Men of progress one thousand biographical sketches and portraits of leaders in business and professional life in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Part 63

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 63

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OLIVER CRANE.

censed to preach in April, ordained by the pres- bytery of Newark June 18, married to Miss Marion 1). Turnbul September 5, and sailed under ap- pointment of the American Board of Commis- sioners for Foreign Missions for Turkey the same year. His life in Turkey was full of duties, occu- pying in all about nine years. During this time he resided in five different cities of the empire, travelled extensively both in Asiatic and European provinces, and acquired a fluent command of the Turkish language in its purest as well as provin- cial usages. Among other work accomplished he organized and conducted the first theological class in Central Turkey, the pioneer of the present The-

ological Seminary in Marash, taking it through a course of systematic theology, homileties, and exe- gesis. As a missionary, his labors were inces- sant, arduous, and responsible. He was, more- over, frequently in his travels exposed to dangers, having been no less than six times intercepted by robbers in journeyings, and once shot at by a rob- ber, but escaped unharmed. Upon his return to America he accepted a pastorate in Huron, N. V., and later in Waverly, N.Y., declining calls from other churches. In 1864 he was elected to a chair of Oriental and Biblical Literature in Rut- gers Female College, New York, established ex- pressly for him. but declined it to accept a unani- mous call to a church in Carbondale, Penna. This pastorate he held until 1870, when he resigned, though urged to remain, and retired from active ministerial duties, devoting himself thereafter mainly to study and literary pursuits. He had already published numerous addresses and ser- mons, and articles in various magazines and papers, and had received numerous honors in rec- ognition of his scholarship. In 1855 he was elected a corporate member of the American Ori- ental Society, of which he is now a senior member. In 1867 the honorary degree of M.D. was con- ferred upon him by the New York Eclectic Medi- cal College in recognition of his previous medical study and practice of medicine while in Turkey; in 1880 the degree of D.D)., by the University of Wooster, Wooster, Ohio; and in 1888 that of LL.D. by the Westminster College, Fulton, Mo.,- the latter a tribute to his scholarship shown in the translation of Virgil's JEneid in dactylic hexam- eter, literal and linear, a work of much discrimi- nation and critical study, published in 1888, and receiving high testimonials from some of the ripest scholars. The same year Dr. Crane also published a volume of poems. In ISSo he was elected secretary of his college class, and prepared an exhaustive class record in encyclopedic form,- a work of protracted labor, which was much ap- preciated by his classmates. For nearly four years (1887-91) he was, by appointment of the governor of New Jersey, a member of the Board of Examiners of the Scientific and Agricultural College of that State, which position he finally re- signed to take citizenship in Massachusetts. He has been elected a member of several State his- torical societies and literary associations, among them the New Jersey Historical Society, the Vir- ginia Historical Society, the Webster Historical

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MEN OF PROGRESS.

Society of Boston, the American Society for Uni- versity Extension, and the Theological Library Society, Boston. In each case of his election to membership in historical and literary societies Dr. Crane was chosen wholly without his solicitation. He was married September 1, 1891, to Miss Si- bylla Bailey, a lady accomplished and cultured, proficient as a linguist and musician, as well as active in several educational, literary, and chari- table associations in Boston, her native city. Their home is in Boston.

CRAWFORD, FRED ERASTUS, of Watertown, member of the Suffolk bar, was born at Guildhall, Essex County, Vt., July 7, 1857, youngest son of the Hon. Oramel and Catherine (Bothell) Craw- ford. The family is of Scottish origin. Andrew Crawford, a Cromwellian soldier. carried the name to the north of Ireland, whence came most of the Crawfords in America. He is descended through John, his grandfather,- who, with several brothers, settled near the White Mountains at the close of the last century, giving the name to

FRED E. CRAWFORD.

Mount Crawford and the Crawford Notch,-from James Crawford, who came to Boston in 1726 from Castle Darwason, County of Derry, Ireland.

