Men of progress one thousand biographical sketches and portraits of leaders in business and professional life in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Part 70

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 70

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SCOTT, REV. CHARLES SEAVER, of Marl- borough, was born in Rochester, N. Y., February 15, 1855, son of the Rev. Jacob R. and Catherine F. (Seaver) Scott. He is of notable New England ancestry. The first of his father's name in this country was Captain James Scott, who commanded many years the packet " Minerva" sailing between Boston and London. His vessel was wrecked near Marshfield and he drowned in 1780. The body of Major Pitcairn was transported to Eng- land in Captain Scott's vessel secretly, as sailors then superstitiously feared to ship in a vessel carrying a corpse. Captain Scott's son, also a sea-captain, married the widow of John Hancock. Madam Scott (nee Dorothy Quiney) was a con- spicuous character in Boston society, Mr. Scott was named for his maternal grandfather, Charles Seaver, of the firm of Crockett & Seaver, of Bos- ton, prominent in the West India trade. Ben- jamin Seaver, mayor of Boston 1852-54, was his brother. Charles Seaver was noted for his total abstinence and temperance principles ; and, al- though the liquor trade was a very profitable feat- ure of the West India trade in which he was concerned, the firm of Crockett & Seaver stead- fastly refused to engage in it. Mr. Scott's educa- tion was begun in the public schools of Cam- bridge, Mass .; and he graduated from the Wash- ington Grammar School there, receiving a copy of Saxe's " Poems" as a prize from the master

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of the school for excellence in arithmetic at the examination for admission to the High School in July, 1869. He pursued the High School course in Chelsea,- at the close of his first year entering a wholesale dry-goods store in Boston, and after about eighteen months returning to his studies and finishing the course with the class in which he entered, - and then entered Brown University. There he received the president's premium for excellence in Latin in the competitive examina- tion on studies of the preparatory course, the Howell premium for highest rank in mathematics and natural philosophy, the Dunn premium for

CHAS. S. SCOTT.

highest standing in rhetorical studies, one of the Glover competitive scholarships ; was editor of the Brunonian in his junior and senior years, and salutatorian at Commencement upon graduation in 1877. After leaving college, he became prin- cipal of the High School at Wrentham, and re- mained there a year. Then he entered the New- ton Theological Institution, and took the regular course, graduating in 1881. That year he was made pastor of the Baptist church at Franklin, Ind., the seat of Franklin College, the chief ed- ucational institution for the Baptists of that State. During his pastorate there, which covered four years, a new house of worship was erected, and

the church was largely increased in membership. Hlis next charge was at Hackensack, N.J., where he remained until 1887. Then he was called to the Union Square Baptist Church in Somerville : and after a service there of five and a half years he came to Marlborough as pastor of the First Baptist Church, his present settlement. He has frequently contributed to the denominational press, was for a few months assistant editor of the Watchman, and has done some service as seribe at various denominational convocations. He was married September 27, 1881, to Miss Jeannie T. Pond, of Wrentham, great-grand-daughter of a brother of General Joseph Warren, of Bunker Hill fame. They have two children living : Ros- coe E. and Mary S. Scott. One son, Charles Warren Scott, died in his fifth year.

SMYTH, REV. JULIAN KENNEDY, of Boston, pastor of the Boston Highlands Society of the New Jerusalem, is a native of New York City, born August 8, 1856, son of J. Kennedy and Julia G. (Ogden) Smyth. The family on his mother's side is lineally descended from Francis Lewis, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. His maternal grandfather, Samuel G. Ogden, was a much respected and influential merchant of New York. Mrs. Anna Cora Mowatt, who was known to many of its best families in Boston, and who will be remembered as the leading actress of her day, but a lady of great beauty of character, and talented as an authoress, was his aunt. The first eight years of his life were spent in Paris, where he was early taught music : and he received his early education in books of French and German. He graduated from the New Church College, Urbana University, Urbana, Ohio, in June, 1876. at the head of a small class. While in college, he received prizes for reading and for composition. After his graduation he entered the Theological School connected with Urbana University, con- tinued his course in the New Church Theological School, then established in Waltham, but now in Cambridge, and fitted himself for the ministry in the New Jerusalem Church. In September, 1877. he was invited to preach for the New Jerusalem Church in Portland, Me., which he continued to do until January, 1879, when he was unanimously invited to become pastor, and was ordained and in- stalled by the Rev. Samuel F. Dike, D.D. Under his ministration the society prospered. In June,

