Men of progress one thousand biographical sketches and portraits of leaders in business and professional life in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Part 32

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 32

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1887 patents for the Goodyear machinery having been secured in England and on the continent, the International Shoe Machinery Company was formed, with Mr. Munyan as president, to prose- cute the business in those countries. Its intro- duction being placed in his hands, he first went to Europe on this mission that year, and he has since spent from two to four months of each year in looking after this business. He found at the outset that the successful introduction of the ma- chines abroad would require a great change in the foreign method of making boots and shoes,

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and that the strong prejudice against royalty ma- chines must be overcome. These and other ob- stacles were in time surmounted, and the ma-

JONA. MUNYAN.

chines put in operation to a large extent. By his connection with this matter he has become exten- sively and favorably known to the trade in Eng- land and on the continent. Mr. Munyan is also connected with the Worcester Royal Corset Com- pany at Worcester; with the Copeland Rapid Lasting Company of Boston, of which he is presi- dent; and with the Langwood Park Land & Trust Company of Stoneham. He has been identified with the leather market of Boston since his return from California in the fifties. In politics he is a Democrat. He has held no political office, hav- ing no desire for public station, and being ab- sorbed in his business. He was married in the month of November, 1847, at West Millbury, to Miss Mary G. Griggs, daughter of Captain Joseph Griggs, who for many years carried on the tanning and currying business in that town. They have had four children, one only now living, Jennie G. M. Lothrop. Each of the others, three boys, died in infancy.

NEWHALL, GEORGE H., of Lynn, real estate and insurance agent, was born in Lynn, October

24, 1850, son of Isaac and Sarah (Graves) New- hall. He was educated in the Lynn public schools and at Wesleyan Academy, Wilbraham. After leaving the academy, he learned the shoe business, and from 1871 to 1882 was engaged in shoe manufacturing. Subsequently he entered the real estate and insurance business, which he has since successfully pursued. He was also at one time president of the Lynn City Street Rail- way Company. In 1886 he became a member of the Lynn city government, and from that time has been prominent in public affairs. He was a member of the Common Council two terms, (1886-87), and president of the body during his second term ; was an alderman in 1889 and 1890 ; and a member of the House of Representatives for the city of Lynn in 1894, serving on the com- mittees on cities and on constitutional amendment. He is also prominently connected with numer- ous fraternal organizations,-the Odd Fellows, Knights of l'ythias, the Royal Arcanum, and the order of Red Men. He is a trustee of the East Lynn Lodge of Odd Fellows, and has held other offices in the lodge ; a past regent of the Glen

GEO. H. NEWHALL.

Lewis Council of Royal Arcanum, also a member of the Grand Lodge ; a member of Peter Wood- land Lodge of Knights of Pythias, and of the

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Winneparkit Tribe of Red Men. He is in poli- tics a Republican, active in the party organiza- tion, at present (1894) president of the Ward Three Republican Club. He is interested in horticulture, and has been some time a member of the Houghton Horticultural Society. For many years he has been a justice of the peace. Mr. Newhall was married January 17, 1872, to Miss Martha I. Nourse, of Cambridge. They have had five children, two of whom are now living : Loella and Lizzie G. Newhall.

NEWHALL, JOHN BREED, of Lynn, member of the Suffolk bar, is a native of Lynn, born

JOHN B. NEWHALL.

October 1, 1862, son of Charles and Hester C. (Moulton) Newhall. He is descended from first settlers of Lynn, chief among them Thomas New- hall, the first white child born in the settlement, and Allen Breed. He was educated in the Lynn grammar and high schools, graduating from the latter in 1880, and at Harvard, where he gradu- ated in the class of 1885. He studied law in the Harvard Law School, graduating therefrom in 1888. After a year in a prominent law office in Boston he began practice on his own ac- count. He early took an interest in politics and