He attended the district school of his native town until he was thirteen years of age, then the public schools of Watertown, graduating from the High School in 1875. He fitted for college at Allen's English and Classical School, West Newton, en- tered Harvard, and graduated in ISSI. He pur- sued his legal studies at the Harvard Law School and in a Boston law office, and was admitted to the Suffolk bar in 1884. Since then he has been in the active and successful practice of his profession, with offices in Watertown and Boston, in the latter place in connection with William E. Spear, United States commissioner. For some years he has been employed as counsel by the town of Watertown. In 1892 and 1893 he was president of the Watertown Board of Trade. He has always been interested in religious and chari- table matters, especially in the Young Men's Christian Association and Sunday-school work, and is now on the board of directors of the Asso- ciated Charities of Watertown. He is in politics a stanch and active Republican, but has never sought public position, and has held only minor town office. Mr. Crawford was married February 15, 1888, to Miss Mattie Sturtevant Coolidge, daughter of John and Martha J. (Sturtevant) Coolidge, of Watertown. They have two chil- dren : Calvin Dinsmore (born April 27, 1889) and Frederick Coolidge Crawford (born March 19, 1891).

(RATHERN, REV. CHARLES FRANK HILL, of Boston, pastor of the First Parish Church of Charlestown, is a native of England, born in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, September 14, 1864, son of George Frederick and Reubena (Parsons) Crathern. His paternal grandfather was William Crathern, professor of music in London ; and his maternal grandfather, the Hon. Read Parsons, attorney, also of London. He was educated in England, graduating from the grammar school at Aylesbury, Howard College, Thame, Oxford, the Theological Seminary, Nottingham, and after- ward taking a special course at St. John's Col- lege, Cambridge University. After travelling ex- tensively in Europe and North Africa, he settled in this country, and was ordained and installed at Mason, N.H., on the first of September, ISS6. Two years later he returned to England to finish his collegiate studies. After leaving the univer- sity, he accepted a call to his old pastorate in Mason, where he labored for twelve months.

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MEN OF PROGRESS.

Then, receiving an urgent call to the historic First Parish Church of Charlestown, he came to this city. His ministry here began on the first of Jan-

C. F. HILL CRATHERN.

uary, 1893 ; and he was installed on the 3d of May following. The First Parish Church is the third oldest church in the country, organized in 1632 ; and it has had for its ministers such men as John Harvard, Dr. Jedediah Morse, Dr. Will- iam 1. Buddington, and Dr. James B. Miles. Mr. Crathern is a frequent contributor to the secular and religious press. Hle was married May 24, 1893, to Miss Sadie G. Tarbell, of Brooklyn, N. Y. They have one child : Alice Tarbell Crathern.

CURRY, SAMUEL SILAS, of Boston, dean of the School of Expression, is a native of East Tennes- see, born in the town of Chatata. November 23, 1847, son of James Campbell Curry, a descendant of the Campbells of Scotland, and Nancy (Young) Curry, of Abingdon, Va. He is of sterling an- cestry. His paternal great-grandmother had eight brothers in one battle under Marion in the Revolutionary War. To his mother he is indebted for his perseverance, sensitive nature, and strong intuitions ; and to his father he owes his love of

scholarship. During the Civil War his education was carried on under difficulties. He prepared for college in most studies without any teacher. He planned to enter one of the Eastern colleges, but through the influence of Dr. Cobleigh, presi- dent of the East Tennessee Wesleyan University. was persuaded to go to Athens. He entered college in 1869. and took his .A.B. in 1872, with the highest honors of his class or of any previous class of the institution, having done four years' work in about two and a half years of residence. For one year after entering he was absent teach- ing, but during that time he kept up his studies. As a student, he was noted for originality. In mathematics, for example. his demonstrations were most original. His classmates often laughed : but the professor, even while laughing with them. would say : " The process of reasoning is logical, and the result is true. It is all right." He has a highly imaginative and artistic temperament, and possesses great facility in accomplishing various kinds of work. Literature, from earliest child- hood. has been the goal of his ambition ; and, had he followed Dr. Cobleigh's advice. he would have adopted it as a profession on leaving college. At that time a position of assistant editor was offered him, but he declined it. Instead he came to Boston, and entered the Boston University. Dur- ing the next eight years he took successively the degrees of B.1)., A.M., and Ph.D. Much of his work was done in the Boston Public Library. He pursued many courses of reading and of inde- pendent investigation. Upon the death of Pro- fessor Lewis B. Monroe. dean of the Boston University School of Oratory, in the summer of 1879, and the consequent discontinuance of this school by the university, Mr. Curry was called to carry on its work in the College of Liberal Arts and the School of All Sciences ; and, to prepare himself more thoroughly for this service, he made two trips to Europe. He studied with M. James, for twenty years the assistant of Wachtel, with Requier, and others, and later with Shakespeare in London and the elder Lamperti on Lake Como in Italy. He was also the pupil for many years of Steele Mackaye ; and he has numerous letters and certificates from Mackaye, stating that he had gone further than any other student in studies with him. Subsequently Mackaye offered him a tempting salary to come to New York and take charge of the School of Acting there, and never forgave him for refusing. In addition to his tech-

