Men of progress one thousand biographical sketches and portraits of leaders in business and professional life in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Part 7

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 7

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GILMAN, NICHOLAS PAINE, editor of the Literary World and managing editor of the New World, Boston, is a native of Illinois, born in Quincy, December 21, 1849, son of Charles and Annette Maria (Dearborn) Gilman. His father was a member of the bar and reporter to the

Illinois Supreme Court. His grandfather, Allen Gilman, a lawyer, was the first mayor of Bangor, Mc. He belongs to the Exeter branch of the family, descended from Edward Gilman, who came from Hingham, England, to Hingham, Mass., in 1638. (Nicholas Gilman -it is a favorite name in the family - was a signer of the United States Con- stitution from New Hampshire.) He was educated in the East, at academies in Parsonsfield, Me., and Effingham. N.H. : and here he has spent the most of his active life. He was prepared for the minis- try at the Harvard Divinity School, graduating in 1871, and the following year was settled over the Unitarian church in Scituate. Three years later he took charge of the First Parish in Bolton. In 1878 he was appointed professor of English literature and German in Antioch College, Vel- low Springs, Ohio, and remained there three years, preaching Sundays in the college chapel. Returning in 1881 to New England, he took charge of the Unitarian churches in Wayland and Sudbury. In 1884, after a tour in England. he established his residence in West Newton, and engaged in literary pursuits. His connection

NICHOLAS P. GILMAN.

with the Literary World as a regular contributor to its columns began in 1878, during the editor- ship of the Rev. Edward Abbott. He became the

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editor in October, ISSS, on Mr. Abbott's retire- ment. From 1885 to 1891 he was an assistant editor of the Unitarian Review. With the New World, the liberal quarterly review of religion, ethics, and theology, the publication of which was begun in March, 1892, he has been connected from its inception. He has given much study to social questions, and is the author of publica- tions which are counted among the most impor- tant contributions of the day to economic litera- ture, and have been widely circulated. In 1889 he brought out " Profit Sharing between Em- ployer and Employee " (Boston, Houghton, Mif- flin & Co .; London, Macmillan & Co.), recording and discussing the various experiments in profit sharing made in Europe and America. The work has passed through several editions, and been translated into German. Four years later his " Socialism and the American Spirit" (same pub- lishers), a volume on the present standing and probable future of socialism and social reform in the United States, appeared, and speedily reached a second edition. Another publication is a small book published in 1891, "The Laws of Daily Con- duct," designed to aid public school teachers in teaching morals without inculcating religious doc- trine. He has also contributed papers to the Forum, the Arena, the New England Magazine, the Christian Register, and other periodicals. In 1892, as secretary and treasurer of the Association for the Promotion of Profit Sharing, Mr. Gilman established a little quarterly periodical called Em- plover and Employed as a medium for the prac- tical discussion of profit sharing. He is chairman of the executive committee of the Boston Brown- ing Society, a member of the executive commit- tee of the Massachusetts Reform Club, in politics an Independent, and unmarried.

GREENHALGE, FREDERIC THOMAS, governor of the Commonwealth 1894, is a native of Eng- land, born in Clitheroe, a parliamentary borough in the county of Lancaster, July 19, 1842, only son of William and Jane (Slater) Greenhalge. His father was for some years an engraver in the Primrose Print Works of Clitheroe, and in 1855 brought the family to this country, and, settling in Lowell, was employed in the Merrimack Print Works, in charge of the copper roller engraving. His education, begun in Clitheroe, was continued in the Lowell public schools, and finished at Har-

vard College. Upon graduation from the High School, where he ranked as the first scholar in his class, he received the first Carney medal ever given. He entered Harvard in the class of 1863 ; but, his father dying, he was obliged to leave col- lege in his junior year, and earn his support. He soon found a position as a teacher; and, while pursuing this vocation, he began the study of law. Subsequently he entered the law office of Brown & Alger. In October, 1863, he joined the Union army, and was connected with the commissary department at Newbern, N.C. While engaged in this service, in April, 1864, he was seized with malarial fever, and after several weeks of sick- ness was sent home. Upon his recovery he re- sumed his legal studies, and in 1865 was admitted to the Middlesex bar. From that time until 1870 he was associated with Charles F. Howe, and since the latter date has practised law alone. In 1874 he was made a special justice of the police court of Lowell, and served ten years. In 1888 he was made city solicitor. His public life began with service in the Lowell Common Council in

