Men of progress one thousand biographical sketches and portraits of leaders in business and professional life in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Part 61

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 61

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HARRY H. BARRETT.

William Stearns, of Salem. Her father, Michael Saint Agnan, was a native of France, where the name of Saint Agnan has been borne by several noble families of distinction. Her mother, Mari- anne Theodora Gellineau, was a daughter of Charles Anthony Gellineau, who came from France, and settled in Port of Spain, Trinidad, and of Lucie Poincette, a native of Castile, in Spain. Her maternal aunt, Lucette Gellineau, was the friend and room-mate of Empress Jo- sephine at the Martinique Convent. Harry H. was educated in the Malden Grammar School, at Phillips (Andover) Academy, also at Phillips ( Exeter) Academy, graduating from the latter in

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MEN OF PROGRESS.

1870. and at Harvard College, where he was grad- uated in the class of 1874. From college he en- tered the Harvard Law School, which he attended from 1874 to 1879. also studying in Boston in the offices of E. R. & Samuel Hoar, Charles G. Fall, and Stearns & Butler. He was admitted to the Suffolk bar in June, 1882, and has since been en- gaged in general practice. He was a representa- tive for Malden in the lower house of the Legisla- ture in 1891, the only Democrat representative elected from that place since 1861. He has been a civil service examiner (State) for Malden since January, 1892. He is much interested in the in- stitutions and affairs of his city, and is now serv- ing as a member of its park commission. He has been a trustee and clerk of the Malden Hospi- tal since its organization in 1890. He has been long a member, and was some time president. of the Malden Deliberative Assembly (organized in 1875). and is also a member of the Kernwood ('lub. In politics, while classed as a Democrat. he is a Democrat with independent proclivities. Mr. Barrett is unmarried, and lives with his mother and unmarried sister at the homestead in Malden.

BARRY, DAVID FRANKLIN, of Boston, sales agent, member of the Board of Aldermen, was born in Boston, on Sturgis Place, a part of old Fort Hill, February 29. 1852. His father, David Barry (now deceased ), was well known in Boston over forty years ago. He carried on the business of a wheelwright and shipwright in East Boston. and in 1845 enlisting in the United States volun- teer service. subsequently went to the Mexican War. In 1849 he moved from East Boston to the city proper, and established his business on Cove Street, where it flourished for seventeen years. Thence he removed to Castle Street with his fam- ily, which consisted of two sons and a daughter. The latter died at sixteen years of age. David F.'s mother was Mary E. (Welch) Barry. He was educated in Boston public schools, graduating from the Quincy Grammar School in the class of 1867. During his boyhood he had an ambition to acquire a knowledge of advanced studies, and accordingly devoted his evenings and spare hours of the day to reading. About 1874 he became a sales agent for Marshall. Son. & Co., wholesale book-binders' machinery, and has been so em- ployed ever since. In 1879 he was elected by the Democrats of Ward Sixteen a member of the

Common Council, and through regular re-elections served in that branch of the city government for fourteen consecutive years. For five years of this period, 1887-88-91-92-93. he was president of the body. In 1894 he was a member of the Board of Aldermen, being elected by the people at large, and receiving the highest vote of any of the twelve successful candidates: and in the De- cember election was re-elected for the term of 1895. His services in committee work have been notable and valuable, covering nearly all of the different committees appointed to supervise and report measures pertaining to the progress and

DAVID F. BARRY.

development of Boston. He was the prime mover in the scheme for the "municipal ownership of public docks." and presented and ably advocated the petition to the Board of Aldermen of 1894, signed by over eleven hundred prominent mer- chants of Boston, calling attention to the pressing need of a system of public docks owned by the city, the result of which was the appointment of a special committee to look into the matter. and a favorable report. which was unanimously accepted by both branches of the city council. Mr. Barry's public spirit and progressive ideas have been dis- played in numerous other acts. He has favored all appropriations for public schools, and has al-