in municipal and State affairs. He was for three years, 1890-92, a member of the Lynn Com- mon Council, president of that body the last two terms ; was also in 1891 and 1892 a member of the Lynn School Committee; and the next two years a representative from Lynn in the lower house of the Legislature, serving during his first term on the rapid transit committee, and his second on the committees on election laws and on transit. He is president of the Young Men's Republican Club of Ward Four, Lynn, and a member of the Republican Club of Massachusetts. He is a member also of the leading social club of Lynn, the Oxford, of the University Club of Boston, and of the Pi Eta Society of Harvard. He was secretary of the Lynn Board of Trade in 1891, and a trustee of the Lynn Public Library in 1891 and 1892. He was married December 6, 1893, to Miss Gertrude J. Cutter, of San Fran- cisco, Cal.

NILES, WILLIAM HENRY, of Lynn, member of the Essex bar, is a native of New Hampshire, born in Orford, December 22, 1839, son of Samuel W. and Eunice C. (Newell) Niles. His paternal grandparents, John and Olive (Wales) Niles, and his maternal grandparents, John and Eunice (Collis) Newell, were all four also natives of New Hampshire, and spent their lives on New Hampshire farms. His early education was ob- tained in the common schools, after which he was for three years a private pupil of the Rev. Richard W. Smith, of East Bridgewater, Mass .. and three years in the Providence Conference Seminary, East Greenwich, R.I. He read law under the direction of Caleb Blodgett, now jus- tice of the Superior Court, and was admitted to the bar in 1870, in the March term of the Supe- rior Court, at Lowell. He immediately began practice in Lynn, where he has remained ever since, from March, 1878 associated with George J. Carr, under the firm name of Niles & Carr. Though in former years he was retained in sev- eral important criminal cases, of late years he has applied his energies exclusively to civil practice, and has established an extensive legal business, becoming widely and favorably known in his pro- fession. For three years he was a member of the Lynn Board of Education. With this exception he has never held nor sought public place, giving his undivided attention to his professional work. He is now a director of the Manufacturers' Na-

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tional Bank of Lynn. In politics he is a Repub- lican. Mr. Niles was married September 19. 1865. to Miss Harriet A. Day, daughter of

W. H. NILES.

Lorenzo 1). Day, of Bristol, N.H. They have three children : Florence N. (wife of George W. Moulton, a young lawyer associated with the law firm of Niles & Carr ), Grace, and Mary Ethel Niles.

NIVER, JAMES BARTON, general agent and manager of the Boston office of the Equitable Life Assurance Society of New York, is a native of New York, born in Kinderhook, Columbia County, April 7, 1840, son of John M. and Hannah (Barton) Niver. His father was of Dutch ancestry, and his mother of English, a Quaker. He was educated in the Troy Academy of Poultney, Vt., the Hudson River Institute of Claverack, N. Y., and the Bryant & Stratton Com- mercial College in Albany. He was reared on his father's farm, where he remained until the age of nineteen. His first business engagement was as cashier of the National Hotel in Wash- ington, D.C., which position he held from 1860, through the war, to 1865. From 1865 to 1869 he was in New York City as cashier in the import- ing and wholesale grocery house of Quackenbush

& Hamilton, No. 180 West Street. Then he en- tered the insurance business, in which he has since continued, established in Boston. From 1869 to 1874 he was agent of the Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York, under general agent Henry H. Hyde, of the Boston office ; from 1874 to 1879, general agent of the Mutual Benefit Life Insurance Company of Newark, N.J., with office at No. 15 State Street; from 1879 to 1882, general agent of the New York Life, in the Rialto Build- ing; and since 1882 he has been connected with the Equitable Life, Equitable Building, as agent, general agent, and manager. Mr. Niver has for years been prominent among the field workers in life insurance in this country, and is known as one of the most active and successful agents in the business. He has been a warm advocate of local underwriters' associations, and has been a delegate to the National Life Underwriters' Asso- ciation at several of its annual conventions. He is a studious man and interested in books ; and his wide reading is not limited to subjects relat- ing to insurance, but his taste has been cultivated by his acquaintance with the best authors. He is

JAS. B. NIVER.

a member of the Boston Life Underwriters' Asso- ciation, of the Home Market Club, of the Mid- dlesex Club. of the Republican Club of Massa-

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chusetts, and of the Lawyers' Club of New York. In politics he has always been a Republican. He was married October 12, 1870, to Miss Caro- line Smith Turner, of Providence, R.I. They have six children : Helen T., Edwin T., Isabelle, James B., Jr., Francis S., and Miriam Niver.