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1882, he accepted the invitation of the church in the Roxbury District of Boston, of which the Rev. Abiel Silver had been minister up to the time of his death by drowning in the Charles River at the age of eighty-four. By the unanimous wish of the society, Mr. Smyth was installed as pastor by the Rev. Joseph P'ettee, presiding minister of the Massachusetts Association, May 6, 1883. The attendance at the church was soon doubled, and the house was often crowded at Sunday evening lectures. The society, which contains many young men and women, has almost outgrown its present edifice,-a pretty stone building on one side of

JULIAN K. SMYTH.

a triangle on Warren Street, which is some day to be marked by a statue of General Warren. Mr. Smyth's preaching is marked by the emphasis which he lays upon the life of Christ as the mani- fested life of God. From the first, that has been made central and vital to all his teaching. He has been spoken of as one of the first to depart somewhat from the use of the technical language of the New Church, and presenting its doctrines in the language of the people. He has published two notable books, the first, appearing in 1886, under the title of " Footprints of the Saviour," being devotional studies of the Lord. This has run through several editions, and has been well

received, the late Bishop Brooks writing : " I have found it full of suggestion and of light. I know that it will grow more and more to me the longer that I read it "; and a denominational paper de- claring, "We are slow in classing any writer with Robertson or Sears, but we have set down the author of these discourses as one of the new writers, and one of that not large company who work their thought into the mental being of the reader." Mr. Smyth's second book, " Iloly Names," as interpretations of the story of the manger and the cross, was published in 1891, and has also met with marked attention outside as well as inside of the New Church. Both books bear the imprint of Roberts Brothers. Mr. Smyth was selected as one of the speakers in the Parlia- ment of Religions, held in Chicago, and delivered an address on " The Incarnation of God in Christ." In the winter of 1893-94, as a "testimonial," the members of Mr. Smyth's society provided for a trip for him and his wife to Egypt, Palestine, Greece, and Italy, which proved a most successful one. Mr. Smyth has been president of the New Church Club, an organization of fifty of the most repre- sentative men in the New Church in Boston and vicinity since 1885 ; and he is one of the three editors of the New Church Review, a quarterly periodical of high standing in the church, and gaining recognition in the literary world. lle was married November 22, 1877, to Miss Wino- gen Gertrude Horr, of Urbana, Ohio. They have two daughters, the eldest, Gertrude (sixteen years), and the youngest, Miriam (thirteen years).

SORTWELL, ALVIN FOYE, of Cambridge. banker and railroad president, was born in Bos- ton, July 21, 1854, son of Daniel R. and Sophia Augusta (Foye) Sortwell. He was educated in the Chauncy Hall School and at Phillips (An- dover) Academy, where he was fitted for college. Instead of entering college, however, he engaged actively in business, and at the age of eighteen was a partner in the firm of Sortwell & Co., and had full charge of the business in East Cambridge established by his father. After a successful and prosperous career he retired from active business in March, 1891. He has, however, retained his interests in banking and in railroad and other cor- porations, and is now president of the Cambridge National Bank, of which he has been a director for twelve years ; vice-president of the East Cam-

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bridge Savings Bank; vice-president of the Cam- bridge Safe Deposit and Trust Company; presi- dent of the Montpelier & Wells River Railroad of Vermont ; president of the Colonial Mining Corporation, doing business in New Mexico ; and treasurer of the Columbia Water Power Company, of Columbia, S.C. He has been prominent in Cambridge municipal affairs for many years, and served for a long period in the city government. First elected to the Common Council in 1878, he served during the year 1879 : then, moving into another ward, he was again chosen in 1885, and returned in 1886, 1887, and 1888. The last year

ALVIN F. SORTWELL.

he served as president of the body. He was next elected an alderman for 1889, and re-elected for 1890, the latter year being chosen unanimously president of the board. During five years of this long service he was member of the committee on finance, and chairman both on the part of the council and of the aldermen; five years also on the committee on roads and bridges, and its chairman on the part of both branches; a mem- ber of the committee on the Harvard Bridge ; chairman of the committee on ordinances during their revision in 1889 ; and a member of the com- mittee on purchase of a site for the new City Hall. He has been a member of the Cambridge Water

Board; was a member of the committee on the revision of the city charter : and has served as a trustee of the Cambridge Public Library for six years, treasurer of the board, resigning the latter position on the ist of January, 1895. In 1894 he was a candidate for mayor of the city. Mr. Sortwell is a Freemason, member of lodge, chap- ter, and commandery ; and a member of the Al- gonquin and Athletic clubs of Boston, of the Country Club, and of the Union and Colonial clubs of Cambridge, of the latter a charter mem- ber. Ile was married December 31, 1879, to Miss Gertrude Winship Dailey, daughter of Will- iam and Mary Elizabeth (Winship) Dailey, of Cambridge. They have six children: Clara, Frances Augusta, Daniel R., Marion, Edward Carter, and Alvin F. Sortwell, Jr.

