USA > Massachusetts > Men of progress one thousand biographical sketches and portraits of leaders in business and professional life in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts > Part 16
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the executive council for the Third Councillor District, first elected to fill a vacancy caused by the death of the Hon. Charles R. McLean. He has been prominent in charitable and fraternal organizations, and high in their councils. From 1883 to 1885 he held the post of supreme regent of the Royal Arcanum, and is now (1894) chair- man of the committee on laws of that order. In 1887-88 he filled the office of supreme repre- sentative of the Knights of Honor. He was president of the National Fraternal Congress for
JOHN HASKELL BUTLER.
two years, and three years the executive officer of the Eastern Association, and is now the supreme treasurer of the Home Circle, and chairman of the committee on laws and advisory counsel of the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts, Ancient Order of United Workmen. He also holds mem- bership in the following organizations : the Soley Lodge, Masons; Boston Lodge, Odd Fellows; Bay State Council, American Legion of Honor; Excelsior Council, Royal Arcanum; Mt. Benedict Lodge, Knights of Honor; Beacon Lodge, An- cient Order of United Workmen; and Somerville Council, Home Circle. He is a member of the University Club of Boston and of the New Eng- land Commercial Travellers' Association, and is general counsel of the latter. Mr. Butler was
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MEN OF PROGRESS.
married in Pittston, l'enn., on the first of January, 1870, to Miss Laura L. Bull, daughter of Jabez B. and Mary (Ford) Bull. They have one child : John Lawton Butler.
CHARLES, SALEM DARIUS, member of the Suffolk bar, is a native of Brimfield, born March 19, 1850, son of Abraham and Esther Lorene (Wallis) Charles. His ancestors were among the carly settlers of New England. His early life
SALEM D. CHARLES.
was spent on his father's farm, and his education was begun in the district school. Subsequently he attended the Hitchcock Free High School in Brimfield, where he was fitted for college, and, en- tering Amherst, was graduated therefrom in the class of 1874. The first six months after his graduation were occupied in travelling in Europe. Then he devoted a year to teaching, as principal of the Shelburne Falls High School, and towards the close of that term began the study of law. He spent the next year in the Boston University Law School, and in 1878 was admitted to the bar. He has since practised in Boston. In politics he is a Democrat, and for some years has taken a prominent part in State campaigns, speaking in nearly every large place in the Commonwealth.
He was a member of the lower house of the Legislature in 1891-92-93. the first and only Democrat elected from Ward 23 of Boston (Jamaica Plain), a strong Republican quarter. In the Legislature he served on the committees on the judiciary, rules, rapid transit. and consti- tutional amendments, and was chairman of the Democratic side of the House. He has also served as trustee of Mount Hope Cemetery (which belongs to the city of Boston) for three years. He is a member of the Jamaica Club, of the Eliot Club, and of the Young Men's Demo- cratie Club of Massachusetts. In college he be- longed to the Delta Upsilon. Mr. Charles is unmarried.
CLARKE, COLONEL ALBERT, of Boston, secre- tary of the Home Market Club, is a native of Vermont, born in Granville, October 13, 1840. son of Jedediah and Mary (Woodbury) Clarke. He is of an old Connecticut family on his father's side, and a Beverly, Mass., family on his mother's side. Both were of English descent. His ances- tors participated in the American Revolution, also in Cromwell's. He was educated in the public schools and at West Randolph and Barre acad- emies ; and his training for active life consisted of hard work on a farm, school teaching, law studies, and military discipline. He was admitted to the bar in 1861, but the Civil War interrupted his practice. Enlisting as a private in the Thirteenth Vermont Infantry, his twin-brother also joining the army as assistant surgeon of the Tenth Ver- mont, he served the term of his enlistment, which expired in 1863. He was soon promoted to a first lieutenancy, and at Gettysburg commanded his company in the fierce assaults upon the enemy's lines. Upon his return to civil life he re- sumed the practice of his profession, and early entered public life. He was colonel on Governor Paul Dillingham's staff, first assistant clerk of the Vermont House of Representatives four years, member of the Vermont Senate in 1874, commis- sioner of the State to build a house of correction in 1878, and commissioner of the State to build monuments at Gettysburg, 1887-89. He was president of the Vermont & Canada Railroad Company at the time of its consolidation with the Central Vermont. In 1868 he entered journal- ism. He published the St. Albans Messenger until 1880; then for five years was connected with Boston papers, the latter part of that period
IIS
MEN OF PROGRESS.
with the Advertiser : and, returning to Vermont, was for about three years editor and manager of the Rutland Herald. When in Rutland, he was
ALBERT CLARKE.