NORTHEND, WILLIAM DUMMER, of Salem, member of the Essex bar for nearly half a cen-

WM. D. NORTHEND.

tury, is a native of Newbury, born February 26, 1823, son of John and Anna (Titcomb) Northend. He is a lineal descendant of John Northend, Lord of the Manor of Hunsley in Yorkshire, England, who died October, 1625; also of the Sewalls, Dummers, and Longfellows of Colony days. He was educated at Dummer Academy and at Bowdoin College, graduating in 1843; studied law with the Hon. Asahel Huntington in Salem, and was ad- mitted to the bar in September, 1845. He was for many years in partnership with the Hon. George F. Choate, who was afterwards judge of probate and insolvency for the county of Essex. He was assigned by the Supreme Court as counsel for the defendant in every capital case but one in the county for more than twenty-five years, and tried

eight. He served in the Massachusetts Senate in 1861 and 1862. In politics he was conservative, and was largely instrumental in procuring the substantial repeal of the Personal Liberty bill, so called. He was chairman of the committee on the Rhode Island boundary, which was settled in accordance with the report of the committee. He took great interest in public matters at the breaking out of the Civil War, and prepared the Camp Bill, and other bills which were adopted by the Legislature. He has published elaborate papers on the Essex Bar and the Puritans, and is the author also of " Speeches and Essays on Polit- ical Subjects," of various printed addresses, and numerous magazine articles. He has been an overseer of Bowdoin College, and is vice-presi- dent of the trustees of Dummer Academy, and was for many years president of the Essex Bar Association. Mr. Northend was married Novem- ber 2, 1845, to Miss Susan Stedman Harrod.

NOYES, DAVID WILLIAM, of Boston, merchant, is a native of Maine, born in Norway, April IS, IS48, son of Claudius A. Noyes. He was edu- cated in the town school. Leaving his home in 1866 with his brother, Charles C., and coming to Boston, both entered the wholesale house of Jordan, Marsh, & Co., where they spent seven years, and gained a thorough knowledge of the wholesale, retail, and importing business. In March, 1873, they entered partnership under the firm name of Noyes Brothers, and opened a small retail gentlemen's outfitting store at No. 51 West Street, Boston. This soon becoming too small for their rapidly increasing business, they established a branch in Cambridge, another in Providence, R.I., and in Boston secured the entire building at the corner of Washington and Summer Streets, their present quarters. They manufacture their own goods largely; and each season the principal foreign markets are visited for novelties in their line, for ladies', men's, and children's wear. In February, 1883, Mr. Noyes's brother, Charles C., died, and since that time he has been alone in the management of the extensive business. In 1891 he completed a new factory in Watertown, where one hundred hands are employed in the different branches of the manufacturing and laundry works of the house. He has for some time owned a con- trolling interest in the Elm City Shirt Company of New Haven, Conn., and has been its president

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for eight years. He is also president of the Elm City Manufacturing Company of Watertown. The name of Noyes Brothers is prominent among

DAVID W. NOYES.

those who contribute to the interests and charities of Boston.

