Men of progress one thousand biographical sketches and portraits of leaders in business and professional life in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Part 59

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 59

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dent. Judge Stone was married at Ashtabula, Ohio, January 19. 1869, to Miss Mary F. Hul- bert, daughter of Joseph D. and Lucinda ( Hall) Hulbert of that place. They have no children.

TOLMAN, WILLIAM, of Pittsfield, insurance agent, was born in Lanesborough, June 2. 1858, son of Albert and Jane .A. (Tower) Tolman. His father, son of Captain Stephen Tolman. of Dorchester, was a well-known school-teacher, prin- cipal for ten years of the High School in Pitts- field ; and his mother was a daughter of Justus Tower, of Lanesborough, a prominent man in that town, and its representative in the General Court in 1868. The family moved to Pittsfield when he was a boy of ten years. He attended the public schools there until he reached the age of fourteen, when he became a clerk in the Agricultural Bank. Six years were spent in this employment, during which time he applied all his spare moments to preparation for college. In the autumn of 1878 he entered Williston Seminary, and, graduating therefrom with honors in 1880, entered Williams,

WILLIAM TOLMAN.

where he spent three years, being obliged to leave at the end of his junior year by failing health. At both seminary and college he paid his own ex-

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MEN OF PROGRESS.

penses. During the first year after leaving col- lege he worked in different national banks of the county. Then in 1884 he was appointed special agent of the Berkshire Life Insurance Company for Western Massachusetts, and since that time he has been actively and successfully engaged in the business of this office. In 1894 he repre- sented the Fourth Berkshire District in the Leg- islature, serving on the committee on education and taking an active part in legislation. Among his most effective efforts on the floor was his argu- ment in favor of Pittsfield as the place for the new State Normal School. He was called the " cyclone orator of the House." The nomination as representative came to him entirely unsolicited : but, after he had accepted it, he worked zealously for success, and he had the satisfaction of receiv- ing the largest vote of any representative candi- date in the district, which is naturally Demo- cratic. Although an earnest Republican, he votes on all questions according to the dictates of his conscience and exactly as he believes to be right. He is a member of the Business Men's Associa- tion of Pittsfield, and of the Crescent Lodge of Masons, in which he holds official position. He is unmarried.

TUCKER, GEORGE HENRY, of Pittsfield, county treasurer of Berkshire County, was born in Lenox, September 12. 1856, son of George J. and Harriet (Sill) Tucker. His grandfather. Joseph Tucker, a lawyer, was county treasurer from 1813 to 1847, and register of deeds from 1801 to 1847 ; and his father. also a lawyer, suc- ceeded to both positions, holding the former from 1847 to September. 1878 (the date of his death). and the latter during the same period, with the exception of six years, when the statute made it incompatible to hold both offices. His paternal grandmother was Lucy (Newell) Tucker, of Lenox. His maternal grandfather, Thomas Sill, was of Middletown, Conn. George H. was educated in the Lenox High School in the old Academy build- ing, and at the Pittsfield High School, where he fitted for college. He entered Williams in 1874. but in November. 1876, was obliged to leave on account of the illness of his father, and to take up the latter's duties as county treasurer. Subse- quently, however, in 1884, Williams College gave him his degree, and put him back with his class, although he did not graduate. Mr. Tucker re-

mained in his father's office until the latter's death in 1878 (at the age of seventy-four), when he was appointed to the vacancy for the unexpired term : and he has held the office through re-elec- tions successively from that time to the present. In 1882 he became a partner in the wholesale dye-wood house of John T. Power & Co., of Pitts- field, which in 1885 became Dutton & Tucker, and has since so remained. In 1886 he was made director of the Berkshire Life Insurance Company of Pittsfield, in 1892 a director of the Third National Bank of Pittsfield; and he is a director in various other corporations and a trus-

GEORGE H. TUCKER.

tee of several estates. He is prominent in the Masonic order, having been a master of the Crescent Lodge of Pittsfield three terms ( 1883- 84-85). deputy grand master of the Fifteenth Masonic District three years (1886-87-88), and being now ( 1895) commander of the Berkshire Commandery, Knights Templar, first raised to this position in 1893. He is a member of the Business Men's Association, and was the treasurer of the organization from 1882 to 1890 ; and he is a member of the University Club of Boston. He was married September 7, 1892, to Miss Mary Talcott Briggs, daughter of General Henry S.

