Men of progress one thousand biographical sketches and portraits of leaders in business and professional life in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Part 68

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 68

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MURPHY, JAMES RICHARD, of Boston, mem- ber of the Suffolk bar, was born in Boston, July 29, 1853, son of James and Catherine Murphy. His early education was acquired in the Boston public schools ; and he received his college train- ing at Boston College and at the Georgetown University, Georgetown, D.C., where he was grad- uated in 1872. He was instructor in the classi- cal departments of Loyola College, Baltimore, and Seton Hall College, New Jersey, for three years, and then began his legal studies, attending the law school of Boston University and reading in the Boston offices of the Hon. Benjamin Dean and Judge Josiah G. Abbott. He took the de- gree of L.L. B. at the law school in June, 1876, and was admitted to the bar October 16 follow-

ing, when he at once engaged in active work. He has developed a varied business, principally in cases arising out of large building contracts, many

JAMES R. MURPHY.

of them involving interesting questions of law which have been carried to the court of last re- sort. He has also engaged in several important capital cases and a number of cases of publie in- terest. He is a firm believer in trials by jury. He has never aspired to political office, being de- voted entirely to his profession. He is a mem- ber of the Catholic Union of Boston, of the Old Dorchester Club, of the Royal Arcanum, and of the Ancient Order of United Workmen. He was married November 21, 1881, to Miss Mary Ran- dall, daughter of George Baker Randall, of Balti- more. They have two children : Gertrude E. and Mary Randall Murphy.

MURRAY, MICHAEL JOSEPH, of Boston, mem- ber of the Suffolk bar, was born in Westborough, June 18, 1867. son of Thomas and Elizabeth (Byrne) Murray. His parents and grandparents on both sides were natives of County Carlow, Ireland : his father born in the parish of Rath- villy, December 29, 1820 ; his mother, in Ouragh, parish of Tullow, May 24, 1829; his paternal

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grandfather, William Murray, in Ballyhackett, parish of Rathvilly; and his paternal grand- mother, Judith (Lawler) Murray, in Knockana, same parish ; his maternal grandfather, Patrick Byrne, in Busherstown, parish of Furntand ; and his maternal grandmother, Mary ( Kavanaugh) Byrne, in Ouragh, parish of Tullow. The edu- cation of his father and mother was begun in penal days, when English law forbade the educa- tion of Roman Catholics, and was mainly by pri- vate instructors, His parents came to this coun- try in the year 1852. and, when he was four years of age, moved to Fitchburg, where he received his education in the public schools. He was early obliged to go to work; but he so managed that in 1886 he was able to enter the Boston Uni- versity Law School, having begun his studies in the law office of the late Hon. Harris C. Hartwell, president of the State Senate in 1889. He was graduated in 1889 with honors, and was the class orator, the subject of his oration being " Inter- national Comity and Arbitration." Admitted at once to the bar at Fitchburg, he began practice in that city, but two years later, in December, 1891,

M. J. MURRAY.

removed his office to Boston, where he has since been engaged in active and successful professional work. While a resident of Fitchburg, he was a

representative in the General Court. serving two terms, 1890 and 1891, declining a third term. In the session of 1890 he was house chairman of the committee on towns, and during his second term chairman of the committee on manufact- ures. Both years he was the youngest member of the Legislature, entering when but twenty-two years of age. He entered politics actively upon attaining his majority, but before that he had fre- quently appeared on the stump. By invitation of the Republican National Committee, he took part in the campaign of 1884, speaking in Maine, Michigan, Indiana, New York, Connecticut, and Massachusetts; and since that time he has en- gaged in every campaign in the State, being espe- cially active in the canvass resulting in the first nomination of Governor Greenhalge. Fond of public speaking, he has addressed many audiences on topics other than politics. He is a member of the Catholic Union of Boston, of the Young Men's C'atholic Association of Boston College, of the Webster Chapter of Phi Delta Phi, of the Home Market Club, of the Middlesex Republican Club, and of the Boston Athletic Club. Mr. Murray was married May 4, 1892, in Lenox, by the Rev. J. H. McKechnie, of Fitchburg, to Miss Katharine T. Roche, daughter of David and Hannah Roche, of that town.

