USA > Massachusetts > Men of progress one thousand biographical sketches and portraits of leaders in business and professional life in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts > Part 45
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which he was a member for six years, from 1882 to 1888. In 1885 he was elected a Worcester representative in the lower house of the Legis-
HENRY L. PARKER.
lature for 1886, and returned the next year; and in 1889 and 1890 was a senator for the First Worcester District; in 1893 was chairman of the committee to revise the city charter of Worces- ter; and is now one of the Trustees of Public Reservations for the preservation of places of beauty and historic interest in the Commonwealth. When in the General Court, he served on leading committees, and had a prominent part in legisla- tive work. During his second term in the House he was chairman of the committee on probate and insolvency; in his first term in the Senate was chairman of the committee on public service, and in his second term chairman of the committees on the judiciary, on rules, and on election laws. In politics he is a Republican, and in religion an Episcopalian, - warden of St. Matthew's Church of Worcester for several years from 1872, and since 1889 warden of St. Mark's Church. He is much interested in horticulture, and has been president of the Worcester County Horticultural Society from 1889 to the present time. Mr. Parker was married on the first of January, 1861. He has had three sons and two daughters : Henry L., Jr.
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(graduate of Dartmouth in 1885, now a lawyer). George C. (also a graduate of Dartmouth in 1887, died June 15, 1889). Grace A., Herbert 1., and Gertrude M. Parker.
PARKER, HERBERT, of Lancaster, member of the bar, was born in Charlestown, March 2, 1856, son of George A. and Harriet N. (Felton) Parker. His father was a civil engineer who, during the latter years of his life, lived in Lancaster; and his mother is a sister of the late President C. C. Felton of Harvard University. His early educa- tion was acquired at private schools in Philadel- phia and with tutors. He entered Harvard with the class graduating in 1878, but was obliged to leave in the senior year on account of ill-health, and has never taken a degree. He read law in Worcester in the office of the Hon. Messrs. George F. Hoar and Thomas L. Nelson, and was admitted to the Worcester County bar in 1883. After his admission he was at Washington for one session of Congress as private secretary to Senator Hoar. and clerk on the committee on privileges and elec-
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HERBERT PARKER.
tions. On his return to Massachusetts he opened an office in Worcester and then in Clinton, where in a short time (in 1885) he formed a copartner-
ship with the Hon. John W. Corcoran, which con- tinued till the latter's removal to Boston in 1891. Thereafter, in 1892, he became junior partner in the law firm of Norcross, Baker, & Parker at Fitchburg, which relation continued till January, 1894, when he retired, and opened an office in Worcester, where he has since been in practice. In 1886 he was appointed assistant district at- torney for the Middle District of Massachusetts, which office he still holds. He also held until his resignation in 1894 the office of special justice of the Second District Court of Eastern Worcester. He is now a member of the board of examiners for admission to the bar, treasurer of the Law Li- brary Association of Worcester County, and sec- retary of the Association of District Attorney's of the Commonwealth. In politics he is a Repub- lican, and has always voted that ticket, except in 1884, when he voted for the Cleveland presiden- tial electors. He served many years on the Re- publican town committee of Lancaster; in the years 1892-93 was a member of the Republican State Committee. and from time to time has served on Republican congressional, senatorial, county, and representative district committees. He was a member of the School Committee of Lan- caster for four years, and for many years he has been one of the trustees of the Public Library of that town. He has been a member of the Hasty Pudding Club of Harvard, the Puritan of Boston, the Quinsigamond Boat and the Worcester clubs of Worcester, and the Athletic Association of Clinton. Mr. Parker was married at Lowell, Sep- tember 22, 1886, to Miss Mary Carney Vose. They have had three children : George A. (born at Lancaster, October 8, 1887), Katherine Vose (born at Lancaster, November 16, 1888), and Edith Parker (born at Lancaster, September 26, 1893).
PARSONS, CHARLES HENRY, of Springfield. real estate dealer, was born in Springfield, June 18, 1864, son of William H. and Sarah A. (Wood) Parsons. He is descended from "Cornet " Jo- seph Parsons, who was one of the original settlers of Springfield, and whose name appears on the deed of Springfield from the Indians. He was educated in the public schools of Springfield, grad- uating from the High School. He began to build houses for his father at the age of seventeen, and a year or two later started in to buy and sell real estate on his own account. By learning the car-
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penter's trade, and acquiring by study at odd times a fair knowledge of architecture and also of conveyancing, he fitted himself for his chosen business, and became able personally to super- intend the construction of his buildings, to draw plans, and to do his own legal work. His busi- ness steadily increased ; and during the eight years between 1886 and 1894 he sold over one hundred houses and blocks, besides upwards of five hundred building lots. He has served as a director of the Springfield Board of Trade, is a member of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Boston, and of the Springfield, Kamp
CHAS. H. PARSONS.