NUTTER, ISAAC NEWTON, of East Bridge- water, treasurer of the Plymouth County Safe Deposit and Trust Company of Brockton, was born in East Bridgewater, June 23, 1836, son of Isaac and Margaret Orr (Keen) Nutter. His paternal ancestors were of the early New Hamp- shire colonists, one of whom, Hatevil Nutter, was the first elder of the first church founded in New Hampshire, at Dover. His father was born in Rochester, N.H. His mother was the eld- est daughter of Deacon Samuel Keen, and a descendant of the Winslows, one of whom married a daughter of John Alden. He is a great-grand- son of Lieutenant Adna Winslow Clift, who served in the Continental Army, and whose wife was a daughter of the Hon. Hugh Orr. He was edu- cated in the public schools of his native town, and at the East Bridgewater Academy when William Allen was principal. His business career was begun at the age of sixteen, as clerk in the

country store of Hector Orr in East Bridgewater. Later the business was purchased by his father, Isaac Nutter. In 1863 he succeeded his father. and carried on the store successfully until 1884, when he sold it to a younger brother. He then took charge of the East Bridgewater Savings Bank, of which he had been treasurer since its organization in 1871. He took a leading part in organizing the Plymouth County Safe Deposit and Trust Company, and assumed the position of treasurer upon its establishment in 1893 ; and he has since devoted himself mainly to the interests of this latest financial institution of Brockton. Mr. Nutter has held numerous positions of trust and responsibility in his town. He is a trustee of the Public Library; was for six years town clerk of East Bridgewater (1860-66): town treas- urer for a quarter of a century,-from 1865 to 1893, with the exception of two years ; a mem- ber of the lower house of the Legislature for the district composed of North Bridgewater and East Bridgewater two years ( 1875-76) ; and senator for the Second District of Plymouth County two years (1891-92), serving both years as chairman

ISAAC NEWTON NUTTER.

of the committee on banks and banking. He was selected by the donor, Cyrus Washburn, of Wellesley, as one of the four gentlemen to be

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associated with the Hon. B. W. Harris in the care of the fund for the erection of the "Washburn Memorial Library," and is at present secretary and treasurer of the board. In politics he is an earnest Republican, active in the party organiza- tion. He served for a number of years as a member of the Republican town committee of East Bridgewater, has been a frequent delegate to party conventions, and is now a member of the Massachusetts Republican and Plymouth County Republican clubs. He is connected with the Odd Fellows' order, a member of Colfax Lodge of East Bridgewater ; is a past noble com- mander of the Old Colony Commandery of the Golden Cross ; vice-president of the Plymouth County Agricultural Society ; and member of the New England Historic Genealogical Society. He was married July 5, 1865, to Miss Anna Maria Latham, daughter of Charles A. Latham, of East Bridgewater. They have had three children : Maria Latham (born in 1866), Richard Winslow (born 1869), and Charles Latham Nutter (born 1871).

OSGOOD, CHARLES EDWARD, of Boston, mer- chant, was born in Roxbury, May 21, 1855, son of Freeman and Annah F. (Perry) Osgood. He is of early New England ancestry. His first paternal ancestor in the Massachusetts Colony was David S. Osgood, one of four brothers who came from England, three - Christopher, John, and James - preceding David ; and his maternal grand-father was Colonel Elbridge Gerry Perry, of Roxbury, a popular citizen, who died prematurely at the early age of thirty-six. He was educated in the Roxbury public schools, finishing in the Roxbury Latin School, and prepared for Harvard College. Instead of entering college, however, he entered business, starting with his father in the furniture auction and commission trade, then at No. 176 Tremont Street. He was here en- gaged from 1874 to ISSo, when removal was made to the building Nos. 198-200 Tremont Street. Two years later, the business having considerably expanded, the firm moved into the old Pine Street Church building on Washington, corner of Pine Street. In 1888, the elder Os- good that year retiring, the present quarters in the building Nos. 744 to 756 Washington Street were occupied, and the business further enlarged, embracing complete house furnishings as well as furniture, carpets, and draperies. In January,

1894, the firm was succeeded by the C. E. Osgood Company, a Massachusetts corporation, with Mr. Osgood as president and general manager. It now employs about one hundred and fifty hands. Mr. Osgood is also president of the Boston Couch Bed Company. He is a member of the Roxbury Artillery Veteran Association, and of the Mt. Sinai Encampment, Odd Fellows ; and associate member of Post 26, Grand Army. In politics he is a Republican. He was married July 10, 1876, to Miss Sarah W. Dole, of Newburyport. They

C. E. OSGOOD.

have two children : Kate M. and Lillian M. Osgood. He resides at Elm Hill, Roxbury Dis- trict, Boston.

