USA > Massachusetts > Men of progress one thousand biographical sketches and portraits of leaders in business and professional life in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts > Part 62
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John and Susan E. (Vanderford) Brooks. Both parents were also natives of Salem, his father born June 17, 1812. and his mother November 17. 1813. The latter was the eldest child of Captain Benjamin Vanderford. who early in life com- manded a number of Salem's finest ships trading with India and the Fejees, and later was the pilot of the United States South Sea Exploring Expedi- tion squadron under Commander Wilkes, to whose merits and valuable services the commodore pays a high tribute of due praise. John F. Brooks ob- tained his education in the Salem schools, finish- ing at the Salem Latin School. On March 3.
JOHN F. BROOKS.
1853, he entered the counting-house of Edward D. Kimball, of Salem, engaged in trade with the West Coast of Africa, and began at this early age to trade on his own account by sending advent- ures. In April, 1858, he went to the West Coast of Africa as supercargo of the brig . Falmouth," owned by E. R. Ware & Co., of New York. Upon his return, in 1859, he induced Matthew Bartlett, of Boston, to extend his African business to the Gold Coast, and in 1862 went there as Mr. Bartlett's agent, having the consignment of the barks "Said bin Sultan " and " D. Godfrey," making two very successful voyages. Upon his return from these enterprises, in 1863, he entered into partnership
with Matthew Bartlett ; and this association con- tinued until the death of Mr. Bartlett in 1880. Since that time he has continued the business alone, becoming a large exporter of American merchandise and importing many African products, principally palm oil, spices, gums, and hides. He now owns the barks " Nineveh, " " D. A. Brayton," and the brig ". Lucy W. Snow," and charters many vessels. He is one of the few old-style merchants left in Boston. In addition to his African trade, he represents in this country the Compagnie Fran- çaise de l'Afrique Occidentale of Marseille, France. He was a director of the Washington Fire and Marine Insurance Company now gone out of business, and is at present a director of the China Mutual Marine Insurance Company. He was a member of the Salem city government in 1874 and 1875. His residence is now in Boston. In politics he is a Republican. He is a member of the Country. Algonquin, Nahant, and Eastern Vacht clubs. Mr. Brooks married Miss Rebecca S. Knight. daughter of Benjamin Knight, a re- tired merchant of Cincinnati, Ohio, and has two daughters, Frances Elizabeth and Mary Bartlett. Mrs. Brooks died in 1884.
BUGBEE, JAMES MCKELLAR, of Boston, adver- tising manager of Walter Baker & Co., is a native of Maine, born in the town of Perry. December 17, 1837, son of William and Deborah ( Hanscom) Bugbee. He is a direct descendant in the sixth generation from Edward Bugbee, who came from Ipswich, England, in 1634, and settled in Rox- bury, Mass. His education was received in the public schools in Perry, Me .. and Melrose, Mass. At the age of seventeen he became entry clerk in a French importing house in Boston. Four years later (in 1858) he was employed as reporter on the Boston Courier, then a morning and even- ing daily. In 1860 he became city editor of the paper. In 1862 he was appointed mayor's clerk, which position he held until 1866, when he was elected clerk of committees to the City Council. In 1875 he resigned that office, to accompany the Hon. Henry L. Pierce to Washington as his pri- vate secretary. In 1878 he was appointed on the first Police Commission for the city of Boston. He was elected a representative to the General Court from the Ninth Suffolk District for 1880- Sı. He served as chairman of the committee on engrossed bills, as a member of the committee on
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the liquor law. and as a member and some time secretary of the special committee (which sat during the recess) on the revision of the public
JAMES M. BUGBEE.
