

R. Kelly received his earliest education in a pri- vate school kept by Miss Mehitable Damon, of

Haverhill, well known in its day, and thence en- tered the public High School. Later he spent a year at the Vermont Episcopal Institute, a son of Bishop Hopkins of Vermont being head mas- ter, and then returned to the Haverhill High School, where he completed his preparation for college. At the age of seventeen he entered Harvard, and was graduated in 18So, taking his degree of A. B. cum laude June 30, his twenty-first birthday. After leaving college, he returned to Haverhill. and engaged in the manufacture of shoes until 1883, when he came to Boston, and took the position of private secretary to the Hon. Robert Treat Paine. He continued in that ca- pacity through the year in which Mr. Paine served in the Legislature, and then in December, 1885, bought an equal interest in the firm of Wise, Rowan, & Co., importers of window glass, the firm mame being changed to Wise, Rowan, & Kelly. On the first of January, 1887, Mr. Wise retired, and the business was continued by the remaining partners till December, 1889, when Mr. Rowan retired, and Mr. Kelly took the busi- ness alone; and he has continued it since with- out a partner, under the firm name of George R.

Kelly & Co. He is the pioneer in handling American window glass to any large extent in the New England States. In November, 1892, he arranged for the exclusive sale in New England of the product of the Chambers Glass Company of New Kensington, Penna., the largest and most had almost a monopoly of this market, the domes- since that time, up to which the foreign product modern factory of its kind in the world; and

tie article has been steadily pushing out the for- ually lessening each year ; and other importers, from Belgium are still large, the amount is grad- eign. While his importations of window glass both in Boston and New York, are now obliged time; and with the exception of such minor of- Kelly's business life has absorbed nearly all his to buy and sell the American product. Mr.

fices as member of the School Committee of Ha-

verhill in 1882, and delegate to the Democratic

gubernatorial conventions in 1892 and 1893, he

has held no public place. He is a member of the

cratic Club of Massachusetts, of the University Free Trade League, of the Young Men's Demo-

of the Pi Eta Society of Harvard College, of which Club, of the Essex County Club, Manchester, and

he was secretary when in college. He was married January 19, 1882, to Miss Lillian Bassett Ricker,

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MEN OF PROGRESS.

eldest daughter of Benjamin and Caroline ( Fletcher) Ricker, of Brighton.

KNEISEL, FRANZ, of Boston, violinist, concert- master of the Symphony Orchestra, and leader of the Kneisel Quartette, is a native of Roumania, born in Bucharest, January 26, 1865, son of Mar- tin and Victoria Kneisel. His parents were both German. He was educated in Bucharest, and received his first lessons on the violin, when a child, from his father, who was himself an excel- lent musician. Later he entered the Conservatory at Bucharest, and graduated with a brilliant record in 1880. Then he became a pupil of Grin at the Vienna Conservatory, where he passed through the prescribed two years' course in one year, gain- ing the first prize, and at the end of the second year won the first prize for the third year's course, with a silver medal awarded by unanimous consent of the examiners, and an extra diploma,- a rare distinction. His talent was so marked throughout his term there that at one of the periodical exam- inations, where all the students have to play, Court Conductor Hellmesberger, also the director of the Conservatory, observed that there was no need of his playing for examination, for all knew what he could do, but, if he would favor them with a selection, they would be delighted to listen. And after his performance on this occasion Nico- Jaus Dumba, a wealthy music-lover of Vienna, presented him with a valuable violin. a make of the Italian master Grancino, which he used until some years ago, when he purchased a beautiful Guarnerius. In 1894, however, he was fortu- nate enough to come into possession of the famous Stradivarius of his teacher Grün, of Vienna, which wonderful instrument he is now using exclusively. Upon his graduation from the Vienna Conservatory Mr. Kneisel made his pub- lic début November 14, 1882, in a concert of his own, and sprang at once into public favor. Offered the position of solo violinist in the or- chestra of the Imperial Court Theatre, he served there for a year. During that time he also played at the famous Vienna Philharmonic Concerts, on one occasion performing the difficult concerto of Joachim with such success that the society sent him a letter of special commendation, with thanks for his effort. The next year he was concert- master and solo violinist of the Bilse Orchestra, and travelled with that well-known organization in

