USA > Massachusetts > Men of progress one thousand biographical sketches and portraits of leaders in business and professional life in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts > Part 25
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SWIFT, GENERAL JOHN LINDSAY, some time naval officer at the port of Boston, and for eigh- teen years a deputy collector of the Boston custom-house, is a native of Falmouth, Barn- stable County, born May 28, 1828, son of Joseph l'ease and Priscilla (Dimmock-Chadwick) Swift, both also natives of Falmouth. When he was nine years of age his parents removed to Utica, N. Y., where he was educated at the academy of that eity. At the age of seventeen he came with his family to Boston, and here began active life in mercantile business. From 1848 to 1852 he was a prominent member of the Mercantile Library Association, at that time including among its members many of the foremost of the younger business men of the city. Deciding to become a lawyer, he entered the Harvard Law School in 1854, where he remained two terms, leaving be- fore graduation, however, to accept a clerical position in the city government of Boston. In 1855 and 1857 he was a member of the lower house of the Legislature, and was an active sup- porter of Henry Wilson for his first term and of Charles Sumner for his second term as United States Senator. He became pilot com- missioner in 1858, by appointment of Governor Banks. This office he resigned at the opening of the Civil War, at which time he was acting as lieutenant of the " Boston Tigers," a battal- ion of the local militia then occupying Fort War- ren under orders of Governor Andrew. In June,
1861, he was appointed United States storekeeper at the custom-house ; and here he remained nearly a year, resigning in August, 1862, to enlist as a private in the Thirty-fifth Regiment, Massa- chusetts Volunteers. He was early promoted to the rank of sergeant, and in August, 1862, while his regiment was embarking on a train for An- tietam, was detached as lieutenant to recruit a company in Roxbury. Subsequently, as captain of Company C, Forty-first Regiment, he joined General Banks's expedition to the Department of the Gulf. Early in 1863 he was appointed pro-
JOHN L. SWIFT.
vost judge of Baton Rouge, La. He was re- lieved from this position at his own request, and in 1863 was detached from his regiment, and made captain and judge advocate on the staff of General Grover, commanding a brigade of the Nineteenth Army Corps then under orders for active service in the Department of the Gulf. He was one of the volunteers of the " Forlorn Hope " for the assault on Port Hudson in June, 1863. In 1864 he was honorably discharged from the army to become adjutant-general of the State of Louisi- ana, which position he held till some time in 1865, when he resigned, and returned North. In Sep- tember, 1866, he became naval officer at the port of Boston, appointed to that position by l'resident Johnson, and holding it till the following March,
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MEN OF PROGRESS.
when he was succeeded by General Francis A. Osborn. The next month Collector Thomas Russell appointed him deputy collector. This was the beginning of his long service in that office, broken only by two excursions into business and professional undertakings. His first withdrawal was in 1869, when he resigned to engage in busi- ness in New York City. In 1874 he was again appointed deputy collector by Collector Simmons, and served from that date through the administra- tions of Collectors Simmons, Beard, and Worth- ington. He resigned his office in November, 1885, when the Hon. Leverett Saltonstall was commissioned collector. His next term of ser- vice was from March, 1890, to March, 1894, under Collector Beard. Early a sympathizer with the anti-slavery cause, he became a member of the Republican party at its inception. He took a somewhat prominent part in the Anthony Burns " riot " in 1854. Aside from politics, his natural capacities as a public speaker have found practice in the cause of religion and temperance. He has taken an active part as a speaker on the stump in every presidential campaign since 1852. He is a member of the Loyal Legion and of the Grand Army of the Republic (a comrade of Post GS) and of the Massachusetts and Congregational clubs. His published works are: " Speech on the Removal of E. G. Loring from the office of Judge of Probate," April, 1855; " About Grant," Boston, 1880; the oration at the bicentennial celebration of Stow, May, 1883 : the oration at the celebration of the two hundredth anniver- sary of the incorporation of Falmouth, June 15, 1886 ; and the "Oration before the City Council and Citizens of Boston, July 4, 1889." He was editor of a weekly paper, After Dinner, during 1873 and 1874; and of the State, a weekly politi- cal and general newspaper, from 1885 to 1887 ; from 1887 to 1890 he served on the editorial staff of the Evening Traveller ; in his earlier years he did editorial work on the National Republican in Washington, and on the Commercial Advertiser in New York. General Swift was married in 1854 to Miss Sarah E. Allen, of Boston. Three sons were born to them, the eldest dying in infancy. The two now living are residents of Boston. He has been a resident of Roxbury since 1857.