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ways striven for the passage of all orders pertain- ing to public schools He has also been an ardent and steadfast supporter of the City Hos- pital, and his efforts in its behalf have met the warm approval of the trustees. Speaking of his value as a public official, the Boston Herald of No- vember 22, 1891, says : " Mr. Barry is, first of all. a diplomat ; and he often succeeds by diplomacy where the excellent flowers of rhetoric would fail. A self-made man, his success along the political line of endeavor has been acquired through dili- gence, using the means at hand, and sedulously working for the best interests of those he is elected to serve. Mr. Barry owes nothing to the schoolmaster, except it be the rudimentary brush- ing he received by the light of the torch at Henry Morgan's evening school. The opportunity af- forded some of his colleagues to drink deep at the fountain of knowledge was not his to enjoy. God gave him natural talents, however, in abundance : and these he has used to their fullest extent. He has a strong will, vigor, and the faculty of doing well whatever he undertakes. He is an earnest speaker, guardedly careful of the rights and feel- ings of others, and often wins his point through his own personal magnetism, what others would lose though they had the verbal magic of a Burke." He has always been a firm and constant friend of the members of the Grand Army of the Republic : and they have on many occasions at- tested their belief in his sincerity and apprecia- tion of his endeavors in their behalf. Mr. Barry was married May 15, 1871. to Miss Mary Eliza- beth Madden. They have one son, John Mar- shall Barry, now (1895) in the sophomore class at the Massachusetts State College at Amherst, studying landscape engineering.

BATES, REV. LEWIS BENTON, D. D., of Boston, pastor of the Bromfield Street Methodist Episco- pal Church, is a native of Massachusetts, born in North Easton, November 26, 1829. son of Lewis and Elizabeth (Webster) Bates. He is in the ninth generation from John Rogers, the martyr. His first ancestor in America was Nathan Bate, who came in 1635, and was the first white man to land on the shore of what is now Hingham. From him he is in the eighth generation. His educa- cation was acquired in the public schools, which he attended until he reached the age of fourteen years, and at the Dartmouth and Falmouth acad-

emies. Ile entered the Methodist ministry in .August, 1848, when but eighteen years of age : and he has been continuously engaged since.

L. B. BATES.

laboring zealously in numerous fields. In 1849 he was pastor of the Methodist Episcopal church in South Scituate. In 1850 and 1851 he had charge of the church in South Varmouth. The latter year, in April, he became a member of the New England Conference. From 1852 to 1855 he was settled over the church in Lebanon, Conn. The next three years he was pastor of the church in West Thompson, Conn. The latter was a cir- cuit with twenty-two monthly preaching places. During the year 1857 he preached one hun- dred and twenty-two successive evenings, and out of this revival three Methodist Episcopal churches were established. To-day seven Metho- dist churches occupy the ground where he labored alone. From 1858 to 1861 he was pastor at North Easton, 1861 to 1863 at North Dighton. 1863 66 at Millville, conducting revivals in all of these churches : from 1866 to 1869 at New Bed- ford, where more than five hundred persons were converted in four months and more than four hundred united with the church, in one day one hundred and fifteen persons being baptized; and from 1869 to 1872 at Taunton, pastor of the First

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MEN OF PROGRESS.

Methodist Episcopal Church, where more than three hundred were converted. In 1872 he was transferred from the New England Southern Con- ference to the New England, and became pastor of the Mount Bellingham Church in Chelsea. Here he remained until 1875, when he was sta- tioned at the Broadway Methodist Episcopal Church in South Boston. Remaining here three years, in 1878 he was assigned to the Bethel, East Boston, which was his field of labor for six- teen years. During this long and successful pastorate he received more than fifteen hundred persons into the church, and gave church letters to more than thirteen hundred persons who went to all portions of the globe, to become connected with other churches. He baptized more than thir- teen hundred, and attended the funerals of more than eighteen hundred, hundreds of them being sailors. In September, 1894, the authorities of the church placed him in charge of the Bromfield Street Methodist Episcopal Church in the heart of the city. In three months the congregation had more than doubled, and all the work of the church appeared to be reviving. During the forty- six years of his ministry Dr. Bates has preached at the dedication of two hundred and thirty-nine churches, and raised more than a million dollars for church property. lle has given a good portion of his time also to aiding church organiza- tions, in evangelical work in the churches, and at special meetings, and camp meetings. For the last thirty-five years he has averaged one sermon or gospel address per day. Every year revivals have attended his ministry. On one Sunday in 1876 he baptized forty-five persons by immersion and forty-five by sprinkling, in the town of Mid- dleborough. He has preached in all the New England States and in a number of States out- side of New England; and in 1888 spent four months abroad, in Europe, Egypt, and the Holy Land. He has served five years (1868-73) as chaplain of the Third Regiment, Massachusetts militia, and one year (1870) as chaplain of Bristol County jail. He has been president of the Methodist Ministers' Relief Association from 1882 to the present time ; president of the New Eng- land Conference Preachers' Aid Society from 1891 to date : was president of the Boston Methodist Preachers' Meeting for two years, 1871 to 1873 ; and is a director of the Lay College and of the New England Evangelist Association. His long work in East Boston was largely among seamen.