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Briggs, and grand-daughter of Governor George ing in Berkshire County. His public career began N. Briggs,

TUCKER, JOSEPH, of Pittsfield, ex-lieutenant governor of the Commonwealth, and present jus- tice of the District Court of Central Berkshire. was born in Lenox, August 21, 1832, eldest son of George J. and Eunice (Cook) Tucker. His father was the second son of Joseph Tucker, who was the son of John Tucker who came to Stock- bridge from Lester in Worcester County about 1770. Joseph Tucker, the grandfather. was elected treasurer of Berkshire County in 1812 and re-elected until his death in 1847, when he was succeeded by his son, George J., who held the office till his death in 1878, and was suc- ceeded by his youngest son George H., who now holds the office. Thus the grandfather, son, and grandson have held this important office. by popular election for eighty-two years. [See Tucker, George Henry.] Joseph Tucker, the present, was prepared for college at the Lenox Academy; and, entering the sophomore class of Williams in 1849, graduated with it in 1851. He at once began the study of law in the office of Rockwell & C'olt in Pittsfield, and passed a year in the Harvard Law School ; and he was admitted to the Berkshire bar in 1854. After a short so- journ in Detroit and Chicago he opened a law office in St. Louis, Mo., and was gradually build- ing up a good business, when illness compelled a return to the East. He left St. Louis in the autumn of 1860 with the intention of returning in the following spring; but the outbreak of the Civil War prevented, and instead he opened an office in Great Barrington. There he remained until September, 1862, when he enlisted in the Forty-ninth Regiment, Massachusetts Volunteers, and became first lieutenant of Company D. In December following he was appointed acting as- sistant adjutant-general of the troops of Banks's Expedition, in New York City; and, soon after the arrival of his regiment in Louisiana, he was appointed an aide on the staff of the First Brigade, First Division, Army of the Gulf. On the 21st of May, 1863, while doing staff duty, in the battle of Plains Store, near Port Hudson, La., he was wounded by a shell in the right knee, necessitat- ing amputation of the right leg. As soon as pos- sible he came home ; and in November Governor Andrew appointed him superintendent of recruit-

as a member of the General Court, to which he was elected to represent Great Barrington in 1865. During 1866 and 1867 he represented Southern Berkshire in the State Senate, taking an influential part in the important legislation of those years. In 1868 Chief Justice Chase appointed him United States register in bankruptcy for the Tenth Massachusetts Congressional District. From 1869 to 1872 inclusive he was lieutenant governor of the Commonwealth, three years with Governor Claflin and one year with Governor Washburn. In 1873 he was appointed justice

JOSEPH TUCKER.

of the District Court of Central Berkshire, and has held this position continuously from that date. Since 1892 he has been president of the Berkshire County Savings Bank, the oldest and largest sav- ings bank in that county: and he is also presi- dent of the Pittsfield Electric Street Railway. For the last three years he has been chairman of the School Board of Pittsfield. In December. 1894. he was elected Commander of W. W. Rock- well Post. Grand Army of the Republic. Judge Tucker was married September 20, 1876, to Miss Elizabeth Bishop, daughter of Judge Henry W. and Sarah (Buckley) Bishop, of Lenox. Mrs. Tucker died February 12. 1880. leaving no children.

