Men of progress one thousand biographical sketches and portraits of leaders in business and professional life in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Part 134

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 134

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RICHTER, GEORGE HENRY, of Boston, mer- chant and manufacturer, is a native of New York State, born in Watertown, March 23, 1860, son of

Charles Christian and Margaret (Wourm) Richter. His parents were born in Germany, but came to this country before their marriage. They were

GEO. H. RICHTER.

married in Utica, N.Y., both having relatives there, and settled in Watertown, where Mr. Rich- ter, Sr., was some time employed as a mechanical expert, having a thorough knowledge of machinery and fine tool work. Subsequently, in 1867, he moved his family to Lowville, N.Y., and engaged there for himself, forming a partnership with a friend, in the manufacture of machinery. A few years later he established a hardware business. George Henry was the third youngest of six chil- dren, three of whom are living. He was educated in the public schools, at the Lowville Academy, the Cortland (N. Y.) Normal School, and through private instruction in several branches of study in which he was especially interested. He began his business career in his father's hardware store. After spending some time there, during which period he became much interested in the local and district work of the Young Men's Christian Association, he received a call through the State committee to the general secretaryship of the Young Men's Christian Association at Hudson City, N.Y. This call he accepted, after further preparation for the work by special studies at

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Newburg. N.Y. and entered upon his duties in September, 1881. A year later a call was ex- tended to him from the St. Paul (Minn.) Young Men's Christian Association to become its gen- eral secretary, which position, after going to St. Paul to look over the field, he accepted condition- ally. Upon his return to Hudson, however, he was persuaded of his duty to remain there, and consequently declined the St. Paul offer. In 1883 he received and accepted a call to the as- sistant State secretaryship for New York State, with headquarters in New York City. In 1884 he resigned this position to devote some time to reading and study. Having accomplished his ob- ject, he re-engaged in business, becoming con- nected with the Schlicht & Field Company in Rochester, N.Y., in the success of which firm's successors he is still interested as a customer and as their New England representative, although now in business for himself. While in the employ of this company, he went to Canada to introduce its office devices into the government departments at Ottawa and into the offices of the larger commercial houses. After two years of this work a C'ana- dian stock company was organized in Toronto, of which he became vice-president. In 1886 he went to London, England, in charge of the exhibit of his company and of one other, during the Colonial Exhibition. He remained in London for the greater part of a year, and while there assisted in forming a successful English stock company, in which he became a stockholder. Returning to America, in April, 1887, he came to Boston, and began his present business, under the firm name of George H. Richter & Co. (the "Co." being nominal), as New England representative of the Schlicht & Field Company, as stated above, and dealer in other office devices, with office at No. 171 Devonshire Street. His business steadily increased until now he occupies capacious quar- ters at No. 92 Franklin Street, with one of the most complete lines of modern office devices and fur- niture to be found in New England or perhaps in the United States. Since beginning business in Boston, Mr. Richter, being fertile in mechanical ideas, and having studied the needs in commercial and public offices, has invented several useful and practical office devices, for some of which patents have been granted and others are applied for. His aim is to produce the most perfect line of labor- saving office systems in the world. and accord- ingly has connected with his business a paper

working factory, a printing-office, a machine-shop. and a wood-working shop of his own, so that models, patterns, tools, and product can be made without depending on outside work. Mr. Richter has also been interested in a number of real estate matters. He held for a time more than a half in- terest in the fine development in the city of Spring- field, known as Forest Park Heights, and was the first president of the Forest Park Heights Com- pany. He is a member of the Boston Art Club, the Shakespeare Club, the Appalachian Moun- tain Club, the Newton Boat Club, the Congre- gational Club, and of several other kindred or- ganizations. He is treasurer of the Boston Train- ing School of Music, a director of the New England Evangelistic Association, vice-president of the American Invalid Aid Society, and is in- terested in various other philanthropic and public enterprises. Mr. Richter is unmarried.