He conducted the " World's Christian Mission " established in 1878 " for seamen and all others in need," with which was connected a free reading- room and library, and through which aid in various forms was given and shipwrecked sailors helped : and in the spacious Bethel had three ser- vices every Sunday forenoon, afternoon, and even- ing, each to crowded congregations. He received the degree of 1.1). from Claflin University in 1881. He is a member of the Methodist Social Union, of the Young Men's Christian Association, and of the Young Men's Christian Union. Dr. Bates was married June 12. 1850, to Miss Louisa 1). Field, of Taunton. They have had five chil- dren : Lewis Webster, Myra Louisa (now Mrs. Gilchrist), John Lewis (member of Massachusetts House of Representatives for the second term, 1895). Lillian G. (now wife of Mayor George H. ('arter, of Chelsea), and Emma May Bates.

BINNEY, ARTHUR, of Boston, naval architect and yacht broker, was born in Boston, December 2, 1865, son of Henry P. and Josephine ( Hayward)

ARTHUR BINNEY.

Binney. His grandfathers were Dr. Amos Binney and Joseph H. Hayward ; and his great-grand- fathers, Colonel Amos Binney and Dr. Lemuel

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MEN OF PROGRESS.

Hayward. He was educated in the Dudley Grammar and the Roxbury Latin Schools, and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, taking a special course at the latter. For a short time after leaving the institute he was with the Whittier Machine Company to learn practical machine work. Then he was for three years with Hook & Hastings, church organ build- ers, as draughtsman : and the next year was spent in Germany in study. Upon his return he ob- tained a position in January, 1888, with the late Edward Burgess, the distinguished naval architect, and worked and studied under him from that time until the latter's death in June, 1891. In September following he formed a partnership with George A. Stewart, who had also been asso- ciated with Mr. Burgess, and under the firm name of Stewart & Binney purchased the data, calculations, and drawings made by Mr. Burgess. and continued his business. This partnership held until the death of Mr. Stewart, June 21. 1894. Since the death of his partner Mr. Binney has conducted the business alone. He is a mem- ber of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers, of the Corinthian Yacht Club of Mar- blehead, the Hull Yacht Club, the Massachusetts Yacht Club, and the Boston Athletic Association. He is unmarried.

BLAKE, CHRISTOPHER, of Boston, manufact- urer, was born in Belcamb, near Balbriggan, County Dublin, Ireland, December 24, 1830, son of Matthew and Anne (Carton) Blake. His paternal grandfather was Christopher Blake, and his great-grandfather, Matthew Blake, of the same county, as were also his maternal grand- father, James Carton, and great-grandfather, John Carton. He was educated in private schools. He came to Boston in September, 1846, and was apprenticed to J. L. Ross, then a furniture manufacturer on Hawkins Street. After serving his time, he worked as a journeyman at his trade until 1854. when he entered business on his own account as a manufacturer of furniture, establish- ing himself at No. 94 Utica Street. His enter- prise prospered : and in 1865 he built and occupied the large factory on Dorchester Ave- nue. South Boston. This he conducted success- fully for twenty-two years, and then in 1887 retired with a competence. He has been long connected with the Massachusetts Charitable

Mechanic Association, is a director of the Home for Destitute Catholic Children, a member of the Charitable Irish Society. and of the Old

CHRISTOPHER BLAKE.

Dorchester Club. His wife, whose maiden name was Catherine McMahon, died in 1875; and his children now living are Mrs. Mary E. Merrick. Mrs. Caroline Young, Catherine F. Blake, Joseph Blake, and Edward F. Blake.

BOUTWELL, HARVEY LINCOLN, of Boston and Malden, member of the Suffolk bar, is a native of Illinois, born in the town of Meredosia, April 5. 1860, son of Eli A. and Harriet W. (Weeks) Bout- well. His father was a lumber manufacturer, held various town offices in Hopkinton. N.H., for twenty years, and was elected to the New Hamp- shire Legislature in 1879 on the Republican ticket. His maternal great-grandfather, William Weeks, a graduate of Harvard College, was a major and aide-de-camp to General Washington during the war of the Revolution. He was educated in New Hampshire, in distriet schools, at the Hopkinton Academy, the Contoocook .Academy, and the New Hampshire State College, graduating from the latter in 1882. His first occupation was that of a school-teacher, teaching as principal of the gram-

