Men of progress one thousand biographical sketches and portraits of leaders in business and professional life in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Part 24

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 24

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tion, especially the enlistment of men for the quota of the city. As one of the committee of the City Council on Soldiers and their Families, he had the disbursement of aid to nearly seventy soldiers' families intrusted to him. In the years 1864-65- 66-67 he served as one of the principal assessors of the city, and in the fall of 1867 was elected mayor for the year 1868, without opposition, hav- ing received the nomination of four distinct parties ; and he was re-elected for the year 1869. His administration was remarkably successful, giving general satisfaction, and showing a large amount of permanent improvements, all carried out without the creation of any new debt. Among the improvements recommended by him and completed during his term of office were the establishment of a fire alarm telegraph system, the uniforming of the police, the erecting of mar- ble tablets to mark the graves of the soldiers in the Cambridge Cemetery, the grading and beauti- fying of the Broadway Park, the widening of Main

CHAS. H. SAUNDERS.

Street (now Massachusetts Avenue), the con- struction of a brick sidewalk from Harvard Square to Boston, and the laying out of walks and planting of trees in all the public squares and commons of the city. Upon his urgent appeal, made in both of his inaugural addresses, the City

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Council decided to erect a monument upon Cam- bridge Common, the first camping-ground of the Revolution, in honor of the soldiers and sailors of Cambridge who fell in the Civil War. The cor- ner-stone of the structure was laid on June 17, 1869, with appropriate ceremonies, the mayor making the principal address. In 1876 Mr. Saunders was elected one of the commissioners of the sinking funds of the city, and has served as chairman of the board from that time to the pres- ent, during which period more than $2,500,000 of the city debt has been paid. He was also se- lected, in 1877, one of the commissioners on be- half of the city to settle a large number of estates which had been surrendered on account of the filling of the low districts by the city. lle served for several years as one of the trustees of the Cambridge Savings Bank, and for eleven years as a director of the Cambridge Gas Light Company, in which corporation, being a large stockholder, he was instrumental in effecting important re- forms. He served For many years as president of the Cambridge Lyceum Corporation, and is now its treasurer. In 1889, at the organization of the Massachusetts Society of the Sons of the Ameri- can Revolution, he was unanimously elected its first president, and served for 1889 and 1890, declining a re-election in 1891. He is also a member of the Bunker Hill Monument Associa- tion, of the New England Historic Genealogical Society, of the Shepard Historical Society, and of the Cambridge Club. Mr. Saunders was married on September 18, 1849, to Miss Mary B. Ball, of Concord, by whom he had four children : Annie B., Carrie H., Mary L. (now Mrs. Clapp, of Lexing- ton), and Charles R. Saunders (now of Boston).

SCOTT, JOHN ADAMS, of John A. Scott & Son, carriage builders, Boston, is a native of Nova Scotia, born in Windsor, Hauts County, October, 20, 1827, son of John and Elizabeth (Dill) Scott. His father was a native of Halifax, and his mother of Windsor; and his grandparents on both sides were of Edinburgh, Scotland. He was reared on farms, and educated for the most part in the district school. His mother dying when he was eight years old, and the family being broken up, he lived till his fifteenth year on the farm of his father's only sister, attending school during the winter months; and upon her death he went to work upon another farm, employing his earnings

for two years to the cost of finishing his education. In April, 1846, he came to Boston, working his passage on a sailing-vessel, and apprenticed him- self to Aaron E. Whittemore, of Roxbury (whose shop was on the corner of Warren and Dudley Street, where the Hotel Dartmouth now stands), to learn the carriage-smith's trade and spring-making. Here he remained for two years, employing his evenings in the study of book-keeping, arithmetic, and writing. His employer failing in business, he spent the next two years working as a journey- man in Roxbury and Dorchester. Then in Oc-

JOHN ADAMS SCOTT.

tober, 1851, he entered business for himself in the same shop in which he learned his trade ; and he has continued on the same street and near the site of the old shop ever since. His works have been repeatedly enlarged, and he has for some time been a leading member of the trade. He was president of the National Carriage Builders' Association in 1891, and is now (1894) president of the National Carriage Exchange. Before the annexation of Roxbury to Boston he was for three years a member of the Roxbury city government (1865-66-67), closing his service in its last Board of Aldermen; and after annexation he was for three years a member of the Board of Overseers of the Poor of Boston. For a long period he was