OSGOOD, CHARLES STUART, of Salem, was born in Salem, March 13, 1839. He is closely identified with Salem, as his ancestors on both sides have lived there for considerably more than a hundred years. His grandfather, Nathaniel Osgood, was a shipmaster of Salem; and his father, Charles Osgood, was an artist, having great success as a portrait painter, whose portraits now hang upon the walls of the Memorial Hall at Cambridge, the historical societies of Boston and Worcester, and the local societies of Salem. His mother, Susan (Ward) Osgood, was the grand-

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daughter of Dr. Edward A. Holyoke, the cele- brated physician and centenarian of Salem, whose father, the Rev. Edward Holyoke, was the presi-

CHAS. S. OSGOOD.

dent of Harvard College for thirty years. Mr. Osgood was educated in the public schools, and studied law in the office of the Hon. J. C. Perkins. He was admitted to the bar at Salem in 1863. In 1863-64 he was attached to the Commissary Department, and was stationed in Virginia. He was appointed deputy collector of customs for the District of Salem and Beverly in 1864, and held that office until 1873. He was elected a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives for six consecutive years, from 1874 to 1879 inclu- sive, serving as chairman of the committee on railroads, and on the committee on rules. While a member of the House, he was appointed in April, 1879, to be register of deeds for the Southern District of Essex County, which office he has held by successive elections ever since that date. Mr. Osgood has taken an active part in the city gor- ernment of Salem, serving seven years in the Common Council, and being president of that body from 1866 to 1869, covering the period of the introduction of Wenham water. He was a member of the Board of Aldermen in 1870 and 1871, and a member of the School Committee for

six years. He has always been interested in literary work, and on the establishment of a Pub- lie Library in Salem, in 1888, was chosen by the city council a trustee for life of that institution. He is also one of the trustees of the Salem Athe- næum, and of the Salem Lyceum, and has for a number of years been the librarian of the Essex Institute. He is the author of the commercial history of Salem as published in Hurd's Essex County History, and one of the authors of the Historical Sketch of Salem published by the Essex Institute in 1879. He married May 23, 1867, Miss Elizabeth White Batchelder, daughter of Dr. John H. and Jane R. (Smith) Batchelder, and has had six children : Elizabeth Stuart, Robert Ward, Charles Stuart, Henry, Philip Holyoke. and Edward Holyoke Osgood.

PARKER, JAMES O., of Methuen, real es- tate and insurance broker, was born in New Hampshire, in the town of Pembroke, November 22, 1827. son of Asa and Relief (Brown) Parker. He was educated in the common schools and an

JAMES O. PARKER.

academy at Concord, N.H. His business life was begun as clerk in the Concord post-office, where he spent four years. Afterwards he was for a similar

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period mail agent on the Northern Railroad be- tween Boston and Burlington, Vt., and for twenty years thereafter railroad station agent at Methuen. Then he entered the real estate and insurance business, which he has since pursued, now en- gaged in both Methuen and Lawrence. He has long been prominent and influential in Methuen affairs ; has filled nearly all the town offices, and has represented his district in both branches of the Legislature. He was a member of the School Committee of Methuen in 1860 to 1864 : selectman in 1873 : member of the House of Representatives, representing Methuen and the city of Lawrence, in 1874; member of the Senate for the Sixth Essex District (then consisting of Lawrence, North and South Andover, and Methuen) in 1883 and 1884; and in the House again in 1891 and 1892 for the Third Essex District, comprising Methuen, Brad- ford, and Wards 3 and 5 of Haverhill. In his first term in the House he served on the com- mittee on insurance, and took an active part in ad- vancing labor measures. In the Senate he served as chairman of the committee on insurance, and also on the committees on manufactures and public health ; and he was an earnest advocate of the weekly payment bill, the employers' liabil- ity bill, the free text-books bill, the bill abolishing the contract system of labor in the penal institu- tions of the State, the abolition of the poll-tax as a prerequisite for voting, and the continuance of the payment of State aid to soldiers and their families. During his second and third terms in the House he served on the committee on rail- roads. At the time of his election to the Senate his senatorial district was strongly Republican, but he carried it each year by a majority of over twelve hundred votes. In 1889 he received the Democratic nomination for sheriff of Essex County, and, though not elected, ran ahead of his party ticket, and carried the city of Lawrence by a handsome majority. Mr. Parker is a member of the John Hancock Lodge of Masons, of Hope Lodge of Odd Fellows, and of the Methuen Club. He was married November 12, 1849, to Miss Frances C. Billings, of Lebanon, N.H. They have one daughter, Helen Parker (now Mrs. Spooner).