TEMPLE, THOMAS FRENCH, register of deeds, Suffolk County, is a native of Canton, born May
25, 1838, son of William F. Temple, a son of Samuel Temple, a graduate of Dartmouth College, author of many musical works, and of " Temple's Arithmetic." His mother was Milla H. (French) Temple, daughter of the Hon. Thomas French, of Canton, a noted man in Norfolk County from 1830 to 1850, having been in the Senate and in Governor Briggs's Council. When he was a child, his parents moved to Dorchester, and he was edu- cated there in the public schools. In 1855 he entered the service of the Dorchester Insurance Company ; and he has held all the positions in the
THOMAS F. TEMPLE.
gift of the company, being now its president. He served as town clerk and treasurer of Dorchester from 1864 to 1870, when the town was annexed to Boston; was a trial justice for Norfolk County previous to annexation, and became the first judge of the Dorchester District Municipal Court estab- lished with annexation. In 1870, also, he was one of the representatives of the new district in the Boston Common Council. The next year he was first elected to his present position as register of deeds, and has held it continuously through re-elections from that date. Mr. Temple is con- nected with a number of business corporations and numerous philanthropic organizations. He is a director of the International Trust Company,
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of the John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Company, of the Dorchester Hygeia Ice Com- pany, and of the Boston Lead Company ; presi- dent, as above stated, of the Dorchester Mutual Fire Insurance Company; and trustee of the Ilome Savings Bank. He served for twenty years on the Board of Overseers of the Poor in Boston, several terms as chairman, finally resign- ing in 1890; and he has been for a long period trustee of the l'erkins Institution for the Blind, trustee of the Boston Farm School on Thomp- son's Island, and president of the trustees of Cedar Grove Cemetery. He is a leading Mason, past master of the Union Lodge, member of the Boston Commandery Knights Templars, and treasurer of the Massachusetts Consistory; and is quite prominent in other fraternal societies, be- longing to the United Workmen, the Knights of Honor, the Royal Arcanum, and similar orders. He has held the position of grand receiver of the Grand Lodge of United Workmen of Massachu- setts since 1885; is also senior grand master workman of that body: has been a member of the Supreme Lodge of United Workmen and Knights of Honor, and has served on the finance committee of both organizations. He has long been a member of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company, commander of the organiza- tion in 1886, and now chairman of its finance committee; is a member and vice-president of the Old Dorchester and Minot clubs: member of the Codman Club, Hale Club, and National Lancers. He was formerly connected with the Dorchester and Boston fire departments, and was fireman of Engine 20 at the time of the Great Fire in 1872. Mr. Temple was married in July, 1863, to Miss S. Emma Spear, a daughter of Cap- tain John Spear, of Neponset, Dorchester, form- erly of Quincy. He has four daughters and a son.
THOMPSON, NEWELL ALDRICH, of Boston, merchant, is a native of Boston, born March 6, 1853, son of Newell A. and Susan Saunderson (Wyman) Thompson. He is a lineal descendant of David Thompson, a Scottish gentleman, scholar. and traveller, who first came to America in 1622, sent out by Gorges and Mason to superintend their settlement in l'iscataqua, and for whom Thomp- son's Island, in Boston Harbor, which was owned and later occupied by him as an Indian trading- post in 1623, was named ; and on the maternal
side he descends from Francis Wyman, one of Winthrop's company, who settled in 1642 in what is now the city of Woburn. His father, Newell A., was of the old Boston firm of N. A. Thomp- son & Co., real estate auctioneers ; was several terms in the city government, served in the State Legislature, was a member of the governor's coun- cil, and was especially active in the State militia, his military career covering many years, including service in the Independent Company of Cadets. the Boston City Guards of which he was long the captain, as lieutenant colonel of the First Regi-
