Men of progress one thousand biographical sketches and portraits of leaders in business and professional life in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Part 4

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 4

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canvass on tariff and other reform issues, which resulted in a marked decrease in the Republican plurality. In his political convictions he has always been independent. Beginning active life as a Whig, he gave his support to the Republican party in its early days, joining it in 1856, when resistance to the slave power seemed to him a duty. In 1884, in common with others who had been conspicuous as Republican leaders, he re- fused to support Mr. Blaine for the presidency, and, withdrawing from the organization, took a leading part in the Independent, or so-called

CHARLES R. CODMAN.

" Mugwump," movement in support of Mr. Cleve- land. Subsequently, when the Democratic party took position for liberal tariff legislation, and the Republican party adopted the high protection policy, he entered into full fellowship with the former organization, advocating its principles with his able pen and eloquent voice. He has also long been identified with the cause of civil service reform, and was among its earliest advocates. In ISSo and ISSI, and again from 1887 to 1890, Colonel Codman was president of the Board of Overseers of Harvard University, to which he was first elected in 1878. He is president of the Massachusetts State Homeopathic Hospital and of the Boston Provident Association, and trustec

MEN OF PROGRESS.

of the State Insane Asylum in Westborough. He is a member of the Massachusetts Historical So- ciety and of the Union and Massachusetts Reform clubs, president of the latter. He was married at Walton-on-Thames, England, February 28, 1856, to Miss Lucy Lyman Paine Sturgis, daugh- ter of the late Russell Sturgis of Boston, and afterwards of the firm of Baring Brothers & Co., London. They have three sons and two daugh- ters living : Russell Sturgis, Anne Macmaster, Susan Welles, John Sturgis, and Julian Codman. Since 1855 Colonel Codman's principal residence has been in Cotuit, Barnstable; his winter resi- dence, in Boston.

CORCORAN, JOHN WILLIAM, member of the Suffolk bar and ex-justice of the Superior Court, is a native of New York State, born in Batavia, June 14, 1853, son of James and Catherine (Don- nelly) Corcoran. His parents had moved to Batavia from Clinton, this State, not long before his birth; but, when he was a child three months old, the family returned to Clinton, and that town

JOHN W. CORCORAN.

has since been his home. He attended the Clin- ton public schools and pursued his collegiate studies at Holy Cross College, Worcester, and at St. John University, Fordham, N.Y., which con-

ferred the degree of LL.D. upon him June 21, 1893. Subsequently he entered the Boston Uni- versity Law School, and, graduating therefrom in 1875, was at once admitted to the bar. He began practice in Clinton at first alone, but soon formed a copartnership with Herbert Parker, under the firm name of Corcoran & Parker, which relation continued a number of years. In 1883 he was made town solicitor, the office that year created, which he occupied until June, 1892, then resigning it to go upon the bench. The same year (1883) and again in 1884 he was candidate for district attorney of Worcester County, but failed of elec- tion. In 1886 he was nominated for attorney- general on the Democratic State ticket, and re- nominated in 1887; in 1888, 1889, 1890, and 1891 was Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor, in the three years last named running ahead of all the other candidates except the head of the ticket ; in 1891 and part of 1892 was judge advocate-general on Governor Russell's staff ; and in May, 1892, was made associate justice of the Superior Court by appointment of Governor Russell. The latter position he occupied, ably meeting its requirements, until November 22, 1893, when he resigned to return to practice, re- tiring with the esteem of his associates on the bench and a heightened reputation. Since 1889 he has had an office in Boston as well as in Clin- ton, and upon his retirement from the bench he took up the business left by the Hon. P. A. Col- lins, made consul-general at London by President Cleveland in the spring of 1893. In his practice he has given especial attention to corporation and business matters. In January, 1886, he was ap- pointed by the Comptroller of the United States receiver of the Lancaster National Bank in Clin- ton, whose president had absconded, leaving the concern burdened with worthless paper; and he so managed the trust that the creditors received one hundred and nine per cent., in full of their claims, including interest, the first dividend, of fifty per cent., being declared six months after it came into his hands. Mr. Corcoran became active in State politics early in his career. In ISSo he was a candidate for State senator from his district ; he was a member of the Democratic State Committee from 1883 until his appointment to the bench in 1892, when he resigned; in 1891-92 was chairman of that body ; and he was delegate to the National Democratic conventions of 1884, 1888, and 1892, in that of 1888 acting

MEN OF PROGRESS.