statutes. As a member of the committee on the liquor law, he made an elaborate minority report on the regulation of the liquor traffic (House Doc- ument 149, 1881), opposing the views of the majority of the committee, which favored prohib- itory legislation : and subsequently he reported and secured the adoption of the law requiring the publication of the names of applicants for licenses and preventing the granting of licenses to objec- tionable persons, or to be exercised in places where the owners of adjoining real estate refused their consent. From 1881 to 1884 he was in business as a law book publisher. In 1884 he was appointed by the governor on the first Civil Service Commission, and served as chairman for two years. He was also appointed at the same time by the mayor on the commission to revise the City Charter of Boston. In 1887-88 he was treasurer of the Boston Post Publishing Company. Shortly after he became connected with the house of Walter Baker & Co. as advertising manager. which position he now holds. Mr. Bughee has been much engaged in literary and historical work since the beginning of his connection with
the press. He has been a contributor to the Atlantic Monthly, the North American Review, and many other magazines and newspapers. He edited the Revised Ordinances of Boston, 1876 (pp. 1023). and the Memorials of the Massachu- setts Society of the Cincinnati, 1890 (pp. 573). He delivered an address on the "Origin and Development of Local Self-government in Eng- land and the United States " before the American Social Science Association in 18So : contributed the chapter on " Boston under the Mayors " to the Memorial History of Boston ; and wrote the essay on the "City Government of Boston " for the Johns Hopkins University Studies. lle is a member of the Union Club, Boston ; of the Ex- change Club, Boston ; of the Reform Club, New York : of the Massachusetts Historical Society : of the American Historical Association ; and was one of the founders and the first secretary of the St. Botolph Club, Boston. In politics he was a member of the Republican party until the nomina- tion of Blaine in 1884. He has acted indepen- dently since.
JOHN F. CALLAHAN.
CALLAHAN, JOHN FRANCIS, of Boston. was born in Boston, November 25. 1852. son of John and Elizabeth (Callinan) Callahan. His parents
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were natives of Ireland, and came to Boston about the year 1848. He was educated in the Boston public schools. At the age of twelve he was at work as a boy in a grocery and wine store ; and at twenty-seven was in business for himself, beginning on the 15th of March, 1879. He was a director of the public institutions of Boston during the years 1887-88-89. In politics he is a Demo- crat. He is a member of several institutions and societies. He was married January 15, 1874, 10 Miss Mary C. Donovan, of Boston. They have four children : Frank J., George A., Joseph, and Mary Callahan.
CAPEN, ERNEST THURSTON, of Boston, real estate agent, was born in Canton, August 12, 1865, son of Ezekiel and Emma (Poelien) Capen. He is of old New England stock. His father moved from Sharon to Canton, and, engaging there in business, became the principal merchant in Norfolk County. He was also deacon in the Baptist church. Er- nest T. attended the Canton public schools, and
E. T. CAPEN.
on account of ill-health finished his education under private instruction. After a full course at a commercial college, which he completed in three
months, he entered a real estate office in Boston. Here he remained two years; and then (1889). acting under the advice of his employer, en- gaged in the business on his own account, open- ing his office at No. 113 Devonshire Street, where he has since continued. He has pursued the business alone, although he has had several ad- vantageous offers of partnership. He is much interested in social questions and in occultism (not as a spiritualist, but as a student of the phe- nomena of hypnotism, telepathy, etc.), and has a fondness for literary pursuits. He was at one time active in amateur journalism, and still re- tains membership in the local club and in the national association ; and he has also been en- gaged to a slight extent in professional work. He is a member of the board of trustees and chairman of the executive committee of the Bos- ton Young Men's Congress, an organization of progressive young men in various businesses and professions, and was clerk of the congress for two sessions, declining further to serve. He is prom- inently connected with the New South ( Unitarian) Church, now serving on the standing committee, and having been church clerk since 1891. He is treasurer of several other organizations, and a member of the Art Club. He is interested in public affairs, though not actively engaged in poli- tics. He was a stanch supporter of the subway scheme for rapid transit through the " congested district " of Boston, and is now equally zealous for municipal docks. He is unmarried.
CARPENTER, FREDERICK BANKER, of Boston, insurance business, was born in Wakefield, April 21, 1862, son of George O. and Maria J. ( Emer- son) Carpenter. He is on both sides of old New England stock. His paternal great-great-grand- father, Richard Carpenter, died a prisoner of war in the hands of the British; and his maternal great-grandfather, Thomas Emerson, of South Reading (now Wakefield), took part in the battle of Lexington, when a young man of eighteen years. His maternal grandfather, Thomas Emer- son, was also of South Reading. His paternal grandfather, George Carpenter, and his grand- father, Samuel Carpenter, were both born in Bos- ton. He was educated in the Boston public schools, and in William Nichols's private school in Boston. He began business life in 1880, when he was eighteen years old, as clerk in his
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father's insurance office in Boston; and in 1885 was admitted to partnership, the firm name be- coming George O. Carpenter & Son. He is vice-
FRED B. CARPENTER.
president of the Boston Protective Department, and president of the Insurance Library Associa- tion. He is also a director of the South Reading National Bank at Wakefield. He is interested in military affairs, and has for ten years been a mem- ber of the First Corps of Cadets, Massachusetts Volunteer Militia, now a non-commissioned staff officer, He is a member of the Boston Art. Ath- letic, and Exchange clubs, and of the Sons of the Revolution. Mr. Carpenter was married April 7. 1886, to Miss Alice Beebe, of Wakefield. They have two children: Morris Beebe and Marjorie Carpenter.