SORTWELL, DANIEL ROBINSON, of Cam- bridge, manufacturer and railroad president, was born in Barton, Vt., July 10, 1820; died in Mont- pelier, Vt., October 4, 1894. His father was John Sortwell, of Barton, who was for many years selectman of the town. Ilis maternal grandfather, Jonathan Robinson, was a soldier of the Revolu- tion. His mother was Percy ( Robinson) Sortwell. Ilis boyhood was spent on the farm and in the local public schools ; and at the age of seventeen he started out to seek his fortune. Gathering his worldly goods in a bundle, he worked his way to Boston by assisting a cattle drover, doing the en- tire distance on foot, and there began his business career in a small position in the produce trade. From this humble beginning, through unflagging industry, perseverance, and economy, he so ad- vanced that within a few years he was enabled to enter business on his own account ; and at the time of his death he was reported to be worth upward of two millions. His first venture was a produce store in Faneuil Hall market, in which he conducted a flourishing trade. In 1848 he formed the firm of Sortwell & Co., commission merchants, with the late Thomas L. Smith as partner, which firm continued until 1856. Then he sold out this business, and established the " Sortwell Distillery " in East Cambridge, in which he prospered from the start. Later he became a stockholder in the Connecticut & Passumpsie River Railroad ; and subsequently, through this connection, a bond- holder in the Montpelier & Wells River Railroad at its inception. In January, 1877, he was elected

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president of the latter road, which position- he held at the time of his death. He was also the pro- moter of the Barre Railroad, Vt., the line known

D. R. SORTWELL.

as the " Sky Route " to the well-known Barre granite quarries, which was begun in July, 1888, and a length of five miles completed in 1889. In the construction of this road Mr. Sortwell took much interest ; and he was chiefly instrumental in building the branch from Montpelier to Barre, giving the Barre road direct connection with the Montpelier & Wells River Railroad. He was a large stockholder in both of the Barre railroads, and also owned nearly ninety-eight per cent. of the stock of the Montpelier & Wells River Railroad, besides being a large real estate owner in Barre. He did much in upbuilding that town and for the advancement of Montpelier. In addition to the presidency of the Montpelier & Wells River Rail- road Mr. Sortwell, at the time of his death, held the positions of president of the Cambridge National Bank, trustee of the East Cambridge Five Cents Savings Bank, and treasurer of the Columbia (S.C.) Water Power Company. In Cam- bridge he served for five years as a member of the Board of Aldermen. He was connected with the Masonic order. Mr. Sortwell was married May 19, 1850, to Miss Sophia Augusta Foye, of Wis-

casset, Me., daughter of Moses and Sophia .1. Foye. They had one daughter and one son : Frances Augusta (born June 8, 1851 ; died August 19, 1857) and Alvin Foye Sortwell (born July 21, 1854). Sophia A., wife of Daniel R. Sortwell, died on September 26, 1890, at Cambridge.

SOUTHWICK, HENRY LAWRENCE, of Boston, secretary and senior professor of the Emerson College of Oratory, is a native of Boston, born June 21, 1863, son of John and Mary Frances (Lawrence) Southwick. Ilis father, a retired phy- sieian, took great interest in his early education, which was acquired in the public schools. He graduated from the Dorchester High School in ISSo with high honors, being chosen the valedic- torian of his class; and, having early displayed proficiency in literary work and the rhetorical art, then pursued special studies under private teachers. Deciding to adopt journalism as a pro- fession, he obtained a position on the staff of the Boston Herald, and served that journal from 1880

H. L. SOUTHWICK.

to 1887 in various capacities,- as reporter, ex- change reader, correspondent, and special writer. During his active journalistic work he found time