president of the Rutland Board of Trade. He was chosen secretary of the Home Market Club in July, 1889, and has been annually re-elected since. In politics he is a steadfast Republican. He has been a frequent delegate to conventions, among them the Republican National Convention at Minneapolis in 1892, where he earnestly sup- ported President Harrison ; has spoken in cam- paigns in several States, and has been manager for several candidates, but has never sought office for himself. In ISSS, when editor of the Rut- land Herald, he was prominently mentioned for lieutenant governor of Vermont, but declined to be a candidate, expecting to return to Massa- chusetts the next year. In Vermont he made much mark in opposition to railroad politics, and in later years he has been recognized as an au- thority among those who advocate protection in this country. He belongs to the Grand Army, and has held the positions of commander of the post at St. Albans, junior vice-commander of the department of Vermont, and judge advocate of the department of Massachusetts (1894) ; and he is a member of the Massachusetts Commandery,
Military Order of Loyal Legion of the United States. He resides at Wellesley Hills, where he takes an interest in town affairs. He is fre- quently moderator at Wellesley town meetings, as he was earlier in his career of St. Albans meet- ings ; is chairman of the standing committee of the Unitarian Society at Wellesley Hills, and is now (1894) serving his fifth year as president of the Wellesley Club. Colonel Clarke was mar- ried January 21, 1864, to Miss Josephine Briggs, youngest daughter of the Hon. E. D. Briggs, of Rochester, Vt. They have had three children : Albert Briggs (died in infancy), Josie Caroline (died at ten), and Mary Elizabeth Clarke.
COBB, JOHN STORER, member of the Suffolk bar, is a native of England, born in the city of Rochester, county of Kent, January 7, 1842, son of John Saxelby and Harriott (Winch) Cobb. His early education was acquired in the Cathe- dral Grammar School, Rochester, and King's College School, London; also in Paris and Ber- lin schools. His collegiate training was in Lon-
J. STORER COBB.
clon, Cambridge, and Heidelberg universities. Ile was educated for the Church of England, but afterwards turned to the law, as he found that he
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MEN OF PROGRESS.
could not engage in the duties of the clerical pro- fession. When a student in college, he wrote "Eason " and " Evelyn," two historical novelettes, which were published in London in 1865 and 1866, and subsequently the " History of Hun- stanton. Norfolk : with which is Incorporated the Life of St. Edmund, King and Martyr," pub- lished in London in 1868. He came to the United States in 1869, but has returned to Eu- rope several times, and spent altogether about ten years there since his first arrival in this coun- try. He was first settled in New York, where he was some time editor of the New Era (beginning this work in 1873), and for two years a student in the Columbia College Law School, graduating in 1875. That year he was naturalized, and ad- mitted to the bar. He came to Boston in 1882, and returned to Europe early in 1886, remain- ing there nearly four years. While here he has devoted much of his time to literary pursuits and lecturing, and in 1891 he began the active practice of his profession. He has written much for the periodical press upon the English lan- guage and literature, and has delivered lectures on this and other subjects in Boston, New York, and Brooklyn, London, Berlin, Paris, Heidelberg, and Geneva. In 1886-87 he edited the National- ist, the monthly magazine some time published in Boston by the Nationalist Educational Associa- tion. For several years he was engaged on a volume upon " The History and Structure of the English Language," the completed manuscript of which was unfortunately lost in the mails, and never recovered ; and he has now in preparation "The Elements of Social Economy." He has been long an advocate of the incineration of the dead, has written many magazine and newspaper articles on the subject, was one of the founders of the New York and the New England cremation societies, of the latter of which he is president. He is also a director of the Massachusetts Cre- mation Society, a life member of the New York society, and an honorary member of the Berlin and Milan societies. He is a life member of the American Institute, a fellow and one of the founders of the Theosophical Society, and a member of the International Hygienic Commis- sion. In American politics he is a " Mugwump "; in English politics, a Liberal, an advocate and sup- porter of llome Rule for Ireland, a member of the parent branch of the Irish National League and of the Home Rule Union of London. He
was married June 20, 1893, to Miss Mary S. Fuller, a daughter of the Hon. Benjamin A. G. Fuller and a cousin of the present chief justice of the United States.