N. A. THOMPSON.
ment, major and inspector-general of the First Brigade on the staff of Major-General Edwards, and on the military staff of Governor Banks. Newell A. Thompson was educated in Boston public schools,- spending five years in the Brim- mer School and fitting for college in the Latin School, where he graduated in 1872,-and at Harvard graduating in the class of 1876. Among his college classmates were the Rev. Charles F. Thwing, Francis L. Wellman, now assistant dis- trict attorney of New York, William F. Moody, assistant district attorney of Massachusetts, Will- iam L. Chase, merchant, Fred J. Stimson, lawyer and author, John T. Wheelwright, and Professor Barrett Wendell of Harvard College. He engaged
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in the coal business first as a salesman for Berwind, White, & Co., Philadelphia, dealers in soft coal. Then he became salesman for Coxe Brothers & Co., of New York, hard coal, and subsequently was New England sales-agent for the Lehigh Valley Coal Company till 1889, when he left it to enter business for himself, estab- lishing the firm of N. A. Thompson & Co. in the wholesale and retail coal trade. Following in the footsteps of his father, he has been active in military affairs all his life, making his first appear- ance on Boston Common in July, 1861, as cor- poral of Company A, Second Battalion Infantry, known as the Boston Light Infantry. He was appointed sergeant-major of the First Regiment of Infantry, June 27, 1879, under Colonel Wales ; was next commissioned first lieutenant and ad- jutant of the Fifth Regiment, December 29, 1879, under Colonel Trull, holding this position till De- cember 29, 1881, when he resigned; was ap- pointed sergeant-major on the staff of the Second Brigade, June 27, 1885 ; and on May 25, 1886, was commissioned aide-de-camp with the rank of captain on the staff of the Second Brigade under General Peach, which position he resigned July 8, 1894. During the administration of Governor Ames (three years) he was detailed on the staff of the commander-in-chief as acting assistant in- spector-general. He joined the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company, May 12, 1879, and was elected adjutant of the company in 1886-87. In politics Mr. Thompson is a Republican, in- clined toward Independence. He has never held civil or political office, and is not active in polit- ical organizations. He is connected with the Ma- sonic order, and is a member of the University Club of Boston, of the Bostonian Society, and of the New England Historie Genealogical Society. He has been an extensive traveller in European countries, having made several trips abroad, using the time allotted to recreation in this manner. He was married April 11, 1889, to Miss Florence G. Peck. She died January 8, 1891, leaving one child : Newell A. Thompson, Jr., born February 3, 1890.
TOWLE, GEORGE HENRY, member of the Suf- folk bar, was born in Boston, April 9, 1851, son of Henry and Mary Ann (McCrillis) Towle. He is of Scotch-Irish ancestry, a descendant of Philip Towle, who came to Portsmouth, N.H., in 1635. His mother's ancestors were pure Scotch. He
was educated in Boston public schools, -the Dwight Grammar and the Boston Latin, - and at Wesleyan University, Middletown, Conn., in the class of 1873. After graduation from college a year before his class, he studied law with Messrs. Perry & Creech, and was admitted to the bar of Suffolk County in September, 1873. He has
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GEO. H. TOWLE.
practised since in Boston, devoting particular at- tention to corporations. He has also been en- gaged in railroad building and mining in the South and West. He is a member of the Massa- chusetts lodge, Masons, St. Paul's Chapter, Hugh de Payens Commandery; and of the Scottish bodies in Boston. In politics he is Republican. Mr. Towle was married October 25, 1875, to Miss Sarah Dorset Hamblin. They have two children : Mary Rutter, born in 1877 ; and Sarah Isabel Towle, born in 1879.
VOSHELL, SAMUEL SHAW, of Boston, super- intendent of the John Hancock Mutual Life In- surance Company, is a native of Delaware, born near Dover, Kent County, January 14, 1855, son of Joseph and Levenia (Hobbs) Voshell. His pa- ternal grandparents were Samuel and Elizabeth (Shaw) Voshell, and his maternal grandparents,
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John and Patience ( Hinsley) Hobbs, all of Dela- ware. He was educated in the country public schools. He began business life at seventeen as salesman for his uncle, Amos H. Hobbs, in a general country store at Odessa, Del., where he remained till April, 1876. Then he started in the same business on his own account, establishing
S. S. VOSHELL.
himself at Smyrna, and continued here till Decem- ber, 1879. About a month later, January 27, ISSo, he entered the employment of the John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Company at Philadelphia as agent, and has since that time been engaged with this company. In September, 1882, he was promoted to the position of superin- tendent at New Haven, Conn. ; and on the 5th of February, 1884, came to Boston in the same capacity. In politics he is a Republican, but is not active in political work. He is a member of the Old Dorchester Club, of the Dorchester Dis- trict, where he resides. He was married on the 28th of December, 1882, to Miss Christianna L. Lentz, of Philadelphia. They have two children : Walter L. and S. Howard Voshell.
