Men of progress one thousand biographical sketches and portraits of leaders in business and professional life in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Part 50

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 50

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Lawrence Board of Trade in 1893. In 1884 be was a member of the Lawrence Board of Alder- men, and in 1886-87 mayor of the city, in which office he so conducted affairs as to win the com- mendation of men of all parties. His adminis- tration was marked by numerous local improve- ments, the strengthening of the fire department by the purchase of needed apparatus, and other practical work. He also succeeded in relieving the city of the payment of the sum of $25,000 originally assessed upon it for the Union Street Bridge, constructed at an expense of $65.000. through appealing to the higher courts, by the de- cision of which that sum was assessed upon the other towns of the county. His success in the mayoralty was attributed by the local press to his frankness, openness, his readiness to give every citizen full information on all municipal matters, and to his application of general business princi- ples to the conduct of the city's business. In politics he is a steadfast Democrat, but in the mayoralty was unpartisan. As a citizen, he is charitable, benevolent, helpful in many good causes. He is connected with the Masonic and Odd Fellows' orders, and is a member of the Home and C'anoe clubs of Lawrence and of the Algonquin Club of Boston. He was married in 1870 to Miss Mary H. Mitchell. They have one child, David Bruce.

BUCKINGHAM, GEORGE BEECHER, of Worces- ter, manufacturer, is a native of Connecticut, born in the town of Oxford, March 20, 1849, son of Philo B. and Sally C. ( Perkins) Buckingham. His ancestry on the paternal side is traced back many years. It has been a tradition in his family that their ancestor was a Welshman ; but, as the old records are lost, this is merely traditional. The name of Buckingham as a family name is de- rived from the county of Buckingham in England. There is a family crest of handsome design. The Puritan settler was Thomas Buckingham, who was the ancestor of all the American Buckinghams. He arrived in Boston June 26, 1637, probably in the ship " Hector," and in March following (1638) sailed for Quinepiack, now New Haven ; and a history of the Buckingham family from that period is extremely interesting. Many of the family in this country have filled honorable and important positions. Eleven have graduated from Y'ale College and several at other colleges and

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seminaries ; and a large number have distinguished themselves in the learned professions. Colonel Philo B. Buckingham, the father of the subject of this sketch, had a most brilliant war record. In 1862 he closed up his business, raised a company of volunteers, enlisting himself as a private, and afterwards chosen captain : was present at the battle of Chancellorsville, also at Gettysburg in 1863 ; was in command of a brigade by seniority, and made the famous "march to the sea " from Atlanta to Savannah : took part in many battles, and served gallantly to the end, being mustered out June 27. 1865. Ile died October 16, 1894.

GEO. B. BUCKINGHAM.

George B. was educated mainly in the public schools of Seymour and New Haven, finishing while in New Haven with a course at the Russell Military School. His early business life was spent in New Haven ; and in 1869, when twenty years old, he came to Worcester in the service of the Sargent Card Clothing Company. He re- mained with this concern until 1873, when he united with Warren McFarland in the malleable iron business. Under his active management this has grown to very large proportions, now embrac- ing two extensive and independent manufactories, - the Arcade Malleable Iron Company, and the

Worcester Malleable Iron Works. Mr. Bucking- ham is also a director of the Citizens' National Bank of Worcester and of the E. C. Morris Safe Company of Boston. He is an active member of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Boston, member of the Worcester County Mechanics' Association, and prominently con- nected with Freemasonry, said to be one of the best known craftsmen in the country. He joined Athelstan Lodge of Freemasons in 1872, and rapidly progressed in the order. In that year he also joined Eureka Chapter and Worcester County Commandery of Knights Templar; in 1873, Hiram Council Royal and Select Masters ; in 1874, Worcester Lodge of Perfection; in 1876 and 1877 he was high priest of Eureka Chapter : in 1885 he became a member of Goddard Coun- cil Princes of Jerusalem, Lawrence Chapter of Rose Croix, and Massachusetts Consistory, thirty- second degree ; in 1887-88-89 was eminent com- mander of Worcester County Commandery; in 1888-89-90-91, most wise and perfect master of Lawrence Chapter of Rose Croix; in ISSo. member of Supreme Council, thirty-third degree, a sovereign grand inspector-general, northern jurisdiction, United States of America; and in 1893-94, president of the Board of Trustees of the Masonic Fraternity of Worcester. Mr. Bucking- ham was married July 2, 1871, to Miss Abbie MeFarland. They have had three children : Wice Perkins (born September 29, 1872), Florence Edith (born August 28, 1874), and Harold Paul Buckingham (born April 10, 1886 ).