Komfort, Nyasset. Bicycle, and Winthrop clubs of Springfield. In politics he is a Democrat. AAlthough never active in politics, he made a good showing as a candidate for alderman on the Dem- ocratic ticket in the municipal campaign of 1893, while falling short of the necessary votes to elect, polling more than any other candidate from his party. Mr. Parsons was married September 23, 1885, to Miss Addie M. Marvel, of Hartford, Ct. They have two children: Marvel, born in 1889 ; and Russell Parsons, born in 1892.
PINKERTON, ALFRED S .. of Worcester, pres- ident of the Massachusetts Senate 1892-93, is a
native of Pennsylvania, born in Lancaster, March 19, 1856, son of William C. and Maria W. (Fiske) Pinkerton. He was educated in the pub- lic schools of Lancaster and of Scranton : and at the age of thirteen, his father dying, he was obliged to leave school. Removing with his mother. a Massachusetts woman, to Worcester, he found employment in a large manufacturing firm as a book-keeper ; and here he remained for about three years. Having a desire to study law, he read general literature, and pursued his studies evenings, after work through the day. At length he entered the office of the Hon. Peter C. Bacon, and there read under the latter's direction. Ad- mitted to the bar in 1881, he immediately began the practice of his profession in Worcester, and has followed it since, obtaining early in his career a recognized standing and a good business. He was first sent to the Legislature in 1887, elected to the House of Representatives, and immedi- ately took rank among the leading members. He was this first year chairman of the committee on towns, one of the most important committees of the session on account of the business before it (the bill for the division of Beverly among other matters of note), and its spokesman on the floor. Re-elected to the next House, he was during his second term a member of the committees on the judiciary and on constitutional amendments, and of the special committee to represent the Com- monwealth at the celebration of the settlement of the North-west territory. Again re-elected, he served his third term, again on the committee on the judiciary, and as chairman of that on water supply ; and was selected to present the name of Senator Hoar at the Republican caucus for renomination to the United States senatorship. The next year, 1890, Mr. Pinkerton was a mem- ber of the Senate, elected from the Fourth Worcester District. He served during his first term in the upper branch on the committees on constitutional amendment (chairman), on the ju- diciary, and on probate and chancery ; and he was a member of the special committee to whom was referred the contest for the seat of Senator Hart, the first case arising under the Australian ballot law, the decision of which was of great interest. Returned to the Senate of 1891, he served as chairman of the committee on the judi- ciary, the highest honor in the gift of the chair ; on the committee on probate and insolvency, and as chairman of the special committee to consider
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the organization and powers of the various State commissions, which being continued through the recess he served again as its chairman, and pre- sented its elaborate report to the succeeding Leg- islature. In 1892, returned for the third time, he was elected president of the Senate by the unani- mous vote of his associates, Republicans and Democrats alike ; and he was honored with a sim- ilar election in 1893. During his long service in both branches he was frequently heard in debate. always commanding attention : and in the chair of the Senate he made a reputation as a parliamenta- rian. He was chairman of the special committee
A. S. PINKERTON.
to revise the rules of the Legislature in 1892, and of the special committee to revise the laws relat- ing to corporations, other than municipal, and to consider the question of stock-watering. For a number of years he has been prominent in the Republican party organization, secretary in the early eighties of the Republican county committec. and subsequently its chairman, resigning this po- sition when elected to the Senate, but retaining his membership in the committee, and now again is its secretary and treasurer. He is in constant demand as a public speaker, especially during po- litical campaigns. Mr. Pinkerton is prominently connected with the Masonic fraternity, being past
master of Athelstan Lodge, member of Eureka Chapter. Worcester Council, and Worcester County Commandery Knights Templar, and is also high in the councils of Odd Fellowship: has served at the head of Worcester Lodge and Wachusett Encampment, and holds membership in the Canton and Rebekah Lodge of that order. Entering the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts in 1882, he was elected grand master in ISSS, the youngest man ever selected for that position : elected representative to Sovereign Lodge in TSS9. and re-elected in 1890-91-93, where he has taken commanding position. Since retiring from the office of grand master, he has been chairman of the committee of finance of the Grand Lodge, and was a member of the committee reporting in favor of the establishment of a home for the support of infirm and indigent members of the order, which has since been erected in Worces- ter. He is a member of the Republican Club of Massachusetts, of the Middlesex (political din- ing) Club (one of its vice-presidents), and of the Hancock Club of Worcester. He has served as a director of the Worcester Public Library. He is unmarried.