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TUCKER, WILLIAM EMERSON, M.D., of Ips- wich, was born in Salisbury, near Amesbury, Essex County. March 7, 1849, son of Ebenezer and Ethelinde ( Wadleigh) Tucker. His paternal grandfather, James Tucker, was a farmer, and his maternal grandfather, Henry Wadleigh, a ship- builder. His general education was acquired in the public schools of Amesbury and by private in- structor, and he studied medicine at the Harvard Medical School, at the College of Physicians and Surgeons of New York City, and at the Long Island College Hospital, Brooklyn, L. I., taking his degree at the latter in 1870. Beginning the prac-

W. E. TUCKER.

tice of his profession in October following his graduation, in Ipswich, he has remained there ever since, engaged in a large and successful business. In July, 1888, he was appointed medical examiner for his district, which position he still holds. Since 1888 he has also been attending physician to the Essex County House of Correction. He has served two terms, 188o-81, on the School Board of Ipswich. He is a member of the Massa- chusetts Medical Society and of the Massachu- setts Medico-legal Society. He has been con- nected with the Masonic fraternity since 1872. a member of the John T. Heard Lodge, and has been an Odd Fellow since 1875, member of the Agawam Lodge. Dr. Tucker is unmarried.

WASHBURN, GEORGE ALBERT, of Taunton, banker, was born in Swansea. February 5, 1836, son of George and Diana Northam ( Mason) Wash- burn, and moved to Taunton in 1841, where he has since lived. He is a direct descendant on the paternal side of John and Margaret Washburn, who came to Duxbury, New England, from Stratford on Avon, England, in 1632. John Washburn was a member of Captain Myles Standish's company, was one of the original purchasers of ancient Bridgewater. and was the ancestor of all of the Washburns of Massachusetts, including the noted family, children of Israel Washburn. of Maine. On the maternal side Mr. Washburn is descended from Sampson Mason, who fled to New England on the ascent of Charles II. to the throne of Eng- land, having been in Cromwell's army, settled in Rehoboth, and whose descendants for one hun- dred and eight years were known as the " Mason Elders," and were pastors for that period from father to son of the first Baptist church in Massa- chusetts. He was educated in the schools of Taunton, public and private. At the age of six- teen he entered the store of Albert G. Washburn, in Taunton, dealer in hardware, iron, and steel, and thence went into the employ of Wood & Washburn in the same business, with whom and their successors he remained a number of years. He became a member of the firm in 1857, when it was known as Hunt, Harris, & Co., and so con- tinued, subsequently under the name of John Hunt & Co., till April 16, 1861. Then, on the first call for troops for the Civil War, he left his business, and enlisted in the United States service. He went out as sergeant of Company G, Fourth Regiment, Massachusetts Volunteers, the first company to leave Taunton, and also the first com- pany of the first regiment to leave Massachusetts, for the front, arriving at Fortress Monroe April 20. By an interesting coincidence his grand- father, Isaac Washburn, was in the first company (a " minute-man ") to leave Taunton April 19, 1775, and arrived at his destination April 20, 1775. He served three months to the end of his term, and then at once re-entered the service as first lieutenant in Henry Wilson's Regiment, the Twenty-second Massachusetts Volunteers, for three years. He was attached to the first division, First Brigade, Fifth Army Corps, Army of the Potomac. He was wounded in the battle of Gaines's Mill, Va., June 27, 1862, and taken pris- oner; was some time in Libby Prison. Subse-

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quently he was promoted to a captainey to date from July 11. 1862. He was mustered out to date from January 5. 1863, and received official notice

GEORGE A. WASHBURN.

