Men of progress one thousand biographical sketches and portraits of leaders in business and professional life in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Part 2

Author: Herndon, Richard; Bacon, Edwin M. (Edwin Monroe), 1844-1916
Publication date: 1896
Publisher: Boston : New England Magazine
Number of Pages: 1036

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among the latter the largest known. From early life he was deeply interested in horticulture, and for nearly thirty years was an active member of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, long one of its vice-presidents and a member of its finance committee. His collection of orchids, at his country home in North Easton, one of the most extensive and beautiful estates in New England, surpasses all other collections of these plants in the country, and in number, variety, and condition has no superior. His love of nature was real and profound; and his exact and comprehensive knowl- edge of the plants in which he was particularly interested gave him an international reputation among orchidologists, and many rare orchids have been named for him. His large greenhouses, with their wealth of horticultural beauty, were freely opened by him, not only to the residents of North Easton, but to visitors from far and near. His interest in rural economy was active, and for many years he was a trustee of the Massachusetts Society for Promoting Agriculture. In politics Mr. Ames was originally a Whig, but later be- came a Republican. . He never cherished polit- ical aspirations, and was disinclined to enter public life. In 1872, during his absence from the State and without his knowledge, he was nomi- nated for the State Senate, and much against his will was elected. During his term he served on the committees on manufactures and on agricult- ure, and was influential in legislation. In relig- ion he was a Unitarian, taking an active part in the affairs of the church at North Easton and of the First Church in Boston; and he was one of the most generous givers to denominational work and institutions. He was, too, a liberal con- tributor to charitable enterprises, and personally devoted much time and money to benevolent undertakings. He was president of the Home for Incurables, and a trustee of the New England Children's Hospital, of the Massachusetts General Hospital, and of the McLean Insane Asylum. He was also much concerned in the work of the Kindergarten for the Blind, connected with the Perkins Institution and Massachusetts School for the Blind. He was warmly devoted to the wel- fare of Harvard University, especially interested in the Arnold Arboretum and the Botanical De- partment, the usefulness of which was greatly ex- tended through his liberality. At the time of his death he was one of the Fellows and trustee of Harvard College. His devotion to his native

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town is displayed in the beautiful architectural additions which he made to it. With his mother and sister he largely increased the bequest left by his father to build, equip, and endow a public library there, and, employing Richardson as archi- tect, built the present structure, one of the most beautiful library buildings in the country ; and the railroad station, also of Richardson's design, was erected at his expense for the adornment of the village. Mr. Ames was married June 7, 1860, to Miss Rebecca Caroline Blair, only child of James Blair, of St. Louis, Mo. They had six children, of whom five are now living: Helen Angier (now the wife of Robert C. Hooper, of Boston), Oliver (married to Elise A. West, of Boston), Mary Shreve, Lothrop, and John Stanley Ames.

ARMSTRONG, GEORGE WASHINGTON, founder of the Armstrong Transfer Company, Boston, and proprietor of the consolidated news and restau- rant business on New England railroad systems, is a native of Boston, born August 11, 1836, son of David and Mahalia (Lovering) Armstrong. He is of Scotch and Pilgrim blood. On the pa- ternal side he is an offshoot of the Scotch clan of Armstrong, who dwelt near Gilnockie, C'annobie, Castleton, and adjacent parishes in the Lowlands of Scotland known as the " Debateable Country," and near the English border. His ancestors emi- grated from Scotland to the north of Ireland, and from thence to the Londonderry Settlement in New Hampshire. He is a direct descendant of Charter Robert Armstrong, one of the original settlers in the Londonderry Settlement, and one of its proprietors June 21, 1722. On the maternal side he is a descendant of a brother of the Puri- tan, Governor Edward Winslow. The home of his paternal ancestors has been for several gen- erations in that portion of the original township of Londonderry, N. H., known as Windham since 1742 ; and of that place his father was a native. His father came to Boston in 1825, and worked at ship-building. In 1850 he fell seriously ill, and died in the autumn of 1851, leaving a small es- tate. George W. Armstrong was educated in the public schools of Boston, and was one of the boys of the "Old Hawes Grammar School." Of this school he entertains many pleasant recollections ; and in the deliberations and proceedings of its " Association," of which he is a member, he has always taken an active part, and has contributed

financially and otherwise to its support and suc- cess. In his fourteenth year, the one in which he was to be graduated from the grammar school, he was obliged, by the severe illness of his father,

GEO. W. ARMSTRONG.

