Men of progress one thousand biographical sketches and portraits of leaders in business and professional life in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Part 33

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 33

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PARKHURST, WELLINGTON EVARTS, of Clin- ton, editor of the Clinton Courant and the Clinton Daily Item, was born in Framingham, January 19. 1835, son of Charles F. W. and Mary (Goodale) Parkhurst. He is eighth in descent from George Parkhurst, who was an early resident of Water- town, and seventh in descent from Robert Good- ale, who came to this country from Ipswich, England, in 1634. He was educated in the pub-

lie schools and the Framingham Academy. After a short experience as paymaster for the Lancaster Quilt Company in Clinton, he entered the edi- torial office of the Worcester Spr. and since that time he has been steadily engaged in newspaper work. He became editor of the Clinton Courant in 1865, and during his service of nearly thirty years in the editorial chair he has kept his journal in line with the best county newspapers in the State. He has been editor also of the Daily Item since July, 1893. In Clinton he has served in various offices, -- town clerk six years, town treasurer, assessor, member of the School Board

W. E. PARKHURST.

fifteen years, and director of the Public Library six years ; and he has represented his district. the Thirteenth Worcester, in the lower house of the Legislature four terms ( 1890-91-92-93). During the greater part of his legislative service he was house chairman of the committees on edu- cation and on public charitable institutions. In politics he is a steadfast Republican, and has long been prominently connected with the party organization in his section of the State. For several years he has been chairman of the Repub- lican town committee of Clinton. He was one of the original members of the Massachusetts Press Association, and is also a member of the Subur-

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ban Press Association, of the Massachusetts Re- publican Club, and of the Masonie and Odd Fel- lows orders. He was married first, September 13, 1866, to Harriet F. Fairbank, of West Boylston (died December 13, 1885) ; and second, August 9, 1887, to Georgiana B. Warren, of Framingham. They have no children.

PEARSON, GARDNER WHITMAN, of Lowell, postmaster, was born in Lowell, September 4, 1869, son of George H. and Laura W. (Hildreth) Pearson. He is a grandson of John H. Pearson, formerly the largest ship-owner in Boston, and of Dr. Israel Hildreth, of Dracut ; and a nephew of the late General Benjamin F. Butler, whose wife was his mother's sister. He was educated in the

GARDNER W. PEARSON.

public schools of Dracut and of Lowell, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and at Harvard College, spending a year at each of the last-mentioned institutions. Subsequently he studied law two years at the Harvard Law School. He was admitted to the bar in January, 1891, and began practice in association with his brother, Fisher H. Pearson, Later he became associated with General Butler, and so remained until the latter's death, in 1893. He is at pres- ent in partnership with John A. Gately in the

patent business. In politics he is a Democrat, and has for a number of years been an active worker in his party, but has never held an elective office. He was chairman of the Democratic city committee of Lowell in 1891-92-93, and mem- ber of the State Committee in 1893. He was appointed to his present position as postmaster of Lowell, in April, 1894. In 1892-93 he was a member of the State commission to revise the election laws. He belongs to a number of clubs, - the Lowell Country, the Vesper Boat, the Lowell Cricket and Athletic, the Yorick, Big Twelve, -- and is a member of Court General Butler, Ancient Order of Foresters. He is an enthusiastic lover of athletic sports, and has taken a number of prizes in running, jumping, and boat- ing, both when in college and after leaving. He is unmarried.

PEMBERTON, HENRY AUGUSTUS, of Boston, merchant and manufacturer, was born in South Danvers, now Peabody (named for George Pea- body), October 26, 1845, son of Franeis Bain- bridge and Adeline ( Buswell ) Pemberton. His father was a native of Portsmouth, N.H., and his mother of Haverhill. He comes of an early, hon- orable New England family, founded by James Pemberton, originally of Wales, who settled in Massachusetts in 1646, and for whom Peniber- ton Hill, now marked by Pemberton Square, Boston, was named. Samuel Pemberton, de- scendant of James, was one of the second com- mittee, representing the people in town meeting assembled, who in 1770 successfully demanded of Lieutenant Governor Hutchinson the removal of the British troops from Boston, his colleagues being Adams, Hancock, Warren, Phillips, Hen- shaw, and Molineaux. The Rev. Ebenezer Pem- berton, another descendant, who graduated at Harvard in 1671, and became a fellow of the college, was a great scholar and divine, a contem- porary of and beloved by such men as Judge Sewell, Dr. Cotton Mather, Dr. Increase Mather, Major-General Winthrop ; and Thomas Pember- ton, the antiquary, was also of this highly respected family. Henry A. Pemberton was edu- cated in the schools of Peabody ; and the prizes awarded him upon graduation from the High School -gifts of George Peabody, of London - indicate that his deportment and scholarship while there were excellent. He left Peabody in 1862 to receive a business training in Boston,

