Men of progress one thousand biographical sketches and portraits of leaders in business and professional life in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Part 60

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 60

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MEN OF PROGRESS.

C'ochrane, of Compton, Canada, senator in the Dominion Parliament. They have four children : Charles M., Mabel L., Harriette F., and Eleanor A. Abbott.

ABRAHAM, FERDINAND, of Boston, pioneer manufacturer of meerschaum goods, is a native of Germany, born March 28, 1844. He was edu- cated in public schools and through private les- sons, and was well trained in mercantile business in Frankfort and Mayence. Germany. before he came to this country. He first started business in Boston in October, 1868, as a tobacconist, es- tablished at the South End, on the corner of Washington and Union Park Streets. Beginning in a small way, he early developed a special trade in meerschaum goods, and expanded his business in other directions. In 1879 he removed down town to No. 25 Court Street, and about ten years later (in 1888) leased the adjoining store, extend- ing to Franklin Avenue, making of the two one store, the largest retail store in this branch of trade in the city. He has become the largest

F. ABRAHAM.

manufacturer of meerschaum goods in New Eng- land, and also an extensive manufacturer of smokers' articles of various sorts, and of cigars, at

his factory at the foot of State Street. Mr. Abra- ham is prominent in the Masonic, Odd Fellows, and other orders, holding numerous positions. He is a Freemason, member of the Germania Lodge, the Lafayette Lodge of Perfection, Giles F. Yates Council, Princes of Jerusalem, Mount Olivet Chapter Rose Croix, Massachusetts Con- sistory, thirty-second grade, and Aleppo Temple, Mystic Shrine: in the Order of Odd Fellows is a past grand of the Herman Lodge, and a past chief patriarch and past high priest of Mount Sinai En- campment ; and in the Royal Arcanum a past regent of the Sumner Council. He is also a past president of the Moses Mendelssohn Lodge, No. 25, Independent Order Free Sons of Israel, now representative of this lodge to the United States Grand Lodge; and a member of the executive committee of the latter organization. Other or- ganizations to which he belongs are the German Turnverein, the Hebrew Benevolent Association. the Home for the Aged and Infirm, the German Aid Society, and the Temple Adath Israel. He has for some years been a notary public and jus- tice of the peace. Mr. Abraham was married November 18, 1868, to Miss Jette Jeselsohn. They have had five children. The eldest son, Leopold Abraham, is in business with his father, admitted to the firm in February, 1894, and is also a notary public and justice of the peace. He is ex-president of the Roxbury Bicycle Club, and treasurer of the Associated Cycling Clubs of Bos- ton and vicinity.

ALDEN, GEORGE DENNY, of Bridgewater, justice of the Fourth Plymouth District Court, was born in Bridgewater, July 29. 1866, son of John C. and Mary (Carver) Alden. He is in the eighth gen- eration from John Alden. of the " Mayflower's " passengers ; and on the maternal side in the eighth generation from Governor John Carver. His paternal grandfather was the Rev. Seth Alden, graduate of Brown University in 1814, and settled in Marlborough for a number of years : and his paternal grandmother was the daughter of the Rev. John Miles, and sister of the present Rev. Dr. Henry A. Miles, of Hingham. His ma- ternal grandfather was Eleazer Carver, of Bridge- water, who founded the Carver Cotton Gin Works in that place, still well known. George D. was educated in the public schools of Bridgewater, at the Boston Latin School, and the academy at Sax-

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ton's River. Vt .. where he graduated in 1885. With- out attending college, he began preparation for his profession, entering at once the Boston University

GEO. D. ALDEN.

Law School. After a year here he became a stu- dent in the law office of Morse & Allen, Boston. A year later he returned to the Law School, taking the middle and senior year, and graduated with his class in 1888, receiving the degree of LL. B. He was admitted to the bar soon after his graduation, and immediately began practice in Boston, where he has since been established. doing a good and growing general business. He has been quite active in polities, having been on the stump every year up to the present, since 1888, when he made many speeches for the ticket of Cleveland and Thurman. He was first nomi- nated for the position of judge of the Fourth Dis- trict Court of Plymouth County by Governor Rus- sell in 1891, to fill a vacancy; but the Republican Executive Council refused confirmation. After

waiting a few weeks, his name was again sent in, and was again rejected. The governor refusing to make any other appointment that year, the po- sition remained vacant until March, 1892, when he was for the third time nominated, and this time confirmed. He has held the position ever since,

continuing also his practice in Boston, where he is associated with Samuel M. Child, with offices in Rogers's Building. In the autumn of 1891 he received the nomination for representative in the Legislature for the district comprising Bridge- water, East Bridgewater, and West Bridgewater. a distriet which has never sent a Democrat to the General Court, and overwhelmingly Republican. He made a notable run, coming within a very few votes of election. He is a member of the University Club of Boston. He is not married.