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connected with the militia, joining it in 1849. He was for seven years in the infantry ; and later, during the Civil War, joined the cavalry, in which he continued for twelve years, passing through all the grades up to captain, which position he held for three years. He was active during the war in assisting to fill Roxbury's quota. In the latter part of the war period he was a member of the military committee of the City Council, and he was one of the reception committee upon the re- turn of the soldiers at the close of the war. In politics Captain Scott is an ardent Republican. He is president of the Boston Market Men's Re- publican Club, and is connected with other organ- izations. He was married September 17, 1848, to Miss Sarah Sargent Long, of Chester, N.H. They have had three daughters and two sons : Mary Elizabeth, Mildred Orn, Jessie Fremont, John Franklin, and William Jackson Scott. The eldest daughter, Mary, died in September, 1874: and Mrs. Scott died December 24, 1889.

SERGEANT, CHARLES SPENCER, general man- ager of the West End Street Railway, Boston, is a native of Northampton, born April 30, 1852, son of George and Lydia (Clark) Sergeant. His father was born in Stockbridge, where the family had made its home ever since the Rev. John Ser- geant, his direct ancestor, went there as a mis- sionary to the Stockbridge Indians in 17.35. Other branches settled in New Jersey and Penn- sylvania, the first of the family coming to America in 1640. On his mother's side he is a descendant of an old Northampton family which contributed its share to the Revolutionary militia. He was educated in the public schools of Northampton, graduating from the High School in 1868. His business career began that year, when he entered the employ of the First National Bank of East- hampton as boy. Subsequently he became teller of the bank, which position he held for four years. Then he went to Lake Superior, and, after spend- ing some time in the office of the Hon. S. P. Ely, in Marquette, Mich. (who was then secretary and treasurer and managing director of the Marquette. Houghton & Ontonagon Railroad Company, the Lake Superior Iron Company, the Morgan, Re- public, Humboldt, and Champion Iron com- panies), was made cashier and paymaster of the Marquette, Houghton & Ontonagon Railroad Company. Later he was engaged in the iron

smelting business in Morgan, Mich. Returning East in 1876 to take the position of chief clerk of the old Eastern Railroad Company, he became auditor of the company at the time of its reorgan- ization. After several years' service here he re- signed, to take position with Charles Merriam, treasurer of many Western railroads, land com- panies, and kindred enterprises. When, in De- cember, 1887, the West End Railway Company came into possession of the several street rail- ways centring in Boston, he was offered and ac- cepted the position of general auditor of the com-

CHAS. S. SERGEANT.

pany. Subsequently he was made second vice- president, and in November, 1892, was appointed to the position of general manager, which he now holds. He is a member of the new Exchange Club of Boston, the Calumet Club of Winchester, and of the Young Men's Democratic Club of Massachusetts. He is fond of canoeing. fishing. shooting, and outdoor sports generally ; but, being a very busy man in a most responsible position, he rarely finds time to devote himself to their pur- suit. In politics Mr. Sergeant is classed as an Independent Democrat. He was married June 3. ISSo, to Miss Elizabeth Blake Shepley. They have three children : Elizabeth Shepley, Rosamond, and Katharine Sergeant.

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SLOCUM, WINFIELD SCOTT, member of the Suf- folk bar, and eity solicitor of Newton, was born in Grafton, May 1, 1841, son of William F. and

WINFIELD S. SLOCUM.

Margaret (Tinker) Slocum. His paternal grand- father was Oliver E. Slocum, of Tolland, and grandmother Mary (Mills) Slocum. He was edu- cated in the Grafton schools and at Amherst College, graduating from the latter in the class of 1869 ; and studied for his profession in Bos- ton, in the office of Slocum & Staples, composed of his father and the late Judge Hamilton B. Staples of the Superior bench. Admitted to the bar in 1871, he became a partner with his father in general practice, under the firm name of W. F. & W. S. Slocum, with offices in Boston and Newton. In 1881 he was made city solicitor of Newton, which position he has since held. He was a member of the first School Board of the city of Newton, and served in that body four terms (1874-77) ; and in 1888 and 1889 he represented his district in the lower house of the Legislature, serving both terms on the important committee on cities, the second term as its chairman. He is a member of the Boston Bar Association, of the Boston Congregational Club, of the Newton Con- gregational Club, of the Boston Athletic Associa- tion, of the Massachusetts (political dining) Club,

and of the Newton Club ; and he is a Free Mason and Knight Templar. In politics he is Republican, and in religion a Congregationalist, member of the Central Congregational Church of Newtonville. Mr. Slocum was married in 1873 to Miss Annie A. Pulsifer, daughter of Charles S. Pulsifer, of Newton. They have had four chil- dren : Frederick Pulsifer (deceased), Agnes Eliza- beth, Charles Pulsifer, and Winfield Scott Slo- cum, Jr.