NICHOLS, JOHN WESTON, of Boston, publisher of the True Flag, was born in Hingham, June 3, 1832, son of the Rev. John and Mary ( Ewell) Nichols. He is descended from Thomas Nichols, who came to Hingham in 1638. His father was a Universalist clergyman, having pastorates in Quincy, Newton, Holliston, South Framingham, Lynn, and Beverly, and in Claremont, N.H. He was educated in public and private schools, finish- ing at the Mt. Hollis Seminary. He came to Bos- ton in May, 1848, as an apprentice to newspaper printing ; and, after learning his trade, he ad- vanced steadily in the business. For a number of years he held foremanships in Boston and also in Chicago. He was some time with the late Colonel W. W. Clapp on the Saturday Evening Gasette in Boston, and subsequently with William U. Moul- ton, the former proprietor of the True Flag. He purchased the True Flag on the 31st of October, 1886, and has published it since that time. He is prominent as an Odd Fellow, having held various offices in subordinate lodges and in the Encamp- ment branch, also in the order of American Me-

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chanics, of which he is an ex-State councillor ; and he is connected with various Masonic bodies. He is a member of the Press and the Universalist

JOHN W. NICHOLS.

clubs. In politics he is a Republican, and in re- ligious views a Universalist of the Hosea Ballou type. For fourteen years, from 1876 to 1890, he was superintendent of the Broadway Universalist Sunday-school.

ORDWAY, ALFRED, of Boston, portrait and landscape painter, was born in Roxbury, March 9, 1821, son of Thomas and Jerusha (Currier) Ord- way. He is of English ancestry, and of an early New England family. One of his ancestors, who lived on Tower Hill, London, was knighted ; and the first in this country came in 1630, settled in Watertown, and afterward moved to Newbury. His great-grandfather was Dr. Nehemiah Ordway, and his grandfather, Dr. Samuel Ordway, both of Amesbury ; and his father and mother were both born there. Most of his boyhood was spent in Lowell, where his father was some time city clerk ; and he was educated in the Lowell schools. He began the study of art in his youth, and was early making crayons and pastels. In 1845 he opened his first studio in Boston, on Tremont Row ; and he has been identified with Boston art life ever

since, with the exception of two years spent in New York,-part of that time as clerk in the Academy of Design,- and a short period in Vir- ginia. From 1856 to 1863 he was director of the art exhibitions of the Boston Athenaeum, which he conducted with marked success. He was a founder, the first secretary and treasurer, and later, in the sixties, president of the Boston Art Club ; and was early recognized as an authority on art matters in the city. He has been an indus- trious painter, and his work in portraiture and landscape is to be found in numerous collections of private collectors. He has been a frequent ex- hibitor in local exhibitions, notably those of the Boston Art Club, the Paint and Clay Club, and the Charitable Mechanic Association. Mr. Ord- way has been called a poet painter. "There is much sentiment in his make-up, and tender feel- ing," says Frank T. Robinson. " His trees, which hang over the lake-side and reflect their tracery upon the placid surfaces, suggest repose. His hills of New Hampshire and Vermont, with intervales of trees and pastures green, are always charmingly simple, like the life of the painter :

ALFRED ORDWAY.

they reveal his dreams. ... He must like his subjects in life and nature, or he cannot paint them." Since 1861 Mr. Ordway's studio has been

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in Studio Building, and here he has also lived in the midst of his work. He was married March 19, 1860, to Miss Annie Hill, of Boston.

PARKER, BOWDOIN STRONG, of Boston, mem- ber of the Suffolk bar, was born in Conway, Frank- lin County, August 10, 1841, son of Alonzo and Caroline (Gunn) Parker. His paternal grand- parents were George and Betsey (Kimball) Parker ; and his maternal grandparents, Levi and Delia (Dickinson) Gunn, of old Massachusetts stock. The family moving to Greenfield when he was a lad of ten, his education was mostly at- tained there in the public schools and through private tutors. He studied law in the offices of Wendell Thornton Davis, of Greenfield, and Colo- nel Thomas William Clarke, of Boston, and was graduated From the Boston University Law School with the degree of LL.B. in 1876. He was brought up to a thorough knowledge of manu- facturing and commercial business ; and up to 1880, although a member of the bar since 1875, was largely engaged in manufacturing and as treasurer and manager of manufacturing corpora- tions. As a boy, he served an apprenticeship in the hardware business in a wholesale store in New York City. And in manufacturing he has served in all departments,- has bought and sold, served as foreman and as superintendent of mills, been book-keeper, treasurer, director, and busi- ness manager at different times. He has gained a practical acquaintance with machinery through actual working of it, and has made several in- ventions which have proved of merit and com- mercial profit. Since ISSo he has been engaged almost wholly in the practice of his profession at Boston, having previously practised in Greenfield while directing his manufacturing interests, which he sold out when he left that town and became permanently established in Boston. He has had marked success in corporation, patent, and trade- mark law, also in equity causes, and has been counsel in many important cases in the State and United States courts. Prior to his removal to Boston he held numerous town offices in Green- field, including those of chairman of the Board of Assessors and engineer of the fire department ; and he has served Boston as a member of the Common Council and representative in the Leg- islature, accomplishing much notable work, and occupying a leading place in both bodies. His