AMES, FRANK MORTON, of Boston and Can- ton, was born in Easton, August 14, 1833, son of Oakes and Eveline (). (Gilmore) Ames. He is in the direct line of descent from William Ames, born at Bruton, Somersetshire, England, settled in Braintree in 1635, the line running : John. settled at West Bridgewater, Thomas, Thomas John, Oliver and Oakes Ames. He was educated in the public schools of Easton and at the Leicester and Andover academies. After com- pleting his education, he entered the famous shovel works of Oliver Ames & Sons at North Easton, and there spent several years acquiring a practical knowledge of the details of the manu- facture and an intimate acquaintance with the business management. He moved to Canton in 1858 to take charge of the business of the Kinsley Iron & Machine Company (owned by the Ames family), and ultimately became the principal owner of the works. Meanwhile he became con- nected with railroad and other interests. He was for several years trustee in possession and mana- ger of the New Orleans, Mobile & Texas Rail- road: and is now a director in various corpora- tions, and president of several, among others the Lamson Consolidated Store Service Company. He is interested in the cultivation and manufact- ure of sugar, and has a plantation of over twelve thousand acres, situated on the west bank of the Mississippi, directly opposite the city of New Orleans, where he usually has under cultivation about fifteen hundred acres of sugar cane. and a large area of corn, several hundred acres of the remaining portion being used for grazing. Mr. Ames has been active in public affairs, and has represented C'anton in both branches of the General Court. He was a member of the House of Representatives in 1869, and again in 1882. and a senator in 1885. declining a re-election.

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While in the House, he served on the committee on railroads; and in the Senate was a member of the committees on drainage and on manufact- ures, and chairman of a special committee on the subject of a metropolitan police; and it was largely through his efforts that the present Board of Police for Boston was established. In politics he is an ardent Republican, and was a delegate to the National Republican Convention at Chicago in 1884. In early life he was connected with the State militia, joining it in 1853 as sergeant major of the Second Battalion Infantry, which afterward became the Fourth Regiment. From this rank

F. M. AMES.

he was promoted first to quartermaster, and then in 1857 to major, which position he resigned in 1860. He is a member of the Merchants' Club of Boston, of the Boston Merchants' Association, of the Home Market Club, the Unitarian Club, the Boston Art Club, and of several political clubs. He was married November 13, 1856, to Miss Catherine H. Copeland, daughter of Hiram and Lurana (Copeland) Copeland, of Easton. They have had seven children, all but one of whom are still living : Frank A., Alice L., Oakes, Anna C., K. Evelyn, and Harriet E. Ames. Mr. Ames's residence in Canton is his summer home: his town house is on Commonwealth Avenue, Boston.