to leave his studies, and was thrown largely upon his own resources. He first began his work as a "penny postman," the forerunner of the letter carrier of to-day, his district being the whole of South Boston. Next he was office boy for the South Boston Gasette and the Sunday News, local journals then existing ; and then he was newsboy on State Street. In March of 1852 he became a newsboy on the old Boston & Worcester Rail- road, now of the Boston & Albany line, where he continued about nine years. The last year and a half of that time he was in the employ of the com- pany in various capacities, principally as baggage master, sleeping-car conductor, and as conductor on the regular trains. Then he became manager of the news business on the line. In 1863 he had become half-owner of the news-room in the Boston station of the Boston & Albany Railroad, and also of the restaurant there. In eight years he was sole proprietor, and was extending his interest in this branch along the line of the road; and his newsboys were upon every train. In 1869 he purchased the news business of the

MEN OF PROGRESS.

Fitchburg Railroad. His work broadened out, and enlarged so that in 1875 his operations ex- tended over the old Eastern Railroad, and he had become proprietor of the restaurants and news-rooms in the Boston station, at Portsmouth, Wolfeboro, N.H., and Portland, Me. His busi- ness on the Boston & Albany Road then included the restaurants and news-rooms of the stations at South Framingham, Palmer, and Pittsfield. Sub- sequently his control was extended over the entire restaurant and news business of the Boston & Albany, of the Eastern Division of the Boston & Maine, and of the Boston, Revere Beach & Lynn, part of the dining business on the Old Colony, and all of the news business on the Fitchburg Railroad; and to his system has recently been added the news business on the Western Division of the Boston & Maine Railroad. While the business interests of Mr. Armstrong have been large and widely extended, as has been shown, they have not been confined to one department. Indeed, his life has been full of activities. He developed the enterprise now represented by the well-known "Armstrong Transfer Company" of Boston, which dates from 1865, when he pur- chased " King's Baggage Express," and organ- ized the business on a systematic and substan- tial basis. The plan of checking baggage from one station to another to accommodate railway passengers was introduced with other features, and a line of passenger carriages and transfer coaches was added as part of the system. This company was incorporated in 1882, with Mr. Armstrong as its president, and Charles W. Sher- burne treasurer. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Worcester, Nashua & Rochester Railroad, and of that of the Manches- ter & Lawrence Railroad ; and he is a large shareholder in each. Though he cannot be called a club man, Mr. Armstrong is a member of several associations, among them being the Bos- tonian Society, of which he is a life member, the Scotch-Irish Society of America, the Beacon So- ciety of Boston, and other associations. He mar- ried December 10, 1868, Miss Louise Marston, of Bridgewater, N.H., who died February 17, 1880. Their children were Mabelle, born February 21, 1870, and Louise, born October 22, 1871, died December 22, 1876. He married secondly, De- cember 12, 1882, Miss Flora E., daughter of Dr. Reuben Greene, of Boston. Their children are : Ethel, born June 7, 1884, and George Robert,

born December 10. 1888. His home was in Boston from his birth until 1875, when he pur- chased an attractive estate in Brookline, where he has since lived.

BAILEY, ANDREW JACKSON, city solicitor of Boston, is a native of Charlestown, born July 18, 1840, son of Barker and Alice (Ayers) Bailey. He was educated in the Charlestown public schools, and at Harvard in the class of 1863. Upon the breaking out of the Civil War he en- listed, April 16, 1861, in the Charlestown City Guards, then Company K, Fifth Regiment Massa- chusetts Volunteers, and was in the first battle of Bull Run. At the close of this term of service he returned to college. Enlisting again in 1864, he was commissioned second lieutenant, Com- pany H, Fifth Regiment. At the close of the war he studied law with Hutchins & Wheeler of Boston, and afterwards with John W. Pettingill of Charlestown ; and was admitted to the bar in 1867. From 1866 to 1871 he was clerk of the

A. J. BAILEY.

police court in Charlestown; in 1868 and 1869 a member of the Charlestown Common Council. president of that body the latter year; from 1869 to 1872 a member of the Charlestown School

