Men of progress one thousand biographical sketches and portraits of leaders in business and professional life in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Part 34

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 34

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

since been clerk. He is a collector of books, and possesses one of the best law libraries and one of the choicest general libraries in New Bedford, the latter specially rich in the lines of history and economics, and in English, French, and Ger- man literature, Mr. Raymond was first married, September 12, 1883, to Miss Annie E. Booth, of New Bedford, who died December 10, 1884. He married second, October 20, 1886, Miss Mary E. Walker, daughter of Captain David Walker, of Groton, Conn. Their children are : Annie Almy, Mary Lois, and AAllen Simmons Raymond.

ROBERTS, JOHN HEMENWAY, of the Boston office of the Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York, is a native of Maine, born in Alfred, York County, October 8, 1831, son of Nahum and Sally B. (Hemenway) Roberts. He is of English ancestry. He was educated in the common schools and at Alfred Academy. Until he was eighteen years of age he lived and worked on his father's farm. Then, in 1850, he came to Charles- town, and was engaged in the West India goods and foreign fruit business till the outbreak of the Civil War. Enlisting in July, 1861, as a private for three years, he was mustered into the United States service as second lieutenant, Company F, Eighth Regiment, Maine Volunteers, in August ; was promoted to first lieutenant in May, 1862, and to captain the following August. His regiment was immediately ordered to the front in the de- fences of Washington. In October, 1861, it was assigned to the First Brigade (General Viely), Sherman's expeditionary corps (afterwards the Tenth Army Corps) to the South Atlantic coast, striking first at Port Royal, S.C. It participated in all the operations from that engagement to the capture of Fort Sumter, including the siege and capture of Fort Pulaski, at the mouth of the Savannah River, and the capture and occupation of Jacksonville, Fla. On the first of January, 1864, by order of the Secretary of War, at the request of the governor of Maine, he was trans- Terred to the Second Maine Cavalry, then organiz- ing at Augusta, Me., as captain of Company M. In February the regiment was ordered to New Orleans, La., and participated in the Red River campaign, after which it was engaged in the ex- termination of guerillas in La Fourche and T'esche counties, Louisiana. In July, 1864, it was ordered

253

MEN OF PROGRESS.

to West Florida, with headquarters at Barrancas, to assist in the siege and operations against Mobile, Ala., and assigned to the First Brigade Cavalry, Nineteenth Army Corps. From this time till the close of the war it was constantly engaged in scouting and raiding throughout western Flor- ida and southern Alabama, destroying an immense amount of Confederate army stores, cutting rail- road and telegraph communications between Mobile and Montgomery, capturing large quanti- ties of cattle, horses, and mules; and it was the first to carry the Emancipation Proclamation to

JOHN H. ROBERTS.

the negroes throughout that section of the coun- try. In the course of these raids the regiment had many engagements : at Milton, Euchee Anna, Marianna, Fla., and at Pollard, Big and Little Escambia Rivers, Pine Barren Creek, and other places in Alabama. In May, 1864, Captain Roberts was inspector-general of the forces of New Orleans, and later judge advocate-general of the department. In January, 1865, he was detailed judge advocate of an important military commission at Barrancas, Fla., for the trial of several capital cases (civilians), there being then no State government, and consequently no courts of justice. After the close of the war he returned

to Massachusetts, and entered the State militia. He was made adjutant of the First Battalion of Cavalry in 1869, and afterwards (in 1873) pro- moted to lieutenant colonel commanding (serving in that capacity until 1876); and he brought this corps to so high a state of efficiency that he was complimented by General Sherman, when general of the United States Army, as having the finest command in the country outside of the regular army. Upon his return to civil life after his four years of service in the war, during which time he was never off duty a day except for a short time when wounded, he re-entered his former business in the employ of J. C. Tyler & Co., foreign fruit merchants, with whom he remained seven years. Then he entered the firm of J. F. Conant & Co., Chatham Street, of which, by the death of the senior partners, he soon became the head. For some years afterwards he was engaged in the merchandise brokerage business in India Street ; and in 1888 he became connected with the Boston office of the Mutual Life of New York. Since the war Colonel Roberts has resided in Chelsea, where he has taken an active interest in affairs, civil, political, and social. He served in the Board of Aldermen one term ( 1876), represented the city in the lower house of the Legislature two terms (1870-71), and has been at the head of many of its social organizations. He is a mem- ber of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion, Massachusetts Commandery; of the Union Vet- erans' Union, W. S. Hancock command, Chelsea ; of the Grand Army of the Republic, Theodore Winthrop Post, Chelsea; of the Robert Lash Lodge, Free Masons, the Shekinah Chapter Royal, Arch Masons, the Napthali Council, and the Palestine Commandery, Knights Templar, all of Chelsea; a member of the Chelsea Review Club, and of the Grand Army Club, Boston. He was for three successive years (1890-91-92) elected department commander of the Union Veterans' Union, when it included all the New England States, and in 1893 was elected commander-in- chief of that organization. He was master of Robert Lash Lodge in 1874-75, and high priest of Shekinah Chapter in 1877-78. Colonel Roberts was married in May, 1859, at Charlestown, to Miss Louisa Southward. They had three chil- dren : Lillian Louise (now Mrs. Alfred J. Hay- man), Gertrude Abbie, Mattie Emma B. (now Mrs. Henry W. Asbrand). He married second, in 1868, Miss H. Edwina Phelps, of Chelsea.