ROSNOSKY, ISAAC. of Boston, is a native of Prussia, born in Wollsein, November 6, 1846, son of Henry and Selda (Phillips) Rosnosky. He at-

ISAAC ROSNOSKY.

tended the public schools of Wollsein until he was eleven years of age, when he was taken out to learn the tailoring trade. He came to America in

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1861. and established his home in Boston. In 1863 he entered the employ of Lewis H. Clark, manufacturer of clothing, and four years later be- came a partner in the business. On the first of July, 1893, he retired with a competence. He has been for many years prominent in municipal and State politics, having served seven terms in the Boston Common Council and five terms in the State Legislature. His service as a coun- cilman covered the years 1878-79-81-84-85- 89-90 ; and as a representative the years 1880- 91-92-93-94. In the Common Council he was chairman of the committee on improved sewerage in 1879, which built that part of the great sewer which passes under South Bay; and during his seven terms he served on nearly all the important committees in the city government. In 1881 he introduced an order to take water from Lake Win- nipiseogee, N.H., to increase the Boston water supply, at a cost, according to engineer's estimate, of $50,000,000. In the Legislature he served on the committees on finance, railroad, cities and towns, health, and woman suffrage. In 1891 he was successful in getting passed a bill contrib- uting $10,000 to the Carney Hospital, Boston ; and the same session he introduced a bill to annex Cambridge to Boston, by which the agita- tion of the project of "Greater Boston " was re- vived. In 1892 he introduced a bill to establish a commission to examine into the water supply of Boston, which was referred to the State Board of Health : and in 1893 the board recommended such a commission. In 1893 he secured a change in the statute legalizing all Jewish mar- riages and authorizing all Jewish rabbis to marry, and also the enactment providing that Jewish divorces shall not be legal unless passed on by the courts. Mr. Rosnosky has always been a stanch Democrat, and has taken active part in party work. He has attended as a delegate two national Democratic conventions, -- the first, that held in Cincinnati in 1880, which nominated Han- cock, and the second, that of 1888 at St. Louis, at which Grover Cleveland was nominated. He has been for twenty-one years president of the largest Jewish temple in New England ; a director of the Hebrew Benevolent Society of Boston for four- teen years; and has been president of District No. 1 of the Independent Order Benai Berith, the largest Jewish organization in the world, covering New York and the New England States. He is a member also of the Free Sons of Israel, and of

Mt. Olivet Lodge, Freemasons. Mr. Rosnosky was married November 7. 1869. to Miss Henri- etta Vardono. They have had six children : Sadie (now Mrs. A. K. Cohen). Lillie. Walter, Morris, Ray, and Eva Rosnosky.

ROWE. GEORGE HOWARD MALCOLM, M.D., of Boston, superintendent of the Boston City Hos- pital, was born in Lowell, February 1, 1841, son of Jonathan Philbrick and Maria Louise ( Morri- son ) Rowe. His paternal ancestry runs back to Richard Rowe, a London merchant, who in 1638

G. H. M. ROWE.

came to Boston with grants of land bestowed by Sir Ferdinando Gorges, governor of the colony. His mother inherited the Scotch blood of the exiles from the siege of Londonderry, who settled in New Hampshire ; and the patriotism of a later generation stood at Bunker Hill and Bennington. During his boyhood at Rollinsford, N.H., he studied at the time-honored academy at South Berwick, Me. He fitted for college at Phillips (Exeter) Academy, and was graduated at Dart- mouth College in 1864; in 1867 he was given the degree of A.M. Beginning to study medicine under the distinguished psychologist, Dr. John S. Butler, of Hartford, Conn., he subsequently took

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the full course at the Harvard Medical College, and was graduated in 1868. Philanthropic and psychological interests led him, while a medical student, to become superintendent of the Massa- chusetts School for the Feeble-minded, then es- tablished by the humanitarian zeal of Dr. Samuel G. Howe. From the position of assistant super- intendent in the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane at Philadelphia he was called in 1870 to the same office at the Boston Lunatic Hospital, where he remained until elected in 1879 to his present position of superintendent and resident physician at the Boston City Hospital. His term of service there covers a longer period than that of any other medical superintendent of a general hospital in the United States, and he is a recog- nized authority on hospital management. . \ sci- entific interest in medical advancement, a saga- cions forecast of municipal needs, and a liberal policy have made his continued administration a factor in developing that institution into one oe- cupying a foremost place in size, scopc, and com- pleteness of equipment. He has also been deeply interested in raising the training school for nurses to a high standard. He is a close student of san- itation and the relations of public health, is spe- cially conversant with hospital construction, and has contributed to the literature of these subjects. He is a member of the Massachusetts Medical Society, of the American Medico-Psychological Association, the Boston Medico-Psychological So- ciety, the Boston Society for Medical Improve- ment, of many philanthropic organizations, and of the St. Botolph and University clubs. He is unmarried.