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Board; in 1871-72-73 a representative from Charlestown in the lower house of the Legislat- ure : in 1874 a member of the Senate ; after the annexation of Charlestown to Boston a member of the Boston Common Council nearly two terms (1880-81), its president the second term until November, ISS1, when he resigned and was elected eity solicitor, which office he has since held continuously by election or appointment. When a member of the House of Representatives, he served on the committees on probate and chancery, elections, and mercantile affairs (chair- man of the last two); and, when in the Senate, he was a member of the committees on Hoose Tunnel, prominently identified in the legislation which resulted in the acquisition of the tunnel by the Fitchburg Railroad, and chairman of the committee on labor matters, reporting the first bill passed by the Legislature regulating the em- ployment of women and children in manufactur- ing establishments. He is the author of a large amount of important Massachusetts statute law. Mr. Bailey is prominently connected with the Masonie order and a number of associations and clubs. He is a member of the Massachusetts Commandery of the Loyal Legion ; a member of the Grand Army, for two years judge advocate of the department of Massachusetts; a charter member of Faith Lodge of Free Masons, a mem- ber of the Hugh de Payen Commandery ; a mem- ber of the Bunker Hill Monument Association ; and of the Art, Athletic, and Suffolk clubs of Boston. He was one of the promoters of the Soldiers' Home in Massachusetts, and has been on the Board of Trustees since its incorpora- tion. Mr. Bailey married in January 1869, Miss Abby V. Getchell, daughter of John and Hannah Getchell, of Charlestown.

BALLOU, MURRAY ROBERTS, chairman of the Boston Stock Exchange, was born in Boston, July 21, 1840, only son of Maturin M. and Mary Ann (Roberts) Ballou. He comes of Huguenot stock. His grandfather was the eminent Univer- salist minister, Hosea Ballou, who was called the " father of modern Universalism "; and his father is the well-known author of numerous books of travel, and founder of several successful periodi- cals. He was educated in Boston, in the Dixwell schools, and at Harvard College, graduating from the latter in 1862. After graduation he entered

the brokerage business in Boston, establishing the firm of Ballou & Mifflin, which, during the Civil War period and subsequently, did a large and profitable trade. In 1869 he was elected vice-

M. R. BALLOU.

president of the Stock Exchange, and the next year president ; and since that time he has been the presiding officer, having been annually re- elected president until 1888, when that office was made honorary, as it is in New York, and there- after chairman, the office at the same time created. Mr. Ballou was married December, 1863, to Miss Lucretia B. Howland, daughter of James How- land, of New Bedford. They have four children : Maturin Howland, Elise Murray, Franklin Bur- gess, and Mabel Ballou.

BARRETT, WILLIAM EMERSON, manager of the Boston Daily Advertiser and the Evening Record, and for five consecutive years speaker of the House of Representatives, is a native of Mel- rose, born December 29, 1858, son of Augustus and Sarah ( Emerson) Barrett. He was educated in Melrose public schools, the High School of Claremont, N.H., where his father was engaged in manufacturing and the family lived for some years, and at Dartmouth College, graduating from

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the latter in iSSo. Choosing as his profession journalism, at which he had tried his hand on the college paper and in other directions while an undergraduate, he found a place in the editorial office of the Messenger of St. Albans, Vt., soon after graduation, and there worked in various ca- pacities for two years, occasionally contributing news-letters, and despatches to New York papers. In 1882 he was given a position as correspond- ent on the staff of the Daily Advertiser in Bos- ton, and, after a preliminary trial as the ad- vertiser " special " in the early autumn campaign in Maine, was assigned to the Washington office of the paper, where he was established as its regular correspondent. In this line of journalistic work he rapidly developed, early taking rank among the most active men of " Newspaper Row." As a news-gatherer. he was alert, prompt, enterpris- ing: and his frequent note and comment on men and things in and about Congress were always bright and often brilliant. During the national campaign of 1884, when the Advertiser had be- come an independent journal, and was opposing the election of Mr. Blaine, he was assigned to special service in certain " doubtful" States in the West : and his letters and despatches then published were among the most important and interesting contributions to the literature of that memorable canvass. AMthough himself a stanch Republican, he was given a free hand, his instruc- tions being to state the situation as he found it. regardless of the editorial attitude of the paper ; and this he did with remarkable frankness and accuracy. At another time, while holding his position at Washington, he served as clerk of the special congressional committee to investigate the so-called Copiah, Mississippi, outrages. In Jan- uary, 1886, the ownership of the Advertiser changed, and it again became a Republican party paper, the managers who had conducted it as an independent journal withdrawing : and in June of that year, the paper then being without a head, Mr. Barrett was recalled from Washington to the home office, and placed in editorial charge. Within a year he became the publisher as well as the editor of the paper, and the leading owner of the property. Subsequently he was made presi- dent of the "Advertiser Newspaper Company," which succeeded the " Boston Advertiser Corpora- tion," and publisher of the Advertiser and Evening Record. the latter a penny paper, established in September, 1884. In 1887 Mr. Barrett was first