254

MEN OF PROGRESS.

ROBERTS, WILLIAM WARREN, of Haverhill, city clerk, is a native of Haverhill, born August 31, 1866, son of Joseph W. and Medora A.

WILLIAM W. ROBERTS.

(Felch) Roberts. He is a direct descendant of Governor Thomas Roberts, the emigrant, who settled at Dover Neck, N.H., about the year 1632. He was educated in the public schools of Haverhill and at Bryant & Stratton's Commercial College in Boston. After his graduation in June, 1884, he entered the office of David B. Tenney, then city clerk of Haverhill, with whom he re- mained until the latter retired from that office in January, 1893. In January, 1892, he was elected auditor and assistant city clerk ; and upon the re- tirement of Mr. Tenney he was elected to the city clerkship, which position he has since held. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity ; of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks; of the Independent Order of Red Men, of which he is a past sachem ; and of the Wachusett Club of Haverhill. In politics he is a Republican. He was married April 17, 1889, to Miss Alice M. Day, of Haverhill.

RUSSELL, CHARLES THEODORE, JR., member of the Suffolk bar, was born in Boston, April 20,

1851, the eldest son of Charles Theodore Russell and Sarah Elizabeth (Ballister) Russell. He re- moved to Cambridge in 1876, and has since resided there. He was educated in the public schools of Cambridge, and graduated at Harvard College in 1873. He studied law with the firm of C. T. & T. H. Russell, in Boston, and graduated from the Law School of Boston University in 1875. He was admitted to the Boston bar May 15, 1875, and became a partner in the firm of C. T. & T. H. Russell, at No. 27 State Street, and continued to practise law as a member of that firm until January 1, 1894, when the firm dis- solved, and he formed with his brother, William E. Russell, the law firm of Russell & Russell, Exchange Building. In 1884 he was appointed one of the civil service commissioners of Massa- chusetts, and has continued under successive re- appointment to hold that office, and since 1889 has been the chairman of the commission. In 1885 he was appointed by the Legislature editor of "Contested Election Cases before the Legisla- ture," and still occupies that position. In 1889 he was appointed by the court one of the exam-

C. T. RUSSELL, Jr.

iners of applicants for admission to the Suffolk bar, and for three years has been chairman of the board. He is a Democrat in politics, and

255

MEN OF PROGRESS.

has never been married. He is a member of the Union. University, and St. Botolph clubs in Boston, and several other social, literary, and yachting associations.

SANDERS, WILLIAM, of New Bedford, mer- chant, is a native of Rhode Island, born in the town of Warren, December 10, 1843, son of Henry and Martha B. (Viall) Sanders. He is of English ancestry, and is the owner of a coat-of- arms granted to one of his ancestors, dated 1522.

WM. SANDERS.

His great-grandfather, on the maternal side, served as a captain in the war of the Revolution ; and the latter's commission is now in his hands. The family moved to New Bedford when William Sanders was a boy of fourteen years; and he was educated there in the public schools, graduating from the High School. He began business life as a clerk in the post-office of Quincy, where he spent two years. Then he went to Boston, and had several years' experience in the wholesale clothing business. In February, 1866, he started out for himself, opening a retail clothing store in New Bedford. After conducting this successfully for twelve years alone, he admitted his brother, H. V. Sanders, to partnership, under the firm name of Sanders Brothers. This firm was dissolved