service as councilman, representing Ward Ten covered three years, 1889-90-91 ; and during that period he was on many committees, including

BOWDOIN S. PARKER.

that on ordinances, as a member of which he as- sisted, in connection with Judge Richardson, then corporation counsel, and Andrew J. Bailey, city solicitor, in the revision of the entire code of city ordinances to conform with the amendments of the city charter. He was also identified with numerous reforms, and made valuable reports which were the basis of subsequent legislation on the use of the streets by quasi-public corpora- tions and the cost to the city of electric lighting. He was in the House of Representatives from the same ward the next two years, 1892-93, serving on the committee on the judiciary both terms, the second its chairman, and as such the leader of the House. He was also a member of the joint special committee appointed in 1892 to re- vise the judicial system of probate and insolvency courts and inferior courts of the State. He re- ported and championed many measures, and dur- ing his second term was a leading debater upon nearly every important matter before the House. He was one of the most earnest advocates of the measures providing for the sale of new issues of stock by quasi-public corporations at auction ;

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prohibiting free passes to members of the Legis- lature, State officers, and judges ; placing truant officers of Boston under civil service rules; of numerous bills for the benefit and protection of workingmen ; and the notable Bay State Gas in- vestigation of 1893, introducing the order that led to it, and having an influential hand in the matter from the beginning. Colonel Parker's military career began with service in the Civil War, which he entered in 1862 as a member of Company A, Fifty-second Regiment, Massachu- setts Volunteers. He served in all the battles in which his regiment was engaged, including the assault, siege, and capture of Port Hudson, and was honorably discharged at the expiration of his term of enlistment. After the war he entered the State militia as a member of Company A, Second Regiment of Infantry, and was captain of his company in 1870-71. Upon the reorganization of the regiment in 1879 he was commissioned adjutant; in 1884 he was promoted to captain and judge advocate of the First Brigade ; and in 1889 he was made assistant adjutant-general of brigade with the rank of lieutenant colonel, which position he still holds. In the Masonic order he is also prominent, being a past master, past high priest, past eminent commander of Knights Templar, and past district deputy grand master of the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts; and he was founder and for many years president of the Connecticut Valley Masonic Relief Association. He holds office in numerous other societies and organizations, and is a member of the Edward W. Kinsley Post, No. 113, of Boston, Grand Army of the Republic, of the Massachusetts Union of Knights Templar Commanders, of the Boston Lodge Knights of Honor, of the Winthrop Yacht Club, of the Bostoniana and Middlesex clubs. In politics he is a Republican. He has written con- siderably for the press, and has made many ad- dresses on public occasions. He compiled and edited the Massachusetts Special Laws for the five years 1889-93, published by the Common- wealth. Colonel Parker was married June 25, 1867, by the Rev. Stephen H. Tyng, Jr., D.D., at the Church of the Holy Trinity. New York, to Miss Katherine Helen Eagen, of that city. They have one daughter : Helen Caroline Parker.

PATTERSON, REV. ADONIRAM JUDSON, of the Roxbury District, Boston, is a native of Pennsyl-

vania, born in Spring, Crawford County, April 3, 1827, son of James and Nancy (Holt) Patterson. He descends on his father's side from a Scotch- Irish family which settled in Central Pennsylvania about the middle of the eighteenth century. On his mother's side he is of English origin, descend- ing from the family to which belonged Sir John Holt, who was Lord Chief Justice of the Court of King's Bench in the time of William III., and was an ardent supporter of English liberty. His edu- cation was private, in the main, under the instruc- tion of his father, who was a teacher and liberal scholar. He was cut off from the realization of

A. J. PATTERSON.

collegiate hopes and plans by his father's death. But he continued his studies under the instruction of an uncle, brother of his father (and an inmate of his home), who was an excellent classical scholar. His theological training, also private, was under the direction of the Rev. Ami Bond and the Rev. B. F. Hitchcock, of the Universalist Church, and Professor Huydekoper, of the Mead- ville Theological Seminary. While pursuing these studies in an earnest but irregular way, he also for several years taught in the public school in autumn and winter, attending to the management of the home farm in spring and summer. In the spring of 1853 he was offered a business partner-