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MEN OF PROGRESS.

nical training he studied every phase of science and art which bore in any way upon expression. By the advice of William D. Howells he went to Italy, and studied the old masters. Oratory was made an elective in the School of All Sciences for the degree of A.M., and this department of the university under his direction became a marked success. In addition to the regular required work in the university there were a large number of special students organized into private classes. In 1883 Dr. Curry was made Snow professor of oratory in Boston University. In 1884 he was given the privilege of arranging the special classes into a private school. The possibilities of the work grew; and finally, in 1888, he presented the alternative to the university,-either to allow him to endow a separate department, offering to raise one hundred thousand dollars to that end, or to accept his resignation. An increase of salary was offered him with other advantages, but the university declined again to recognize officially a School of Oratory. Thereupon he resigned his position, and gave himself more fully to the School of Expression. This was incorporated in 1888.

S. S. CURRY.

He has since sought for endowment and a perma- nent building, that the school might do its work more adequately. Its aims are to show the rela-

tion of vocal training to education, to make the spoken word the exponent and servant of the highest literature, and thus save elocution from becoming merely mechanical and artificial. Among its most important achievements are its recitals. Over one hundred of these have been given, with the result of raising the standard of public taste and proving the possibility of reading the best literature in public entertainments. 'They have embodied studies in every form and phase of literature, such as Browning's " Mono- logues," studies from the Iliad, Shelley's " Prometheus Unbound," and from " Les Mise- rables." Dr. Curry maintains that a true study of nature in her processes is fundamental to a true method, and to this end has insisted on the tests of all art being applied to delivery. Accordingly, a study of the best in all the arts is a part of the discipline afforded students in the school. Through friends he succeeded in interesting Henry Irving, who gave a recital for the benefit of the school in 1888, the proceeds of which en- dowed the Irving Lectureship. The number in the school has always been limited to fifty regular students, in order that the work may be thorough and systematic. Dr. Curry has also undertaken a series of works upon his investigations and dis- coveries in regard to the voice, - training, panto- mime, vocal expression, and delivery, and the relation of these to art .- and aims to publish all of his methods that have been embodied and

tested in the School of Expression. The first work of this series, " The Province of Expres- sion," was published in 1891. A "Text-book on Vocal Expression " will follow in 1895, and others are in preparation for 1895. In the summer of 1894 Dr. Curry made another visit to Europe especially to gather additional material for his art lectures, which have grown out of the method of studying the relation of all the arts to each other to find universal principles of art. He possesses probably the finest stereopticon illustrations on art of any one in the country. They have been gathered in every part of the world. Dr. Curry has also filled the position of instructor in oratory in Harvard University since 1891, has been act- ing Davis professor of elocution and oratory in Newton Theological Institution since 1884, and instructor at the Vale Divinity School since 1892. He is a member of the Episcopalian Club and of the Boston Art Club, and has served the latter for several years as librarian. Dr. Curry was married

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MEN OF PROGRESS.

May 31, 1882, to Miss Anna Baright, of Pough- keepsie, N.Y., a graduate of the Boston University School of Oratory. at the time of their marriage principal of the School of Elocution and Expres- sion, and previous to the death of Professor Mon- roe one of the latter's assistants in the School of Oratory. Mrs. Curry is of Quaker descent. Her great-grandfather. Joseph S. Dean, was a progres- sive thinker and was among the earliest contribu- tors to the Index. Her maternal grandmother was the youngest daughter of General Samuel Agustus Barker, who was in the Revolution and the War of 1812.