SOHIER, WILLIAM DAVIES, member of the Suffolk bar, was born in Boston, October 22, 1858, son of William and Susan Cabot (Lowell) Sohier. He is descended on both sides from early Essex families - the Higginson, Cabot, Jackson, and Lowell families -which were closely connected with the early history of the county. His ances- tor, Francis Higginson, was one of the founders of Salem; and the Higginsons and Cabots were long prominent in Salem and Beverly. Another ances- tor, Jonathan Jackson, represented Essex on the committee which drafted the Massachusetts Con- stitution ; and another, John- Lowell, was also a

WM. D. SOHIER,

member on behalf of Suffolk, although a native of Essex. An earlier John Lowell was town clerk of Newbury, and deputy to the General Court

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in 1643. Mr. Sohier's father, grandfather, and uncle were each prominent members of the bar : and on his mother's side he is descended from Judge John Lowell, distinguished as the first United States district judge of the northern dis- triet, appointed by Washington, and is a nephew of the present John Lowell, who has recently held the same position. His mother was a daughter of John Amory Lowell. His early education was at- tained in Boston private schools and in the public schools of Beverly. Then he attended the Mas- sachusetts Institute of Technology in the class of 1875, and in 1876 entered the Harvard Law School. He completed his legal studies in the offices of Henry W. Paine and Robert D. Smith in Boston, and in ISSI was admitted to the bar. He began practice in Boston, and since 1884 has been associated with his uncle, ex-Judge John Lowell, of the United States Circuit Court. In the famous contests in the Legislature over the division of the town of Beverly, covering the years 1886-90, he represented the opponents of division, first as a member of the committee appointed by the town to oppose the movement, serving as counsel, without pay, for the first two years of the struggle, and then as representative from the town in the lower house of the Legislatures of 1888, 1889, 1890, and 1891, where he was again success- ful in defeating each attempt for division. In 1891 the petitioners were discouraged; and, al- though a petition was presented, it was not pressed. The danger then being practically over, he de- clined to be a candidate for re-election for a fifth term. During his four terms he served on a num- ber of important committees, and was counted among the most influential leaders. He is a member of the Republican Club of Massachusetts, and at the time of its formation was chairman of the executive committee. He is also a member of the Union and Puritan clubs of Boston, of the Country Club, and of the Essex County Club. Mr. Sohier was married in Boston, December 13, 1880, to Miss Edith F. Alden, daughter of Walter B. and Julia E. (White) Alden, a lineal descendant of John Alden, of Plymouth. They have three children : Eleanor, Alice, and William Davies Sohier.

SPEAR, WILLIAM EDWARD, member of the Suffolk bar, is a native of Maine, born in Rock- land, January 2, 1849, son of Archibald G. and Angelica (Branton) Spear. He was educated in

the public schools of Rockland, and at Bowdoin College, from which he graduated in the class of 1870. He was first prepared for the ministry, taking the regular course of the Bangor Theologi- cal Seminary, and soon after his graduation there- from, in 1873, began preaching. For three years he was pastor of the Congregational church in Dunbarton, N.H. Retiring from the pulpit, he spent two years in European travel, and then ap- plied himself to the study of law, reading with Al- bert P. Gould, of Thomaston, Me. Admitted to the bar in 1878, he has since practised in Boston.

WILLIAM E. SPEAR.

He was assistant counsel for the United States in the court of commissioners of Alabama claims from 1882 to 1885 inclusive, and subsequently assistant counsel for the government in the French spoliation claims. In January, 1893, he was appointed a United States commissioner to take the place made vacant by the death of Henry L. Hallett. He has been a member of the board of overseers of Bowdoin College since 1888. In politics Mr. Spear is a Republican. He is an earnest bimetallist, and in the discussion of the silver question has taken a prominent part, delivering addresses before boards of trade in the vicinity of Boston, and publishing numerous articles in advocacy of the free coinage of the

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MEN OF PROGRESS.

white metal. He was married in October, 1878, to Mrs. Marie Josephine Graux. They have had two children. Max Branton and Louis Rene Spear. both deceased. He is a brother-in-law of Senator Frye and of ex-Governor Garcelon of Maine.