POTTER, BURTON WILLIS, of Worcester, mem- ber of the bar, is a native of New York, born in Colesville, February 8, 1843, son of Daniel and Julianna (Potter) Potter. He is descended from George Potter, of Portsmouth, R.I., who settled there in 1638 : and from John Potter, who moved to Bennington, Vt., from Rhode Island, in early life, a soldier of the Revolution and a prominent man in his town. He was educated in the dis- trict schools in Hartwick, Otsego County, N. V., at Lawrence Academy. Groton, Mass., and at Williams College ; and he was fitted for his pro- fession at the Harvard Law School. His training for active life consisted of hard work on a farm, with little schooling during the winter months. and the reading of such books as he could get hold of in the rural community where he lived, till the fall of 1862, when he enlisted in Company A of the Fourteenth Vermont Regiment for service in the Civil War. This regiment con- stituted a part of the famous Second Vermont Brigade, which was commanded by General Stannard, and took a prominent part in repulsing the charge of General Pickett's division in the battle of Gettysburg. He also served in the Sixth Massachusetts Regiment in 1864. While attend-
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ing academy and college, he taught school during vacations and at such other times as he could without interfering too much with his collegiate studies, in order to earn money to defray his expenses, as he was compelled to work his way through without financial assistance from any one. He was admitted to the bar at Worcester on the 22d of January, 1868, and has since been actively engaged in the practice of his profession in that city. He represented Worcester in the Legisla- ture in 1872, 1883, and 1884; was ballot law commissioner one year; a trustee of the Worces- ter Public Library five years, and one year presi- dent of the board of trustees; and he is now president of the Worcester Society of Antiquity, of the Chamberlain District Farmers' Club, and of the Association of Members of the Legislature of 1872. His tastes are literary: and he finds much enjoyment in general literature, and in travel at home and abroad. He is the author of the treatise on " The Road and Roadside," which is now in its third edition. After the publication of this book Williams College conferred upon him the honorary degree of A.M. in recognition of
BURTON W. POTTER.
meritorious scholarship. He has written some for magazines and newspapers, and has delivered many public addresses on themes of public
interest ; but his life-work thus far has been con- fined in the main to his law practice. He was married at Groton on July 23, 1868, to Miss Fannie Elizabeth Wright. They have had seven children : Winthrop Alva, Estelle, Paul, Helen, Lincoln, Ruth, and Roger Willis Potter; and all except Winthrop, who died when five years of age, are now living. Mr. Potter has a fine estate of about seven acres of land, called " Applecroft," situated on Salisbury Street in the suburbs of Worcester ; and a summer residence called " Edgelake Farm," situated on the shores of Mischopange Pond, in the old hill town of Rut- land, Mass.
PRATT, CHARLES BLAKE, of Worcester, presi- dent of the First National Fire Insurance Com- pany, the L. W. Pond Machine Company, and the Consolidated Street Railway Company, mayor of the city 1877-79, and some time in the General Court, is a native of Lancaster, born February 14, 1824, son of Jesse and Mary (Maynard) Pratt. His parents were very poor; and when a lad of nine years, having had but slight schooling and little home training, he started out to earn his liv- ing. For three years he worked in a cotton mill in Fitchburg; and then, making his way to Roches- ter, N.Y., he apprenticed himself there, for his minority, to learn the moulder's trade. A year later, however, having become interested in sub- marine work through an exhibition of submarine diving which he had witnessed, he secured a re- lease from his apprenticeship, and engaged to learn this business. After spending six years in work under water, thoroughly mastering its de- tails, and having a small capital in hand, the sav- ings from his wages, he returned to the moulder's trade, completing his training for it in Worces- ter, in the old Wheeler foundry. Thereafter he worked in foundries till his twenty-seventh year, when he re-entered the submarine business on his own account, which he followed for the next twenty years with great success, executing many important and profitable contracts along the At- lantic coast and the great lakes, involving difficult and oftentimes hazardous operations. Retiring in 1871, he has since devoted himself to his Worcester interests, which had become large when he was yet actively engaged in submarine work. He has been connected with the First National Fire Insurance Company for many years, manager of its business a long period, and its president
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since 1872 ; he has been president of the Fire Patrol since the organization of the Worcester Protective Department by the local insurance
CHAS. B. PRATT.