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ship in Cleveland, Ohio, which promised almost certain fortune. But his heart was set upon the ministry ; and, declining the offer, he was licensed to preach by the Lake Erie Association of Univer- salists in June of the same year. From that time on his services were in constant demand. He went near and far, preaching Sundays and week evenings, in churches, barns, school-houses, groves, -anywhere that a congregation could be gathered to hear him. He was ordained in June, 1854, at a session of the Lake Erie Association. His first settlement as pastor was at Girard, Penna., in August, 1853. Here he remained two years. But, in giving himself to the regular work of a church, he did not abandon the wide field which he had sown. He continued to hold services on Sunday and week-day evenings in many towns, covering a wide circuit, in Erie and Crawford counties. In June. 1855, Mr. Patterson accepted a call to the Universalist church in Portsmouth, N.H. Here he was settled eleven years, not only doing the work of the large parish, but answering calls for pastoral and preaching ser- vice in many adjacent places in New Hampshire and in Maine. The Portsmouth pastorate cov- ered the years of the Civil War. Mr. Patterson gave himself to the cause of the country with burning devotion. He resigned his pastorate, in- tending to enter the army ; but his parish declined to accept the resignation. Then he paid the requisite bounty, and sent a soldier into the field. The spring and summer of 1864 he passed with the army of Virginia, serving as chaplain at large. During this time he ministered in various ways to the needs of more than ten thousand sick and wounded men. He also distributed in the trenches nearly thirty tons of sanitary stores. Returning from the army, he threw himself with all the energy of body and soul into the campaign which resulted in the second election of Abraham Lin- coln, preaching the gospel of liberty and union all over the State during the week, and coming home to give the same gospel another setting be- fore his congregation on Sunday. As representa- tive from Portsmouth, he served in the New Hampshire Legislature of 1866, and was not ab- sent from a single session from first to last, though he did not fail to meet his congregation at any service of the church while the Legislature was in session. The nomination for Congress was strongly urged upon him by his political friends, which nomination at that time was equivalent to

an election. He felt its fascination, for he had tasted of legislation and found that he enjoyed it. But he could not go to Congress without sur- rendering, for a time at least, the work of his chosen profession. This he was not willing to do. and accordingly he positively declined to let his name appear before the nominating convention. In June, 1866, Mr. Patterson was called to the pastorate of the Roxbury Universalist Church. He accepted this call, and entered upon its duties in September of the same year. Here he not only gave himself with earnest devotion to all the work of his church, but he had a watchful eye to the affairs of the city, and a helping hand to the inter- ests of education and religion wherever he could serve. In 1874 he was elected to the presidency of the Massachusetts Convention of Universalists. which position he held for five consecutive years, and until he declined a re-election. He has been from its foundation a member of the Board of Trustees of Dean Academy. His interest in the secular and religious education of young men is seen in that during his Roxbury pastorate more than twenty young men, members of his church, took their degree at Tufts College, and entered the ministry. During the summer and autumn of 1878 Mr. Patterson made the tour of Europe and wrote a series of letters of travel, which were pub- lished in the Boston Home Journal, and quite widely copied by the press of the country. He has published in book form a "Centennial His- tory of the Universalist Church in Portsmouth" and a "Semi-centennial History of the Roxbury Church," together with numerous pamphlets, ser- mons, and magazine and newspaper articles. Worn by incessant and long-continued applica- tion to the work of his profession, Mr. Patterson's health gave way, and he suffered a severe and prostrating illness. His physician assured him that absolute rest was needful if he could hope to live. Accordingly, in March, 1888, after a service of nearly twenty-two years, he surrendered the pastorate of the Roxbury parish. In April follow- ing his resignation was accepted ; and he was elected pastor emeritus, which position he still holds. The Rev. Dr. E. L. Rexford was on his recommendation chosen as his successor. After a year of rest and freedom from care he felt new strength returning. Then he put on the armor again. He had made up his mind never to change his home or accept another pastorate. Accordingly, he gave his time to pioneer and other