as chairman of the Massachusetts delegation, and in that of 1892 a delegate at large for Massachu- setts, receiving the largest vote. In his town of Clinton he has been for eighteen years a mem- ber of the School Board, for the last ten years its chairman ; a member of the Board of Water Com- missioners since its organization in 1881, some time its secretary and treasurer and chairman ; and president of the Board of Trade two terms (1886-87). He is a member of the Algonquin. Papyrus, and Clover clubs of Boston (president of the latter) ; a member and vice-president of the Young Men's Democratic Club of Massachusetts ; and he was chairman of the Massachusetts Board of Managers of the World's Columbian Exposi- tion in 1893. Judge Corcoran was married in Boston, April 28, 1881, to Miss Margaret J. McDonald, daughter of Patrick and Mary Mc- Donald. They have two daughters and one son : Mary Gertrude, Alice, and John Corcoran.

CROCKER, GEORGE GLOVER, president of the State Senate in 1883, and subsequently chairman of the Board of Railroad Commissioners, is a na- tive of Boston, born December 15, 1843. son of Uriel and Sarah Kidder (Haskell) Crocker. On the paternal side his direct ancestor in the seventh generation was William Crocker, who about the year 1634 came to this country from Devonshire, England, and who married in Scituate in 1636, and with his wife, Alice, moved to Barnstable in 1639. His father's mother's mother was daugh- ter of Colonel Jonathan Glover of Marblehead, of Revolutionary fame. the brother of General John Glover, whose statue is in Commonwealth Avenue, Boston. On his mother's side his ancestry is traced also in the seventh generation to William Haskell, who came from England to Beverly in 1632. G. G. Crocker was educated in Boston private schools, the public Latin School, where he took a Franklin medal, and at Harvard, gradu- ating therefrom in the class of 1864. He studied law in the Harvard Law School, receiving the degree of LL.B. in 1866. In 1867 he received the degree of A.M. Admitted to the Suffolk bar in July of that year, he began the practice of his profession in association with his brother, Uriel H. Crocker, devoting his attention principally to conveyancing. In 1868 he joined with others in re-establishing the Boston Young Men's Christian Union, and for nine years served as a director of

that successful and useful institution. In 1873 and 1874 he was a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, serving both years as chairman of the committee on bills in the third

GEO. G. CROCKER.

reading. In 1874 he was also chairman on the part of the House of the joint committee on the liquor law, and a member of the committee on rules and orders. In the autumn of 1874 he was the Republican candidate for senator in the Third Suffolk District, but was defeated by his Democratic competitor. In the summer of 1877 he was chosen secretary of the Republican State Committee ; and this position he held two years, in the second of which was carried on one of the hottest of Massachusett's campaigns. General Butler, as the candidate of the Democrats and Greenbackers, made a most determined and confi- dent fight for the governorship ; but the Repub- lican candidate, Thomas Talbot, was elected by a plurality of over twenty-five thousand. In 1877, Mr. Crocker helped to promote the organization of the " Young Republicans," and two years later was made its chairman. In 1879 he was elected to the Senate. His service there, through re- peated elections, covered four terms (1880-83). The first year he was chairman of the committee on railroads and a member of the committees on the judiciary and on rules and orders. The

MEN OF PROGRESS.

second year he was chairman of the committees on railroads and on rules and orders; and he was a member of the committee on the judiciary, and of the joint special committee on the revi- sion of the Statutes. He prepared the rules which the latter committee adopted to govern its sessions. The third year he was chairman of the committees on the judiciary and on rules and orders, and a member of the bills in the third reading and State House committees. The fourth year he was president of the Senate. During his third term he prepared a " Digest of the Rulings of the Presiding Officers of the Senate and House," covering a period of fifty years, which has since formed a part of the " An- nual Manual for the General Court." The ses- sion of 1883, when he was president, was the longest on record, the Legislature sitting two hun- dred and six days. It was the year when General Butler was governor, and the Tewksbury Alms- house investigation was the chief cause of the length of the session. In 1887 Mr. Crocker was appointed by Governor Ames a member of the Board of Railroad Commissioners, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of the Hon. Thomas Russell ; and his associates elected him chairman of the board. In 1888 he was reappointed for the term of three years. At the expiration of this term, in July, 1891, the Hon. Chauncey Smith was nominated for the position by Governor Rus- sell; but the Executive Council, by a vote of seven to one (seven Republicans to one Demo- crat), refused to confirm the nomination, and, as the governor made no other, Mr. Crocker contin- ued in office until January, 1892, when, the an- nual report of the board for the previous year having been completed, he resigned. In 1889 he was appointed by Mayor Hart chairman of a commission of three to examine the tax system in force in Boston, and report a more equitable one, if such could be devised. In March, 1891, this commission reported at length, recommend- ing, among other changes, that municipal bonds should be released from taxation, and that the many forms of double taxation should be abol- ished. Mr. Crocker published in 1889 (New York : G. P. Putnam's Sons) a parliamentary manual, entitled " Principles of Procedure in De- liberative Bodies." In conjunction with his brother, Uriel H. Crocker, he also prepared the "Notes on the General Statutes," the first edition of which was published in 1869. A second edi-