various parts of Germany and Holland, appearing in Berlin, Munich, Dresden, Stuttgart, Amster- dam, and other musical centres, and receiving warm praise from the leading musical critics. In the autumn of 1885 he sailed for America, having accepted the place of first violin and concert- master in the Boston Symphony Orchestra, at that time under the leadership of Wilhelm Gericke. Although then unknown to the Boston musical public, and unheralded, his performance of Beet- hoven's concerto on his first appearance in the Symphony Orchestra brought him instantly to the front ; and he has since been an established favor-

FRANZ KNEISEL. .

ite, with steadily widening fame. During the lat- ter part of the term of Mr. Nikisch as conductor he led the orchestra in several of its concerts in Western cities, of which the most important were the Symphony concerts given in the Music Hall of the World's Fair, Chicago, winning upon every oc- casion the applause of audiences and the approval of critics. The Kneisel Quartette, which has become famous throughout the country as a musi- cal organization of great excellence and of the highest standard. was formed by him very soon after the beginning of his engagement with the Symphony Orchestra ; and its first concert was given at Chickering Hall in the month of Novem-

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MEN OF PROGRESS.

ber, 1885. During the ten years since it has given nearly seventy concerts in Boston, appeared many times in all the leading cities of the country. and frequently at educational institutions, -in Cambridge, Wellesley, New Haven, Princeton, Oberlin, Cincinnati. and elsewhere,- receiving the unanimous approval of the critics in every place visited. During this period its membership has changed but little, Mr. Kneisel remaining con- tinuously at the head as leader and first violin ; Emanuel Fiedler playing second violin the first two years, when he was succeeded by Otto Roth ; Fritz Giese, violoncellist the first four years, Anton Hek- king the next three years, and Alwin Schroeder since; and Louis Svecenski, viola, from the be- ginning. Mr. Kneisel has performed in public for the first time in this country the following works for the violin : concertos by Brahms and Gold- mark, while among other works which he has played in all the musical centres of this country are concertos by Spohr, Joachim, Mendelssohn, Paganini, and Viotti. Mr. Kneisel is a member of the Harvard Musical Association, the St. Botolph Club of Boston, and honorary member of the So- cial Club of Artists' . Schlaraffia " of Vienna and the Detroit Society of professional musicians. He was married to Miss Marianne Thoma, and has two children : Robert and Victoria Kneisel.

LAWRENCE, GENERAL SAMUEL CROCKER, of Medford, manufacturer, first mayor of the city of Medford, was born in Medford, November 22. 1832, son of Daniel and Elizabeth (Crocker) Law- rence. His first ancestor in America was John Lawrence, who came from England, and settled in Watertown in 1635. He obtained his early edu- cation in the public schools and at Lawrence Academy, Groton, and, entering Harvard, was graduated with honors in the class of 1855. Soon after leaving college, he went to Chicago, and there engaged in the banking business, as a partner in the firm of Bigelow & Lawrence. This business was successful and to his liking: but at the end of two years, at the earnest request of his father, he returned to Medford, and became a partner in the latter's business, under the firm name of Daniel Lawrence & Sons, distillers. Here he has since remained, and for many years has been the sole proprietor of the works. He has also been successfully engaged in various other interests, especially in railroad matters and

the management of important trusts. In 1875 when the old Eastern Railroad was on the verge of bankruptcy, he was elected president of the company, and through his able management the property was kept intact; matters between the creditors and stockholders were so adjusted by means of an enabling act obtained from the Legis- lature that bankruptcy was avoided, and the valu- able leaseholds of the corporation were saved from disruption. General Lawrence entered the State militia when a young man, and, commis- sioned lieutenant in 1855, was promoted through the various grades to that of colonel of the Fifth

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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 131

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