F. T. GREENHALGE. (From a copyrighted photograph by Elmer Chickering.)

1868 and 1869. From 1871 to 1873 he was a member of the School Board; in 18So and 1881 mayor of the city; in 1885 a representative of

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Lowell in the lower house of the Legislature ; and in 1889-90 a member of the Fifty-first Congress, representing the Eighth Massachusetts District. At Washington he ranked with the leaders in the New England delegation, and, a ready debater. was frequently heard on the floor of the House. In 1890 he was renominated by the Republicans of his district, but, after a hot canvass, lost the election by about four hundred and fifty votes. He was delegate to the National Republican Con- vention of 1884, and in 1890 was chairman of the Republican State Convention. In the autumn campaign of 1893, which ended with his election to the governorship as the successor of William E. Russell, the successful Democratic candidate in three elections, he was constantly on the stump from the day of his nomination, visiting all parts of the State. In Lowell he is a member of a number of societies and clubs, is president of the Humane Society, past president of the Unitarian and the History clubs, and is now president of the People's Club; and he belongs to several po- litical dining clubs meeting in Boston. He has been a trustee of the City Institution for Savings of Lowell since 1876, and is now president of the Institution. He was married in Lowell, October 1, 1872, to Miss Isabel Nesmith, daughter of John Nesmith, lieutenant governor of the State in 1862 with Governor Andrew. They have had four children : Nesmith (deceased), Frederic Brandlesome, Harriet Nesmith, and Richard Spalding Greenhalge.

GREENLEAF, LYMAN BLANCHARD, vice-presi- dent of the Boston Stock Exchange 1891-93, is a native of Boston, born September 19, 1851, young- est son of the late Gardner Greenleaf, 3d, and Re- becca J. (Caldwell) Greenleaf. He was educated in Boston public schools,- the Phillips Grammar and the English High, graduating from the latter in July, 1869. He began his business career in 1869 as a boy in the Boston banking house of Tower, Giddings & Co .; and seven years after (on January 1, 1876) he was made a partner in the firm. The same year (January 3) he became a member of the Stock Exchange. In January, ISS4, he withdrew from the house of Tower, Gid- dings & Co., and since that time has been in business alone. Ile was made a member of the first governing committee of the Exchange April 1, 1886, and held this position for two years, when

he resigned. He was first elected vice-president in 1891 ; and upon the establishment of the clearing house, in January, 1892, he was made chairman

LYMAN B. GREENLEAF.

of the clearing-house committee, from both of which offices he resigned in 1893. Mr. Green- leaf is a member of the Somerset, Athletic, and Country clubs of Boston. He was married April 20, 1892, to Miss Ellen M. Browning, daughter of Charles .A. Browning, of Boston, head of the well- known wholesale millinery house of Charles A. Browning & Co. They have one son : Browning Greenleaf.

HAM, ALBION PARIS, of Sargent & Ham, car- riage-builders, Boston, is a native of Maine, born in Shapleigh, York County, April 7, 1828, eldest son of John M. and Mary (Abbott) Ham. He is of Scotch ancestry. His education was acquired in the public schools of Limerick, Me. Until nineteen years of age he worked on his father's farm, and then apprenticed himself to the car- riage-making trade. His father desiring that, as the eldest son, he should succeed to the farm, and refusing to consent to his leaving home before he was twenty-one, he offered to pay for his free- dom one hundred dollars from the first money earned after he had finished his apprenticeship.

