Men of progress one thousand biographical sketches and portraits of leaders in business and professional life in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Part 3

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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bought his partner's interest. Soon after he moved to No. 25 North Market Street, and in 1859 to No. 23, the site he has since occupied. In 1859 the firm name first became Jonathan Bigelow & Co. Subsequently it was changed to Bigelow, Maynard & Magee, then to Bigelow & Magee, and then, in 1865, again to Jonathan Bigelow & Co., by which it has since been known. It is one of the oldest produce commission houses in Boston, re- ceiving consignments from more than thirty of the different States and Territories, besides the Brit- ish Provinces. Since 1888 Mr. Bigelow has been president of the National Butter, Cheese, and Egg Association. In 1887 he was a member of the lower house of the Legislature from the Sixteenth Middlesex representative district, and in that session was earnest in support of various reform measures, and took a pronounced position on the butterine and oleomargarine question. He in- troduced a bill for registration in dentistry, another giving women who are entitled to vote on candidates for school committee the right to vote on the liquor license question, and a third for the removal of obstructions to the entrances of gambling-rooms. The first and last of these bills became laws : the second was carried in the House. but defeated in the Senate. Mr. Bigelow was one of the earliest members of the Boston Produce Exchange, and president of the Fruit and Produce Exchange. He is also a member of the Boston Chamber of Commerce, of the Boston Associated Board of Trade, of the Boston Merchants' Association, of " The Market Men's Republican Club," of the Massachusetts Republi- can Club, and of the Middlesex (political dining) Club, of the Colonial Club of Cambridge, of the South Middlesex Unitarian Club, and of the " Old School Boys' Association of Boston." He belongs to the Masonic order, a member of Mount Olivet Lodge, of Cambridge Royal Arch Chapter, and of the DeMolay Commandery Knights Templar; is a past district deputy grand master, and a member of the Past District Deputy Grand Masters' Association. In religion he is a Unitarian, and has been active in the Unitarian church and Sunday-schools where he has resided. He was married in 1847 to Miss Sarah Brooks, of Brighton. Their children are : Sam- uel Brooks, Lizzie Jane, Henry J., and Louis H. Bigelow. The daughter Lizzie died when three and one-half years old. His two eldest sons are in business with him.

MEN OF PROGRESS.

BIGELOW, MELVILLE MADISON, author and lecturer on law in the Boston University and other institutions, is a native of Michigan, born near Eaton Rapids, August 2, 1846, son of the Rev. William Enos and Daphne (Mattison) Bigelow. He is a grandson of J. Gardner and Thankful (Enos) Bigelow, great-grandson of Jabez, Jr., and Almy (Gardner) Bigelow, great-great-grandson of Jabez and Susanna (Elderkin) Bigelow, great- great - great - grandson of Gershom and Rachel (Gale) Bigelow, great - great - great - great - grandson of Joshua and Elizabeth (Flagg) Bigelow, great- great-great-great-great-grandson of John and Mary (Warren) Bigelow, or, rather, Begeley or Bageley, the form of the name until about the middle of the 17th century, when at Watertown, Mass., an- cestral home of all the Bigelows, it gradually began to take its present form. Mr. Bigelow is of Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Vermont, and New York, but in the main of Mas- sachusetts ancestry. John, first of the foregoing line, served in the war against the Pequots and also in King Philip's War; Joshua, second of the line, served in King Philip's War; Jabez, Jr., fifth of the line, served as a private soldier in the Revolution; the father, Joseph Enos, of Thankful (Enos), sixth of the line, served as a lieutenant in the Revolution ; while through Su- sanna (Elderkin), fourth of the line, Mr. Bigelow is descended from John Elderkin (1616-87), the famous church-builder, millwright, and shipwright of Massachusetts and Connecticut, who built the first churches and the first mills in New London and Norwich, Conn., and in other places, and also the first merchant vessel ever owned or built in New London, the "New London Tryall," in 1661. His early education was attained in the public schools, ending with the high school, in Michigan. Then he entered the University of Michigan, and, graduating in 1866, was admitted to the bar two years afterwards. Some years later he came to Harvard University, where he received the degree of Ph.D). in 1879. After leaving college he devoted himself to unremit- ting work in legal and historical pursuits, in connection with professional duties, giving much time to historical studies relating to law. He has been mainly engaged in legal authorship, and in lecturing in the law schools of Boston University, the University of Michigan, and the Northwestern University. His law books have been favorably received in England as well as in