SPENCER, AARON WARNER, of Boston, presi- dent of the Stock Exchange 1860-62 and ISSS- 90, is a native of Vermont, born in Springfield, Windsor County, son of Guy and Mary (Warner) Spencer. His ancestors on the paternal side

A. W. SPENCER.

were among the early settlers of this part of Vermont, and his mother's family was of Ac- worth, N.H. He was educated in the com- mon schools of his native town, and at Chester (Vt.) Academy, from which he was graduated. In 1842 he came to Boston, and has since resided there, during his active business life oc- cupying a conspicuous position among bankers and brokers of the city. He began as a clerk in the banking and brokerage house of J. W. Clark & Co., and in 1850 he was admitted to the firm. That year he also became a member of the Stock Exchange then known as the Boston Brokers' Board, in the transactions of which he at once assumed a prominent position. In 1856

he retired from the firm of J. W. Clark & Co., and established the banking house of Spencer, Vila, & Co., of which he was the head through an eventful decade of years. During the Civil War the firm were for a considerable period the sole agents of the Treasury Department for the sale of govern- ment securities in the New England States, and their sales aggregated hundreds of millions of dollars. At that time Mr. Spencer was one of the largest operators connected with the Stock Exchange, and classed among the shrewdest. He was first elected president of the Exchange in September, 1860, and served through re-elections till September, 1862. His second term, for the years 1888-90, was twenty years after his retire- ment from the firm of Spencer, Vila, & Co. and from active business (1867). He was among the earliest members of the board to take an active interest in the copper mining districts of Lake Superior, then undeveloped ; and, when a partner in the house of J. W. Clark & Co., he made frequent visits to this region, passing over the very sections where are now the rich Calumet and Hecla, the Tamarack, and the Osceola mines, at that period covered by an utterly unexplored wilderness. From that time he has been con- nected with Lake Superior mining interests, and has retained large holdings in the leading produc- ing mines. Since his retirement from business he has taken no prominent part in the trans- actions of the Exchange, although he continues his connection with it, and is a daily attendant at its sessions. He is a member of the Temple, Algonquin, Suffolk, Art, and Country clubs. He was married in June, 1853, to Miss Josephine Vila, of Roxbury. His only surviving child is Josephine (now Mrs. Frederick Lewis Gay). His only son, Alfred Warner Spencer, a graduate of Harvard College, died in 1887. Mr. Spencer has resided since 1853 in Dorchester, now the Dorchester District of Boston, owning there, on Columbia Street, a large, old-fashioned, most attractive rural estate, comprising nearly twenty acres, with oaks of more than a century's growth, and stone walls built a hundred years ago.

SPOFFORD, JOHN CALVIN, architect, Boston, is a native of Maine, born in Webster, Andros- coggin County, November 25, 1854, son of Phineas M. and Mary E. (Wentworth) Spofford. His ancestry is traced to John and Elizabeth

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MEN OF PROGRESS.

(Scott) Spofford, who came from Yorkshire, Eng., to this country in 1638, and settled in that part of Rowley, Mass., now the town of Georgetown. He is a lineal descendant of John Wentworth. lieutenant governor of the province of New Hampshire from 1717 to 1730. His great-great- great-grandfather, Captain John Wentworth, fought on the " Plains of Abraham " at the battle of Quebec, and was one of the men who carried Wolfe to the rock beside which he died. His father, Phineas M. Spofford, was a ship-carpenter and farmer in Webster. John C. spent his early boyhood on the farm of his grandfather, Foster 1). Wentworth, attending the district school during the winter months. Later he enjoyed several terms at the Monmouth Academy. Monmouth, Me., and at the Maine Wesleyan Seminary, Kent's Hill. While attending these academies he taught some time in his old district school, using the pro- ceeds from this service to defray the expenses of his education. Subsequently he became principal of Smith's Business College in Lewiston, where he remained for a year or more (1876-77). When a pupil in the district school, he excelled in drawing ; and he early evinced a liking for architecture, which was stimulated by work at the carpenter's and mason's trade after leaving the school-room. Finally, he determined to adopt architecture as a profession, and in 1879 came to Boston to prepare for it. He first entered the office of H. J. Preston, where he worked and studied for about a year. Then in February, 1881, he engaged as a draughtsman with Sturgis & Brigham, one of Bos- ton's leading firms of architects, and continued in their employ until 1886. During this period he had charge of the construction of a number of noteworthy public and private structures of the firm's design, among them the building of the Massachusetts Life Insurance Company on State Street in Boston, and the residence of H. H. Rogers of the Standard Oil Company in New York. In 1887 he engaged in professional work on his own account, and in March of that year formed a copartnership with Willard M. Bacon, under the firm name of Spofford & Bacon. At the expira- tion of a year this partnership was dissolved, and he united with Charles Brigham, formerly of Sturgis & Brigham, under the name of Brigham & Spofford. He obtained for the new firm, among other large and valuable contracts, those for the alteration and enlargement of the Maine State House and for the construction of the new City