COF, HENRY FRANCIS, of Boston, treasurer of the Bowker Fertilizer Company, is a native of Rhode Island, born in Little Compton, July 27, 1835, son of Joseph and Julia Ann (Taylor) Coe. He is a descendant, on the paternal side, of Matthew Coe, who came from Suffolk, England,
HENRY F. COE.
in 1645, and also of John Alden and Priscilla of " Mayflower " fame, Matthew Coe's son John hav- ing married Sarah Pabodie, daughter of their eld- est daughter Elizabeth and her husband William Pabodie. He was educated in the country dis- triet school. As a boy, from 1849 to 1856, he was with Richmond & Wood of New Bedford, who were engaged in the whaling and outfitting business. Then he entered the employ of Law- renee Stone & Co. and the Bay State Mills, and upon the reorganization of that company as the Washington Mills, in 1859, he took charge of the accounts. Subsequently, in 1870, he he- came treasurer of the company, and remained in that position for sixteen years. He became treasurer of the Bowker Fertilizer Company in
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MEN OF PROGRESS.
1886, and has held this position ever since. . Mr. Coe has served prominently in the Boston City Council, five terms (1877-80 and 1885) member of the Common Council, and one (1886) of the Board of Aldermen. He has also served as a trustee of the Public Library (1879), and is now (1894) one of the trustees of the Eliot School funds. For several years he has been a trustee of the Boston Five Cents Savings Bank. He is a member of the Arkwright Club and was some time its secretary, of the Eliot Club of Jamaica Plain, and of the Bostonian Society. In politics he is a Republican. He was married March 14, 1865, to Miss Fanny W. Holmes, of Boston. They have four children.
COFFIN, ABRAHAM BURBANK, member of the Suffolk bar, is a native of Maine, born in Gilead,
A. B. COFFIN.
March 31, IS31, son of Warren and Hannah (Burbank) Coffin. His early education was ac- quired in academies at Bedford and Nashua, N.H. He was fitted for college at Phillips (An- dover) Academy, and graduated from Dartmouth in 1856. Subsequently he studied law in Vir- ginia, and in 1858 was admitted to the bar in Richmond. Then coming to Boston, after an- other year's study in the office of the late John
P. Healy, he was admitted to the Suffolk bar. From that time he has been engaged in the gen- eral practice of the law in the building now num- bered 27 School Street. He has also for many years been prominent in State affairs. He was a member of the lower house of the Legislature in 1875, when he held the chairmanship of the committee on elections; a State senator in 1877 and 1878, serving each year as chairman of the committee on taxation and on the committee on the judiciary; a member of Governor Robinson's council in 1885 and 1886 ; and chairman of the board of Gas and Electric Light Commissioners from 1887 to 1891. In the town of Winchester, where he resides, he was for several terms a mem- ber of the School Committee and on the town Board of Health. In politics he is Republican. He is a member of the William Parkman Lodge of Masons, of the Calumet Club of Winchester, and of the Middlesex (political dining) Club of Boston. He was married August 16, 1888, to Miss Mary E. Stevens.
CORDLEY, FRANK ROGERS, head of the banking house of F. R. Cordley & Co., Boston, was born in Randolph, March 19, 1854, son of Christopher Minta and Lydia (Bailey) Cordley, of English descent. He was educated in the public schools; and his training for active life, begun in general business, was mostly acquired in railroading and banking. In 1869 he went West, where he spent about ten years in Kansas, Colorado, and Minnesota, much of the time on the frontier. For a number of years he was as- sistant cashier of the National Exchange Bank of Boston; and he has been engaged in private bank- ing and stock brokerage since 1885, having been connected with the firms of Cordley & Young, Cordley, Young, & Fuller, Cordley & Co., and the present house. The different partners of the present firm are members of the Boston, New York, and Chicago Stock exchanges; and the house has private wires between Boston, New York, and Chicago, and New England connec- tions, with branch offices in Lowell and Spring- field, and in Hartford, Conn. Its market letter, issued weekly, the regular publication of which was begun in 1886, is recognized in financial circles as one of the best and most carefully pre- pared prints of its class. Mr. Cordley is a mem- ber of the Art and of the Massachusetts Reform
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MEN OF PROGRESS.
clubs in Boston, and of the New York and the Reform clubs in New York. In politics he is an Independent of the "Mugwump" order, a
F. R. CORDLEY.
steadfast supporter of the principles for which the Reform clubs to which he belongs stand. He was married April 18, 1874, to Miss Jenny Dean Clark. They have one child, a daughter: Agnes Minta Cordley.