in ISSI, and was succeeded by that of Sanders & Barrows, which in time gave place to a corpora- tion, formed in 1894, under the name of the Sanders & Barrows Clothing Company, with Mr. Sanders as treasurer and general manager. The business has steadily grown from the modest start in 1866, and it is now the largest clothing busi- ness in the State south of Boston. Mr. Sanders has served in the Legislature as a member of the lower house two terms (1879-80), and he has been Bristol County commissioner since 1889. He has served also in the State militia, captain of Com- pany E, First Regiment, for nine years,- from 1876 to 1881, and from 1886 to 1891. He be- longs to the order of Odd Fellows, a member of the Acushnet Lodge, New Bedford ; to the Royal Arcanum (regent of Omega Council); the Grand Army of the Republic, member of Post 1 ; and the Wamsutta and Dartmouth clubs, New Bedford. He has for some years been connected with the New Bedford Board of Trade, and is now (1894) one of the directors of the organization. In poli- tics he is a Republican. He has long been active in municipal affairs, and has been asked many times to stand as candidate for mayor, but always declined on account of business interests. He is well known all over Bristol County, his duties as county commissioner taking him to nearly every town in the county. Mr. Sanders was married November 6, 1866, to Miss Lucretia C. Cannon, of New Bedford. They have no chil- dren.

SANFORD, ALPHEUS, member of the Suffolk bar, was born in North Attleborough, July 5, 1856, son of Joseph B. and Mary C. (Tripp) Sanford. His early education was acquired in the public schools of his native town and of Mel- rose, to which his father moved when he was a small boy ; and he was fitted for college at the Boston Latin School. His collegiate training was at Bowdoin, from which he graduated in the class of 1876. In college he was president of his class, a member of the Kappa Chapter of P'si Upsilon, and captain of the college base-ball nine. He read law in the office of Joseph Nick- erson, Boston, and was admitted to the bar in 1879, when he established himself in Boston, where he has since remained engaged in gen- eral practice. In politics Mr. Sanford is Repub- lican, and early in his career became active in the party organization. He entered public life as a

256

MEN OF PROGRESS.

member of the Boston Common Council of 1886. The next year he was elected to the lower house of the Legislature (session of 1888), where he

ALPHEUS SANFORD.

served as house chairman of the committee on election laws. Returned for the session of 1890, he served that term on the committee on the judiciary, and ranked with the leaders on the Republican side of the House. He was first elected to the Boston Board of Aldermen for the municipal year of 1893 ; and, returned in 1894, was then elected chairman of the board. He was secretary of the Republican ward and city committee of Boston from 1889 to 1892; was in 1891 a member of the executive committee of the Republican Club of Massachusetts, and in 1892 secretary of that organization. He is a member also of the Mercantile Library Asso- ciation. Mr. Sanford was married September 20, 1883, in Acushnet, to Miss Mary C. V. Gardiner, daughter of William H. and Charlotte ( Read) Gar- diner. They have two children : Gardiner (born October 27, 1888) and Hazel Sanford (born August 18, 1892).

SHAW, CAPTAIN LEVI WOODBURY, of the De- partment for the Inspection of Buildings, city of

Boston, is a native of New Hampshire, born in New Durham, May 9, 1831, son of Isaac B. and Mary (Garland) Shaw. His early training was in the country school during the winter months, and in the open seasons on the farm or in assist- ing his father, who was a builder. Subsequently he spent three terms at the Wolfeborough Acad- emy, on the shore of Lake Winnepesaukee, graduating in 1849. The winter following he taught two district schools in the neighborhood of his home. At the age of twenty he came to Boston to follow his trade of a carpenter and builder. Flere he early became noted for origi- nality and advanced ideas in mechanical con- struction, and built up a substantial business. In 1865 he formed a partnership with John W. Morrison, under the firm name of Shaw & Mor- rison, which during an existence of many years ranked with the leading carpenters and builders of the city. For twenty years Captain Shaw was also an active and efficient member of the Boston Fire Department, joining it in 1852, under Chief William Barnicoat. He rose rapidly in rank through the various grades to foreman, and in

LEVI W. SHAW.

1871 was elected by the city council an assist- ant engineer under Chief John S. Damrell, which position he held until the department was placed

257

MEN OF PROGRESS.

under the board of fire commissioners (in Octo- ber, 1873), and reorganized. Then, declining the position of district chief engineer offered him by the new commissioners, he withdrew from the service. In the "Great Fire" of 1872 he was one of Chief Damrell's most trusted lieutenants. Ile has been connected with the Department for the Inspection of Buildings since January, 1878, when, at the solicitation of his former chief, who had been placed at the head of the department, he accepted the position of assistant inspector. In 1886 he was promoted to the charge of the sub-department known as the "egress depart- ment," as " supervisor of egress, " which is charged with the inspection of apartment houses, hotels, theatres, manufactories, and other build- ings, in which numbers of persons are congre- gated, and the enforcement of the laws and regulations for the protection of life. Captain Shaw is prominent in the order of Odd Fellows. is a Knight of Honor, past grand warden of the New England Order of Protection, of which he was one of the founders, and prominent in other orders. He was married in Boston, March 12. 1853, to Miss Margarette T. Keating. They have had three daughters, all of whom have won distinction in their special fields of professional work : the eldest. Mary Shaw, is the talented actress ; the second, Helen A., is a popular writer of prose and poetry in leading journals; and the third. Margarette Evelyn (now Mrs. Ingersoll), is also a frequent contributor to the magazines and newspapers of the day.