WAIT, WILLIAM CUSHING, member of the Suf- folk bar, is a native of Charlestown, born Decem- ber 18, 1860, son of Elijah Smith and Eliza Ann
Hadley) Wait. He is a descendant of Captain John Wayte, who came to Malden some time about 1638 ; and his immediate ancestors were residents of Medford. His early instruction was received from his mother, who had been at one time a school-teacher. Afterward he attended school in Charlestown, and after his tenth year the public school in Medford, the family moving there in 1870. He was prepared for college at the Medford High School under L. L. Dame, and was graduated from Harvard in the class of 1882, being made a member of the Phi Beta Kappa So- ciety, receiving the summa cum laude degree, with highest honors in history. He studied law in the Harvard Law School, graduating in the class of 1885, with the degrees of LL.B. and A.M., and was admitted to the bar of Suffolk County July 21, 1885. Three years later, on May 15, 1888, he was admitted to the bar of the United States Circuit Court, and in 1891 to the bar of the Cir- cuit Court of Appeals. He began practice in the office of Nathan Matthews, Jr., later mayor of Boston, and in 1886 opened his own office. In 1890 he formed with Samuel J. Elder the law firm of Elder & Wait, now, by the admission of Edmund A. Whitman, under the name of Elder, Wait & Whitman, with offices in the Ames Build- ing. He has resided in West Medford or Med- ford since his boyhood, although, owing to the re- moval of his father and family to Chicago in 1877, he is registered at Harvard as from Chicago; and in late years has been prominent in municipal affairs. He was a member of the special commit- tee on securing a charter for the city of Medford in 1892 ; an alderman of Medford the following year, declining a renomination ; and for three years (1892-94) a sinking fund commissioner. For several years also he served on the Demo- cratic town and city committee. He was twice a candidate for the lower house of the Legislature from Medford (1890 and 1891), and twice de- feated by the Hon. William B. Lawrence. In politics he is a Democrat, with decided Indepen- dent leanings. With the Hon. Sherman Hoar he was of the original Cleveland men of Harvard, and he was early an advocate of tariff reform. He is a member of the New England Tariff Re- form League, of the Medford Tariff Reform League, and the Young Men's Democratic Club of Massachusetts. Other organizations to which he belongs are the Suffolk Bar Association, the Royal Arcanum, the Medford No License League,
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MEN OF PROGRESS.
the Medford Club, the Medford Comedy Club. He is also a secretary of the Harvard Law School, class of 1885 ; and is a member of the class com-
WILLIAM CUSHING WAIT.
mittee of his college class (1882). In 1882 he was at Newport, R.I., in the office of Colonel George E. Waring, engaged upon the Social Statistics of Cities for the Tenth United States Census, and contributed numerous sketches of places to the work. He is the author of several articles on law topics published in the American and English Encyclopedia of Law, on Statute of Frauds, Jet- tison, Marine Insurance, Representations as to Character. Mr. Wait was married January 1, ISS9, to Miss Edith Foote Wright, daughter of John S. and Mary Clark (Green) Wright of Med- ford, and granddaughter of Elizur Wright and the Rev. Beriah Green, two of the anti-slavery leaders. They have no children.
WALWORTH, JAMES JONES, founder of the modern system of steam heating, is a native of New Hampshire, born in Canaan, November IS, ISOS, son of George and Philura (Jones) Wal- worth ; but his business career was begun in Boston. His father was a descendant in the sixth generation from William Walworth who came from England to Fisher's Island and Gro-
ton, Conn., in 1693, and was the progenitor of nearly all of the name in the United States. He was educated in the public schools of Canaan, and in the academies at Thetford, Vt., and Salis- bury, N.H., while a student at the latter teaching school during the winter months. At the age of twenty he came to Boston, and was engaged for ten years in the hardware business, first as ap- prentice with Alexander H. Twombly & Co., sub- sequently as partner in the firm of Scudder, Park, & Co., and later as agent of the Canton Hard- ware Manufacturing Company. Then in 1841 entering into partnership with Joseph Nason, under the firm name of Walworth & Nason, he organized the business of warming and ventilating buildings by means of steam and hot water appa- ratus, upon methods not before in use, thus first introducing the system now almost universally adopted. The business was started in New York, and a plant established in Boston a year later ; and, under Mr. Walworth's personal direction, the new system was applied to numerous cotton and woollen manufactories and other large buildings in all the New England States several years be-