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Through the influence of his mother, his father finally yielded ; and the young man faithfully kept his part of the bargain. At twenty-one he came to Boston, and obtained employment in John Rayner's carriage manufactory, Nos. 57 to 63 Sudbury Street, at that time the largest works

ALBION P. HAM.

of the kind in New England, manufacturing a high grade of vehicles. In 1854 Mr. Rayner being ready to retire, Mr. Ham, with a plenty of ambition and a large supply of courage, but very little money, formed a copartnership with Haydn Sargent, under the firm name of Sargent & Ham, and bought out his employer's extensive busi- ness. The new firm continued the manufacture of fine custom carriages at the old stand for six- teen years, and was fairly prosperous. Then, in 1870, Mr. Ham bought of the city of Boston a lot of land, Nos. 26, 28, and 30 Bowker Street, just around the corner from the Sudbury Street factory, and erected thereon a substantial brick and stone, six - story - and - basement building, equipped with all the modern improvements, into which the business was moved early in the spring of 1871. In July, 1891, the concern was incor- porated, with a capital of $150,000, under the name of the Sargent & Ham Company, Mr. Ham being the president and managing director. Mr.

Ham was one of the original members of the Na- tional Carriage Builders' Association, and was elected its first vice-president. In politics he is a steadfast Republican ; but he has never allowed his name to be used for any office, preferring to attend strictly to his own business affairs. He attends the Park Street Congregational Church, Boston, where he owns a pew; and he has been a member of the prudential committee of the so- ciety for many years. He has travelled exten- sively in this country and in Europe. He was married, in 1854, to Miss Augusta C. Blenn, of Dresden, Me. They have no children.

HART, THOMAS NORTON, president of the Mount Vernon National Bank, mayor of Boston 1889 and 1890, is a native of North Reading, born January 20, 1829, son of Daniel and Mar- garet (Norton) Hart. His father's ancestors settled in Lynnfield, and his maternal grandfather was of Royalston. The latter was Major John Norton, a soldier of the Revolution. Thomas N. obtained his education in the schools of his native town, and, when a lad of thirteen, made his way to Boston to earn his living. Here he first found employment in a dry-goods store conducted by Wheelock, Pratt & Co. Two years later, in 1844, he entered a hat store; and in this business his progress was steady and substantial. In course of time he became a partner in the firm of Philip A. Locke & Co., and subsequently founded the prosperous house of Hart, Taylor & Co. About the year 1879 he retired from this business with a competency, and soon after was made president of the Mount Vernon National Bank, of which he is still the head. From the beginning an earnest Republican, he early took an influential part in local politics as a citizen. At length he was in- duced to serve in the city council, and he was first elected to the Common Council for the term of 1879. In this body he at once ranked among the leaders. He was twice returned, serving in 1880 and 1881, and then was made a member of the Board of Aldermen. Here he served three terms (1882, 1885, and 1886), prominent on important committees and influential on the floor. In 1886 he was first nominated for the mayoralty, but was defeated in the election by Mayor O'Brien, the Democratic candidate. The following year, again a candidate, and again against Mayor O'Brien, he succeeded in cutting the latter's majority to a

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slender margin ; and the next year, for the third time in nomination and against Mayor ()'Brien, he carried the election by a majority over his competitor of nearly two thousand. Returned the next year, he served the two terms of 1889 and 1890. In 1891 he was appointed by President Ilarrison postmaster of Boston, which position he held through the remainder of Mr. Harrison's administration, and after the incoming of P'resi- dent Cleveland until June, 1893. In the State campaign of the latter year he was prominently mentioned for the Republican nomination for gov- ernor ; and in the municipal campaign following he was for the fifth time a candidate for mayor, nominated by the Republican convention, but was unsuccessful, Mayor Matthews being returned. Mr. Hart is identified with a number of local societies and organizations: is treasurer of the American Unitarian Association, an officer of the Church of the Unity, and a member of the Uni- tarian, the Algonquin, and the Hull Yacht clubs.

THOMAS N. HART.