SHEDD, WILLIAM ELLIOT, of Boston, leather merchant, was born in Bridgewater, April 12, 1850, son of Joel and Eliza (Edson) Shedd. He is a descendant of the historical family of Edsons, of Bridgewater. His education was acquired in public schools in Bridgewater and Boston, and in private schools in Brockton and Waltham. His training for active life was begun in the ma- chine shop of his brother, George F. Shedd, in Waltham, which he entered at seventeen years of age. After one year of practical work here he went into the office of another brother, J. Herbert Shedd, civil engineer, Boston, where he was em- ployed another year. Then his connection with the leather business began as a clerk with Field, Converse, & Co., Boston. A year later he be- came a salesman and book-keeper for Otis

Doyle & Co .. Boston, with whom he remained for three or four years. For the next two years he was in charge of the finished leather depart-

WM. E. SHEDD.

ment of the Boston house of Coon, Crocker, & Co. ; and thereafter was with the house of Dewson, Williams, & Co. till 1888, when he established the present successful house of Shedd & Crane, commission merchants in sole and upper leather. For twenty-one years he was a justice of the peace. He has been long connected with the Masonic order, and is now a member of Monitor Lodge, Waltham. He is an active mem- ber of the Piety Corner Club of Waltham, and also a member of the New England Shoe and Leather Association of Boston. Mr. Shedd was married in January, 1875, to Miss Ellen A. Fiske, of Waltham. They have two sons : Irving Elliot and William Chester Shedd.

SHELDON, JOSEPH HENRY, of Haverhill, real estate interests, is a native of Haverhill. born February 12, 1843, son of Samuel and Emily B. (Sleeper) Sheldon. He descends in the direct line from Isaac Sheldon, one of three brothers, who came from England to this country about 1630. One of his ancestors was General Israel

258

MEN OF PROGRESS.

Putnam who led at Bunker Hill, and his maternal great-grandfather was a lieutenant in the Revolu- tion. His father was born in Danvers in 1819, and his mother in Alton, N.H., in 1818. He was educated in the common schools of Haver- hill, and was early at work, being but twelve years of age when his father died and the care of the family fell largely upon him, with the advice and assistance of his admirable mother. His first employment was in a shoe manufactory in Haver- hill, where he remained a short time. Then he became a clerk in a dry-goods store, and in 1857 a clerk in the ready-made clothing business, in

JOSEPH H. SHELDON.

which he continued for thirteen years. In 1871 he began business in the same line on his own account, and prospered. In 1890 he retired, and engaged in real estate operations and the manage- ment of estates. He was a member of the Board of Aldermen in 1882 and 1883, and subsequently chairman of the first board of registration, resign- ing the latter position before his term was com- pleted, to accept the office of mayor of the city, to which he was elected for 1885. He was re- elected to the mayoralty in 1887. His first year as mayor was marked by the construction of sewers and the inauguration of permanent street and road improvements ; and the most note-

worthy achievements of his second term were the laying out of Washington Square Park, and fol- lowing up the same line of work as in 1885. In 1893 he was elected a member of the board of Overseers of the Poor, which position he still retains. On the occasion of the celebration of the 250th anniversary of the incorporation of Haverhill as a town, in 1893, he served as secre- tary of the reception committee. In State and national polities Mr. Sheldon is a Democrat ; and, in religious faith, a Universalist : he attends the First Universalist Church of Haverhill, and is chairman of the parish committee. He is con- neeted with the Free Masons, the Odd Fellows, the order of Red Men, and has passed through the official chairs of the latter, and also of the encampment of the order of Odd Fellows. He is a trustee of Odd Fellows' Hall Association. He was an original member of the Mayors' Club of Massachusetts, and was a member of its first executive committee in association with ex-Gov- ernor Russell and ex-Mayor Rotch, of New Bed- ford. He was married December 27, 1866, in Haverhill, to Miss Emily E. Jaques, daughter of Addison B. Jaques, late treasurer of the Haverhill Savings Bank.