tion was published in 1875, and an enlarged edi- tion, " Notes on the Public Statutes," was brought out simultaneously with the publication of the revision of the Statutes in 1882. He is an officer of various business corporations, and is connected with a number of philanthropie organ- izations,-a life member of the Boston Young Men's Christian Union, of the Massachusetts Charitable Fire Society (president 1890, 1891), of the Massachusetts Charitable Society (treas- urer 1881-), trustee of the Boston Lying-in Hos- pital (188t-), and a member of the Young Men's Benevolent Society. He is also a mem- ber of the Republican Club of Massachusetts (president 1894), of the Citizens' Association of Boston, the Boston Civil Service Reform Associa- tion, the Society for Political Education, the Bos- ton Memorial Association, the Bostonian Society, the Bar Association of Boston, the Harvard Law School Association, the Boston Athletic Associa- tion, the Beacon Society; and of the Union, St. Botolph, Algonquin, Country, New Riding, Union Boat, and Papyrus clubs. Mr. Crocker was mar- ried on June 19, 1875, in Boston, to Miss Annie Bliss Keep, daughter of Dr. Nathan Cooley and Susan Prentiss (Haskell) Keep. They have five children : George Glover, Jr., Margaret, Courte- nay, Muriel, and Lyneham Crocker.

CROCKER, URIEL, was the head of the old established Boston printing and publishing house of Crocker & Brewster during its long and honor- able career, covering a period of fifty-eight years (1818-1876); and he was prominent in early rail- road and other enterprises. He was born in Marblehead, September 13, 1796, and died at Cohasset, at the summer residence of his son George G., on July 19, 1887, in his ninety-first year. His partner, Osmyn Brewster, died about two years later, at the age of nearly ninety-two. In 1868 the firm celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of the formation of their partnership, and in 1886 the seventy-fifth anniversary of their first meeting as apprentices in 1811. Mr. Crocker's father, also Uriel (born in 1768), his grandfather, Josiah Crocker (born 1744), and his great-grandfather, Cornelius Crocker (born 1704), were all natives of Barnstable, the latter being the great-grandson of William and Alice Crocker, who were married in Scituate in 1636, and moved to Barnstable in 1639, and were the ancestors of the numerous

MEN OF PROGRESS.

('rockers who, originating on Cape Cod, have scattered throughout the country. Cornelius Crocker was a man of importance, and the owner of considerable property in Barnstable. Josiah, his son, was a graduate of Harvard Col- lege (1765) and a schoolmaster in Barnstable. Uriel. Josiah's son. came up to Boston, when a young man, to learn the trade of a hatter, and went to Marblehead to live, where he married his first wife, who died within a year after marriage. The subject of this sketch was one of eight chil-

URIEL CROCKER.

dren by Uriel Crocker's second wife, Mary James, daughter and only child of Captain Richard James of Marblehead, and Mary, his wife, daughter of Colonel Jonathan Glover, a colonel in the State militia, and brother of General John Glover. Uriel Crocker, 2d, graduated from the academy at Marblehead in August, 1811, as first scholar; and in the month following, on the day after he was fifteen years old, he began work in Boston as an apprentice in the printing-office of Samuel T. Armstrong (afterwards mayor of Boston and act- ing governor of the Commonwealth), who also carried on a bookselling business. At nineteen he was made foreman of the printing-office, and at twenty-two was, with his fellow-apprentice,