He was married in 1850, in Boston, to Miss Eliza- beth Snow, of Bowdoin, Me. They have one child, a daughter (now Mrs. C. W. Ernst). Mr. Hart's town house is on Commonwealth Avenue. Boston, and his country place at Galloupe's Point, Swampscott.

HOLMES, OLIVER WENDELL, JR., justice of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, son of Dr. Oliver Wendell and Amelia Lee (Jackson) Holmes, was born in Boston, March 8, 1841. He attended T. R. Sullivan's, afterward E. S. Dixwell's school, and was graduated from Har- vard College in the class of 1861. In April that year he joined the Fourth Battalion of Infantry, Major Thomas G. Stevenson, then at Fort Inde- pendence, Boston Harbor, where he wrote the poem which he delivered on Class Day. July 10 he was commissioned first lieutenant, Company A, Twentieth Massachusetts. In the battle of Ball's Bluff, October 21, he was wounded in the breast, and was also struck in the abdomen by a spent ball. March 23, 1862, he was commissioned captain, Company G. He received a wound in the neck at Antietam, September 17. In February, 1863, he was provost-marshal of Falmouth, Va. At Marye's Hill, near Fredericksburg, on May 3, he received a third wound, this time in the heel. On July 5 following he was commissioned lieuten- ant - colonel. Twentieth Massachusetts, but was not mustered in, the regiment being too much re- duced. January 29, 1864, he was appointed aide-de-camp on the staff of Brigadier -General H. G. Wright, commanding the First Division, Sixth Corps, afterward major-general commanding the Sixth Corps, and served with General Wright during General Grant's campaign, down to Petersburg, returning to Washington with the Sixth Corps when the capital was threatened, July, 1864. On the 17th of that month he was mustered out of service, it being the end of his term of enlistment. Returning to Boston, in September he entered the Harvard Law School, and in 1866 received his LL.B. In December. 1865, he entered the law office of Robert M. Morse, Barristers' Hall, Boston. Spending the summer of 1866 in Europe, he became a member of the English Alpine Club. On his return he entered the law office of Chandler, Shattuck & Thayer. Then, on March 4, 1867, he was ad- mitted to the Suffolk bar, and subsequently was admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court. He practised his profession first in partnership with his brother, and afterward in the firm of Shattuck, Holmes & Munroe, formed in 1873. In 1870-71 he taught constitutional law in Harvard College, and in 1871-72 was uni- versity lecturer on jurisprudence. In 1873 he published in four volumes the twelfth edition of

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Kent's Commentaries, adding elaborate notes. From 1870 to 1873 he had editorial charge of the American Law Review, volumes V., VI., VII., and wrote for this review a number of articles. An essay by him on " Early English Equity " may be found in the English Law Quarterly Review, April, 1885, and two articles on " Agency " in the Harvard Law Review, March and April, 1891. In 1891. also, a volume of his speeches was pub- lished by Little, Brown, & Co. In the winter of ISSo he delivered a series of lectures on the Common Law, in Boston, -- one of the Lowell

O. W. HOLMES, Jr.

Institute courses, -- and the following year pub- lished a volume on the same subject (" The Com- mon Law," by O. W. Holmes, Jr., Boston : Little, Brown & Co.), which greatly widened his reputa- tion. The work was highly commended by the reviewers at home and abroad, and it was subse- quently translated into Italian by Sig. Francesco Lambertenghi. now the Italian consul-general at Zürich. In 1882 Mr. Holmes was appointed to a new professorship in the Harvard Law School; but he had hardly entered upon his duties there when (December 8) Governor Long appointed him an associate justice of the Supreme Court, in place of Judge Otis P. Lord, resigned. Justice Holmes is a member of the Massachusetts Histor-

ical Society, and was a fellow of the American Academy, but resigned ; and at the same time that his father was receiving the degree of LL.1). from Oxford (in 1886) he was receiving it from Vale. He married, June 17, 1872, Miss Fannie Dixwell, daughter of E. S. Dixwell, of Cambridge. They have no children.