of discharge March 8, 1863. On the very next day he was elected treasurer and collector of taxes of Taunton ; and this office he held for twenty-nine years in succession, resigning on the 24th of December. 1891, to assume the duties of presi- dent of the Taunton National Bank. Other mu- nicipal offices which Mr. Washburn has from time to time held are those of clerk of the Overseers of the Poor (from 1865 to 1882 inclusive), mem- ber of this board ( 1883 to March, 1891), clerk of the Board of Assessors ( 1869-75). member of the City Council ( 1892-93-94), and secretary and treasurer of the Board of Sinking Fund Commis- sioners ( 1878 to 1892). He is at present ( 1895) secretary of the latter board. He is a trustee of the Morton Hospital, trustee of the Taunton Sav- ings Bank, and member of the Investment Com- mittee, and a director of the Taunton Street Rail- way Company. He was married first to Miss Elizabeth Gordon Pratt, daughter of Nathan and Lydia Pratt. and second to Miss Ellen Dutton Reed, daughter of Edgar Hodges and Ellen Au- gusta Reed. He has one daughter and three sons : Harriet Mason (now wife of Charles A.

Austin, of Brockton). Edgar Reed. Elliott (now a practising physician. and Charles Godfrey Washburn (now a law student at Boston Univer- sity).

WELLS, DANIEL. WHITE, of Hatfield. farmer, is a native of Hatfield. born April 17. 1842, son of Elisha and Louisa (Field) Wells, of Hatfield. Ile is a descendant of Hugh Wells, of Wethers- held. C'onn., one of the first settlers there. in direct line from his son Thomas, who came to Hadley in 1660. He was reared on his father's farm, and educated in the common schools. Subsequently he engaged in farming on his own account. and followed the occupation of a farmer successfully for a quarter of a century. He has been for many years prominent in town affairs. and represented the Third Hampshire District two terms in the General Court ( 1883 - 84). the second term serving on the joint com- mittee on taxation. He has also been a direc- tor of the First National Bank of Northampton for sixteen years, and president of the trustees of the Smith Charities in Northampton for four

DANIEL W. WELLS.

years. He served in the Civil War. enlisting as a private in Company K. Fifty-second Regi- ment, Massachusetts Volunteers, in 1862. He

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is a member of Post 86, Grand Army of the Republic, and of the Resolute Grange of Hat- field. In politics he is a Democrat. Mr. Wells was married October 19, 1875. to Miss Hannah A. Belden, of Hatfield. They have had two children : Reuben Field and Louisa Belden Wells.

WHEELER, JOHN WILSON, of Orange, man- ufacturer, is a native of Orange, and has always resided there with the exception of a year or two spent in Fitchburg. He was born November 20, 1832, the second of nine children of Wilson and

JOHN W. WHEELER.

Catherine ( Holmes Warden ) Wheeler. His edu- cation was attained in the public schools. For a year or two after his majority he worked as a car- penter. From 1856 to 1862 he was employed in a general store in Orange. Then for a few months he was occupied in the claim agency busi- ness, and in 1863 he entered mercantile business on his own account. Four years later, at the age of thirty-five, associating himself with others, he engaged in the manufacture of sewing machines, under the firm name of A. F. Johnson & Co. In 1869 a corporation was organized in place of the firm under the name of the Gold Medal Sewing Machine Company, by which the business was

known until 1882, when the corporate name was changed to the New Home Sewing Machine Com- pany. From the start Mr. Wheeler has been the financial manager and one of the controlling spirits of the enterprise ; and it has grown from small beginnings until now it employs nearly six hun- dred men, and turns out nearly four hundred fin- ished machines a day. In January, 1881, he was elected a trustee of the Orange Savings Bank, and five years later was made president, which position he has since held. He has also been one of the directors of the Orange National Bank since June, 1880 ; in January, 1888, was elected vice-president, and in January, 1894, president. In 1891 he was elected president of the Boston Mutual Life Association of Boston. He was chosen president of the Worcester North-west Agricultural and Mechanical Society at Athol in December, 1890 ; and in 1893 was elected presi- dent of the Orange Board of Trade. In politics Mr. Wheeler is a Republican, and has been called by his fellow-citizens to various positions of re- sponsibility and honor. From 1861 to 1867 he served as town clerk, in 1866 was one of the selectmen of the town, and in 1876 was elected a member of the Legislature. In 1888 he was a delegate to the National Republican Convention at Chicago which nominated President Harrison. He is a prominent Mason, one of the founders of Orange Lodge, organized in 1859. its first secre- tary, afterwards its treasurer ; a charter member and first treasurer of Crescent Royal Arch Chap- ter, organized in 1884; and a charter member of Orange Commandery of Knights Templar, or- ganized in 1894. Mr. Wheeler was married in Orange, October 9, 1856, by the Rev. Hosea Ballou, to Miss Almira E. Johnson, daughter of Daniel and Almira (Porter) Johnson. Three chil- dren have been born by this union, but only one survives : Marion L., now wife of John B. Welch. Mr. Wheeler resides about a mile from Orange Village on his " Grand View Farm," where, while still closely attending to business, he finds recrea- tion in breeding fine horses and cattle, to which pleasant and interesting occupation he devotes a large share of his leisure time.