CHASE, ELI AYER, M.D .. of Brockton, is a native of Maine, born in the town of Unity, Waldo County, April 2, 1847, son of Harrison and Marcia (Ayer) Chase. He is a descendant in the eighth generation of William Chase, who settled in Yarmouth, Mass., in 1637. On the maternal side he descends from Dr. Eli Ayer, of Palermo, Me. He was educated in the common schools, and at the Maine Wesleyan Seminary and East Maine Conference Seminary of Bucksport. His studies were interrupted by the Civil War, in which he enlisted as a private in the Twenty-ninth Maine Infantry Regiment, when he was but seven- teen years old, and served with his regiment in Virginia, West Virginia, Georgia, and the Caro- linas till February, 1866. He resumed school life after recruiting his health, and also took up

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teaching. He began the study of medicine in the office of Dr. J. T. Main, at Unity, in April, 1869. and subsequently attended the medical depart-

E. A. CHASE.

ment of Bowdoin College and the Long Island College Hospital, Brooklyn, N.Y., where he grad- uated in June, 1872. While a medical student he taught school at intervals. Upon receiving his degree of M.D. he was appointed house surgeon in the Long Island College Hospital ; and in Sep- tember, 1873. he entered upon the practice of medicine proper in North Bridgewater, now Brock- ton. Since that time he has devoted himself entirely to his profession, and his practice has been large and lucrative. He is president of the Plymouth District Medical Society and a member of the Massachusetts Medical Society. In politics he has generally acted with the Republican party ; but he has never taken an active part in national, State, or municipal politics, nor sought office. He belongs to the Masonic fraternity, is a member of the Brockton Lodge, No. 164, of the order of Elks, and a member of Post 13, Fletcher Webster, Grand Army of the Republic. Dr. Chase mar- ried October 23, 1876, Miss S. Ella Seaman. They have three children : Harry Ayer, Clara S .. and Annie G. C'hase.

CHISHOLM, WILLIAM PARMER, M.D., of Broekton, is a native of Nova Scotia, born in On- slow, Colchester County, February 21, 1853. son of Thomas B. and Letitia ( Fletcher) Chisholm. His father's father, Alexander Chisholm, came with his father, Donald Chisholm, to Nova Scotia, from Scotland, toward the end of the last century. They were descended from the chief of the clan Chisholm, and traced their lineage back to Sir Robert Chisholm, who flourished in the fourteenth century. His mother's father was Captain John Fletcher, son of Captain Thomas Fletcher, who came from England with his brother, Colonel Fletcher, and settled in Londonderry, N.S., in the last century. Dr. Chisholm received his general education in the schools of his native town, at the Provincial Normal College, Truro, N.S., and at Dalhousie University, Halifax, N.S. He began his medical studies under the family physician, Dr. D. H. Muir, at Truro, then attended the Halifax Medical College, where he was under the special training of Dr. Farrell, professor of surgery. and finished in the medical department of the University

W. P. CHISHOLM.

of the City of New York, graduating therefrom in March, 18S1. After graduation he came to Brock- ton, and immediately entered upon the active

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practice of his profession, in which he has since been steadily engaged. He is a member of the Massachusetts Medical Society. He is connected with the Knights of Pythias, member of Damocles Lodge, Brockton, also belongs to the Brockton Lodge of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and is a member of the Elks Club. He was married March 22, 1883, to Miss Lila A. Cogswell, of Cornwallis, N.S. They have three children : Beatrice, Olivia, and William Cogswell Chisholm.