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where his business headquarters have since been established. He is now one of the leather firm of Pemberton Brothers. High Street, Boston,

H. A. PEMBERTON.

carrying on a business inherited from their father, by whom it was founded in 1845, -a firm which has since become widely known as conservatively progressive, thoroughly equipped by its factories at l'eabody and at Bridgton for its purposes of finishing sheep and other skins. Mr. Pemberton is a member of the Associated Board of Trade, of the Shoe and Leather Association, the Athletic Association, the Ancient and Honorable Artillery, the Beacon Society, and the Masonic Fraternity of Boston. In politics and religion he votes and worships according to his honest convictions. He is not a politician nor an office-seeker, but one who performs conscientiously all the duties of a private public-spirited citizen. He was mar- ried December 17, 1878, to Miss Louise Baldwin, daughter of the late George l'. Baldwin, of Bos- ton, a descendant of the New Hampshire Bald- wins, one of whom fought for two sharp winters under Ethan Allen. They have three children : Henry Augustus, Jr, Frank Arthur, 2d., and Gladys Pemberton. Their residence is a charm- ing estate in the Boston suburb of Auburndale, and its hospitality is proverbial.

PEVEY, GILBERT ABIEL ABBOTT, member of the Suffolk bar, was born in Lowell, August 22, 1851, son of Abiel and Louisa ( Stone ) Pevey. He was educated in the Lowell public schools. graduating from the High School a Carney medal scholar, and at Harvard College, where he gradu- ated in the class of 1873. He studied law with the firm of Sweetser & Gardner (Theodore H. Sweetser and William S. Gardner, the latter after- wards justice of the Superior and Supreme Courts), and was admitted to the Suffolk bar in June, 1876. Upon the appointment of Mr. Gard- ner to the Superior Bench he became a partner of Mr. Sweetser, and remained in this association till the latter's death in 1882. Then he became assistant attorney of the Boston & Lowell Rail- road Company under Colonel John H. George. Subsequently, after his retirement from this posi- tion, he was for three years partner in practice with the Hon. Charles S. Lilley, now justice of the Superior Court. During the years 1890-91-92 he was assistant district attorney for Middlesex County ; and he has been master in chancery for the same county for about nine years. Since his

GILBERT A. A. PEVEY.

admission to the bar he has been established in Boston and Cambridge, with his principal office in Boston. In Cambridge he has been a director

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of the Cambridge Mutual Fire Insurance Com- pany, and its attorney for seven or eight years. He is a director also of the Cambridge Young Men's Christian Association, ex-vice-president of the Baptist Social Union, and has been vice-presi- dent and president of the North Baptist Sunday- school Convention. He is a member of the United Order of the Golden Cross, of the Ancient Order of United Workmen, of the Northern Mutual Re- lief Association, in all of which he has held official positions ; also of the Masonic order (Amicable Lodge), of the order of Odd Fellows ( Dunster Lodge), of the Colonial Club of Cambridge, and of the Cambridge Baptist Union. In politics he has always been a Republican ; but he has never sought political office, his aspirations not being in that direction. He was married November 27, 1876, and has two children : Emma L. and Elva M. Pevey.

PRICE, CHARLES HENRY, of Salem, druggist, and president of the Salem Electric Lighting Company, is a native of Salem, born on the first of January 1831, son of Eben N. and Hannah

CHAS. H. PRICE.

(Shreve) Price. He is of English ancestry. He was educated in the Salem grammar and high schools, and at the age of thirteen, in July, 1844,

began work as a boy in the store where he still does business as druggist and pharmacist. During his long career here he has graduated and put into business more than a dozen young men who are all now engaged in prosperous trade. He has been president of the Salem Electric Lighting Company from its formation in 1881, and for two years president of the Pettingell Andrews Electric Supply Company of Boston. Since 1884 he has also been president of the Holyoke Mutual Fire Insurance Company of Salem, one of the leading companies of its kind in New England. His only club is his church, in which he has long been prominent. He has been treasurer of the First Baptist Church of Salem since 1856, and for many years super- intendent of the Sunday-school ; and he was president of the Salem Young Men's Christian Association for a number of years. He married first, March 2, 1853, Miss Anna E. Carlton, who died April 26, 1864, leaving one child, Jeannie C. Price ; and second, January 8, 1868, Miss Fannie S. Pettingell. They have two children : Charles Brown (born October 22, 1869), and Frank Shreve Price (born November 8, 1875).