HORTON, REV. EDWARD AUGUSTUS (Unita- rian), president of the Benevolent Fraternity of Churches in Boston, and of the Unitarian Sunday- School Society covering the whole country, is a native of Springfield, born September 28, 1843. son of William Marshall and Ann ( Leonard) Hor- ton. The branch of the Horton family to which he belongs have had their home for many years in picturesque Ponkapoag, a part of Canton ; his father and mother lie buried there. His early education was begun in the public schools of Springfield, and continued in Chicago, whither his parents moved when he was a lad of thirteen. and where he lived six years. During that period the Civil War broke out ; and soon after its out- break, when scarcely eighteen, he abandoned his books, and, going to Brooklyn, N.Y., enlisted in the navy. He served as landsman in the South Atlantic squadron, under Commodores Dupont and Dahlgren, a little more than a year, and was in several sharp engagements. His ship, the steam gunboat "Seneca." assisted in the blockade of Charleston, and had a part in the attacks on Forts Wagner and Sumter, and in the destruc- tion of the Confederate privateer . Nashville." Upon his return to civil life he hurried prepara- tions for college, and so crowded studies that he was enabled to enter the University of Michi- gan without conditions in the class of 1869. After a short time in college, however, he con- cluded that, with his slender resources, he could not afford to give the necessary time to com- plete the course and properly to fit himself for the ministry, the profession of his choice. Ac- cordingly, he withdrew, and went at once to the Theological School at Meadville, Penna. There he took the regular three years' course, and pur- sued other studies, graduating in 1868. Upon graduation having two calls, one from Flint, Mich., and one from a larger parish in Leomin- ster, this State, he accepted the latter. This pas- torate he held for seven years, during that period, in 1871, visiting England, Switzerland, and Ger-

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many, and spending a year in study at Brunswick and at Heidelberg, his church generously grant- ing him leave of absence for this purpose. In the summer of 1875 he accepted a call from the First Unitarian Church of New Orleans : but a severe illness, largely the result of overwork, fell upon him, and he was unable to take the charge. His physician ordering rest for two years, on the ist of December, his wedding-day, he started South on a vacation trip. A year later, improved in health, but not yet fully recovered, he was again at work, having accepted a call to Hingham as minister of the Old Church, famous for its quaint meeting-house, then upwards of two hun- dred years old. Here he remained, enjoying the pleasantest of relations with his parish and the town, for three years, when he resigned to take the pastorate of the Second Church in Boston, Copley Square, founded in 1649, and distin- guished as the pulpit of the three Mathers,- In- crease, Cotton, and Samuel .- John Lathrop. Henry Ware, Jr., Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Chandler Robbins. This charge he entered upon in May. 1880; and, under his leadership, the parish was brought to a high degree of pros- perity, and into connection with many good works in the community. During his ministry a debt of $45,000 was removed, and he made the church emphatically a working organization. In the spring of 1892, his health again impaired, he was compelled to resign, and relinquish for a time parish work. He had his choice between a long vacation abroad or some new work. Choosing the latter, he undertook the direction and development of the two organizations of which he is presi- dent. He is now at the head of the missionary work of the Unitarian denomination and of church extension in the city of Boston, as pres- ident of the Benevolent Fraternity of Churches having the oversight of some six churches in the city, which stand for the ministry at large of the Unitarian body in Boston. As president of the Unitarian Sunday-School Society, he edits a paper for the young people, Every Other Sunday, super- vises the publication of text-books. confers with Sunday-school workers, makes addresses in be- half of this cause, and directs all the affairs which relate to the Unitarian Sunday-school work. The extent of this supervision is measured only by the breadth of the land from Boston to San Francisco. Mr. Horton is also chairman of the Committee on Settlement of Ministers and Vacant

Pastorates for the Unitarian denomination : is superintendent of the Westford Academy in West- ford, this State; a trustee of Derby Academy. Hingham : visitor to the Howard Collegiate In- stitute : and a manager of the Home for Intem- perate Women, of the Washington Home, of the North End Mission, and of other philanthropic institutions. He is closely connected with the Grand Army of the Republic, having served as chaplain of the State, is chaplain of E. W. Kinsley Post 113 of Boston, and past chaplain of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company. He