Hall of Lewiston, Me. The work of designing and building the Massachusetts State House Extension was also begun under the firm of Brigham & Spofford, and its other notable work included the Asylum for Inebriates and Dipso- maniacs in Foxborough ; the Presbyterian church in the Roxbury District, Boston ; the passen- ger stations on the Old Colony division of the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad, at Roxbury and Stoughton : the Town Hall and Public Library in Fairhaven ; the Memorial Hall in Belfast, Me .; the residence of J. Manchester

JOHN C. SPOFFORD.

Haynes in Augusta, Me., pronounced the finest residence in the Kennebec Valley (burned in 1893); and extensive residences in the Roxbury and West Roxbury Districts of Boston. In February, 1892, the firm was dissolved; and after a trip abroad Mr. Spofford opened his present offices in the John Hancock Building, Boston, and resumed work upon several important com- missions. Of his later designs are the new City Hall of Bangor, Me., the Methodist church and the Hapgood Building in Everett, and numer- ous residences, among them the elegant house of Charles F. Jennings, of Everett. Mr. Spofford is a member of the Masonic and Odd Fellows orders ; has been grand protector of Massachusetts

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in the Knights and Ladies of Honor, and is a member of a number of other fraternal associa- tions. He was elected president of the " Spofford Family Association " in 1888, on the occasion of the gathering of seven hundred members of the family from all parts of the country, to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the arrival from England in this country of John Spofford and Elizabeth Scott, his wife, the founders of the family in America. Mr. Spofford was married July 6, 1881, to Miss Ella M. Fuller, of Turner, Me. They have one child : Mabel Fuller Spofford.

GEO. M. STEARNS.

STEARNS, GEORGE MYRON, of Chelsea, mem- ber of the Suffolk bar, is a native of Spencer, born April 27, 1856, son of Isaac N. and Mary (Wood) Stearns. He is descended from Isaac Sterne (afterwards spelled Stearns) who came from Eng- land in 1630, and was one of the early settlers of Watertown, a selectman of the town in 1659, and again in 1670 and 1671. He was educated in the common schools and at Wilbraham Academy, and fitted for his profession in the Boston University Law School, from which he graduated in the class of 1879. He was admitted to the bar in 1880, and has since practised his profession in Boston. In Chelsea he has been prominent in municipal

affairs for a number of years. He was a mem- ber of the Common Council in 1887-88, and he has been an alderman three terms (1892, 1893-94), serving on the important committees on finance, ordinances, claims, and accounts, and chairman of the board in 1894. He was for two years a member of the Republican ward and city committee, and member of the county committee for 1893 and 1894. He belongs to the Masonic order and to the Knights of Pythias : chancellor commander of the latter in 1886. In religion he is Unitarian, clerk of the First Unitarian So- ciety of Chelsea, and member of the standing committee. He was married February 14, 1882, to Miss Idella E. Wilkinson. They have two chil- dren : Ralph W. and Ethel L. Stearns.

SUGHRUE, MICHAEL JOSEPH, assistant dis- trict attorney for Suffolk, is a native of New Hampshire, born in Nashua, August 27, 1857, son of John and Julia (Sullivan) Sughrue. He is of Irish ancestry. His general education was ac- quired in public schools of Boston - the family moving to that city when he was a child - and at

M. J. SUGHRUE.

the Crosby Academy of Nashua. Obliged early to earn his living, he engaged in various occupations

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in Boston, some time in the dry-goods business, then in the post-office, then as assistant in the Social Law Library, meanwhile studying law at home. At length he entered the Boston Univer- sity Law School, and, graduating therefrom in 1888, was admitted to the Suffolk bar. After about three years spent in general practice, asso- ciated with George L. Huntress, Homer Albers, and J. Porter Crosby, having offices in the Sears Building, he was appointed (in June, 1891) assist- ant district attorney for the Suffolk District by the Hon. Oliver Stevens. He is a member of the University Club, District Attorneys' Club, the Young Men's Catholic Association, the Catholic Union, Clover Club, the Young Men's Democratie Club, the Charitable Irish Society, Savin Hill Yacht Club, and the Knights of Honor. Mr. Sughrue was married in Boston on June 22, 1892, to Miss Elizabeth Frances Quinn.

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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 24

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