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work. In 1889 he gathered and organized a church in Omaha, Neb. In 1890-91 he served the financial interests of Tufts College, securing many permanent scholarships and kindling new interest in collegiate education all over New Eng- land. In 1892 he carried the banner of his church to the remotest corners of Maine. In 1894 he gave himself to a struggling church in Natick. And at the close of that year, his own church in Roxbury being without a pastor in the removal of Dr. Rexford, he resumed its care while it was seeking a new pastor. Mr. Patterson was married August 26, 1851, to Miss Jane Lippitt, daughter of Daniel and Catherine (Burch) Lip- pitt, in Rundell, Penna. The Lippitt family emi- grated from Rhode Island, when it first receives historic mention in 1636. Mrs. Patterson has given sympathy and co-operation to her husband in all his work and plans. A woman of refined culture and excellent literary taste and ability, together with unusual religious fervor, she has been a real helper to him. She has often occu- pied his pulpit in his illness or absence, and by special request of the parish she took entire charge of Mr. Patterson's work during his absence in Europe. She is the author of several valuable books, and has been an accomplished writer in prose and verse for more than forty years. She is, and for many years has been, editor of the " Home Department" of the Christian Leader. These earnest workers are passing the afternoon of a happy life in their pleasant home on Maple Street, near Franklin Park, one of the finest loca- tions in Roxbury, occupying a sunny upland, sur- rounded by lawns, and pear, apple, and flower gardens, with an outlook from their windows which takes in miles of city and sea.

PERIN, REV. GEORGE LANDOR, of Boston, pas- tor of the Every-Day Church, is a native of Iowa, born in Newton, Jasper County, July 31, 1854, son of Caleb and Mary J. (Metteer) Perin. His paternal grandparents were of New England birth, but of English extraction. His maternal grand- father was born in the north of Ireland (Protes- tant) ; and his maternal grandmother was born in America, but of Welsh parents. His early edu- cation was attained in the district school. He spent four terms in Willamette University, Salem, Ore., but did not graduate. Subsequently he at- tended the Divinity School of St. Lawrence Col-

lege, Canton, N.Y., and was graduated there in June, 1878. From the age of sixteen to twenty he was engaged in hard work on an Oregon farm. He was ordained to the ministry in September following his graduation from the divinity school (1878), in Kent, Ohio, and was first settled over a country church in Geauga County, that State, at an annual salary of $300. Here he remained two years. In August, 1880, he took charge of the Universalist church in Bryan, Williams County, Ohio; and two years later, in December, 1882, he was called to the pastorate of the Shawmut Uni- versalist Church, Boston. His service here was begun on the first Sunday in January, 1883, and closed on the last Sunday in January, 1890, his resignation being tendered in order to accept an invitation of the trustees of the Universalist Gen- eral Convention to take the leadership of the first foreign mission of the Universalist Church, - a mission to Japan. Almost immediately after his acceptance pledges of $61,000 were made to carry on the work for five years. Mr. Perin sailed with his family and coworkers from San Francisco for Japan on the 5th of April, 1890, and arrived in

GEO. L. PERIN.

Yokohama on the 22d of that month. Four years were spent in organizing the mission. A church building was erected in Tokyo. Outposts were

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established in Sendai, Hoden, Okitsu, Shidzuoka, Nagoya, and Osaka. Two schools for girls were opened, also a theological school, and a monthly magazine started. Mr. Perin also made some con- siderable progress in the study of the Japanese lan- guage. He returned to Boston in May, 1894, and within a week after his arrival received a call to become once more the pastor of the old church on Shawmut Avenue. lle finally accepted on con- dition that the name of the church should be changed, the methods changed to those of an "in- stitutional church," and the sum of $50,000 be secured to run the institution for a period of five years. The conditions were met, and the new movement under his leadership was promptly started and developed under the name of the " Every-Day Church." Although he was of great service in opening the Japan mission, he regards the enterprise of this church as furnishing the real opportunity of his life. It is his hope to build up a great unsectarian institution at the South End of Boston, with all the equipment of the best institu- tional churches, which shall rank with the noblest philanthropies of the city. To this end he has thrown himself into its development with charac- teristic energy. Mr. Perin belongs to no clubs. He is, however, connected with the order of Odd Fellows and the Masonic fraternity, a member of Boston Commandery, of which for two years he had the honor to serve as prelate. In politics he is an Independent, "without a grain of reverence for party names," as he frankly declares. He was married January 22, 1878, to Miss Vinnie Dan- forth, of Peru, Ohio. They have four children : Vera, Melva, Mary Metcalf, and Donald Wise Perin.

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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 68

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