RUNKLE, JOHN DANIEL, of Boston, Walker Professor of Mathematics in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was born in the town of Root, Montgomery County, N. Y., October 11. 1822. His father was Daniel Runkle, whose an- cestors came from Germany, and settled in New York in the early part of the last century. His mother was Sarah Gordon, of Scotch descent. John Daniel was the eldest of six sons ; and during the early years of his life he attended the district school, and, when old enough, shared with his father the work on the home farm in summers. At the age of sixteen he attended for three months, in a neighboring village, a select school, in which he began the study of algebra and geometry. He had early formed the resolution to

obtain a college education, but circumstances de- layed for some years the execution of this purpose. In the mean time he studied for short periods in the academies at Canajoharic, Ames, and Cort- land, N.Y., taught in district schools and in the academy at Onondaga Valley, N.Y., and worked at intervals on the home farm. Keeping his early purpose in mind, he had prepared for ad- mission to college, had continued the prescribed studies, and in particular had completed all the mathematics of the usual college course : but it was not until 1848 that he saw his way clear to take the next step. By the advice of Professor

JOHN D. RUNKLE.

Benjamin Peirce, he came to Cambridge, and en- tered the Lawrence Scientific School, which had been established in the preceding year. His work there was mainly in the departments of mathematics and astronomy. He was graduated in I851 with the degree of S. B., and at the same time the honorary degree of A.M. was given him by the university. In 1868 he received the de- grec of Ph. D. from Hamilton College, New York, and in 1871 that of LL. I). from Wesleyan Univer- sity, Connecticut. In the fall of 1849 he was ap- pointed assistant upon the American Ephemeris and Nautical Almanac, which had just been established by the United States government, and continued

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to hold that office for thirty-five years, until his resignation in 1884. In 1856 he devised and com- puted " New Tables for determining the Values of the Coefficients in the Perturbative Function of Planetary Motion," which was published by the Smithsonian Institution. In 1858 he originated the Mathematical Monthly, a journal devoted to the interests of teachers and students of mathematics, and edited it through three volumes, when the outbreak of the Civil War necessitated its discon- tinuance. Early in the same year he became interested in plans which led to the establish- ment of the Massachusetts Institute of Tech- nology by the Legislature, April 10, 1861 ; and, when the School of Industrial Science was opened in the spring of 1865, he was appointed Walker Professor of Mathematics. In 1868, during the absence of President Rogers on account of illness, he was chosen acting president ; and in 1870, upon the resignation of President Rogers, he was made president, which office he held until his resignation in 1878. During the ten years of Professor Runkle's presidency the facilities for instruction in the institute were largely increased. A laboratory, planned for the instruction of large classes of students, was added to the Department of Physics in 1869. A laboratory for the study of ores in quantity to determine values and most economical methods of treatment, the result of a visit of a party of professors and students to the mines of Colorado and Utah, was added to the Mining Department in 1871. This first Summer School of Mines was devised and carried out by the president, who after the close went to San Francisco, and, with the aid of experienced min- ing engineers, selected the necessary machinery and apparatus, and had plans drawn for their proper location in the laboratory, which was com- pleted and opened to students in the fall. In 1872 the Lowell School of Practical Design was established by the trustee of the Lowell Fund. The Steam Engineering Laboratory was founded in 1873, and the Mineralogical Laboratory in 1874. The Drill Hall and Gymnasium was built in the same year. In 1876 a Women's Chemi- cal Laboratory was equipped by the aid of the Women's Educational Association ; an Industrial Chemical Laboratory, an Organic Chemical Lab- oratory, were added to the Chemical Depart- ment, and the Microscopic and Spectroscopic Laboratory, the beginning of the Department of Biology. But the crowning work of this year was