COOK, WILLIAM HENRY, of Milford, editor of the Milford Journal, is a native of Vermont, born in the historic old town of Bennington, January 7. 1843, son of James I. C. and Marion E. (Robert- son) Cook. The latter deceased May 8, 1888. He was educated mostly in the district schools. When a lad of nine years, he learned to set type in the office of the Vermont State Banner at Bennington, of which his father was editor and part proprietor in association with the latter's brother, under the firm name of B. G. & J. I. C. Cook; and in his early teens he was the carrier of the Banner to its village subscribers at a salary of twenty-five cents a week. In 1859, at the age of sixteen, he became a partner of his father, his uncle having died in 1856, and was the youngest editor in the State. He was present at the organ- ization of the Vermont Press Association. His work on the Banner continued without break until 1870, when the establishment was sold. For two years thereafter he contributed to various papers, and then, in the spring of 1872, in con- junction with his father and brother, -- George G. Cook,-purchased the Milford Journal and job office connected with it. Since that time the Mil- ford business has been most successfully carried on by the father and sons, under the firm name of Cook & Sons, the elder superintending the me- chanical departments, William H. serving as the editor of the paper, and George G. as the busi- ness manager. The latter also served as post- master of Milford during the Harrison administra- tion. In 1888 the firm established the Milford Daily Journal, a penny paper, in response to a quite general public sentiment, which met with immediate success. Of Mr. Cook's professional principles the National Journalist has said, " He is a firm believer in an individualized editorial column which shall state honest convictions in a plain and unequivocal manner, and stand by

them." lle comes naturally by his newspaper tendencies and love of printing, his father having begun work at the age of thirteen, in the old office of the Intelligence at Bellows Falls, Vt., then owned by the latter's brother, B. G. Cook, and continued at it uninterruptedly from that time to the present. a period of sixty-four years. He is yet actively at work in the " art preservative " in the Journal office, where he is present not less than eight hours daily, and may be properly spoken of as one of the few "old school printers " in the State who still continue to " stick type." Early in his career as editor of the Milford Journal, Mr.

W. H. COOK.

Cook became especially active in movements for journalistic organizations. He is one of the founders of the Suburban Press Association, and was its president through the first three years of its existence. At the present time (1895) he is president of the Massachusetts Press Association, and also of the Republican Editorial Association. His interest in politics began with his journalistic work. Before he was of age he was a delegate in a Republican Convention in Vermont, and at twenty-three was chairman of the Republican committee of Bennington County. Four years after he had acquired citizenship in Massachusetts he was elected a representative for his district in

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the lower house of the Legislature, and was re- turned for the second term; and since that time he has served repeatedly as delegate to conven- tions of his party. His Republicanism is of the stalwart order, and he is zealous in advancing party principles and interests. Mr. Cook was married September 20, 1888, to Mrs. Georgiana Fay.

CURRIER, FESTUS CURTIS, of Fitchburg, in- surance agent, was born in Holliston, October 6, 1825, son of Ebenezer H. and Betsey (Pond) Cur- rier. His grandfather, Edward Currier, entered the American army in 1776, and acted as servant to General Washington's staff until old enough to serve in the ranks, when (in 1778) he became a regular soldier, and served to the end of the Revo- lution. Festus C. was educated in the public schools and the Holliston Academy. He remained in Holliston (with the exception of three years, 1851-53. when he was in Worcester), engaged in mercantile and manufacturing business, until 1869. when he removed to Fitchburg, and entered the insurance business, which he has since followed. For many years he had the largest insurance agency in "Worcester North." In 1875 he was appointed by Governor Gaston a member of the State detective force, and became a most efficient and successful officer. Upon the organization of the department of inspection of public buildings and manufacturing establishments, he was placed in charge by Chief Detective General Stephenson, and visited officially nearly every manufactory in the State, his extensive insurance experience par- ticularly fitting him for the work of intelligent in- spection. At the expiration of his term of three years, not seeking a reappointment, he returned to his insurance business. Mr. Currier has served on the School Board of Fitchburg (1873), and three terms (1874-75-81) on the Board of Alder- men, in the latter body being chairman of the committees on claims, buildings, military, and salaries. As an active and interested member of the Democratic party, with which he has always acted, he has been placed in nomination for numerous offices. In 1874 he was made the party candidate for county commissioner, and came within a few hundred votes of election. In 1886 he was the Democratic candidate for Congress, and ran very much ahead of his ticket, reducing the majority in the strong Republican district by about forty per cent. In ISSo he received a Hat-

tering vote for representative in the State Legis- lature. Although a firm party man, he has always held the esteem of his opponents. In 1868 he was a delegate to the National Democratic Con- vention held in New York, and in 1884 he was on the Cleveland electoral ticket. For twenty- five years Mr. Currier has also been actively in- terested in Odd Fellowship, and he is now a member of Mt. Roulstone Lodge and King David Encampment. He was the organizer of the Mas- sachusetts Mutual Aid Society of Fitchburg in 1879, and, as its secretary, the executive officer for thirteen years, during which time over $250,-