DARLING, LINUS, of Boston, proprietor of the Massachusetts Ploughman, was born in Middle- borough, May 11, 1830, son of Darius and Alice . (Drake) Darling. He was educated in the public schools of Middleborough and at Adelphian Acad- emy, North Bridgewater, now Brockton, making his home on the farm with his parents until he was twenty-one years old. At that time he en- tered the employ of William Buckminster, founder and then proprietor of the Massachusetts Plough- man, as collector, and so continued for ten years, when, the paper being sold, he was made by the new owners business manager. After fifteen years of service in the latter position he left the Ploughman, and, with Joseph L. Keith as partner, bought the New England Farmer. This he car- ried on successfully for seven years, and then sold, his health having failed. The succeeding two years were devoted to rest. Then, having re- gained his health, he purchased the Massachusetts Ploughman. and re-entered the journalistic field. He immediately changed the shape of the paper from the " blanket sheet " to the eight-page form, and added numerous new and valuable depart- ments, which brought it into the front ranks of agricultural journals of the day. He has also made the " Farmers' Meetings," conducted by the Ploughman six months of the year, a distinctive and notable feature, his paper being the only one which has ever undertaken this work. These meetings are attended by the first farmers and agriculturists in the country. In politics Mr. Darling has always been a Republican ; but he has had no time for political life, having put his whole energy into his newspaper work. He is a trustee of the New England Agricultural Society. the Ploughman being the official organ of that as-

sociation. He enjoys a wide acquaintance among farmers and agriculturists. Mr. Darling was married November 29, 1855, to Miss Caroline

LINUS DARLING.

Alden, of Bridgewater, a descendant of John Alden. They have four children : Carrie M., Harriet A., Annie N., and Albert L. Darling.

DICKINSON, REV. CHARLES ALBERT, of Bos- ton, pastor of Berkeley Temple, is a native of Vermont, born in Westminster, July 4, 1849, son of Alvin and Elizabeth (Titcomb) Dickinson. On the paternal side he is a descendant of the Dickinsons of Revolutionary fame, and of the Adamses who gave two P'residents to the country. His education was begun in the common school at Westminster and in Kimball Union Academy, Meriden, N.H. He was fitted for college at Phillips (Andover) Academy, and graduated from Harvard in 1876, class-day poet. His early life was spent on the farm : and at the age of sixteen he was a school-teacher, teaching the district school in Putney. Vt. He followed this occupa- tion for about five years, during the year 1869-70 teaching in the Albany Academy at Albany, N. Y .. and earned by it and by writing for young

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MEN OF PROGRESS.

people's periodicals enough money to secure his academic training. He began his ministry in the Second Parish Church of Portland, Me., in the

CHAS. A. DICKINSON.

autumn of 1879, and remained there until Janu- ary, 1883, when he was settled over the Kirk Street Church, Lowell. Four years later he was called to the Berkeley Street Church of Boston, beginning his labors there in November, 1887. He was connected with the Christian Endeavor movement when it was first started in Portland, and has held an official relation to it ever since. The third society in the country was formed in his Portland church. He has been called all over the country to speak in the interests of this move- ment, and in 1891 he went on a speaking cam- paign through England. In 1894 he presided at the great Christian Endeavor Convention in Cleveland, where the aggregate meetings during the four days numbered over two hundred and fifty thousand. The Berkeley Temple, into which the Berkeley Street Church has been transformed, has the honor of being the first to bear the name Institutional ; and Mr. Dickinson's chief work in life is the organizing and developing of this pio- neer Institutional Church, which doubtless stands throughout the country as the typical church of the new movement. It is a free church, open

every day and all day, with many-sided activities. It has a Dorcastry, with reading-room and classes, under the superintendence of a matron ; a young men's institute, including a reading-room, gymna- sium, outing club, and various classes ; numerous institutions for young folk, among them a boys' brigade, a class in sloyd, kitchen gardens, sewing- schools, and kindergartens; a relief department ministering to the worthy poor; a temperance guild or gospel reform club ; and various religious and devotional meetings. During the busy sea- son thirty-seven gatherings are held weekly under the church roof, and from six to ten thousand per- sons in the aggregate pass through its doors. Connected with the Temple is a floating hospital, in which hundreds of infants and mothers are cared for in the summer months, a vacation home for young women, and an orphanage for homeless boys. Under these varied institutional methods the Temple has grown from a membership of about three hundred to over a thousand. Mr. Dickinson was a member of the prudential com- mittee of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions in 1886-92 ; he has been a trustee of the United Society of Christian En- deavor since 18So, and a trustee of Kimball Union Academy since 1892 ; and he is now also president of the Golden Rule Company, which publishes the Golden Rule, the Christian Endeavor organ. He was married July 2, 1879, to Miss Esther Dickinson Goodridge, of Westminster, Vt. They have two adopted children.