CARPENTER, GEORGE OLIVER, of Boston, merchant, president of the Carpenter-Morton Company, is a native of Boston, born at No. 63 Charter Street, Copp's Hill, "North End," De- cember 26. 1827, son of George and Mary Bent- ley (Oliver) Carpenter. His parents were also natives of Boston, his mother connected with one of the old families of the town. His father was for many years an officer in the appraiser's department of the custom-house, there contem-
porary with Nathaniel Hawthorne. George O. was educated in the Boston public schools, be- ginning at the age of four years in a primary school then kept at the North End near his home, taking the full six years' course of the famous old Eliot School, from which he graduated in 1840 as one of the six receiving the Franklin medal: then, spending part of a school year in the English High School, of which Thomas Sher- win was head-master, being unable, on account of ill-health, further to proceed with his studies. Mr. Carpenter's business career was begun im- mediately upon leaving the English High School. In June, 1841, he entered the house of John N. Barbour & Brother, commission merchants and pioneers in the Texas trade, then on Lewis Wharf. This firm failing a few years after, he found another position, and thereafter was va- riously employed as clerk or book-keeper until March 15, 1847, when he became connected with the house of Pratt, Rogers, & Co., No. 107 State Street, dealers in paints, oils, and varnishes, where he became firmly fixed. Beginning as book-keeper for the firm, he was, two years later, on the first of January, 1849, admitted to the business as a partner in the firm of Banker, Crocker, & Co., which then succeeded Pratt. Rogers. & Co. In November, 1851, this firm name was changed to Banker & Carpenter, and so remained until January 1, 1864, when it be- came Carpenter, Woodward, & Morton, the name by which it was known until the incorporation of the business in "1893. under the title of the Car- penter-Morton Company, with Mr. Carpenter as president. Mr. Carpenter has also for many years been actively engaged in the insurance business and connected with banking interests. He was president of the Boston Fire Under- writers' Umon. 1876-77, and has been a director of the Eliot National Bank of Boston for twenty- five years, for a long period vice-president of the Home Savings Bank, Boston, and for forty years a director of the National Bank of South Reading (now Wakefield), where he formerly resided. He has been associated with numerous local organiza- tions since early manhood, and has displayed much interest in the development of Boston in- stitutions, commercial, philanthropic, literary, and social. At the age of fifteen he was made libra- rian of the Boston Mercantile Library Associa- tion, which position he held two years. He has been connected with the Charitable Mechanic
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Association since 1870, and has served three years on its board of trustees; was one of the incorporators of the South End Industrial School, and is still a member of its finance committee ; was a member of the Board of Aldermen of the city of Boston, and one of the trustees of the Boston Public Library in 1870-71 ; was an early member of the Old School Boys' Association, and its president in 1886-87 ; was one of the organ- izers and first president of "The Vowels," a club of past presidents of the Eliot School Association ; is now a director of the Bostonian Society; was one of the original members of the Paint and Oil
GEO. O. CARPENTER.
Club of New England, its president in 1891-92 ; was an early member of the Commercial ('lub, its secretary for many years, and its president in 1872-73 ; and is now a member of the Art, Algon- quin, and Exchange clubs. In Wakefield he is also vice-president of the South Reading Me- chanic and Agricultural Institution. In early and middle life he was considerably interested in mili- tary affairs, joining the Massachusetts Volunteer Militia as a private in the old Washington Pha- lanx, when but sixteen years of age. At that time this company was under the command of John Kurtz, who first, it has been asserted, introduced the practice in this country of drilling from bugle
notes. Mr. Carpenter removed to South Read- ing in 1847, and in 1851 organized there the Richardson Light Guards. At this time he was adjutant of the Seventh Regiment, Massachusetts Militia ; and in 1858 he became brevet major of the Second Brigade under General Joseph An- drews. Ten years after, in 1868, he was com- mander of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company. He was also commander of the " Old Guard of Massachusetts," an organization com- posed of past and present commissioned officers of the State militia. He early joined the Ma- sonic fraternity, and has passed through all the degrees, including the thirty-third. Mr. Carpen- ter was married February 6, 1850, at South Reading, to Miss Maria Josephine Emerson. They have two sons : George O., Jr., now general manager of the St. Louis department of the National Lead Company ; and Frederick B. Car- penter, now a partner with his father in the fire insurance firm of George O. Carpenter & Son.