Osmyn Brewster, taken into partnership, the agree- ment being that the bookstore was to be con- ducted in the name of Mr. Armstrong, and the printing-office in that of Crocker & Brewster. After 1825 the entire business was carried on under the name of Crocker & Brewster ( Mr. Arm- strong, however, continuing a member of the firm until 1840), the printing-office being in Mr. Crocker's especial charge, and the bookstore in that of Mr. Brewster. In 1821 a branch of the business was established in New York, which five and a half years later, being sold to Daniel Apple- ton and Jonathan Leavitt. became the foundation of the present house of 1). Appleton & Sons. The business of Crocker & Brewster in Boston was for nearly half a century established in the building to which Mr. Crocker first went as an apprentice (the estate now numbered 173 and 175 Washing- ton Street). In 1864 it was moved to the adjoining building, where it remained until 1876, when the firm relinquished active business, selling their stereotype plates, copyrights, and book stock to H. (). Houghton & Co. The partnership, how- ever, continued until it was dissolved by the death of Mr. Crocker. The books published by the firm were many and important, largely standard and educational works. One of the principal of them was Scott's Family Bible in six royal octavo. volumes, which was the first large work that was stereotyped in this country, and of which from twenty to thirty thousand copies - a large number for those days - were sold. In speaking of the publications of the firm at the fiftieth anniversary of its formation, Mr. Crocker said, "It is pleasant for an old printer, when thinking of the many millions of pages which have issued from his press, to know that there is

' Not one immoral, one corrupting thought,

No line which, dying, he would wish to blot !'"

The firm introduced in Boston the first iron lever printing-press, and they printed from the first power press in Boston. Mr. Crocker was one of the organizers of the Old Colony Railroad Com- pany. a director from 1844 to 1850, and again from 1863 till his death. He was a director of the Northern (N.H.) Railroad Company from 1854 till his death ; director of the Concord Railroad from 1846 to 1866 : director of the Atlantic & Pacific Railroad from 1868 to 1874. vice-president from 1870 to 1873, and president in 1874; director of the South Pacific Railroad in 1870 : and director

MEN OF PROGRESS.

of the St. Louis & San Francisco Railroad in 1877. He was president and director of the " Proprietors of the Revere House," Boston, from 1855 till his death; director of the United States Hotel Company from 1848 till his death, and president from 1863 till his death ; director of the South Cove Corporation from 1840, and president from 1849 till his death ; president and director of the South Bay Improvement Company from 1877 till his death; and director of the Tremont Nail Company from 1858 to 1879, and president from 1872 to 1879. He was a leader in the movement for the erection of the Bunker Hill Monument, and through his efforts the sum of forty thousand dollars was raised for the fund. He was director of the Monument Association from 1833 till 1869, and vice-president from 1869 till his death, declining to accept the position of president. He was a member of the Massachu- setts Charitable Mechanic Association for sixty- three years, having been treasurer from 1833 to 1841 ; a member of the Massachusetts Charitable Fire Society for thirty-seven years, having been vice-president in 1874 and 1875, and president in 1876 and 1877 ; of the Massachusetts Charitable Society for sixty-three years, having been presi- dent in 1858 and treasurer from 1859 to 1881 ; of a "Republican Institution " for thirty-nine years, having been director, vice-president, and presi- dent; of the Board of Managers of the Boston Dispensary from 1838 till his death ; a trustee of Mount Auburn Cemetery from 1856 to 1865; a member of the standing committee of the Old South Society from 1836 to 1857, and chairman of the committee from 1848 to 1856. He was also one of the original corporators of the Frank- lin Savings Bank of the City of Boston; an over- seer of the Boston House of Correction ; a trustee of the Boston Lying-In Hospital; and a member of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, of the New England Historic Genealogical Society, and of the Bostonian Society. The honorary degree of A.M. was conferred upon him by Dartmouth College in 1866. He was married in 1829 to Miss Sarah Kidder Haskell, a daughter of Elias Haskell of Boston, known during the later years of his life as " Deacon Haskell," having been for nearly forty years a deacon of the West Church. Mrs. Crocker died January 16, 1856, at the age of fifty years. Their children were Uriel Haskell Crocker, Sarah Haskell Crocker, and George Glover Crocker.

CROCKER, URIEL HASKELL, member of the Suffolk bar, was born in Boston, December 24, 1832, son of Uriel and Sarah Kidder (Haskell) Crocker. [For ancestry, see Crocker, George G.,

URIEL H. CROCKER.

and Crocker, Uriel.] His early education was acquired in the private schools of Miss Jennison and of Thompson Kidder. Then he attended the Boston Public Latin School, where he was fitted for college, and, entering Harvard, graduated in the class of 1853. After graduation he studied law in the Dane ( Harvard) Law School for two years, then for one year in the office of Sidney Bartlett in Boston. He was admitted to the bar of Suffolk County in 1856, and since then has been engaged in practice as a lawyer, chiefly as a conveyancer. He is the author of two legal books, "Notes on Common Forms" and " Notes on the Public Statutes of Massachusetts." He has also published several pamphlets on subjects connected with political economy, their chief object having been to refute the doctrine of the impossibility of general overproduction, as taught by John Stuart Mill, and maintained by economists since his time, and to show that saving, though it has in the past been productive of great benefit to mankind, may, when carried to an extreme, be productive of disastrous re-