F. C. CURRIER.

ooo were distributed among the families of its deceased members. He served as treasurer of the Worcester North Agricultural Society for six years, and as president in 1888. He is now vice- president of the Wachusett Mutual Fire Insurance Company of Fitchburg, and in connection with his general insurance agency does a large business in steamship ticket and foreign drafts. In relig- ious faith he is an Episcopalian, a prominent member of Christ (Episcopal) Church of Fitch- burg, having served for six years as warden. Mr. Currier was married at Holliston. July 16, 1850, to Miss Joanna M. Allen, who died May 2. 1894. He has had four children, three of whom died in

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childhood. Frederick A. Currier, the only sur- viving one (born December 24, 1851), is now associated with him in the insurance business. He has also an adopted daughter : Gertrude M. Currier.

DAVIS. HENRY GASSET, M. D., of Everett, was born in Trenton, Me., November 4. 1807, son of Isaac and Polly ( Rice) Davis. His grandfather was Deacon Isaac Davis, of Northboro, Mass., a descendant of Dolor Davis, one of the first settlers on the Cape. His early education was obtained in the common schools. His father returned to Massachusetts when Henry was a child, and en- gaged in manufacturing. At about the age of fifteen he took charge of his father's factory, and here his mechanical ingenuity had a chance to develop itself. At this time there was little knowl- edge of general manufacturing among the Amer- ican people; and in 1835 he decided to go South, and establish the manufacture of cotton bagging there. On his way thither, however, an incident occurred which changed his whole career. He visited a sister under treatment for lateral curva- ture of the spine ; and, on inquiring about the treatment, it seemed to him unphilosophical and ill adapted for the desired end. He ascertained that this was the best treatment known to the profession. This decided him to begin the study of medicine, and to devote himself to this depart- ment of surgery. He accordingly at once entered his name as a student. In the winter of 1835-36 he attended lectures at New Haven, and was under the instruction of the professor of surgery. The next spring he went to Bellevue Hospital, New York, as assistant physician. Dr. Wilson was then resident physician. and during his ab- sence in the summer Dr. Davis had full charge of the establishment. His first receipt for a cough became the house prescription, and he also intro- duced the use of narcotics for excited lunatics. Soon after his return to New Haven he made his first use of extension upon a patient considered hopelessly gone in consumption. He put her upon treatment which obliged her to sustain as much of her weight as possible by her arms, thereby greatly enlarging the chest, which had been extremely narrow. She had no further trouble with her lungs, and was living forty years 'later. Dr. Davis was graduated from the Yale Medical School in March, 1839, practised in Worcester a short time, and then went to Millbury,

where he treated a large number of patients from the surrounding towns. In 1855, being advised to seek a broader field for his work, he left Massa- chusetts for New York City. Here he success- fully treated patients from all parts of the United States and from abroad. He remained in New York in the practice of his specialty till ill health induced him to return to Massachusetts. He is now, in the eighty-eighth year of his age, residing in Everett. Some of his discoveries in orthopedic surgery are as follows. In treating his first case of Pott's disease of the spine, he found that the apparatus which he devised stopped the excru-

HENRY G. DAVIS.

ciating pain incident to the disease, rendering the patient comfortable and able to exercise. This fact led him to apply the same principle, namely, the separation of diseased surfaces, to diseased joints. To enable the patient to take outdoor exer- cise, he devised apparatus that would not only sep- arate the diseased surfaces, but prevent their being brought in contact by the weight of the body, if thrown upon it by accident. In making extension, he began using adhesive plasters; but, finding the plaster spread upon plain goods inadequate for his purpose, he had some spread upon twilled goods, thus originating this kind of plaster. He also discovered that extension could be made as

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effectually upon the bellies of muscles as upon their inserted parts. This enabled him to treat fractures of the patella in such a manner as always to secure bony union. By these uses of extension he found that all the tissues could be elongated as much as required, provided the extension was continued uninterruptedly, which is as necessary as the extension itself. By this process, it is claimed, congenital dislocations of the hip or those arising from accident can be reduced with certainty and without difficulty; and it has also been used to restore deformities and applied to advantage in fractures, particularly those of the hip inside the capular ligament, securing bony union without deformity. He discovered that bony union never takes place between the bones of ulcerated joints, that motion can be restored by extension. He also discovered that the loss of use from infantile paralysis can be perfectly re- lieved. He devised apparatus for sustaining the head when the vertebra of the neck were diseased. thereby keeping the figure correct. For all the various diseases and distortions that he had to treat Dr. Davis was obliged to invent some way of meeting the difficulty, since he was the pioneer in this branch of surgery, or, as he was called at a meeting of that society in Boston, " the father of American orthopedic surgery." Dr. Davis was married in 1857 to Miss Ellen W. Deering, of Portland, Me., by whom he had three children, two daughters and one son, all of whom are now living, as follows : Annie Waite, Henry Rice. and Mary Deering Davis (now Mrs. W. G. Web- ster ).