this country. One of them (on Torts) has been published by the University of Cambridge, Eng- land, and is used in its Law School as a text- book. Besides this work (English ed. 1889 ; 4th American ed. 1891), the following are Mr. Bige- low's more important works: Law of Estoppel, (1872 ; 5th. ed. 1890); Law of Fraud on its Civil Side, two volumes (vol. 1, 1888; vol. 2. 1890): Elements of the Law of Bills, Notes, and Cheques (1893); History of Procedure in England, Nor- man Period (London, 1880). He has also edited the last editions of Story on Conflict of Laws, Story on Equity Jurisprudence, Story on the Con- stitution, and Jarman on Wills. He has a large acquaintance among people of distinction through- out the United States and in England, and is a member of a number of learned societies at home and abroad. He is a Fellow of the Society of Science, Letters, and Arts, London; member of the Council, Selden Society, London ; associate.

MELVILLE M. BIGELOW.

Victoria Society, London : was made an honorary member of the Athenaum Club, London, in and for the summer of 1889 ; is a member of the Mas- sachusetts Society of Sons of American Revolu- tion, and of the American Historical Association ; honorary member of the Texas Historical Society ; and honorary member of the New York State Bar

MEN OF PROGRESS.

Association. In politics he is an Independent with Republican proclivities, favoring low tariff. Mr. Bigelow was first married, in 1869, to Miss Elizabeth Bragg. By this union were three chil- dren : Ada Hawthorne and Charlotte Gray, both of whom died in 1876, and Leslie Melville Bigelow. His first wife died in ISS1. His second wife, to whom he was married in ISS3, was Miss Cornelia Frothingham Read. She died in 1892, leaving no children.

BRACKETT, JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, governor of Massachusetts in 1890, is a native of New Hampshire, born in Bradford, June 8, 1842, son

J. Q. A. BRACKETT.

of Ambrose S. and Nancy Brackett. There his boyhood was spent, and his early education at- tained ; but since his college days he has been a resident of Massachusetts. He was fitted for col- lege at Colby Academy, New London, N. H., and entered Harvard in the class of 1865. He ranked well with his classmates, and was class orator ; and his graduation was with honors. Then he took the Harvard Law School course, graduating in 1868. The same year he was admitted to the Suffolk bar, and early entered upon a lucrative practice. He subsequently formed a partnership with the late Hon. Levi C. Wade, and is now the

senior member of the law firm of Brackett & Rob- erts. He began his public career as a member of the Boston Common Council, where he served four terms (1873-76), the last one as president. Then he was elected to the lower house of the Legislature; and here, through repeated re-elec- tions, his service covered eight years (1877-81 and 1884-86). During this period he served on many important committees, among others those on taxation, labor, and the judiciary, being chair- man of each, and the special committee of ISS1 on the revision of the Statutes; and was identi- fied with much important legislation. The last two terms he occupied the Speaker's chair, each time elected to the speakership by a large ma- jority. In 1886 he was nominated by his party for lieutenant governor, with Oliver Ames at the head of the ticket, and was elected in the Novem- ber election. This position he held for three years (1887-88-89), and then, nominated for the governorship to succeed Governor Ames, was elected for the term of 1890. Renominated for a second term, he was defeated, after a close can- vass, by William E. Russell, the Democratic can- didate. While serving as lieutenant governor, Mr. Brackett performed the duties of governor on several occasions, and always with credit to the Commonwealth. In the capacity of acting governor he represented Massachusetts at Co- lumbus on the occasion of the celebration of the centennial of the settlement of Ohio, in the sum- mer of 1888 ; and a year later he represented the State at the dedication of the Pilgrim Monument at Plymouth. He was one of the delegates at large from Massachusetts to the Republican Na- tional Convention at Minneapolis in 1892. Since his retirement from public station he has devoted himself sedulously to the practice of his profes- sion, and has been concerned in noteworthy causes. During his long association with Boston interests he has been connected with a number of local institutions. He was for many years a member of the Mercantile Library Association, its president in 1871, and again in 1882, and is now one of its life members. He is a member of the University Club, of the Boston Art Club, of the Arlington Boat Club, of the Massachusetts and Middlesex dinner clubs, of the Republican Club of Massachusetts, and of other organizations. He is also a member of the Masonic fraternity. From 1874 to 1876 he was judge advocate on the staff of General I. S. Burrell, of the First Brig-

MEN OF PROGRESS.

ade, Massachusetts Volunteer Militia. Governor Brackett was married June 20, 1878, to Miss Angie M. Peck, daughter of Abel G. Peck, of Arlington, where he now resides. They have had four children, of whom two are living: John Gaylord and Beatrice Brackett.