PUFFER, LORING WILLIAM, D. D.S., of Brock- ton, fire underwriter, was born in Stoughton, September 17, 1828, son of Loring and Lucy Hewett (Southworth) Puffer. He is of the seventh generation from George Puffer who settled in Braintree, now Quincy, in 1639, in the direct line from his son James (his other son Matthias was the great-great-grandfather of the late Senator Sumner); a grandson of Nathan Puffer, who served under General Scott in all of the battles on the frontier in 1812-15 ; and great-grandson of Captain Jedediah Southworth, of Stoughton, who served through the whole of the Revolution, and was a member of the first constitutional conven- tion of Massachusetts. On the maternal side he is in the seventh generation from Constant South- worth, of Plymouth, deputy governor, and an orig- inal proprietor of and one of the three persons appointed to buy the town of Bridgewater. He is a descendant also in the seventh generation of the Rev. James Keith, the first minister of Bridgewater ; in the sixth generation of the Rev. Ebenezer Stearns, the first Baptist minister of Easton ; in the seventh of the Rev. Thomas Carter, the first minister of Woburn ; in the sixth

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of Judge Joseph Wilder, from 1742 to his death in 1757 chief justice of Massachusetts : and in the eighth of Major-General Humphrey Atherton. of

LORING W. PUFFER.

Dorchester. His general education was acquired in common and private schools which he attended until he reached the age of eighteen years, and he graduated from the Boston Dental College March 17, 1870. From eighteen to twenty-five years of age he was engaged in mechanical trades and manufacturing, which were all then relinquished on account of failing health. The three years following were devoted to the study of medicine

and dentistry. He began the practice of den- tistry in 1854, and for thirty-five years followed the profession actively. from 1856 established in North Bridgewater, which afterwards became Brockton. His connection with the fire insurance business began a few years after his removal to North Bridgewater ; and this vocation, with real estate, has now almost entirely displaced his pro- fession. Quite early in life Mr. Puffer became a copious correspondent for various newspapers. and later had experience in the editorial chair, being editor of the Brockton Advance for one year, and editor of the Brockton Eagle during the years 1884 and 1885. He has done other literary work, especially in historical and biographical

fields, which has widened his reputation. In 1871-72 he was adjunct professor of operative and clinical dentistry in the Boston Dental Col- lege, and professor of the institute of dentistry and dental therapeutics in 1872-73. Previous to 1880 he had been secretary, treasurer, and presi- dent of the Old Colony Dental Association, and was a frequent essayist at its meetings. He has at two periods during his residence in North Bridgewater, or Brockton, been a member of the School Committee (1875-1885) ; and for more than twenty years he has been one of the trustees to the Public Library. He is now chairman of the latter board. He was one of a number of citizens who originally purchased the library, and some years later gave it to the town. He was appointed a justice of the peace in 1855, and is now holding a commission ; and in 1883 received the appointment of notary public. Dr. Puffer became interested in politics soon after he at- tained his majority, and his interest has never flagged. Originally an anti-slavery man, he was among the first to help form and sustain the Republican party, and has been steadfastly de- voted to it since. Outspoken and frank with tongue and pen. he is counted one of the most ef- ficient, honorable, and successful political workers in Eastern Massachusetts. He has been on the Republican city committee of Brockton for many years, and was its chairman in 1854-55. In 1856 he became an active member of the Plymouth County Agricultural Society: was a trustee for many years, and has been vice-president. In 1860 he built the first greenhouse ever con- structed in North Bridgewater; and from that date to the present he has been an ardent horti- culturalist, florist, and a frequent contributor to agricultural, horticultural, and floricultural publi- cations. He was one of the most active origina- tors of the Brockton Agricultural Society founded in 1874, which was a success from the first. Its opening exhibition, held in ten days under a tent, received an income of $7.400 ; and by 1893 its annual income had reached $29,500. Dr. Puffer is also a member of the New England Historic Genealogical Society, of the Natural History Society of Boston, of the Massachusetts and Suburban Press Association, and of the Norfolk Club : and he is a charter member of Paul Revere Lodge and Satucket Royal Arch Chapter, Free Masons, of Brockton. He was married Septem- ber 16, 1856, to Miss Martha Mary Crane Worces-