PARKER, WALTER EDWARD, of Lawrence, agent of the Pacific Mills, is a native of Princeton, born September 27, 1847, son of George and Emily R. (Coller) Parker. His first American ancestor

was Thomas Parker, born in England in 1609, who sailed from London, March, 11, 1635, in a vessel fitted out by Sir Richard Saltonstall, with whose family, tradition says, he was connected by marriage. In direct line were Lieutenant Hana- niah Parker, of Reading, 1638-1724, John Parker, of Reading and Lexington, 1664-1741, Andrew, of Lexington, 1693-1776, Thomas, of Lexington and Princeton, 1727-1799, Ebenezer, of Lexington and Princeton, 1750-1839, Ebenezer, Jr., of Princeton, 1784-1869, George, of Woonsocket, R.I., 1818- 1893, and Walter E. Parker. Captain John Parker, of Lexington, and the Rev. Theodore Parker

W. E. PARKER.

came from the same ancestors. Walter E. was educated in the public schools and at a tech- nical school in Boston, where he spent a few months. His training for active life was begun on an Illinois farm, in Urbana, where he lived four years,-from 1856 to 1860. In 1861 the family returned to New England, and settled in Woonsocket, R.I. ; and in 1863 he had his first experience in a factory, entering the employment of the Social Mill. At the same time he con- tinued his studies at the public school. Two years later he left school, and devoted his whole time to mill work. He also made all the plans for and assisted in the work of enlarging the Social

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Mills. In October, 1876, he became superin- tendent of the Globe Mills, Woonsocket, and con- tinued in this position till the first of April, 1881. when he came to Lawrence to take charge of the cotton department of the extensive Pacific Mills. After from five to six years in this department he was made agent of the mills (January 1, 1887), the position he still holds. While a resident of Woon- socket, he was for fourteen years (from January 8, 1878, to January 12, 1892) a director of the Pro- ducers' National Bank; and in Lawrence, when the Merchants' National Bank was organized, in 1889, he was made vice-president and one of the board of directors of that institution. For several years also he was a member of the board of trustees of the Essex Savings Bank, and he is at present one of its vice-presidents. In addition to these interests he is a director of the Lawrence Gas Company. In Woonsocket he was influen- tial in municipal affairs, and was for one year (1877) president of the Town Council. He is now a leading member of the New England Cot- ton Manufacturers' Association (president of the organization in 1889-90-91) ; one of the vice- presidents of the Home Market Club ; a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, with which he has been connected since 1881 ; one of the trustees of Tufts College, and a mem- ber of the executive board ; and member of the Boston Athletic Association. He has been con- nected with the Masonic order since 1869, and was master of the Morning Star Lodge of Woonsocket in 1877, and commander of the Woonsocket Com- mandery of Knights Templar for two years. In politics he is a Republican. He married first, October 12, 1870, Miss Anna Augusta Elliott, who died February 24, 1875 ; second, May 2. 1877, Miss Alida Charlotte Willis (died September 9, 1885); and third, January 1, 1888, Miss Mary Bradley Beetle. He has one son, Herbert Sum- ner, and one daughter, Helen Willis Parker.

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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 32

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