BRAGG, HENRY WILLARD, member of the Suf- folk bar, is a native of Holliston, born December 11, 1841, son of Willard and Mary Matilda (Claflin) Bragg. His paternal grandfather was Colonel Arial Bragg, of Milford, and his mater- nal grandfather, Martin Claflin, also of Milford.

HENRY W. BRAGG.

His early education was acquired in the Milford High and the Pittsfield High schools: and his collegiate training was in the University of the City of New York and in Tufts College, this State, the freshman and sophomore years at the former, and the junior and senior years at the latter, from which he was graduated in 1861. He studied law in Natick in the office of the Hon. John W. Bacon (afterwards Judge Bacon, of the Superior Court) and the Hon. George L. Sawin, from January, 1863 to November, 1864, when he was admitted to the bar in Middlesex County. He began practice in Charlestown in January,

1865, and in November, 1868, also opened an office in Boston, where he has practised since in State and United States courts. For the last ten years he has acted as master in equity cases, and as auditor and referee in a large number of cases arising in Suffolk. Middlesex, and Norfolk coun- ties. He has quite an extensive practice, also, in the probate courts in Suffolk and Middlesex counties, and is trustee of several estates and trust funds. He was city solicitor of Charles- town in 1867, 1868, 1869, 1870: special justice of the municipal court of Charlestown from 1870 to 1886 ; master in chancery, Middlesex County, from 1869 to 1874; and has been master in chancery, Suffolk County, from 1874 to the pres- ent time; justice of the municipal court of the Charlestown District from the first of December, 1886, to the present time; and solicitor of the Warren Institution of Savings of Charlestown since 1867. He has long been connected with the Masonic order : member of the Meridian Lodge of Natick, in 1863 ; a charter member of Faith Lodge. Charlestown, and master of the same ; and a member of Signet Chapter. He is a member also of numerous clubs,- of the Uni- versity, Curtis, Taylor, and Abstract clubs of Boston, of the 999th Artillery of Charlestown, and of the college societies Zeta Psi and the Order of the Coffee Pot. In politics he is a Re- publican. Judge Bragg was married January 11. 1866, in Milford, to Miss Ellen Francis Haven. They have no children living.

BROOKS, FRANCIS AUGUSTUS, member of the Suffolk bar since 1848, prominent for twenty years in corporation and railroad cases, was born in Petersham, May 23, 1824. His father, Aaron Brooks, was a graduate of Brown University in 1817, a leading lawyer in Worcester County, and a representative in the General Court in 1834-35. He received his early training at Leicester Acad- emy, and was there fitted for college. He entered Harvard in 1838, the youngest member of his class, and graduated in 1842. After graduation he studied at the Harvard Law School and in the law offices of his father in Petersham and of Aylwin & Paine in Boston, and in 1845 was admitted to the bar in Worcester County. He began the practice of his profession in l'etersham, but in 1848 removed to Boston, where he has since been established. Until 1875 his practice

MEN OF PROGRESS.

was chiefly in patent cases; but since that time he has devoted himself to corporation and railroad cases, in the conduct of which he has gained

FRANCIS A. BROOKS.

distinction. One of these most notable cases was between the Vermont Central and the Vermont & Canada railroads, two corporations of Ver- mont. This was one of the early cases in which the courts of this country assumed the exercise of powers of legislation by authorizing receivers, placed by them in the possession and manage- ment of railroad property, to incur debts having precedence of right over prior existing mortgages. While pursuing his profession, Mr. Brooks has given much study to public questions, notably the Force bill and currency problems, and has pub- lished his views in numerous contributions to the press and in pamphlet form. In 1891 and 1893 he published pamphlets relating to the legislation of Congress in the acts known as the National Currency .Act of 1864, the Bland-Allison Act of 1878, and the Sherman Act of 1890, in which he took ground that, as measures for furnishing a currency or circulating medium in times of peace, these acts of legislation were not within the legiti- mate power of Congress under the Constitution. These publications have attracted much atten- tion, and are recognized as valuable contribu-

tions to the literature of the subjects treated. For some time Mr. Brooks was president of the Vermont & Canada Railroad, and he is now president of the old Nashua & Lowell. Mr. Brooks was married at Groton, September 14. 1847, to Miss Frances Butler, daughter of Caleb and Clarissa (Varnum) Butler. Mr. Butler, his wife's father, was a graduate of Dartmouth in ISoo, a lawyer by profession, principal of the Groton Academy eleven years, postmaster thir- teen years, and the author of a History of Gro- ton. Of the children of Mr. and Mrs. Brooks there are now living three sons : Frederick and Charles Butler, of Boston, and Morgan Brooks, of Minneapolis.