the founding of the Department and School of Mechanic Arts, to which President Runkle was led by the exhibit at Philadelphia in 1876 of the Russian system of Mechanic Arts teaching, the work of the Moscow Technical School. In the years which have followed, this method of instruc- tion has spread to nearly all parts of the United States, in industrial colleges, in technical and manual training schools, and is gradually work- ing its way into the public school system. In recognition of the adoption of this system the Czar sent to the Institute of Technology a com- plete set of the Moscow models which were ex- hibited at Philadelphia. Upon his resignation of the presidency on account of impaired health, Professor Runkle was granted a two years' leave of absence, which he spent abroad, visiting the leading scientific schools, seeking new suggestions and studying new methods. After his return some of the results of his studies were embodied in a paper on technical schools, which he read before the Society of Arts of the institute. He also read before the Society of Arts on October 12, 1882, an address in memory of William Barton Rogers, LL.D. Besides the publications already men- tioned, Professor Runkle is the author of " The Manual Element in Education," two papers pub- lished in the Reports of the Massachusetts Board of Education in 1876-77 and 1880-81 ; " Report on Industrial Education," read before the Ameri- can Institute of Instruction, 1883 ; " Analytie Geometry," 1888. He is a member of the Ameri- can Academy of Arts and Sciences, of the Ameri- can Association for the Advancement of Science, of the Boston Society of Natural History, of the New England Historic Genealogical Society, of the American Social Science Association, and of the Society of Arts, Institute of Technology. In politics he is a Republican. In 1851 he married Miss Sarah Willard Hodges, who died in 1856. In 1862 he married Miss Catharine Robbins Bird. Their children are : Catharine Bird, Will- iam Bird (deceased), John Cornelius, Emma Rogers (deceased), Eleanor Winslow, and Gor- don Taylor Runkle.

SAVAGE, REV. MINOT JUDSON, of Boston, pastor of the Church of the Unity, is a native of Maine, born in Norridgewock, June 10, 1841, son of Joseph Lambert and Ann (Swett) Savage. His father, born in Woolwich, was a farmer, and at

IOOI

MEN OF PROGRESS.

one time was a man of large means, but lost it all through illness and other misfortunes. Minot J. was the youngest of four brothers, and was in such delicate health between the ages of eight and nineteen years that it was hardly expected that he could live to full manhood. He attended the village school and the High School, which was then taught by Bowdoin College men during the autumn vacations ; read much, being early a lover of books ; and pursued studies at home under the direction of his elder brothers, who had managed to work through Bowdoin, their father not being able to give them much assistance. In this way

MINOT J. SAVAGE.

he was fitted for college ; but, when the time came to enter, he was unable to do so on account of combined poverty and ill-health. Then the ques- tion as to what he was to do confronted him. He had always looked forward to the ministry as his vocation, but felt that he ought to be prepared for it by a college education. That being impossible, he determined to push ahead, and take a theologi- cal course. Accordingly, he entered the Bangor Theological Seminary, and successfully graduated in 1864. Then, having looked over the field, he decided not to settle in New England, but to break away from the old life, and see what he could do on his own account. Having a taste for

missionary work, he took a commission from the American Home Missionary Society of New York, and on the 3d of September, 1864, sailed for California. A few days before sailing he was married to Miss Ella A. Dodge, whose father was a Congregational Orthodox minister in the town of Harvard, this State; and the two made the voyage their wedding journey. Arriving in Cali- fornia, his ministry was at once begun in the town of San Mateo, on San Francisco Bay, twenty

miles south of San Francisco, where he was sta- tioned for about a year and a half, preaching in a little school-house as a home missionary. At the end of that period he was called to an Orthodox church in Grass Valley, Nevada County, among the foothills of the Sierras, where he was settled for a similar term. Then, his parents being old and requiring his attention, changes having oc- cured in the old home, he returned East. While upon this visit he preached in the Park Street and Shawmut Congregational churches in Boston : and the pastor of the latter church, the Rev. Dr. Edwin B. Webb, being absent. he was urged to supply his pulpit for the rest of the year. But, desiring to make a home for his father and mother, he accepted instead a call to the Congregational church in Framingham. The church was rich, the town beautiful, the pastorate agreeable : but he was young and restless, anxious to do more and to see work growing under his hand. So after a settlement of about two years,- 1867-69, -- declining longer to remain, he determined to re- turn to the broader field of the West. Committees from several Western places came on to hear him preach ; and he shortly received two calls, one from Indianapolis. Ind., and the other from Han- nibal, Mo., neither of which places had ever been visited by him. He accepted the call to the latter place mainly for the reason that his brother was living near by. While he was there, the church at Hannibal was the largest Congregational church in the State. Mr. Savage remained at Hannibal three and one half years in successful work, strengthening the society and broadening his fame as a preacher. But during this time he began a more critical study of the Bible than he had previ- ously given, together with the study of science and the history of the growth of religion ; and, as a re- sult of these studies, he found himself coming to be less and less in accord with the Orthodox belief. On one occasion while at Hannibal he prepared and read before the committee of his conference