WIGGIN, CHARLES E., of Haverhill, banker, is a native of New Hampshire, born in the town of Durham, November 29, 1843, son of Thomas and Caroline F. (Young) Wiggin. He is a direct de-

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MEN OF PROGRESS.

scendant of Governor Thomas Wiggin, who came from the west of England in 1631, and settled in Stratham, N.H. He was educated in the public

CHAS. E. WIGGIN.

schools of South Berwick and at Phillips ( Exeter ) Academy, graduating in 1865. His active life was begun as a clerk in the Merrimack National Bank, in which he spent a year. Then he en- gaged in the shoe business, and on the ist of January, 1869, began the manufacture of shoes. In this branch he continued successfully for up- wards of twenty years, retiring in November. 1891. Since that time he has confined himself mostly to his banking interests. He is now ( 1895) president of the Haverhill Safe Deposit and Trust Company, president of the Merchants' National Bank, and treasurer of the llaverhill Electric Company. He is a member of the Ha- verhill Commandery of Knights Templar. and of the Pentucket Club. Mr. Wiggin was married November 25. 1869. to Miss Sarepla Churchill, of Lowell. They have two children : May C. and Alice C. Wiggin.

WOOD, CHARLES WATSON, of Worcester. mem- ber of the Worcester bar. is a native of Worcester, born June 26, 1844, son of Watson L. and Mary

( Richards) Wood. His father was of Brookfield. and his mother of Hopkinton. He was educated in the public schools of Worcester, and, soon after, leaving the High School at the age of eighteen. entered the volunteer army, enlisting in the Thirty- sixth Massachusetts Regiment. His regiment was in the field two years and eleven months, and saw hard service, participating in fully twenty-five engagements, including Fredericksburg, Antietam, Vicksburg. the Wilderness. Spottsylvania, Cold Harbor, Weldon Railroad, and the Crater, in all of which he had a part. At Cold Harbor he was struck in the right shoulder by a rifle-ball and sent to the hospital, but he managed to escape and rejoin his regiment. He also suffered from two severe fevers contracted through exposure and hardships in the field. Returning to Worces- ter at the close of the war at the age of twenty-one, he entered a business college, from which he grad- uated in March, 1866, at the head of his class. Then he engaged in active business, and was for several years intimately associated with various industries of Worcester. But his one ambition was to enter the legal profession : and. finally aban-

CHARLES W. WOOD.

doning business, he applied himself energetically to study for it. reading in the law office of Rice & Blackmer, and in March. 1882, was admitted to

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MEN OF PROGRESS.

the Worcester bar. He rose rapidly in the pro- fession, and soon secured a large and lucrative practice. Early in his career he became a mem- ber of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and has been among the foremost in advancing its interests. It was largely due to his energy and influence that the Odd Fellows' Home was established in Worcester, and it is a peculiar satis- faction to him to see it placed near what was for- merly his father's estate. On the occasion of the laying of the corner-stone he was chief of staff. He has been frequently called upon to deliver ad- dresses before the order on other important and special occasions. He is now a member of the Grand Lodge and a past grand of Central Lodge, No. 168, having occupied the various minor of- fices. He is also connected prominently with nu- merous other fraternal societies, among them the Bay State Commandery, No. 151, Knights of Malta, of which he is Sir knight commander, Reg- ulus Lodge, No. 71. Knights of Pythias, and Com- monwealth Council, No. 3, of the American Me-