COTTER, JAMES EDWARD, member of the Norfolk and Suffolk County Bar Associations and the American Bar Association, was born in Ire- land in 1848. Left motherless in childhood, at the age of seven years he came to Marlborough, where his father became the owner of a small farm, upon which, and other farms, the boy worked during the summer months, attending school in the winter. Having received his education in the public schools of that town and at the Normal School at Bridgewater, he studied law in the office of William B. Gale, of Marlborough, and in Jan- uary, 1874, was admitted to the bar in Middlesex County. Removing to Hyde Park immediately thereafter, he has since practised in the State and Federal courts, his Boston office for years being in the Sears Building. In 1892 he was admitted to the Supreme Judicial Court of the United
States. During the last ten years he has taken part in the trial of many important cases, being counsel in suits over the water supply of cities and towns, involving the value of franchise, and the property and rights of water companies ; also in land damage suits, in a variety of actions of tort for personal injuries, in several noted will cases, and in suits against insurance companies. He was senior counsel for, and successfully de- fended, the section-master of the Old Colony Rail- road who was charged with the immediate respon- sibility for the railroad accident of August 19. 1890, known as the Quincy disaster ; was assigned by the court as leading counsel in defence of Anna M. Makepeace, who was indicted for shoot- ing and killing her husband at Avon in Septem- ber, 1891, and after two trials was finally dis- charged ; and he was senior counsel for the city of Quincy in the controversy between that city and Dartmouth College decided by the Supreme Court of Massachusetts in 1892, to determine whether the $300,000 involved in the suit should be held by the city or forfeited to Dartmouth College. under the provisions of the will of Dr. Ebenezer
JAMES E. COTTER.
Woodward. Mr. Cotter has held numerous public positions in Hyde Park. He was chairman of the Registrars of Voters two years, member of the
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MEN OF PROGRESS.
School Committee for three years, the last year (1888) chairman ; has been town counsel since 1878 with the exception of 1888; was chairman of the general committee in charge of the celebra- tion of the twentieth anniversary of the incorpora-
tion of Hyde Park ; is vice-president of the Histor-
ical Society, and charter member and director of
the Hyde Park Social Club. In 1874 and in 1877 he was the Democratie candidate for district attorney for the district comprising Norfolk and Plymouth counties, and was the candidate of that
party for presidential elector in 1884. He has declined nominations to other political offices, and
is now devoting his whole attention to the practice
ried October 29, 1874, to Miss Mary A. Walsh. Society of Massachusetts. Mr. Cotter was mar- imously elected president of the Charitable Irish of his profession. In March, 1892, he was unan-
They have had six children, five of whom are liv-
ing. His residence is in Sunnyside, Hyde Park.
CUNNINGHAM, COLONEL JOHN HENRY, president and treasurer of the J. H. Cunningham
Company of Boston, is a native of Boston, born
March 9, 1851, son of Thomas and Sarah W. (Miller) Cunningham. He was educated in the
years later became superintendent of the works. father's iron works, founded in 1852, and three Immediately after graduation he entered his ing at a commercial college in Boston in 1871. public schools of Boston and Charlestown, finish-
Street, Boston, and established the J. H. Cunning- ruary, 1887, when he moved to No. 109 Milk Cunningham continued in this position till Feb- with Colonel Cunningham as treasurer. Colonel the title of the Cunningham Iron Works Company, mained till the business was incorporated under ham, his brother having joined it; and it so re- firm name was changed to J. H. & T. Cunning- Upon the death of his father, July 9, 1882, the name becoming Thomas Cunningham & Son. In 1876 he was admitted to partnership, the firm
ham Company, wholesale dealers in wrought-iron
pipe and fittings for steam, gas, and water, which
he has since conducted as president and treas-
urer. While developing his iron business, he be-
was one of the incorporators of the County Sav- met National Bank, of which he is now president; Charlestown in 1874, he founded the Winnisim- In Chelsea, to which city he moved from came concerned in numerous other important in- terests.
ings Bank, now a member of its committee on investments ; and he is a large owner in and a director of the Winnisimmet Ferry Company. He is also largely interested in New England street vice-president of the Gloucester Street Railway Kingston Street Railway Company, Plymouth ; railways. He is president of the Plymouth & Company, Gloucester ; and a large owner in and director of the following street railway companies :
chusetts Street Railway Association, and of the director of the Beacon Trust Company. Colonel Boston Construction Company. In Boston he is a hill & Amesbury. He is president of the Massa- & Millbury, the Lynn & Boston, and the Haver- the Worcester, Leicester & Spencer, the Worcester
past master of Robert Lash Lodge of Chelsea, a colonel. He is prominent in the Masonic order, as assistant adjutant-general with the rank of years on the staff of Governor William E. Russell, ment, Massachusetts Volunteer Militia, and three years, nine years of this period in the Fifth Regi- Cunningham's military career extends over twelve
Knight Templar, a thirty-second degree Mason, and a life member of the Massachusetts Consis-
J. H. CUNNINGHAM.
tory. In politics he is a Democrat, president of the Chelsea Democratie Club, and member of the Young Men's Democratic Club of Massachusetts.