DUNN, EDWARD HOWARD, of Boston, merchant, is a native of Boston, born August 27, 1826, son of James T. and Rebecca B. (Howard) Dunn. His father was a sea-captain, born in Richmond, Va., and lost at sea in 1832 ; and his mother was of Boston. He was educated in the old Eliot School, Boston, and at the academy at South Reading. He entered a leather store at fourteen years of age; and, engaging in business on his own account soon after reaching his majority, he has been a hide and leather dealer in Boston for fifty years. Since ISSo he has been the senior member of the house of Dunn, Green & Co. He has also been some time connected with banking interests and insurance matters, and is now a director of the Shoe & Leather National Bank of Boston, a director of the Hudson National Bank, Hudson, a trustee of the Home Savings Bank,

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MEN OF PROGRESS.

Boston, and a director of the Fireman's Insurance Company. In 1872 he served as a member of the Executive Council through the term of Governor Gaston : and he was a presidential elector, voting for Grant. At a later period he was inspector of the Massachusetts State Prison for a term of three years. He has served his city as a member of the School Board, first in 1879, and again elected in 1893 for the regular term of three years, receiving the largest vote ever cast for any candidate for this board, his name appearing on all the tickets in the field. He is prominent in the Methodist Episcopal denomination, being president of the Boston Wesleyan Association, ex-president of the Methodist Social Union, a trustee of Boston Uni- versity, and a trustee of the First Methodist Epis- copal Church of Boston ; and he is an ex-president of the Young Men's Christian Association. When a lad of fifteen, he joined the Boston Mercantile Library Association, and continued an active mem- ber of that organization for ten years ; and he is now a member of the Boston Art Club, of the Vowel Club, composed of past presidents of the Eliot School Association, and of other kindred

Ver

EDWARD H. DUNN.

associations. He was president of the Eliot School Boys' Association, and president of the Old School Boys' Association in 1887-SS. He

has been a justice of the peace for many years. Mr. Dunn was married in October, 1859. to Miss Jennie G. Willis, daughter of Henry P. Willis, of New Bedford. Their only child, Danforth Rich- ardson Dunn, died at the age of twenty-two years.

FITZGERALD, JOHN FRANCIS, of Boston, real estate and insurance business, member of Con- gress for the Ninth Massachusetts District, was born in Boston, February 11, 1865, son of Thomas Fitzgerald. He acquired a thorough education in the Boston public schools, -- attending the Eliot Grammar, the English High. and the Boston Latin Schools,- at Boston College, and at Harvard, where he took a partial course. After leaving college, he studied medicine in the Harvard Medi- cal School. At the age of twenty-three he was appointed to a position in the Boston custom- house, under Collector Saltonstall, and was there engaged from 1886 to 1891. Then he entered the real estate and insurance business, which he has since followed. His interest in political affairs was early manifested, and he soon became active and influential in Democratic party matters. In 1892 he served as a member of the Boston Common Council. The next two years, 1893-94, he was a member of the State Senate for the Third Suffolk District (embracing Wards Six, Seven, and Eight. Boston, and Ward Three of Cambridge), and in that body was the recognized leader of his party. During his first term he held the chairmanship of the committee on engrossed bills, and was a member also of the committees on election laws and on liquor laws : and in 1894 he served on the committees on rules, on liquor law, on taxation. and on rapid transit. He was identi- fied with the legislation of the latter year directed against stock-watering by railway, gas, and water companies, with the advance of sundry labor meas- ures,- among them bills establishing an eight-hour day for laborers employed by the State, a day of ten hours in eleven for street-car conductors and drivers, and ten hours in twelve for steam rail- road employees,- and introduced and advocated numerous other measures in behalf of the people. He was nominated for Congress in the autumn of 1894, and was elected after a spirited campaign. the only Democratic Congressional candidate in New England that year successful at the polls. Mr. Fitzgerald is a member of the Charitable Irish Society, of the Young Men's Catholic Asso-

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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 63

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