ANGELL, GEORGE THORNDIKE, of Boston, founder with others of the " Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals," of the "American Humane Education Society," and of the "Parent American Band of Mercy," and devoted for over a quarter of a century to the advance- ment of humane work the world over, was born in Southbridge, Massachusetts, June 5, 1823. His father was the Rev. George Angell, formerly of Providence, R.1., whose life is to be found in " The Annals of the American Baptist Pulpit " (New York : Carter & Brothers), also in other Baptist publications. His mother was Rebekah (Thorndike) Angell, youngest daughter of Lieutenant Paul Thorndike, of Tewksbury, Mass., a lady distinguished through life for relig- ious devotion and deeds of charity. Left father- less at three years of age, his early training was altogether in the hands of this excellent woman : and by her his primary education was directed. He graduated from Dartmouth College in 1846. For the next three years he taught a Boston school day times, and studied law nights and va- cations. The next two years he was in the Har- vard University Law School, and the Boston law of- fices of Charles G., F. C., & C. W. Loring, eminent counsellors. In December, 1851, he was admitted to the bar; and, through the influence of the Messrs. Loring, was at once offered a partnership with the distinguished commercial lawyer, Benja- min F. Brooks, and another with the Hon. Sam- uel E. Sewall, one of the most learned members of the bar. Ile accepted the latter, and entered immediately upon a successful and lucrative prac- tice. In 1864, too years before the forming of the first society in America for the prevention of cruelty to animals, and when he did not know that there was any such society in the world, Mr. Angell (being then unmarried) gave by will a large portion of his property, after the death of his mother and himself, to be used in circu- lating in secular and Sunday-schools humane literature for the prevention of cruelty to ani- mals ; and in 1868, the driving to death in a forty- mile race of two of the best horses of the State, moved him to action for the establishment of a Massachusetts society for that purpose. He promptly wrote to the Boston Daily Advertiser, announcing his willingness to give both time and money to establish such a society, and stating that, if there were any other persons in Boston willing to unite with him in this object, he should

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be glad to be informed : and the next morning. being called upon by an influential Boston lady. Mrs. William Appleton, who told him that she had been trying to form a similar society, and also by other prominent citizens, he found himself en- gaged in a work which led him to abandon his profession, and to devote himself and his means without any pecuniary compensation to the pro- tection of dumb animals from cruelty and to the humane education of the American people. He first obtained an act of incorporation from the Massachusetts Legislature for the new society, and wrote and caused to be adopted the constitu-

GEO. T. ANGELL.

tion and by-laws under which it has acted ever since : then. with the aid of Chief Justice Big- elow and the Hon. William Gray, prepared the laws under which its prosecutions have been made ever since, and obtained their enactment by the Legislature. These accomplished, he suc- ceeded in getting the city government of Boston to put under his personal orders for three weeks seventeen policemen. picked from the whole force, to canvass the entire city, houses, and stores, for funds to carry on the work ; and so, with the aid of gifts from various citizens, he raised about thir- teen thousand dollars. Next, in behalf of his society, he started the first paper of its kind in the

world for the protection of dumb animals, which he named Our Dumb Animals, and caused to be printed two hundred thousand copies of the first number. These he distributed through the Bos- ton police in every house in Boston, and. through the aid of the Legislature and of General Burt. then postmaster of Boston, in every city and town in the State. He next caused twenty drinking fountains for animals to be erected; and, by his exposures of the terrible condition of the Brighton slaughter-houses, laid the foundations of the Abattoir which took their place. In 1869, worn out by the arduous night and day labors of organ- izing this new institution, Mr. Angell crossed the ocean for rest, but immediately on reaching Eng- land became engaged in a work quite as impor- tant as that he had left. He addressed the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in London, and twice the Baroness Bur- dett-Coutts and her friends, and so brought about the establishment in England of a paper similar to his own, which is now widely circulated by the Royal Society throughout the British possessions : and also obtained the organization of a Ladies' Humane Educational Society or Committee, in connection with the Royal Society, of which the Baroness Burdett-Coutts has ever since been the president, and which has done a great work in behalf of humane education in Great Britain, and led to the establishing there of the first " Band of Mercy" in the world. During this trip Mr. Angell attended the meetings of many of the con- tinental societies for the prevention of cruelty. and attended as the only American delegate, and addressed, the World's Convention of these so- cieties held at Zürich, Switzerland. In his address on this occasion he spoke of his society as " now striving to unite all religious and political parties on one platform for the purpose of carry- ing a humane literature and education into all the schools of the country, and thus not only insure the protection of animals, but also the prevention of crime, unnecessary wars, and forms of violence. When the leading minds of all nations shall act together on this subject, and the nations shall be humanely educated. wars between nations will end." Returning to America, Mr. Angell went at once to Chicago, perhaps the cruelest city in the world at that time, and. at a personal cost to him- self of about six hundred dollars and several months' time, succeeded in establishing there the Illinois Humane Society, which has ever since

MEN OF PROGRESS.