elected to the lower house of the Legislature from his native town of Melrose, and with his service in the session of ISS8 began a remarkable political career. Returned the next year, he was made speaker of the House by a vote of two hun- dred and thirteen to one scattering ; and by re- peated re-election he held this position through the sessions of 1890-91-92-93, in every case receiving a practically unanimous vote after his renomina- tion in caucus, and in 1892 being complimented, without preliminary caucus of either party, by an absolutely unanimous vote of the whole House. In the preliminary canvass of 1891 for the Repub- lican nomination for governor he was conspicuous among several mentioned for that position ; and in 1893 he was the Republican candidate for Con- gress in the Seventh District, in the by-election of April, to fill the vacancy caused by the election of its representative, Henry Cabot Lodge, to be senator. In this contest, after a spirited canvass, he met his first defeat, his Democratie competitor, Dr. William Everett, carrying the district by the narrow margin of thirty-four votes. Declining to

WM. E. BARRETT.

stand for a sixth term in the Legislature, he closed his career as speaker with the session of 1893. Mr. Barrett is a member of many social and fraternal organizations. He was married on

MEN OF PROGRESS.

December 28, 1887, in Claremont, N.H., to Miss Annie L. Bailey, daughter of Herbert and Alice (Sulloway) Bailey. They have three children : William E., Jr., Florence, and Ruth Barrett.

BARTOL, REV. CYRUS AUGUSTUS, upwards of fifty years minister of the West Church of Boston (Unitarian), quarter of a century colleague of the Rev. Charles Lowell, is a native of Maine, born in the little seaport town of Freeport. April 30, IS13, son of George and Ann (Given) Bartol. He is of English, Irish, and Italian descent.

CYRUS A. BARTOL.

Bartolo, Bartolozzi, Bartholdi, and Berthollet are Italian and French synonymes of his father's name. His mother's grandsire left the Romish Church to marry a wife: he had been a priest. Attaining his early education in the common schools, Cyrus A. was fitted for college in the High School of Portland, where his father was at that time a merchant, and entered Bowdoin in the class of 1828. At the close of his junior year he was elected president of his college lit- erary society, having, as one of his classmates in after years testified, "no peer that could for a moment contest that honor, bestowed by the votes of students upon character and scholarship,

with him at that time." After graduation from the college he came to the Harvard Divinity School, and took the regular three years' course, graduating in 1835. He had been preaching but a little over a year, first in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he was settled in 1835-36, and six months as minister-at-large in Boston, when he was called to the West Church as Dr. Lowell's colleague, or- dained on the first day of March, 1837. This re- lation " in all love and harmony " held till the death of Dr. Lowell in 1861, when he became sole pastor. On the first of March, 1887, the fiftieth anniversary of his ministry here, and the one hun- dred and fiftieth anniversary of the foundation of the West Church, were observed by a memorable service in the old meeting-house on Cambridge and Lynde Streets, in which the minister, Rev. Drs. Frederic H. Hedge, George E. Ellis, Alonzo A. Miner, George A. Gordon of the Old South Church, Robert Collyer, Cyrus Hamlin, president of Roberts College, Constantinople (a college mate of Dr. Bartol), and Phillips Brooks, the Brahmin Babu Mohini M. Chatterji, then visiting Boston, James Russell Lowell, and Governor Ames took part. He retired in 1889, resigning the office of pastor September 30, that year; and on May 5 the last service in the church was held. He has been identified with many progressive clubs ; was frequently host of the celebrated Rad- ical Club which flourished in Boston in the late sixties and seventies ; and he has been called the last of the Transcendentalists. His church, al- though classed as Unitarian, has steadfastly held an independent attitude from Dr. Lowell's pastor- ate through his own, known as the "Independent Congregational Society." He has been described as a "reverent radical, an acute and way- ward conservative, standing aloof with his church from all ecclesiastical entanglements," and " by the flag of individual freedom in matters of re- ligion." The degree of doctor of divinity was con- ferred upon him by Harvard University in 1859. Dr. Bartol's publications constitute a notable list, including many sermons in pamphlet form and sev- eral volumes of sermons and essays. The latter embrace " Discourses on the Christian Spirit and Life " (first published in 1850, second edition re- vised 1854); "Discourses on the Christian Body and Form" (1854) ; " Pictures of Europe framed in Ideas," essays suggested by a European tour (1855); "History of the West Church and its Ministers " (1858) ; "Church and Congregation "