BUNTING, WILLIAM MORTON, of Plymp- ton & Bunting, general managers of the l'enn Mutual Life Insurance Company for New Eng- land, was born in Philadelphia, Penna., March 24, 1855, son of John and Elvira (Andrews) Bunting. His father was a native of England,

WM. M. BUNTING.

born in Manchester; and his mother was of Rhode Island, born in Providence. He was educated in the public schools of Philadelphia,

MEN OF PROGRESS.

and in that city began business life as clerk in a broker's office. Subsequently he went to New York, and there was engaged for many years in the fire-arms business. He entered the insurance business in 1882, when he was made general agent of the Penn Mutual Life Insurance Com- pany for Massachusetts, with headquarters in Boston. Two years later he formed a copart- nership with Noah A. Plympton, under the firm name of Plympton & Bunting; and they then became the general managers of the New Eng- land department of the same company. In poli- tics he is a Republican, and in 1894 served on the military staff of Governor Greenhalge, an aide-de-camp, with the rank of colonel. He is a member of the Algonquin, Art, Athletic, Suffolk, Country, and New England clubs of Boston, and president of the Bunting Club. He is also a thirty-second degree Mason. He was married December 19, 1881, to Miss Mary Alexander, of Philadelphia. They have two children : Morton Alexander and Florence Bunt- ing. Colonel Bunting resides in the Back Bay District of Boston.

BUTTERWORTH, HEZEKIAH, author, and an assistant editor of the Youth's Companion, Boston, is a native of Rhode Island, born in Warren, December 22, 1839, son of Gardner and Susan (Ritchie) Butterworth. His ancestry is traced to the first settlers of Rhode Island and to founders of the first Baptist church in Massa- chusetts. He was educated in the local schools, fitted for college in the Warren High School, and pursued a private course in Brown University. Subsequently he received the degree of B.A. from Madison University. He lived on the farm in Warren until he was twenty-eight years of age, early engaging in literary work,- editing a local paper, and contributing to the New York In- dependent, the then existing Appleton's Journal, the Boston Congregationalist, the Youth's Com- panion, and other periodical publications. He became an assistant editor of the Youth's Com- panion, taking a desk in the Boston office, early in 1870 ; and he has continued in this position ever since. He has written thirty books. "The Story of the Hymns," which he wrote for the American Tract Society, received the "George Wood " gold medal in 1875, and has passed through many editions. His "Zigzag Journey-

ings " (Boston : Estes & Lauriat) number sixteen volumes, of which nearly four hundred thousand copies have been sold. AAmong his other books are four volumes of historical tales, published by the Appletons, New York; and two volumes of poems,- " Poems for Christmas, Easter, and New Year's " (Boston : Estes & Lauriat), and "Songs of History " (Boston : New England l'ublishing Company). He has also been a con- tributor of late years to the Atlantic Monthly, Harper's, and the Century. He wrote the poem for the opening of the Peace and Arbitration Congress at the Columbian Exposition of 1893.

HEZEKIAH BUTTERWORTH.

which gave a picture of the march of the Aryan race and of the white-bordered flag as the new emblem and leader of that race; and it was sub- sequently issued in pamphlet form by the l'eace Society. He is now (1894) preparing a series of books to be called " New England Wonder Tales," and is about to issue a volume of poems on Florida. Mr. Butterworth has visited Europe, Cuba, Mexico, and Venezuela, and most places in the United States and Canada. In politics he is a "Mugwump." He belongs to the Re- ality Club, Boston, the Authors' Guild, New York, and other literary societies. He is un- married.

MEN OF PROGRESS.

CLEMENT, EDWARD HENRY, editor-in-chief of the Boston Evening Transcript, is a native of Chelsea, born April 19, 1843, son of Cyrus and Rebecca Fiske (Shortridge) Clement. He is a descendant of Robert Clement who came to Massachusetts Bay Colony from Coventry, Eng- land, in 1643, was chosen to buy and survey the territory of Haverhill, set up the first mill in the town, represented Haverhill in the General Court, and whose son's marriage was the first marriage in the town; and on the maternal side he de- scends from Abijah Gage, an Essex County