SHERMAN, WILLIAM FREDERICK, of Law- rence, agent of the Atlantic Cotton Mills, is a native of Rhode Island, born in Hopkinton, May 28, 1848, son of William A. and Mary Collins (Kenyon) Sherman. He received a thorough common-school education in distriet schools, the Union High School of Central Falls, R.I., and the Lonsdale High of Lonsdale, R.I., finishing with a special private technical course under Pro- fessor Joseph M. Ross, a graduate of Amherst Col- lege. His first work was as a clerk in a country savings-bank before he had finished his school- ing. The long summer vacations were afterward devoted to work of various sorts,-in jewelry shops, on a farm, in machine-shops, assisting surveyors. At the age of seventeen he taught a large country school for four months. At eighteen he practised surveying while attending school, and at all favorable opportunities ob- tained practical information on mill problems and work, from his father, who was a "mill man." At nineteen he entered the employ of the Lons- dale Company, Lonsdale, R.l., engaging to do their draughting and surveying and to learn the

259

MEN OF PROGRESS.

cotton manufacturing business. He was with this company for nearly four years. From Janu- ary to August, 1871, he was making drawings

W. F. SHERMAN.

for the Granite Mills of Fall River. Then he established himself in Fall River, opening an office for mill engineering and civil engineering, and soon had a very large practice within and without the city. From 1875 to 1887 he was in the employ of the Boston Manufacturers' Mutual Fire Insurance Company, as an expert engineer, making descriptions and valuations of manufact- uring property ; and in 1887 he came to Law- rence as agent of the widely known Atlantic Cotton Mills, which position he has since held. He is a member of the Lawrence Board of Trade, president of the organization in 1890. Mr. Sherman is not a club man, nor a member of any of the secret fraternal organizations ; and he has neither held nor sought public place. He is in politics a Republican. He was married May 8, 1872, to Miss Martha Gertrude Greene, of Rhode Island. They have three children : Alice L., Charles G., and Harold F. Sherman.

SIMMONS, JOHN FRANKLIN, member of the Plymouth bar, was born in Hanover, June 26,

1851, son of Perez and Adeline (Jones) Simmons. He is a lineal descendant of Moses Simmons (originally spelled Moyses Symonzon), who came to Duxbury in the first ship to arrive after the " Mayflower " from Leyden, and, through his pater- nal grandmother, of Colonel Benjamin Church who captured King Philip; and on the maternal side his descent is from John Jones and Sarah (Lapham) Jones, of Welsh stock. His father, Perez Simmons, was for thirty years a prominent lawyer in Plymouth County; one of the leaders of the Dorr Rebellion in Rhode Island; a mem- ber of the Massachusetts Legislature, first in the House and afterwards in the Senate, where he served on the committee on revision of the stat- utes, of whose work the General Statutes of 1860 was the result : and a member of the State Consti- tutional Convention of 1853. John F. Simmons was educated in the public schools, in the Assi- nippi Institute, Phillips (Exeter) Academy, and Harvard College, from which he graduated in the class of 1873. He was class orator, and president of his society in college. He studied law in the Harvard Law School until February, 1875, when he

JOHN F. SIMMONS.

was admitted to the bar before Judge Aldrich. He began practice in Abington, in association with the late Judge J. E. Keith, under the firm name of

260

MEN OF PROGRESS.

Keith & Simmons. This relation continued until ISS5, when the firm was dissolved ; and he became a partner of Harvey H. Pratt, under the name of Simmons & Pratt. In 1890 the firm established its Boston office, and has since practised in that city. One of his most notable cases was the McNulty will case, which took him to Europe in 1888. He was receiver of the Abington National Bank (appointed in August, 1886), and closed up his work in six months, the quickest settlement on record. It is the only case in which a national bank went on, after being in receivers' hands, with the same charter and number. He is now a director of this bank. For eight years he was president of the South Scituate Savings Bank. He was a prominent candidate for the Superior Court judgeship when Judge Corcoran was ap- pointed in 1893, having, it is said, as strong a petition as was ever presented. While a resident of Hanover, he was a member of the School Com- mittee for fifteen years. In politics he is a Demo- crat. He is a Knight Templar of the Old Colony Commandery, Abington ; and is a member of the Old Colony Club of Plymouth. Mr. Simmons was married January 10, 1877, to Miss Fanny Florence Allen (a descendant of Tristram Coffin, who came from England to Nantucket, and of the family to which Benjamin Franklin's mother belonged, of Professor Maria Mitchell's family. and of the Folgers and Coffins of Nantucket). They have three children : Henry Franklin, Mary Folger, and Perez Simmons.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

Men of progress one thousand biographical sketches and portraits of leaders in business and professional life in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Part 34

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