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(1858); "Word of the Spirit to the Church " (1859); " Radical Problems " (1872); "The Rising Faith " (1874) ; and " Principles and l'or- traits " (1880). He has also published a number of occasional essays, portrait eulogies on William Ellery Channing, John Weiss, William Lloyd Gar- rison, "Father " Taylor, and William M. Hunt, the artist, and some poetry; and a miniature book of selections from his writings, under the title of " Grains of Gold," was brought out by the Uni- tarian Association in 1854. Dr. Bartol was mar- ried in Boston, February 7, 1838, to Elizabeth Howard, daughter of Dr. John Clarke and Hepzi- bah (Swan) Howard. They had one child, Eliza- beth Howard Bartol, who has become well known as a painter. He has lived during most of his life in Boston, at No. 17 Chestnut Street, West End, one of the quaintest and oldest houses in the street ; and his summer residence has been for many years at Manchester-by-the-sea.

BENNETT, JOSEPH, member of the Suffolk bar, long identified with the interests of the Brighton District of Boston, is a native of Maine, born in Bridgton, May 26, 1840, son of William and Charlotte Bennett. His early education was attained at the district school in Sweden, Me., and at the Bridgton Academy. Then, moving with his parents to Massachusetts, he completed his preparation for college in the Boston Latin School, and entered Bowdoin College with the class of 1864. He was obliged to withdraw in the Junior year, but subsequently he received from the college the degree of A.B. out of course. He began the study of law soon after leaving col- lege in the office of Asa Cottrell, Boston, and was admitted to the Suffolk bar in 1866. Two years later he was admitted to the bar of the United States Circuit Court, and in 1882 to prac- tice before the United States Supreme Court. He was trial justice in Middlesex County at the time of the annexation of Brighton to Boston (in 1874), and for some years after annexation was special justice of the Municipal Court of the Brighton District. He has served in both branches of the Legislature,-member of the House of Representatives in 1880, and of the Senate in 1881-82, and again in 1891. In the latter body he was a leader, the first two terms chairman of the committee on taxation and of that on election laws, and twice chairman of the

committee on redistricting the State into Congres- sional districts,- in 1882 and in 1891,-the only instance of the kind. In the Senate of 1891 also he was chairman of the committee on rail- roads, on rules and orders, and on constitution amendments. Other committees on which he served when a senator were those on the judi- ciary and on probate and chancery. For several years before annexation he was a member of the Brighton School Committee, and was one of the early trustees of the Holton Library, now ab- sorbed in the Brighton Branch of the Boston Pub- lic Library. After annexation he served some

JOSEPH BENNETT.

time on the Boston School Committee. In poli- tics he is a Republican, and has been active with the leaders of his party in his section of the State. In the campaign of 1893 he was prominent among those mentioned for the Republican nomi- nation for attorney-general. Mr. Bennett was married in Boston, April 26, 1866, to Miss Eliza- beth R. Lafavour, daughter of John and Mary (Harding) Lafavour. They have three children : Joseph I., Frederick S., and Mary E. Bennett.

BIGELOW, JONATHAN, ex-president of the Boston Fruit and Produce Exchange, is a native

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of Conway, born January 1, 1825, son of Jona B. and Relief (Newhall) Bigelow, the eldest of a family of ten children. He traces his lineage from John Bigelow, who settled in Watertown in 1632, and now lives in the town of his ancestors. He left home when a lad of nine years to live with an uncle, then a butcher in Charlestown ; and,

JONATHAN BIGELOW.

the latter soon moving to a farm in Brighton, he worked there at farming, attending school during the winter months. He took advantage of every opportunity for the acquisition of knowledge, and at nineteen was well equipped for school-teaching. He found a position in the South, as teacher in the town school, in Screven County, Georgia, sixty miles from Savannah ; and here he remained about a year, obtaining a good idea of the man- ners and customs of the South before the war. Returning North some time in 1846, he estab- lished himself in a general boot and shoe busi- ness in Roxbury. This was continued success- fully for ten years; and then he entered the produce commission trade, to which he had al- ready given much practical study. He first formed a partnership with Z. C. Perry, under the firm name of Perry & Bigelow, and was estab- lished at No. 3 North Market Street. They re- mained there in company about a year, when he

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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 2

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