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MEN OF PROGRESS.

mar school at Claremont, N.H., in 1882-83 : in the Boston Asylum and Farm School in 1884 ; and for ten years as principal of the Eliot Evening School in Boston. His law studies were begun in the office of John V. Mugridge at Concord, N.H .. continued in the office of Wilbur H. Powers, Boston, and completed in the Boston University Law School, where he graduated cum laude in the class of 1886. Admitted to the Suffolk bar in July following his graduation, he has practised continuously since in Boston, engaged chiefly with civil causes. As a resident of Malden, he has been concerned in municipal affairs, and has served in the Common Council ( 1893-94), elected as a candidate of the citizens' party. In 1894 he was elected as a Republican representative to the Legislature for the Ninth Middlesex District. He is a member of the Malden Deliberative Assembly (president in 1890), of the College Alumni Asso- ciation (president in 1888), and belongs to the orders of Odd Fellows. Good Templars, Sons of Veterans, Golden Cross (representative to the Supreme Commandery in 1891-92), and United Workmen. He was married December 28, 1886,

H. L. BOUTWELL.

to Miss Nellie C. Booth, of Norwich, Vt. They have two children : Robert Dewey and Louis Evans Boutwell.

BOYNTON, REV. NEHEMIAH, D. D., of Boston, pastor of the Union Church, Columbus Avenue, was born in Medford. November 21. 1856, son of

N. BOYNTON.

Eleazar and Mary (Chadbourne) Boynton. Ile is of sterling New England stock, his father a native of Rockport, and his mother of Lyman, Me. He passed through the Medford public schools, grad- uating from the High School in the class of 1873; was fitted for college at Phillips (Andover) Academy, graduating therefrom in 1875, entered Amherst and graduated in the class of 1879; then took the regular course of the Andover Theological Seminary, graduating in 1882. In the autumn of the latter year he was ordained, at Littleton, and installed as pastor of the Orthodox Congrega- tional Church in that place. In 1884 he was called to the associate pastorate, with the Rev. Dr. R. H. Seeley, of the North Church, Haver- hill, and a year later. Dr. Seeley dying, was made sole pastor. He remained in Haverhill four years, preaching acceptably, and then, at the age of thirty-one, was called to the Union Church, Boston, where he has met with notable success. In 1894 the honorary degree of D.I). was con- ferred upon him by Amherst College. Dr. Boyn- ton is a trustee of Bradford Academy. and of the United Society of Christian Endeavor, and is also

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officially connected with many of the Congrega- tional denominational enterprises. He is a mem- ber of the Monday Club and of the Boston Con- gregational Club. He was married July 5, 1882, to Miss Mary Ella Wilcox, daughter of D. W. Wilcox, of Medford. Their children are : Daniel Wilcox, Edward Chadbourne, Morrison Russell, Grace Morrison, Elizabeth, and Marjory Boynton.

BRADY, REV. JAMES BOND, B.D., PH. D., D.D., of Boston, pastor of the " People's Temple," was born in the Province of Ulster, County

J. B. BRADY.

Antrim, Ireland, September 7, 1845, son of James and Isabella (Boyd) Brady. He is of Scotch- Irish ancestry, Scotch on his mother's side. His education was begun in local private schools, those of the Rev. Dr. Close and of the Rev. Mr. Gawn, and continued at the Belfast Model School, and at the Ballymena Diocesan Classic-Mathe- matic School. Coming to America in 1867, he entered Drew Theological Seminary in Madison, N.J., and was there graduated Bachelor of Divin- ity in 1869. Subsequently, in 1892, he was grad- uated to the Doctorate of Philosophy by the New York University. His training for active life was active life itself. He entered the Newark Con-