been protecting from cruelty millions of cattle and other animals in the great stock-yards, as well as animals, previously without any protection, in and about that city. It would require a volume fully to record Mr. Angell's work in his humane cause from that day to the present. He has given addresses and aided in forming humane societies as far South as New Orleans and as far West as North Dakota. He has addressed State legislat- ures, national and international conventions of educational men, agricultural and religious con- ventions, union meetings of churches, - as notably, in Minneapolis, a union meeting of all the evan- gelical churches there. presided over by the Gov- ernor of the State .- also numerous colleges and universities in various parts of the country. He twice addressed the National Grange at Wash- ington and at Richmond, and once addressed eight hundred and thirty-six of the police of Phil- adelphia, officers and men, and once about three thousand drivers of horses gathered in the Boston Theatre. In the winter of 1885-86 he addressed. during sixty-one days, all the high. Latin. normal, and grammar schools of Boston one hour each. In 1882 he started the " American Band of Mercy," of which he has since caused to be formed over twenty-one thousand branches, with probably between one and two million members. In 1889 he formed the " American Humane Edu- cation Society " (the first of its kind in the world). and obtained its incorporation by the Massachu- setts legislature, with power to hold half a million dollars free from taxation. For this corporation he has employed missionaries forming humane societies in the South and West; has caused nearly two million copies of " Black Beauty " to be circulated in English and other European and Asiatic languages : has. through the offering of large prizes, obtained other humane stories as sequels to " Black Beauty," which are now being extensively circulated over this country and abroad ; has furnished his paper. Our Dumb Ini- mals. regularly to nearly all the professional and educated men of his own State. and to the editors of every American newspaper and magazine north of Mexico. In his autobiographical sketches it appears that in the one year from November 1. 1890, to November 1, 1891, he had printed by his two humane societies about one hundred and seventeen million and eighty thousand pages of humane literature, being probably far more than was printed in the same time by all other humane

societies in the world combined. His writings are circulated not only over the United States, but largely in Europe and somewhat in Asia, some of them being used in places as far dis- tant as China, Japan, and in the public schools of New Zealand. At a single meeting of the Na- tional American Teachers' Association he pre- sented to the teachers, in behalf of his societies. one hundred and ten thousand copies of humane publications. He has offered many prizes to all American editors, all American college and university students, and to many others, for best essays on humane subjects. His wide correspond- ence numbers sometimes more than two hundred letters in a single day's mail ; and his exchange lists bring to his office not infrequently more than a hundred newspapers and magazines daily. A.s a director of the American Social Science Asso- ciation he has given much money and time in exposing the sales of poisonous and dangerously adulterated foods and other articles, which re- sulted in a Congressional report containing about a hundred manuscript pages of evidence which he had collected, and of which he had more than a hundred thousand copies sent over the country. laying the foundations for the various laws on the subject which have since been en- acted in various States. Though now in his seventy-second year, Mr. AAngell is still busy de- veloping and carrying out new plans to increase his work. He was married in 1872 to Eliza .1. Martin, of Nahant.

BAILEY, EDWARD WILLIS, of Boston, merchant, was born in North Scituate, November 5, 1849, son of John Wade and Priscilla L. (Vinal) Bailey. His father, mother, and grandparents were all natives of Scituate. Both grandfathers were sea- captains, and his paternal grandfather was in the War of 1812. His education was begun in the public schools of his native town, and continued in the Boston schools, to which city the family re- moved when he was a boy of ten. He attended the Brimmer School here, then on Common Street, and graduated in 1865, a Franklin medal scholar ; and subsequently the English High School, then on Bedford Street, from which he graduated in 1868. In September following he went to work for his uncle. Job F. Bailey, dealer in doors, win- dows, and blinds, wholesale and retail, as an office boy. From this position he was before long

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raised to that of book-keeper. Then he became a salesman, and ultimately the manager, which place he held till the ist of January. 1891, when he

E. W. BAILEY.

bought his unele's interest. The business was established in 1846 by Bailey & Jenkins, both Scituate men, and has occupied the premises No. 24 Kneeland Street since February, 1869. The present style of the firm is E. W. Bailey & Co. Mr. Bailey's residence has been for sixteen years in Newton. He is especially prominent in fra- ternal organizations, belonging to numerous or- ders, and at the head of a leading one. He is a member of the Newton Royal Arch Chapter, Dal- housie Lodge. Free Masons: of Newton Lodge. No. 92, Odd Fellows : of Garden City Lodge, No. 1901. Knights of Honor : of Newton Council. American Legion of Honor; Mt. Ida Council. Royal Arcanum : Newton Lodge Ancient Order of United Workmen, all of Newton : also of the Grand Lodges of Ancient Order of United Work- men, of the American Legion of Honor, and of the Royal Arcanum ; and he is at the present time grand dictator of the Knights of Honor of Massachusetts, which has 10,000 members in 138 lodges in the State, and in the national organiza- tion 126.000. In politics Mr. Bailey is a Repub- lican, active in the party organization in his city.