J. J. WALWORTH.
fore any other concern entered the field. The firm also introduced into this country the steam "fan-blower " system of ventilating, first applying
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it in 1846 in the Boston custom house. As an engineer, in the practice of steam heating and ventilating, Mr. Walworth has designed and con- structed many important works in hospitals, theatres, and public buildings in several of the States. In the year 1852 the firm of Walworth & Nason was dissolved, Mr. Nason assuming the business in New York and Mr. Walworth continu- ing in Boston in his own name. At a later pe- riod he associated with himself as partners Mar- shall S. Scudder and his brother C. Clark Wal- worth, making the firm name James J. Walworth & Co., under which the business was conducted for nearly twenty years. In 1872 the corporation of the "Walworth Manufacturing Company" was organized, with Mr. Walworth as president and manager of the business department. He con- tinued at the head of the great establishment till 1891, when he declined a re-election as president, and has since partially withdrawn from active duties. During his conduct of the business the plant established in the early forties in a small building in Devonshire Street had grown to ex- tensive manufacturing works, employing upwards of eight hundred men, its products finding a market in all parts of the United States and in several South American and European countries. Among other interests with which he has been connected are the Malleable Iron Fittings Com- pany at Bradford, Conn., of which he has been president for twenty-eight years, the Wanalancet Iron and Tube Company, the Massachusetts Steam Heating Company, the Union Flax Mills Company, and the Consolidated Gas Company, president of cach. In 1870 and 1871 he repre- sented the city of Newton in the lower house of the Legislature. He was one of the founders of the Lasell Female Seminary at Auburndale, has served as president of the Educational Society of Auburndale, and been prominent in numerous other societies, literary, charitable, and philan- thropic. Mr. Walworth was first married in 1837 to Miss Elizabeth C. Nason, daughter of Leavitt Nason, and sister of Joseph Nason, his early partner. They had one son : Arthur Clarence Walworth. He married secondly, in 1888. Mrs. Lydia Sawyer, widow of Stephen L. Sawyer, a former partner of his. They have no children.
WARNOCK, ADAM, supreme secretary of the American Legion of Honor, headquarters in Bos-
ton, is a native of New York, born in New York City, December 19, 1846, son of John and Ann Warnock. He was educated in the public schools, and began business life in 1857. During the Civil War he served in the United States Navy. He became interested in fraternal societies when a youth, at the age of eighteen joining the Sons of Temperance and the Good Templars, and at twenty-one entering the Masonic order. His as- sociation with the American Legion of Honor dates from 1879, when he became a member of the Stella Council of Brooklyn, N.Y., and at once
ADAM WARNOCK.
took an active part in the development of the organization. In 1880 he organized Independent Council in New York City. Upon the organiza- tion of the Grand Council in New York, he was elected supreme representative ; and at the ses- sion of 1882 he was elected to the supreme secre- taryship, which position he has held continuously since, making his headquarters in Boston and de- voting his entire time to the duties of his office. During his administration the society erected its main building, No. 200 Huntington Avenue, Back Bay. Boston (first occupied in 1892), and estab- lished branches in every State and Territory in the Union. Mr. Warnock has also held positions of prominence and trust in numerous other organiza-
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MEN OF PROGRESS.
tions. He was for a number of years representa- tive from the State of New York to the Supreme Lodge Knights of Honor, president of the Knights of Honor Veteran Association, president of the National Fraternal Congress, and grand secretary of the Royal Arcanum of New York State. In the Masonic order he was long a member of the Atlas Lodge of New York City, and is now a member of the Columbian Lodge of Boston. He is also a member of the Corinthian Royal Arch Chapter, and Ivanhoe Commandery Knights Templars, New York ; of the Commonwealth Lodge, Odd Fellows, Boston ; of Howard Lodge, Knights of Pythias, New York; of the Yononto Tribe, Improved Order of Red Men, Boston (a charter member); of the Knights and Ladies of Honor; and of the United Workmen, Pilgrim Fathers, Home Circle, and Equitable Aid Union. He was an early member of the Grand Army of the Republic, and is now comrade of Post 30, Department of Massachusetts. His association with clubs is confined to the Union Boat and Athletic clubs of Boston, to which he has belonged during the greater part of his residence in Massa- chusetts, being much interested in athletic sports, a good oarsman, and a fine amateur tennis-player. Mr. Warnock was married in May, 1872, to Miss Elizabeth Atkinson. They have five children. His home is in Cambridge.
WHIPPLE, SHERMAN LELAND, of Boston, lawyer, member of the bar in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Connecticut, and admitted in the United States courts, is a native of New Hamp- shire, born in New London, March 4, 1862, son of Dr. Solomon M. and Henrietta Kimball ( Her- sey) Whipple. His father was a leading physician, a man of scholarly attainments. His ancestry is traced on the paternal side from Matthew Whipple, who settled in Ipswich, Mass., in 1635, and on the maternal side from the Herseys of Hingham and the Sheafes of Portsmouth, N. H. He was educated in the district school, the Colby Academy of New London, and at Yale, graduat- ing in 1881. At the academy he entered upon the regular college preparatory course when a lad of eleven ; and he graduated from college at the age of nineteen and three months, the youngest member of his class. For a year, beginning in the autumn following his graduation, he taught mathematics and Latin in the Boys' High School
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