ference immediately after graduation from Drew, and at once engaged in most active work, in the course of a few years filling, under the itinerant system, the leading pulpits of the Methodist Epis- copal Church in the Newark Conference. Begin- ning his ministry at the Union Church in 1869 where he served a year, he was next assigned to Glenwood from 1870 to 1871, then to Otisville, N.Y., 1871-73, next to Summit, N.J., 1873-75, then to Hoboken, 1875-78, then to Jersey City, 1878-81, then Newark, 1881-84, to Jersey City again, 1884-87, to Passaic, 1888-91, to Newark again, 1891-93. In 1877 he made a tour through Europe as a wedding trip, and in 1887-88 made a journey round the world. The chief characteristic of his ministry has been progress all along the line, - progress in numbers, in financial condition, and in the moral and spiritual power of his churches. He has preached as a rule to overflow- ing houses. During his two pastoral terms in Newark, from which he came to Boston, he lifted the Central Methodist Episcopal Church (known there as the Cathedral Church) into a great popu- lar and influential institution ; and his preaching drew throngs. Of him and his work there it is said in the latest history of that city " he is proba- bly the most talked of preacher in Newark, be- cause he strikes fearlessly at modern iniquities, and lives for the people of these times and this place. . . . He stands for essentials, but tears down obstructions. He pursues his own diplo- macy, and calls no man master, although he con- sults with his official brethren. . . . He is a man of the people; and, when roused in their behalf in the pulpit, he springs on his antagonists like a lion rushing on the prey. In response to his sym- pathy and uncompromising loyalty to their cause the people crowd his church to feel the warm glow of his heart. Men who go nowhere else to church hear him gladly; and so hundreds have been lifted to a new life by his ministry, while thou- sands upon thousands have been lifted to nobler habits of thought, feeling, and action." His work, begun October 15, 1893, in Boston is car- ried forward on similar lines. Under his pastoral administration the l'eople's Temple has gradually and rapidly become, as it has been called, "the Faneuil Hall of religious inspiration and instruc- tion, the great rallying place of the people." Something of importance is going on at the temple every evening. From seven to ten thou- sand persons visit it weekly. As a rule, over two

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MEN OF PROGRESS.

thousand seats are all taken half an hour before the main service begins. After that frequently hundreds stand throughout, and other hundreds go away for want of standing room. Dr. Brady is a member of the American Society of Com- parative Religion, the seat of which is New York University, New York City. He was also treas- urer of that society before coming to Boston. In politics he is a Republican, but now belongs to that "emerging class who are looking for the equalization of the rights of all." He is a member of the Committee of One Hundred of the City of Boston, and of the executive committee of the Boston Missionary and Church Extension Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Dr. Brady is now in the zenith of his power. He is a man of vigorous physique, stout heart, clear mind, and devotes himself with unflagging courage to any- thing he undertakes. He never yet has failed. Such is the magnetic influence of his preaching that it is impossible to keep his vast audiences from breaking into frequent applause. He was married June 11, 1877, to Miss Josephine Louise Wood, of New York City, a lady of affluent family and broad culture. They have had five children. three of whom, Florence Isabella, Howard Wood. and Paul, are living : the others, James Boyd and Bessie Grace, died in infancy.

BREED. FRANCIS WILLIAM, is a native of Lynn, born in 1846. At seventeen years of age he had begun business life. First employed in the responsible position of teller in a bank, the First National of Lynn, at eighteen he was engaged in the shoe business, and at twenty-one was a manu- facturer, in partnership with Philip A. Chase. Eight years later, in 1875, he bought out his part- ner. and, continuing the business alone, increased and enlarged it, speedily making it one of the largest and most important in Lynn. His present extensive factories, one in the city and one in the country, have a capacity of about six thousand pairs of shoes per day, and employ large numbers of workmen. While developing his shoe business. he also early became prominent in other interests in Lynn and elsewhere. He is now a director of the Central Bank of Lynn, of the Lynn Institution for Savings, and of the Eliot National Bank of Bos- ton ; member of the executive committee of the Boston Merchants' Association and of the Boston Associated Board of Trade. In politics he is Re-

publican, a leading member of his party in the State; and his name has been frequently men- tioned for a high position on the party ticket. In 1892-93, as one of the Massachusetts members of the World's Columbian Commission, he served on important committees of the Fair management at Chicago ; and it was through his influence and exertions that the classification was so arranged as to bring all the shoe and leather exhibits into the special shoe and leather building. He was also one of the committee which successfully in- terviewed Congress on the matter of the loan to the Exposition. He has been an extensive tray-

FRANCIS W. BREED.

eller in his own land and abroad. visiting every State of the Union and every country in Europe. He visited the last two Paris Expositions and the Brussels Exposition, spending much time at each. He was married in 1873 to Miss Alice Ives, of Illinois, and has five children : Francis M., Alice E., F. W .. Jr., Ralph H., and Ruby Constance Breed. His residence on Ocean Street, in Lynn, overlooking the sea, is one of the most attractive estates on the North Shore.

BROOKS. JOHN FRANKLIN, of Boston, mer- chant, was born in Salem, October 5, 1838, son of

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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 61

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