chanics. He belongs to the Grand Army of the Republic. member of Post No. to ; is commanding officer of the W. S. Lincoln Command, No. 18, Union Veterans Union ; and major-general. com- manding the department of Massachusetts of the latter order, elected to the headship at the annual department convention held in Worcester in Octo- ber, 1894. General Wood was first married in March, 1867, to Miss Eugena K. Arnold, of Lan- caster, who died January 2, 1871, leaving two children. He married second, June, 1872, Miss Lottie C. Wetherell, of Hardwick, who died, child- less, in April, 1873 ; and third, July 7, 1875. Miss Lizzie M. Burr, who is still living. He has one son and three daughters : Charles H. (born July 2, 1868), a graduate of the Boston University Law School, and now associated with him in his law practice ; Clara Eugena (born September 18, [$70), now the wife of F. L. Gaines, of Greenfield ; Florence L. B. (born December 6, 1876); and Grace E. R. Wood (born August 11, 18So).

PART VI.

ABBOTT, JOHN EDWARD, of Watertown, mem- ber of the Suffolk bar, and having his law office in Boston, is a native of Maine, born in Norridge- wock, November 30, 1845, son of John S. and Elizabeth T. (Allen) Abbott. On the paternal

مر

JOHN E. ABBOTT.

side he is descended (being in the eighth genera- tion) from George Abbott, who emigrated from Yorkshire, Eng., and settled in Andover, Mass., about 1643 ; and on the maternal side (in the tenth generation) from George Allen, who came from England in 1635. and first settled in Saugus, in 1637 removing to Sandwich, where he lived until his death in 1648. Mr. Abbott's father, the Hon. John S. Abbott, was for thirty years a promi- nent lawyer in Maine, at one time attorney-general of the State. Removing to Massachusetts in 1860, he made his home in Newton until 1875.

and practised law in Boston from 1860 until his death in 1881. The well-known authors, Jacob Abbott and John S. C. Abbott, were cousins of John S. Abbott. The mother of John E. Abbott. Elizabeth Titcomb (Allen) Abbott, daughter of William Allen of Norridgewock, was a woman of unusual culture and refinement. She died in the prime of life. greatly lamented. Two of her brothers, the Rev. Stephen Allen, D.D., and the Rev. Charles F. Allen, D.D., became prominent in Maine as clergymen of the Methodist denomina- tion. John E. Abbott's early education was ac- quired in public schools in Norridgewock and in Newton, until 1862. He was subsequently fitted for college at Allen's Classical School, West New- ton, and at the Maine Wesleyan Seminary, Kent's Hill, Me. He first entered Yale in the class of 1869 ; and, at the end of the first term there, entered Wesleyan University, Middletown, Conn., where he graduated in 1869. After graduation he taught for two years in G. W. (. Noble's private school in Boston, and studied law in the office of his father. He was admitted to the Suf- folk bar in 1872, to the United States Circuit Court for the District of Massachusetts in 1874. to the New York Supreme Court and United States Circuit and District Courts for the Southern District of New York in 1877, and to the United States Supreme Court in 1885. From 1872 to 1876 he practised law in Boston in partnership with his father, from 1876 to 1879 was a mem- ber of the law firm of Abbott Brothers, New York City, and since 1880 has practised alone in Boston. He was a member of the Legislature in 1893 and 1894, representing the towns of Water- town and Belmont, and during his second term was chairman of the committee on bills in the third reading. He is a member of the Episco- palian Club, of the Middlesex Club, of the Water- town Historical Society, and of sundry other asso- ciations. He was married June 12, 1878. to Miss Alice G. Cochrane, daughter of the Hon. M. H.

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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 59

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