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for historical studies and for lecturing, which speedily brought him into prominence. In ISSI he wrote an essay entitled " The Policy of the Massachusetts Colonists towards Quakers and Others whom they considered as Intruders" which received the "Old South Prize " instituted by the late Mrs. Mary Hemenway, of Boston ; and in 1882 he made his first appearance before a Boston audience, having a part in the city cele- bration of Washington's Birthday that year. Shortly after he was invited to a place in the reg- ular Old South course of lectures, given in the Old South Meeting-house; and the lecture which he delivered -on the subject of Patrick Henry - was commended as one of the best in the series. In 1885 he entered the Monroe Conservatory of Oratory as a student, and here came under the personal instruction of Professor Charles W. Em- erson, now the president of the Emerson College. He soon resolved to exchange the profession of the journalist for that of the elocutionist and lect- urer, and, resigning his place on the Herald, de- voted himself wholly to preparation for his new work. In 1888, while still a student, pursuing post-graduate studies, he filled an engagement of several weeks as teacher of elocution in Bates College, Lewiston, Me. ; later took charge of the department of elocution and oratory at the Mar- tha's Vineyard Institute, and in the autumn lect- ured before teachers and private classes in Provi- dence and Pawtucket, R.I. In the spring of 1888 he was elected master of reading and oratory at the William Penn Charter School of Philadelphia, and in the autumn following introduced the Em- erson system in that city. The next autumn he returned to Boston, having accepted a call from President Emerson to the secretaryship, and the professorship of dramatic expression in the col- lege, and has since remained there, meeting with marked success in his work. His regular de- partments now are "Principles of Oratory," " Shaksperian Interpretation," and " Dramatic Action "; and he is a regular lecturer in the col- lege course on history and literature. Professor Southwick also carries on work in summer schools, having charge of the department of reading and oratory at the National School of Methods, at Glen's Falls, N.Y., and the Virginia School of Methods. He is a frequent lecturer in winter lyceum courses on such subjects as " Hamlet, the Man of Will," "Sir Walter Raleigh," and the "Life and Times of Patrick Henry," and occa-

sionally gives recitals. He is president of the Dorchester High School .Mumni Association, to which position he has been four times re-elected ; is president of the Emerson College Alumni Asso- ciation, an ex-president of the Old South His- torical Society, member of the Boston Press Club, and a Freemason, member of Mount Lebanon Lodge of Boston. He was married May 30, 1889, to Miss Jessie Eldridge, distinguished as a dra- matic reader and teacher. They have one child : Ruth Southwick. Mrs. Southwick is also con- nected with the Emerson College of Oratory as teacher of dramatic expression, rendering of Shakspere, and voice culture,

WM. B. SPROUT.

SPROUT, WILLIAM BRADFORD, of Boston, mem- ber of the Suffolk bar, is a native of Enfield, Hampshire County, born July ro, 1859, son of Bradford E. and Lucia A. (Train) Sprout. He re- ceived his early training in the public schools of Worcester. Graduating from the High School, he entered Amherst College in 1879, and took his degree in 1883. He read law in the office of Bacon, Hopkins, & Bacon in Worcester, and was admitted to the Worcester County bar in 1885. He practised in the city of Worcester during the following five or six years, when he removed to

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MEN OF PROGRESS.

Boston, where he has since been established. A Republican in politics, he has served his party on the stump, and has made many a telling speech in behalf of his political principles. He was a mem- ber of the Legislature of 1889 for Ward Seven, Worcester, and was re-elected and served during the following year. Since 1890 he has been coun- sel for the claim department of the West End Street Railway Company of Boston, and in this position has shown his ability to conduct cases continuously day after day and week after week during the judicial year. Many lawyers in Bos- ton have more or less business with the West End Company on the legal side, thus bringing its attorneys into the closest of personal relations with the professional fraternity. Such a test, especially for a very busy man, is likely to develop the abrupt side of character ; but during the years of Mr. Sprout's connection with this company he has become one of the most popular men at the Suffolk bar. He makes his home at Natick, where he has a well-kept farm on which he finds the recreation which is so necessary to the mental and physical well-being of the hard-worked lawyer. Although now retired from political activity, his townspeople have chosen him to serve on impor- tant committees to look after local affairs ; and he is otherwise prominent socially at Wellesley. He is a member of the Worcester Continentals, of the University Club and the Middlesex Club of Bos- ton. He was married May 10, 1886, to Miss Nel- lie L. Fisk, who died in 1892. He has one child, a daughter : Ethelwin C. Sprout.