companies, which maintains the Patrol; was one of the organizers of the L. W. Pond Machine Company, for the manufacture of improved metal planers, and is now its president ; has been presi- dent and manager of the consolidated street rail- way companies since the union of the old company and the Citizens' Street Railway Company ; was the projector of the latter company, originally or- ganized during his presidency of the Worcester County Agricultural Society, to establish a street railway line to bring the agricultural fair grounds on the west side of the city into market; has been a director of the First National Bank of Worcester since its organization, and for many years a trustee of the Worcester Institution for Savings ; is a large stockholder in the Bay State House corporation, and was for many years a director ; and he was the heaviest stockholder in the Worcester Theatre and one of the original board of directors of this corporation. His public career began in the City Council of Worcester, to which he was first elected in 1856. In 1858 he was elected to the lower house of the Legislature, and served in the session of 1859. In his first
campaign for the mayoralty, in December, 1876, nominated by the Democrats, he was elected over Joseph H. Walker, the regular Republican candi- date, although the candidates for aldermen on the Walker ticket were all elected; and he was re- elected for the term of 1878, and again for 1879. as a non-partisan, with the support of leading men of both parties, by handsome majorities, retiring at the close of his third term, having declined urgent requests of representative non-partisan citizens to stand for a fourth term. His adminis- tration was marked by numerous public improve- ments and a business-like conduct of affairs. In 1882 he was nominated for the State Senate (ses- sion of 1883) by the Democrats of the city dis- trict, against the late Judge Dewey, the candidate of the Republicans, and was elected by a majority of two hundred and twenty-six, the Republican candidates for minor offices being elected by majorities of from four hundred and fifty to five hundred in the city. During his service as sen- ator he was chairman of the committee on agri- culture, and was instrumental in defeating the project in that session pressed for a division of Worcester County. He served but one term, de- clining a renomination. He is at present one of the commissioners of the funds of the Worcester City Hospital, to which position he was elected soon after his retirement from the city govern- ment; and an overseer of the poor. He was president of the Worcester County Agricultural Society for sixteen years; and it was largely through his influence that the exhibitions of the New England Agricultural Society, of which he was a trustee, were brought to Worcester. He is prominent in the Masonic order, having attained the thirty-second degree; is a member of the Worcester County Commandery of Knights Tem- plar, and of various Odd Fellow and Pythian organ- izations. Mr. Pratt was married before reaching the age of twenty-one, March 4, 1844, to Miss Lucy Ann Brewer, daughter of Thomas Brewer, of Boylston. They have one son: Charles T. Pratt, now with the Boston Post.
PUTNAM, OTIS EARLE, of Worcester, mer- chant, is a native of Leicester, born February 20, 1831, son of Salmon and Tryphena (Bigelow) Putnam. He is a direct descendant in the eighth generation of Thomas Putnam, son of John Put- nam, who came to America in 1634. When he
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was a child, his parents moved to Boston ; but in 1843 they removed to Worcester, where he has since resided. He was educated in the public
OTIS E. PUTNAM.
schools, finishing at the Worcester High School. He began work in 1847, at the age of sixteen, entering the employ of John B. Wyman in the re- tail dry-goods business, and ten years later was a member of the firm into whose hands the busi- ness had passed, that of Chamberlin, Barnard, & Co., the successors of H. H. Chamberlin & Co., who succeeded Mr. Wyman in 1850. Upon the retirement of H. H. Chamberlin the firm name became Barnard, Sumner, & Co., and it so re- mained till 1892, when the Barnard, Sumner, & Putnam Company was formed, with Mr. Putnam as treasurer of the corporation. Upon the death of Mr. Sumner, January 6, 1893, Mr. Putnam was also made vice-president, and has since held both offices. For many years he successfully dis- charged a variety of exacting duties, and was the principal buyer for the house: and since its great business, occupying a floor space of So,ooo feet, has been divided into separate departments, thirty in all, he has maintained a general over- sight over all. Mr. Putnam is also a trustee of the Five Cents Savings Bank, and a trustee of the Worcester Music Hall Association. He is a
member of the Board of Trade, an honorary mem- ber of the Worcester Light Infantry and the Worcester Continentals, and member of the Com- monwealth Club. In politics he has been a life- long Republican. He has been twice married : first to Miss Harriet E. Waite, of Worcester, who died in 1863, leaving no children ; and second, September 20, 1866, to Miss Louisa Davis, of Lowell. They have one son : Arthur D). Putnam, born February 16, 1868, now connected with the business of the Barnard, Sumner, & Putnam Com- pany.