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ter, niece and adopted daughter of the Hon. Samuel Thomas Worcester and Mary Fenno Crane (Wales) Worcester of Norwalk, Ohio. They have four children : Loring Worcester, born February 7, 1857, died July 30, 1858 ; Mary Crane, born April 11, 1859 ; William Loring, born May 27, 1863 ; and Clarence Carter Puffer, born June 29, 1874.

RAYMOND, JOHN MARSHALL, of Salem, mem- ber of the Essex bar, is a native of Salem, born June 16, 1852, son of Alfred A. and Sarah (Buf- fum) Raymond. His ancestors on both sides were among the early settlers of New England. On the paternal side he is descended from Captain Will- iam Raymond, who settled in Beverly about 1652, was appointed by the General Court in 1683 lieu- tenant commander of Beverly and Wenham troop, and was deputy for Beverly in 1685 and 1686, and commanded a company in the Canada expedition in 1690. On his mother's side he is of Quaker descent, his maternal ancestor being Robert Buffum, who settled in Salem in 1638. The first settlers of the family became Quakers, the mother of Mr. Raymond was a life-long member of the Society of Friends, and each generation has had influential members of that Society among its number. His general education was acquired in the Salem public schools and at the Friends' Boarding-school of Providence, R.I .; and he was prepared for his profession at the Boston Univer- sity Law School, from which he was graduated in 1878, receiving the Hilliard prize for the best essay on "Insanity as a Defence in Criminal Cases." While pursuing his law studies and for some time before, he was at work in various occu- pations, first as a clerk in a grocery store, then in the freight department of the old Eastern and the Boston & Lowell railroads at Salem, and after- ward as station agent at Peabody. Admitted to the bar in October, 1878, he immediately began practice in Salem, and has since pursued his pro- fession there. In the November election of 1879, a year after his election to the bar, he was elected a member of the Executive Council for 1880, and served through the first term of Governor John D. Long. The next two years, 1881 and 1882, he was president of the Salem Common Council, and from 1886 to 1889, inclusive, was mayor of the city. During his four terms in the latter office numerous important reforms were accom- plished, and the interests of the city advanced in

various ways. He was especially instrumental in establishing the free public library and fire alarm system. One of the most notable reforms, how- ever, was the establishing of "liquor limits " for the city, and a system of high license, by which he freed the residential sections from the saloon almost entirely, largely reduced the number of saloons, and brought increased revenue to the city. At the close of his second term he decided to retire, but was induced to stand again by peti- tions addressed to him, signed by more than fif- teen hundred of the leading citizens of Salem ; and he was returned by a largely increased majority.

JNO. M. RAYMOND.

During his fourth term, the public library was opened to the citizens, and on the occasion of its opening he delivered the address. He was the first chairman of the Board of Trustees of the library, holding that position for two years. Mr. Raymond is a thirty-second degree Mason, and a prominent member of the Scottish rite bodies, being thrice potent grand master of Sutton Lodge of Perfection, of Salein, grand high priest of Giles F. Yates Council of Princes of Jerusalem, Boston, and has held the office of second lieu- tenant commander of Massachusetts Consistory; he is worshipful master of Essex Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons, and a member of Winslow

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Lewis Commandery of Knights Templar, and of Sutton Chapter, Royal Arch Masons, and of Salem Council of Royal and Select Masters. Also past noble grand of Fraternity Lodge, and past chief patriarch of Salem Encampment, Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He has been president of the Salem Mutual Benefit Asso- ciation for fourteen years, and of the Salem Co- operative Bank since its organization, in 1888. For four years he was a member of the Second Corps of Cadets, and is now a member of the Veteran Association. He was married in June. 1879, in Salem, to Miss Anna Belle Jackson. They have had three children: Eva S., Helen J., and Grace Raymond (deceased). Mrs. Raymond died in 1885, a few months after the death of the daughter Grace. In December, 1893, he was married to Miss Jennie Abbott Ward, of Salem.