CHALMERS, ALEXANDER, of Boston, insur- ance business, was born in Fredericton, N. B., July 17, 1849, son of William and Matilda ( Brown) Chalmers. llis father was a native of Aberdeen, and his mother of Paisley, Scotland. Both came to this country when young, and were married in New Brunswick. They were both of families engaged in manufacturing industries. He was educated in the common schools of St. Andrews, N.B .; and at the age of sixteen began business life, entering the employ of a dry-goods merchant, J. S. Magee, in St. Andrews. He came to Boston when nineteen years old, and here first found em- ployment in the store of William G. Harris on Hanover Street. Subsequently he had charge for some time of the mourning-goods store of William Lawson on Winter Street. In 1873 he engaged in business on his own account, entering into partner- ship with O. T. Taylor, in a dry-goods store in South Boston. Four years later he entered the employ of R. & J. Gilchrist on Winter Street, and there continued until 1890. Then he assumed the man- agement of the Boston office of the Bay State Beneficiary Association of Westfield, and also en- gaged in a general insurance business, which he has since pursued. Mr. Chalmers has been an active leader in social circles, as well as in business life. He is a past regent of the Royal Arcanum, past leader of the Home Circle, and connected with
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numerous other benevolent associations. He has been an active member of the First Methodist Episcopal Church. Boston, for the past twenty-five years, serving as member of the official board and of the Board of Trustees, member also of the Methodist Social Union and of the Municipal League of Boston, In politics he is a Republi- can, with no aspirations for public place. desiring only to aid the advancement of good government. Mr. Chalmers has been twice married: first in August, 1878, to Miss Lu M. Putnam, daughter of Rufus Putnam, of Boston. She died in 1885. leaving no children. He was married a second
A. CHALMERS.
time in October. 1890, to Miss Evalen M. Smart, daughter of Samuel Smart, of Portland. Me. By this union there are two children : Edwin Atwood and Everett Putnam Chalmers.
CORBETT, PETER BRIAN, of South Boston, auctioneer, real estate and general insurance agent, also justice of the peace and notary public, was born in Castletown, County Kilkenny. Ire- land, March 29 (Good Friday), 1850, son of Nich- olas and Sarah ( Loughman ) Corbett. He is of one of the branches of the Corbett family which traces back to the eleventh century. The name is of
Norman origin : and the founder of the family was a knight named Corbeau, who with his two sons. Roger and Robert (both of whom subsequently assumed the name Corbett ). accompanied William the Conqueror to England in 1066, and were given extensive estates in Shropshire, which are still in possession of their descendants. From Sibil. daughter of Robert, were descended the Herberts and Finches, Karls respectively of Pembroke and Winchelsea. . \ Robert Corbett was with Richard Cœur de Lion at the siege of Acre, July 12, 1191. where he bore for arms the two ravens, since borne by all his descendants, the motto being "Deus, pacit Corvos." At an early date some of the family made their way to Ireland. John Corbett was constable of the castle of Lim- erick in the time of Edward III. : in 1675 Myles Corbett. called " one of the regicides," was Crom- well's chief Baron of the Irish Exchequer ; and in 1671 Samuel Corbett was given a grant of seven hundred and thirty-four acres of land in Wexford. The descendants of these adventurers found homes and brought up families in several parts of Ireland, but principally in Clare, Limerick, and Tipperary, becoming in time "more Irish than the Irish themselves." Two of the family were officers in King James's army at the siege of Lim- erick and the battle of the Boyne. In this coun- try the name is found among the earliest settlers. Robert Corbett lived in Weymouth, Mass., and fought in King Philip's War. A representative was on the American side at the Battle of Bunker Hill. There are Corbetts in many parts of this country and in Nova Scotia. First Lieutenant John Corbett, of Whitehall, N.V. (a cousin of Peter B.). was killed in the late war. The Grand Army Post, when first established in his town, was named in his honor. He was the son of Michael of Kilcash, Tipperary. On the maternal side Mr. Corbett is descended from such pronouncedly C'eltic stock as the O'Gradys. ('Connors, and ()'Briens. His grandmother, Jane O'Brien, born in Limerick in 1784. daughter of John and Mary ()'Connor O'Brien, was a descendant of the elder branch of the ()'Briens, princes of Thomond, the direct descendants of Brian Borughme. He left Ireland with his parents, two brothers, and three sisters, July 12, 1864, and landed in Quebec, Can- ada, September 2 of that year, which was their home till July. 1868, when the family came to Boston. With the exception of fifteen months spent in the West and South in 1871-72. Mr. Cor-
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bett has since resided in that city. His early eclu- cation was acquired partly in a private school and partly in the national school of Whitechurch, County Kilkenny, in the latter taking a special course preparatory to entering the office of a large lumber house in Quebec. When, however, the position was offered in 1866, not liking the business, he declined. Subsequently he took a course in a commercial college in Boston. He had in the meantime learned his father's trade of stone-cutter and general mason, but gave it up in 1872, because, although being the best paid at the time of any of the mechanical trades, he could see