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a paper on Darwinism, in which he defended as true the doctrine of evolution. making something of a stir among his brother ministers. While growing more and more liberal in his views, he continued in the Orthodox pulpit. preaching nothing which he did not believe, but omitting the preaching of a good many things which certain of his parishioners were anxious that he should preach, till the spring of 1873. when he was convinced that he could no longer honestly remain in the Orthodox Church. His society, with the exception of two or three mem- bers, begged him to continue in its charge in spite of the fact that he had abandoned the Orthodox belief ; but he concluded that it was better to take a new field. In the following summer he received another call to Indianapolis, at the same time one to Springfield, Ill., both Orthodox Congregational churches, and a third to the Third Unitarian Church in Chicago. With the call to Springfield came an offer from a leading man in that church of $1,000 additional salary out of his own pocket. the latter declaring that he wanted Mr. Savage to come because he knew he was not Orthodox. Feeling under some obligation to the church in Indianapolis on account of its previous call. Mr. Savage went there, and, meeting the leading men of the society, told them frankly that he was no longer Orthodox on a single point. in spite of which he was begged to accept their call. The call from the Third Unitarian Church of Chicago came to him the Monday following a sermon preached by him in an Orthodox pulpit in that city, which was heard by a delegation from the Unitarian church. They met him in the hotel at which he was stopping, immediately made the offer, and he accepted it. He began his work there in September, 1873: and the first Sunday that he preached in his new pulpit was the first Sunday he had ever preached in any Unitarian church. In the spring of 1874 Mr. Savage came to Boston to attend the anniversary meetings of the American Unitarian Association. While here. he took part in various Anniversary Week meet- ings of the Unitarians, spoke in Music Hall, and also preached on Sunday in the Church of the Unity; and before he had reached home this church telegraphed him a call. He accepted, and at the close of his first year in Chicago removed to Boston, and began his work in the Church of the Unity pulpit, the first service of his settlement being on the third Sunday of September, 1874. He has remained here continuously for twenty-one

years, making in that time his pulpit famous, and becoming known through his published sermons and books to thousands who have never seen his face nor heard his voice. He has the distinction of being the first man occupying a regular pulpit who has made an attempt in his own pulpit to reconstruct theological and religious thinking in accordance with the theory of evolution. His ser- mons have been published for twenty years regu- larly every week, at first for two years in the Commonwealth newspaper during the editorship of the late Charles W. Slack, then for two years in the Sunday Times, and for the past sixteen years in pamphlet form under the title of Unity Pulpit, by George H. Ellis, publisher. They are circu- lated throughout a wide field, going all over the world, having readers in almost every country. He preaches always extemporaneously. Mr. Sav- age has also contributed liberally to the religious and critical literature of the day ; and several of his works have been republished in England, and one has been translated into German. The list of his notable books include "Christianity the Science of Manhood," published in 1873, "The Religion of Evolution " (1876), " Life Questions " (1879). " The Morals of Evolution " (1880), " Talks about Jesus " (1881), " Belief in God " ( 1882), " Beliefs about Man " (1882), " Beliefs about the Bible " ( 1883), " The Modern Sphinx " ( 1883), " Man, Woman and Child " (1884), " The Religious Life " ( 1885), " Social Problems " (1886), " My Creed " (1887). "Religious Reconstruction" (1888). "Signs of the Times " ( 1889), " Helps for Daily Living " (1889). " Life " (1890). " Four Great Questions concerning God " ( 1891), "The Evolution of Christianity " (1892), " Is this a Good World ?" ( 1893), "Jesus and Modern Life" ( 1893), " A Man " ( 1894). Among his miscellaneous publica- tions are a volume of poems, a novel " Bluffton : A Story of To-day." " The Minister's Handbook, for Christenings, Weddings and Funerals," and " Sacred Songs for Public Worship." A radical of the radicals, Mr. Savage holds a unique position among Unitarians, and through his published ser- mons and works commands a great audience be- yond denominational limits. Mr. Savage is a Freemason of the thirty-third degree, a member of St. Barnard Commandery. He belongs to various literary and social organizations, and was one of the original members of the Algonquin Club. He married, as above stated, August 29, 1864, Miss Ella Augusta Dodge, daughter of the Rev. John

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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 134

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