DAVIS, ROBERT THOMPSON, M.D., of Fall River, representative in the Forty-eighth, Forty- ninth, and Fiftieth Congresses, was born in County Down, north of Ireland. August 28, 1823, son of John and Sarah (Thompson) Davis. His father was of the Presbyterian faith, and his mother a Quaker. They emigrated to America when he was a child of three years, and settled in Amesbury, where he received his early education in the public schools. Subsequently he attended the Amesbury Academy and the Friends' School in Providence. R.I. Then he took the regular course of the Harvard Medical School, graduat- ing in 1848. He began the practice of medicine in Waterville, Me., and. after three years' experi- ence there, removed to Fall River, in which he soon became firmly established. He early took

an earnest interest in public matters, and became prominent in affairs. He was a member of the Massachusetts State Constitutional Convention of 1853 : a State senator in 1859 and 1861 ; a dele- gate to the National Republican Conventions of 1860 and 1876 ; mayor of Fall River in 1873. being elected without opposition, and declining a re-election ; member of the State Board of Char- ities when organized in 1863 : member of the State Board of Health when that board was organ- ized in 1869. and so remained until its consolida- tion with the State Board of Health, Lunacy, and Charity in 1879, when he became a member of

R. T. DAVIS.

the latter board: was first elected to the Forty- eighth Congress, and re-elected to the Forty-ninth and Fiftieth Congresses by large majorities ; and member of the Metropolitan Sewerage Commis- sion from 1889 to 1892. When in Congress, Dr. Davis delivered speeches upon the life-saving service, the tariff, the fisheries, the Nicaragua C'anal, the prevention of yellow fever, and other subjects. Among his numerous public addresses have been the following : in 1851, address in favor of instructing Fall River representatives to vote for the election of Charles Sumner to the United States Senate: in 1868, the first of the series of addresses on Memorial Day in Fall River; ad-

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dress in Middleboro on Memorial Day several years later ; address to the public schools on the centennial of the adoption of the constitution of Massachusetts ; on the dedication of City Hall, Fall River; memorial address on General Sher- man and Admiral Porter before the Grand Army ; and on July 4, 1888, at Amesbury, the address at the unveiling of the statue of Josiah Bartlett, one of the signers of the Declaration of Inde- pendence. Dr. Davis has been much interested in the growth and business enterprises of Fall River. He is now president of the Wampanoag and Stafford corporations, and director of the Merchants', Robeson, Stevens, and Algonquin corporations. He married in IS48 Miss Sarah C. Wilbur, daughter of Dr. Thomas Wilbur, of Fall River. Her death occurred in 1856. They had one son, who died in infancy. He married in 1862 Miss Susan A. Haight, of Newcastle, Westchester County, N.Y. Their only son, Rob- ert C. Davis, was born in 1875, and is a student in Harvard University.

DERBY, PHILANDER, of Gardner, manufact- urer, is a native of Vermont, born in the town of Somerset, Windham County, June 18, 1816, son of Levi and Sally C. (Straton) Derby. He is a grandson of Nathan and Abigail (Pierce) Derby, of Westminster, Mass., and great-grandson of Andrew Derby, of the same town. His educa- tion was acquired in the common schools. He remained on the home farm until his majority, and then spent several years in Massachusetts and in Jamaica, during which time he learned the business of chair-making. When opportunity of- fered to engage in the business for himself, he promptly embraced it. During the trying period from 1857 to 1861 he was a young manufacturer in the town of Gardner, with heavy responsibil- ities resting on him. Having nerved himself to meet the crisis in a manly fashion, he managed to pass through it without serious harm, meeting his obligations, maintaining his credit, and sustaining his reputation. Mr. Derby has done much in the way of invention and improvement of machines through which the work of chair-making has been made easier and more rapid. During his long business career he has enjoyed exceptional pros- perity, due more to his energy and perseverance than to fortunate circumstances. He has been found ready to do his full share in supporting the

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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 50

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