MEN OF PROGRESS.

sults. The principal of these pamphlets are entitled " Excessive Saving a Cause of Commer- cial Distress," published in 1884, and "Overpro- duction and Commercial Distress," published in 1887. In the early years of the agitation for the establishment of a public park for Boston (1869 to 1875) Mr. Crocker was very active and prom- inent in advocating that measure. He was a mem- ber of the Boston Common Council in 1874-75- 76-77 and 78, and was one of the commissioners to revise the Statutes of Massachusetts in ISS1. He is a member of the Massachusetts Historical Society, the Bunker Hill Monument Association, the Massachusetts Charitable Society, the Massa- chusetts Charitable Fire Society, " A Republican Institution," and of the Union, St. Botolph, Country, New Riding, and Unitarian clubs. He has been clerk, treasurer, and director of the South Cove Company, director and president of the United States Hotel Company, clerk, treas- urer, and director of the "Proprietors of the Revere House," director of the Northern (N.H.) Railroad, chairman of the standing committee of the West Church, treasurer of the Boston Civil Service Reform Association, member of the gen- eral committee of the Citizens' Association of Boston, president of the Boston Lying-In Hos- pital, and member of the board of managers of the Home for Aged Women. He was first mar- ried, January 15, 1861, to Miss Clara G. Ballard, daughter of Joseph Ballard of Boston, by whom were three sons : George Uriel, Joseph Ballard, and Edgar. She died May 14, 1891. On April 29, 1893, he was married to Miss Annie J. Fitz, his present wife.

CUMMINGS, PRENTISS, member of the Suf- folk bar, is a native of Maine, born in Sumner, September 10, 1840, son of Whitney and Mary Hart (Prentiss) Cummings. This branch of the Cummings family was of Scotch origin, and de- scended from Isaac Cummings, who settled in Topsfield about 1632. Captain Oliver Cummings, of Dunstable, Mass., was grandfather, and his son Oliver, the father of Whitney. Mary Hart Prentiss was grand-daughter of the Rev. Caleb Prentiss and of Dr. John Hart, of South Read- ing (now Wakefield). Every male ancestor of the subject of this sketch, of such age as to ren- der it possible, took an active part in the war of the Revolution ; and Prentiss's grandfather Oliver

made the first clearing in Sumner, Me., taking up bounty lands assigned to him and his father. Prentiss Cummings's early education was acquired in the common schools, and he fitted for col- lege at Phillips ( Exeter) Academy. He entered Harvard in the class of 1864. Immediately after graduation he became master of the High School of Portland, Me. Here he remained but a few months, however, soon entering the office of Nathan Webb, afterward Judge Webb of the United States District Court, and beginning the study of law. The next year he attended the Harvard Law School, holding also, after Thanks- giving, the office of proctor in the college. In October, 1866, he received the appointment of tutor in Latin in Harvard University; and this position he held until March, 1870. Then, re- signing, he resumed his law studies; and on the 3d of May, the following year, he was admitted to the bar. He established himself in Boston, and began at once the practice of his profession. In September, 1874, he was appointed first as- sistant United States attorney, which post he

PRENTISS CUMMINGS.

occupied seven years, finally resigning it to resume general practice. In 1881, 1882, and 1883 he was member of the Boston Common Council, and in 1884 and 1885 he represented a

MEN OF PROGRESS.

Boston district in the lower house of the Legisla- ture, being a member of the committees on the judiciary, on taxation, and on woman suffrage. In 1885 he became president of the Cambridge Railroad Company, and held that position until all the Boston street railways were consolidated under the name of the West End Company in November, 1887, when he was made vice-presi- dent of the latter company, which position he still holds. He is a member of the Society of the Cincinnati, succeeding his great-grandfather, Dr. John Hart, who was surgeon (rank lieutenant colonel) of Prescott's regiment, and afterwards of the Second Massachusetts; is president of the Boston Chess Club, and has been a member of the Union and other clubs. Mr. Cummings was married February 25, 18So, at Buckfield, Me., to Miss Annie Delena Snow, daughter of Alonzo and Priscilla (Weeks) Snow, of Cambridge. They have no children.

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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 4

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