RAYMOND, ROBERT FULTON, of New Bed- ford, member of the bar, is a native of Fairfield County, Connecticut, born at High Ridge, in the town of Stamford, June 15, 1858, son of Lewis and Sarah A. (Jones) Raymond. Public records show that his ancestors were in America as early as 1630-31, in Little Harbor, now Portsmouth, N.H., and in 1634 at Salem, Mass., whence a son removed to Norwalk, Fairfield County, Conn., as is shown by the records of that town in 1668. The Raymond genealogy shows two branches of the family growing up in Salem and Norwalk re- spectively, and from the latter branch came the subject of this sketch. Up to sixteen years of age he attended the district schools at High Ridge and Long Ridge, Conn. In 1874, stimulated by the example of his brother (now P'resident Ray- mond of Wesleyan University) in getting an edu- cation, he came to New Bedford to prepare for college at the New Bedford High School. After completing his preparatory work, he entered Wes- leyan University in 1877, took a partial course there, and subsequently studied in Harvard Col- lege and Law School. The cost of his prepara- tory school and college training was met by his earnings as a school-teacher, which work he began at the age of seventeen while a student in the High School, - teaching two winters in Dartmouth public schools. After a year at Wesleyan he taught two years in the town of Marion, at the same time reading Greek and Latin classics ex- tensively, intending to re-enter Wesleyan with his

old class. At the end of his successful work there, however, having an opportunity to teach mornings in a private Latin school in Boston and to work in Harvard College afternoons, he ac- cepted that course instead, and for a year pursued it,- teaching regularly every morning, taking lect- ures at Harvard in history and Roman law after- noons, and doing private tutoring evenings through the college season. In this way he prepared a young man for Harvard within the year, and in the summer months took a private pupil to his home in Connecticut, and prepared him in Greek and Latin for Vale in the autumn. He entered

ROBERT F. RAYMOND.

the Harvard Law School in the autumn of 1881, and remained two years, and then, coming to New Bedford, was admitted to the bar at the June term, 1883, of the Superior Court. It was his intention to return to the Law School at the end of the third year and take his degree, but he was so busy in his practice that he was unable to do so. Later, however, in 1894, he took the examinations, and received from the college on commencement day his LL.B. He has practised at New Bedford steadily since his admission to the bar with a good degree of success, latterly doing much corporation business. He is at present trustee of large corpo- ration interests in Kansas and Colorado, and en-

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gaged in an extensive general practice in eastern Massachusetts. For two years after he began practice he was principal of a large evening school in New Bedford, with from ten to twenty assistant teachers ; and at the close of this service he re- ceived a testimonial from his pupils which he holds as one of his choicest possessions. During his first year in New Bedford he was also elected president of the Young Men's Christian Associa- tion there ; and he continued in this position for nine years, within which period the institution built one of the finest Christian Association build- ings in the country. In politics he was originally a Republican of the radical stripe, and did cam- paign speaking for the Republican party in Con- necticut from the Garfield campaign to 1891. Then he became a Prohibitionist, and each year since he has served as candidate of that party for attorney-general of Massachusetts. He was a delegate to the National Prohibitory Convention at Cincinnati in 1892, in which he served as a member of the committee on platform. He has been a member of the Massachusetts Prohibitory State Committee since 1892, and has taken the stump in every campaign since he joined the party. He is a frequent speaker also on occa- sions of public meeting to advocate movements of moral reform; before temperance societies and conventions of young people, Sunday-schools, the Epworth League, Christian Endeavor, and similar organizations ; in movements for the elevation of the laboring man ; and on Memorial Day. In re- ligious faith he is a Methodist Episcopalian, and active in denominational work. He is a member of the Boston Wesleyan Association, having charge of Zion's Herald and the general property of the denomination in New England ; a director of East Greenwich Academy ; a member of various busi- ness boards of laymen of the New England South- ern Conference ; and a member of the Methodist Social Union of New Bedford and vicinity, the largest in the country, which he was instrumental in starting, and of which he was the first president. He is vice-president for the State of Massachu- setts of the American Sabbath Union. He is a member of Acushnet Lodge, No. 41, 1. O. O. F., and also of the Knights of Honor. Physically, he is something of an athlete, with a taste espe- cially for rowing. He usually has a shell on the river and a boat at his summer home on Lake Winnipesaukee, N.H., where he organized the Pine Island Outing Club in 1892, of which he has

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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 33

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