RICE, COLONEL JOHN LOVELL, of Springfield, city marshal, is a native of Vermont. He was born in the town of Weathersfield, February 1, 1840, son of Lysander Mason and Clarinda Whittemore (Upham) Rice. On both sides he is of early New England stock. On the paternal side he is a de- scendant in the direct line of Edmund Rice, of Hertfordshire, England, born in 1594, who came to Sudbury, Mass., in 1638, and died in Marl- borough in 1663; and on the maternal side of John Upham, born in Somersetshire, England, in 1597, who came to Weymouth, Mass., in 1635, and died in Malden in 1681. Of his paternal an- cestors five generations lived in Massachusetts, in the towns of Marlborough, Sudbury, Petersham, and Shrewsbury. His great-grandfather, Stephen Rice, was the first of the family to settle in Ver- mont, in 1786. He died in Reading, that State, in 1802. His grandfather, Haven Rice, born in Petersham, Mass., in 1786, died in West Wind- sor, Vt., in 1868. His father, Lysander M. Rice, was a native of Reading, Vt., born in 1812, and is still living in Weathersfield, Vt. Of his maternal ancestors, the first settling in Vermont was his great-grandfather, Asa Upham, a native of Stur- bridge, Mass., born in 1736. The earlier Uphams were mostly identified with Malden. Asa Upham moved to Weathersfield about 1764, and this town has since been the family home. Colonel Rice's mother was born there (in 1815), and died there (1889). Colonel Rice was educated in the common schools of Weathersfield and at Kimball Union Academy of Meriden, N.H. He began active life in 1859 as a clerk in a country store at Cornish, N.H. Here he remained till 1861, when he joined the Union Army. His military service covered the entire period of the Civil War, and was full of action. Enlisting on the 19th of April as a private in the Second Regiment, New
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Hampshire Volunteers, he was appointed captain in the Sixteenth New Hampshire, November 2, 1862, and lieutenant colonel of the Seventy-fifth United States Colored Infantry. August 30, 1863. He served in the Army of the Potomac in 1861- 62, and in the Department of the Gulf, 1863-64- 65. In the first battle of Bull Run, July 21, 1861, he was shot through the lungs, and left for dead on the field ; and funeral services were held at his home. From that time till January 3. 1862. he was in Libby Prison. He was in all the battles of the Peninsula campaign of 1862. also those of Pope's campaign of 1862,-Second Bull Run, Bristow Station, Chantilly, etc. He was ordered to Louisiana in December, 1862. He was in the Teche campaign and siege of Port Hudson in 1863, the Red River campaign of 1864; and in 1865 commanded the district around Opelousas, La., and assisted in the re-establishment of civil government. He remained in Louisiana through 1866, and planted cotton in Avoyelles Parish. Then, returning North, he established himself in Springfield, in the provision business. He con- tinued in this business for six years (1867-73),
JNO. L. RICE.
and then went to Boston as inspector in the cus- tom-house, to which position he was appointed June 8, 1874. He served here two years, mean-
while reading law in the Boston law office of Jew- ell, Gaston, & Field. Admitted to the bar in the Superior Court at Boston, April 24, 1876, he re- turned to Springfield, and has practised his pro- fession there ever since. In 1881 he was elected to the lower house of the Legislature from Spring- field, and during his term (1882) served as chair- man of the committee on military affairs and member of the committee on cities. In 1882 (January 23) he was appointed city marshal (chief of the police department) of Springfield, and re- appointed in 1892-93 and 94. From 1886 to 1890 he was postmaster of Springfield, and dur- ing the same period a member of the local board of the United States Civil Service Examiners : and on November 14, ISS9, he was appointed commissioner of the United States Circuit Court, District of Massachusetts, which position he still holds. Colonel Rice is a member of the Massa chusetts Commandery, Military Order of the Loyal Legion ; was commander of E. K. Wilcox l'ost, 16, Grand Army of the Republic, in 1870, and judge advocate of the Massachusetts Department in 1883 ; is a member of the Connecticut Valley Historical Society ; and of the American Economic Association. In politics he has been always a Democrat. He was married first at Cornish, N.H .. January 8, 1867, to Miss Marion Virginia Chellis, daughter of Enoch F. Chellis, of Cornish. She died October 30, 1873, leaving no children. He married second at Springfield, October 3, 1879. Miss Clara Elizabeth Galpin, daughter of Allen M. Galpin, of Springfield. They have three chil- dren : Allen Galpin, Elizabeth Banks, and Ellen Birnie Rice.
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