STEARNS, ALBERT THOMAS, of Neponset, lumber merchant and manufacturer, was born in Billerica, April 23, 1821, son of Abner and Annie (Russell) Stearns. He is a direct descendant of Isaac Stearns, who came to New England from England in 1636. His grandfather, Lieutenant Edward Stearns, was in the Concord fight of 1775, and took the place of Captain Wilson who was killed. His uncle Solomon Stearns, then a lad of seventeen, was also there. He was educated in the public schools and at Phillips (Andover) Academy, which he attended one year, about 1834. He was trained for active life at home, in farming, carpentering, and in saw and grist mills. Leaving home at the age of eighteen, he engaged in a variety of pursuits the next few years, at length settling into that of a builder; and from

this worked naturally into the lumber business which, with manufacturing, has been the principal occupation of his life. He started in this business

A. T. STEARNS.

in 1843, in Waltham, where F. Butrick's lumber- yard now is, and, leaving there in 1849, came to Ne- ponset, where he has since remained. During this long period he has been engaged in a large and prosperous trade, and has become widely known among lumber men. He is a member of the Home Market Club and of the Norfolk Club. In politics he was first a Free Soiler, and since its organization has been associated with the Repub- lican party. He has not been ambitious for polit- ical honors, and his only public service has been as a member of the Boston Common Council one term, 1879. Mr. Stearns was married in June, 1843, to Miss Salome Maynard, of Sudbury. They have had seven children : Albert Henry, Waldo Harrison, Frank Maynard (deceased), Anne Russell (deceased), Frederick Maynard, Salome (deceased), and Ardelle Augusta Stearns.

STRATTON, CHARLES EDWIN, of Boston, member of the Suffolk bar, was born in Boston, November 17, 1846, son of Charles Edwin and Sarah Hollis (Piper) Stratton. His ancestors on

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both sides were among the early settlers of New England. His father was a Boston merchant prominent in the iron and steel trade. He was educated in Boston private and public schools, the Quincy Grammar, and the Public Latin School, where he was fitted for college, and at Harvard, graduating in the class of 1866. He then entered the Harvard Law School, and graduated there- from in 1868. In October of the following year he was admitted to the bar, and has since prac- tised his profession in Boston. His practice has been general, with the handling of numerous trusts. He has been for a number of years an influential member of the progressive wing of the Democratic party, exerting his influence in a quiet but effec- tive way in behalf of tariff and other reform is- sues with which it is identified ; and in 1894 he was nominated by the Democratic State Conven- tion by acclamation for lieutenant governor on the ticket with John E. Russell. In the campaign following he took an active part on the stump. speaking in different parts of the State. He was one of the founders of the Young Men's Demo- cratic Club of Massachusetts, and is now its presi-

CHARLES E. STRATTON.

dent, elected to that position in 1893 and 1894. having previously served on the executive com- mittee. Mr. Stratton is unmarried.

STRONG, HOMER CHESTER, of Palmer, mem- ber of the Hampden County bar, was born in Palmer, September 5, 1850, son of Chester and Lucia Elizabeth (Cooke) Strong. He is ninth in descent from Richard Strong, born in Wales, his family having gone there from England, in 1561, and in 1590 removed to Taunton, Somer- setshire, England, the order running : John2 (Elder) of London, England, first a citizen of Dorchester, Mass., and one of the founders of Northampton ; Jedediah", Preserved', Aaron", Asahel", Aaron7, Chester", Homer Chester". Chester Strong (born in Southampton, Mass., March 16, 1811, married May 22, 1844, died March 1, 1863) was a lead- ing citizen of Palmer, and prominent in developing Palmer village ; was postmaster under Harrison and Tyler ; second agent of the old Western Railroad Company ; built in 1847 Strong's Block, and after the fire of 1852 built Strong's Block, now Cross's Block, and the Nassowanno House. Lucia E. Strong (born in West Springfield, December 26, 1821), a daughter of Elizur Cooke and Marcia Ely (Denison) Cooke, of the Nathaniel Ely branch of the Ely family, was a woman of marked executive ability, magnetic presence, greatly loved by the poor, and a leader in the social life of Palmer. Homer C. Strong was educated in the public schools of Palmer, at Monson Academy (two years, 1865 to 1867), Wes- leyan Academy (two years, being graduated in the class of 1869), and at Amherst College, where he was graduated in the class of 1875. Before entering college, he taught school, and was princi- pal of the grammar school at Three Rivers, Palmer (1871); and, after leaving college (1876- 77), was acting principal of the Everett School in the Dorchester District, Boston, and principal of the Brooks School in Medford. His law studies were pursued in the office of Charles L. Gardner, Palmer, and for two years ( 1877-79) at the Har- vard Law School. He was admitted to the bar at Springfield, June 30, 1879. Mr. Strong has mingled business with law practice, having been concerned in insurance and real estate matters, and has had charge of important cases and the settlement of numerous trust and other estates; has managed real estate, hotels, stores, tenements, and farms since 1867, and is now one of the largest holders of real estate in l'almer. Strong's Block, adjoining his Nassowanno House, was built by him in 1883. From 1883 to 1886 he lived and practised in Springfield, with offices

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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 70

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