EDWARD A. HORTON.

is also grand chaplain of the State for the Masons. He has been a frequent contributor of literary reviews of books to the denominational periodi- cals and the Boston press, and has published in pamphlet form discourses on Emerson and Garfield, delivered at the time of their death : three sermons on Unitarianism : an historical dis- course commemorative of the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the building of the old meeting-house in Hingham ; an address to the graduating class of 1888 at the Boston College of Pharmacy ; and a book, "Noble Lives and Noble Deeds." In ISSo the University of Michigan conferred upon him the honorary degree of A.M. Mr. Horton was married at

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Lancaster, December 1, 1875, to Miss Josephine Adelaide Rand, daughter of Nathaniel and Ruth (Miles) Rand. They have one child: Ruth Horton, born February 24, 1877.

H. O. HOUGHTON.

HOUGHTON, HENRY OSCAR, head of the publishing house of Houghton, Mifflin, & Co., and projector of the Riverside Press in Cam- bridge, is a native of Vermont, born in the little town of Sutton, AApril 30, 1823, son of William and Morilla (Clay) Houghton. His ancestors were among the early New England colonists, the Houghtons first coming to the country about the year 1630, and settling in Lancaster. His mother was a daughter of Captain James Clay, who took an important part in the controversy be- tween New Hampshire and New York over the question of jurisdiction in the region now em- braced in the State of Vermont, prior to the out- break of the Revolution. When he was about ten years old, the family moved from Sutton to the town of Bradford, on the Connecticut River. After a few terms in the Bradford Academy, at the age of thirteen he became an apprentice in the office of the Burlington Free Press, and there took his first lessons in the printer's trade. Sub- sequently he worked at the trade awhile in

Nunda, N.Y. Determined to acquire a thorough education, his evenings and other spare moments were devoted to study. At the age of nineteen he was prepared for college, and entered the Uni- versity of Vermont with twelve and a half cents in his pocket, but with dauntless resolution. Soon after his graduation, in 1846, he came to Boston, and here spent a year or two in the work of proof- reading and reporting for the Evening Traveller before he found his life-work as a master printer. This was begun in Cambridge, where in January, 1849, he joined Mr. Bolles, of the firm of Free- man & Bolles, in establishing a printing-office. Its first location was on Remington Street, near Harvard College. Three years later the business was removed to the site on the banks of the Charles, when the name of the Riverside Press was assumed. And from the modest establish- ment first set up here has grown the present imposing group of buildings, with extensive com- position, electrotyping, printing, binding, and lith- ographic departments, in which the work of fine book-making is carried through the several stages from the manuscript to the bound volume. The original Riverside Press, which was sixty by forty feet in size, forms the nucleus of the present buildings, and still contains a part of the compos- ing and press rooms. In 1864 Mr. Houghton en- tered the publishing business, forming a partner- ship with Melanethon M. Hurd, of New York, under the firm name of Hurd & Houghton, to provide an outlet for the publication of the works of Dickens, Bacon, and other writers, stereotype plates of which he had become the owner. Ele- gant library editions of Bacon, Carlyle, Macaulay. and Cooper, were issued; and the catalogue of the house showed a large proportion of standard works. This firm existed under the same name, but with additions to the membership, until 1878, when it was succeeded by that of Houghton, Osgood, & Co., which came into possession of literary franchises, privileges covering the works of Emerson, Lowell, Hawthorne, Longfellow, Holmes, Whittier, and other leaders in Ameri- can literature, collected during a long period by the firms of Allen & Ticknor ; Ticknor, Reed, & Fields; Ticknor & Fields; Fields, Osgood, & Co .; and James R. Osgood, & Co. In 1880, when Mr. Osgood retired, and was succeeded by Lawson Valentine, of New York, the house took its present title of Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. (Mr. Mifflin first admitted to partnership in 1872, when

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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 7

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