E. H. CLEMENT.

worthy. His mother was a graduate of Bradford Academy. He was educated in the Chelsea pub- lic schools and at Tufts College, where he was graduated in 1864 at the head of his class. He began his professional life as a reporter and as- sistant editor of an army post newspaper, started in 1865, with the deserted plant of the Savannah News, by Oscar G. Sawyer and Samuel W. Mason, army correspondents of the New York Herald, stationed at Hilton Head, S.C. The dislike of the Southern community for a Northern editor necessitated his retirement from this paper soon after the close of the war. Returning to Boston in 1867, he was for a few weeks chief proof-reader

on the Daily Advertiser. was assigned by John Russell Young, at that time proof-room of the Tribune, but instead of that he he went to New York to take a place in the Resigning this position,

the managing editor of the paper, to the city editor's department as a reporter. He was soon after promoted to the position of "exchange edi-

tor," then advanced to the telegraph editor's desk,

and then was made night editor. Leaving the

Tribune in 1869, he was for a short time manag-

ing editor of the Newark (N.J.) Daily Advertiser,

and in 1871 became one of the editors and

sistant editor by William A. Hovey, at that time 1875, when he was called to the position of as- connection with the Boston Transcript began in proprietors of the Elizabeth (N.J.) Journal. His

its chief editor. After an active service as leader

general, befriends liberal and progressive social hospitality to all charitable enterprises, and, in Mr. Clement is in its columns generous in his as a favorite Boston institution strengthened. sustained, and its reputation and business success in the editorial chair of the Transcript has been ard established by his distinguished predecessors in 1881. Under his management the high stand- became chief editor upon Mr. Hovey's retirement writer, and critic of art, music, and the drama, he

ideas and political independence. The close at-

tention paid to the details of his newspaper work

occasional letters of art criticism to the Art Ama- stories for Harper's Weekly and other periodicals, but he has written at odd times a number of short has prevented his cultivation of general literature,

teur of New York, poetry for the Century and the Atlantic Monthly; and at the Norumbega celebra- tion at Watertown, November 21, 1889, he deliv- commented upon in the New York Critic and else-

ered a long poem on Vinland, which has been where as an important contribution to literature. Mr. Clement has been a member of the Papyrus Club and of several benevolent societies of Boston. He was one of the founders of the St. Botolph Club,

and proposed the name it adopted, since which American revival of the name of the old English

Boston's patron saint it has been attached to a street here, and been perpetuated in many other connections. In 1870 he received the honorary degree of A.M. from Tufts. He was married December 23, 1869, in New York City, to Miss Gertrude Pound, daughter of the church organist, John Pound. They have three children: two sons, educated at Harvard, and a daughter. In

MEN OF PROGRESS.

1893 Mr. Clement established his home at Corey Hill, Brookline.

CODMAN, COLONEL CHARLES RUSSELL, eldest son of Charles Russell and Anne (Macmaster) Codman, was born in Paris, France, October 28, 1829, while his parents were passing a season abroad. On his father's side he is of early New England stock, the Codman family having been identified with Charlestown and Boston since 1640, and descended from Edward and Mary Winslow of the " Mayflower" company; and, on his mother's side, he is of Scotch origin through her father, and of New York Dutch descent through her mother, from the Dey and Van Buskirk families. His father was a Boston merchant; and his grand- father, the Hon. John Codman, laid the founda- tion of the family fortune. His paternal grand- mother was a daughter of the Hon. James Russell, of Charlestown. He was educated in Boston pri- vate schools, in the late Rev. William A. Muhlen- berg's school near Flushing, L.I., where he spent three years, and at Harvard College, graduating from the latter in the class of 1849. Subse- quently he studied law in the Boston office of the late Charles G. Loring, and in 1852 was admitted to the Suffolk bar. He practised, however, but a short time, early engaging in general business. During the Civil War he served as colonel of the Forty-fifth Massachusetts Regiment. having previ- ously been lieutenant and captain in the Boston Cadets. He served in North Carolina with the Eighteenth Army Corps, and was in several battles, including those of Kinston and White Hall, N.C., December 14 and 16, 1862, and in a number of skirmishes. He began public life as a member of the Boston School Committee in 1861 and 1862. Then in 1864, after his return from service in the field, he was sent to the State Senate from a Boston district, and the following year returned : and later on he served four terms (from 1872 to 1875) in the lower house of the Legislature, taking a leading hand in legislation, and acting on important committees, the last two terms as chairman of the committee on the judi- ciary. In 1878 he was the Republican candidate for mayor of Boston, and, although defeated, gave his Democratic competitor (Mayor Prince) a close run. In 1890 he stood for Congress as an Inde- pendent Democrat in the First District, a Repub- lican stronghold, making a spirited and earnest

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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 3

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