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MEN OF PROGRESS.
Other clubs to which he belongs are the Review Club of Chelsea and the Boston Athletic Associa- tion. He has served in the city government of Chelsea, and has long been influential in its affairs. He was married April 10, 1873, to Miss Frances E. Prouty, of Cohasset. They have had three children, two of whom, John H., Jr., and Sara M. Cunningham, are now living.
CUSHING, SIDNEY, merchant, Boston, head of the firm of Cushing, Olmsted, & Snow, was born in Hingham, March 2, 1839, son of David
SIDNEY CUSHING.
and Mary (Lapham) Cushing. Ile is a descend- ant in the eighth generation of Matthew Cushing, who came from Hingham, England, and settled in Hingham on this side in 1638. He was educated in the village school and at the famous Derby Academy of Hingham, where he graduated in May, 1855. The same year and month he began mercantile life in a grocery store on Commercial Street, Boston. The liquor feature of the busi- ness being distasteful to him, he determined to quit it at the first opportunity, and accordingly on the 18th of March, 1856, he entered the employ of Whiting, Kehoe, & Galloupe, then the largest wholesale clothing firm in Boston. Beginning at
the bottom round of the ladder, he steadily ad- vanced through his own exertions - for he had no moneyed or influential friends to assist him - until he reached the highest position. Since 1879 he has been at the head of one of the leading and most influential houses in the clothing trade. He was largely instrumental in the formation of the "Clothing Manufacturers' Association," and was its first president (1893, and re-elected in 1894). Mr. Cushing was a member of the Boston Com- mon Council in 1888-89, and of the Board of Aldermen in ISgo; and his efforts in exposing jobbery in certain contracts were the means of his defeat for renomination. In politics he has always been a Republican, and of late years has been active in the party organization. He was a delegate to the National Republican Convention at Minneapolis in 1892. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity, of the Royal Arcanum, and of the Eliot Club, Jamaica Plain, Boston. He was married September 26, 1861, to Miss Sarah E. Corbett, of Hingham. They have two sons : Albert Lewis and Waldo Cushing.
DARLING, EDWIN HARRIS, member of the Suffolk bar, is a native of Calais, Me., born Jan- uary 28, 1838, son of Timothy and Lucy (Sargent) Darling, both also of Calais. On the maternal side he is a descendant of Governors John Dudley and John Winthrop. His mother's grandfather, l'aul Dudley Sargent, whose mother was Governor John Dudley's grand-daughter, was a colonel in the Revolution, head of a regiment raised by him- self, served throughout the war, and was an inti- mate friend of Washington and of Lafayette. His father, the late Hon. Timothy Darling, was for many years the United States consul at Nas- sau, N.P., Bahama Islands, and subsequently for forty years a banker in that place. His grand- father, having large landed interests in New Bruns- wick, just prior to the war of 1812 crossed the river to St. Stephens, N.B., in order to protect his interests, and Timothy Darling was born there in ISIT. Under the old English law one born upon British soil remains an Englishman. Immediately after the close of the war the elder Darling re- turned to Calais. Timothy Darling after retiring from the consulship, declining a renomination, be- came the leading American merchant in the Baha- mas; and during his long residence there he was an elder in the Presbyterian church, and superin-
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MEN OF PROGRESS.
tendent of its Sunday-school. After twenty-five years' service as a member of the governor's council in the Bahamas, the Queen of England made him a knight of the order of St. Michael and St. George,-an honor rarely conferred upon any one residing in a British colony. During the Civil War his services and unselfish patriotism were most notable. He had a large and extensive business with all of the Southern cities. Nassau was the great depot for blockade runners, and there were but two merchants, he being one of them, who had facilities for shipping and storing
EDWIN H. DARLING.
cotton. The first steamers which ran the block- ade were consigned to him ; but he resolutely re- fused to have anything to do with them. He was with one exception the only Union man at Nassau of any prominence, and had occasion several times to aid the United States gun-boats in pro- curing coal and to assist them in various ways. Almost any one else would have found it difficult, if not impossible, to do this, so strong was the feel- ing there. At his death Secretary Evarts wrote a most complimentary letter to his widow, acknowl- edging his patriotic service during the struggle. He was a man of the strictest integrity, great be- nevolence, and throughout the English West In- dies was respected and beloved. Edwin Harris
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