He has been a member of the Newton ward and city committee for six years, and two years its secretary. He was married February 12, 1874, to Miss Emma J. Polley, of Boston. They have five children : Marion W., Alice P., Sarah J., Edward R., and Evelyn W. Bailey.

BAILEY, JAMES ALDERSON, JR., of Arlington. member of the bar, was born in West Cambridge (now Arlington), March 25, 1867. son of James Alderson and Marietta (Peirce) Bailey. On the maternal side he is of the old New England families of Peirce and Locke. a direct descend- ant of Captain Benjamin Locke, who fought at Lexington and at Bunker Hill; and on the pa- ternal side is of the English families of Bailey and Johnson. His father was a soldier in the Civil War, and held important town offices. He was educated in the Arlington public schools. graduating from the High School in 1883. and at Harvard College, where he was graduated in the class of 1888, summa cum laude. and with honors in political science. He studied law at the Har-

JAMES A. BAILEY, Jr.

vard Law School, graduating in 1891, L.L. B. and A.M. He worked his way through both college and law school. While in college. he was particu-

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MEN OF PROGRESS.

larly interested in the study of political economy and of history. He took an active part in the de- bates of the Harvard Union, and was an officer of that society. He was also a director of the Har- vard Republican Club, of the Harvard Dining Association, and of the Co-operative Society. He was admitted to the bar in July, 1890; and began practice immediately after his graduation from the Law School, establishing himself in Boston. Quite early in his career he was engaged in several im- portant cases, which attracted considerable atten- tion. He was in 1894 associated with Causten Browne in the preparation of a new edition of " Browne on the Statute of Frauds." He has been active in politics since his college days. He has served as chairman of the Arlington Republi- can town committee for three years, and is a mem- ber of the Eighth Congressional District Repub- liean Committee. As secretary of the latter body in 1892, he took a large part in the management of the successful campaign of the Hon. Samuel W. MeCall for Congress against the Hon. John F. Andrew, and spoke a few times on the stump. In the autumn of 1893 he was nominated by accla- mation for representative in the Legislature for Arlington and Winchester. and was elected by a large majority, the youngest man ever sent to the House from this district. In the campaign of that year he also spoke occasionally on the stump. In the Legislature he served as clerk of the committee on the judiciary, as a member of the committee on elections, and as secretary of the Re- publican caucus committee. His work upon the elections committee, in connection with the " Ward Seventeen " (Boston) case, was a feature of the session. Dissenting from his six colleagues, he made the fight alone, and succeeded in having the House substitute his resolve declaring vacant the seats of the sitting members for the report of the committee " leave to withdraw." This con- test made Mr. Bailey one of the most prominent members of the Legislature of 1894. He is a member of Hiram Lodge, Freemasons, and of Menotomy Royal Arch Chapter ; of Bethel Lodge, Odd Fellows; of the Arlington Boat Club (a trus- tee), of the Middlesex Club (treasurer), of the Sirloin Club, and of Phi Beta Kappa and Phi Delta Phi. He is unmarried.

BARRETT, HARRY HUDSON, of Malden, mem- ber of the Suffolk bar, was born in Malden, March

10, 1851, son of Henry and Lucy Theodora Gelli- neau (Stearns) Barrett. On the paternal side be is a lineal descendant of Colonel James Barrett and Captain Nathan Barrett, who took part in the Con- cord fight. April 19, 1775. His maternal grand- mother, Marianne Theresa Saint Agnan, was born on the island of Grenada, one of the West Indies, and early an orphan. When very young, she came with slaves to this country for her education, under the care of Judge Rogers, of Exeter, N. H., and afterward attended private school in New- buryport and Salem; and in 1821 she married Richard Sprague Stearns, the youngest son of Dr.

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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 60

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