P. B. CORBETT.
in it but little opportunity for any material ad- vancement. In 1872 he entered the employ of W. L. Richardson & Co., booksellers and pub- lishers' agents, of Boston, as collector, and re- mained with this firm until 1886, the last three years being in charge of the collecting department. Then in 1886 he determined to enter business of some kind on his own account, and his taste and training led him naturally to the real estate and insurance business. Accordingly, he opened an office at No. 389 Broadway, South Boston, and has since continued in this business, being at the present time one of the best known auctioneers and real estate men in Boston. In 1892 he pur-
chased the building Nos. 321 to 327 Broadway, and removed to his present office there. Dealing principally in city and suburban property, he has handled and negotiated the sale of many hundred estates, amounting to several millions of dollars. He also manages the Boston estates of numerous non-residents, and is in frequent demand as an expert in realty values. He is the South Boston representative of the Agricultural and Westchester Fire Insurance Companies of New York, the Lon- con and Lancashire and Manchester Fire Insur- ance Companies of England, agent for the Con- necticut General Life Insurance Company of Connecticut, and the London Guarantee and Ac- cident Company of England. Mr. Corbett is a member of numerous associations, the list includ- ing the South Boston Citizens' Association, the North Dorchester Improvement Association, the South Boston Building Association, the Catholic Union of Boston, and the Charitable Irish Society of Boston. He is also a member of the Knights of Columbus, South Boston Council, of the An- cient Order of United Workmen, Mt. Washington Lodge; and was State secretary of the Massachu- setts Independent Order of Foresters from 1879 to 1882. He was chairman of the citizens' com- mittee for the Farragut day celebration, June 28, 1893, when the statue of Admiral Farragut was unveiled at Marine Park, City Point. In politics, though never an aspirant for or holding any politi- cal office, he has always been a Democrat. Mr. Corbett was married October 22, 1874, to Miss Mary Frances Hurley. They have four children : Nicholas Desmond (born August 7, 1875), Mary Gertrude (born July 2, 1878), Frederick Augustine (born August 27, 1880), and Ernest Brian Corbett (born August 23, 1884). His residence is at No. 12 Pleasant Street, Dorchester District, Boston.
CRANE, REV. OLIVER, D.1)., LL.D., of Bos- ton, clergyman, Oriental and classical scholar, poet and author, was born in Montclair, N.J., July 12, 1822, son of Stephen F. and Matilda H. (Smith) Crane. His first ancestor in America, Jasper Crane, came from England in 1639, and became one of the original founders of Newark, N.J. His maternal grandfather, Peter Smith, was private secretary of General Washington during the winter of 1779-80, at his headquarters in Morristown, and after the war a magistrate, and for many years elerk of Sussex County, New Jer-
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sey. His early education was acquired in the common schools of his native place ; and by dint of energy and perseverance, preparing for college, he entered Vale in the sophomore year, and grad- uated in the class of 1845 with honor, being the first student who had ever been granted there the optional of Hebrew in the senior year. After graduation he taught for a year, keeping up his classical and Hebrew studies, and taking botany in the fields as a recreation. Then he entered Andover Theological Seminary a year advanced, and, ad cundem, Union Theological Seminary, from which he graduated in 1848. He was li-
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