Men of progress one thousand biographical sketches and portraits of leaders in business and professional life in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Part 77

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 77

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HILDRETH, JOHN LEWIS, M.D., of Cam- bridge, was born in North Chelmsford, November 29, 1838, son of John Caldwell and Harriet Maria (Blanchard) Hildreth. His father was sixth in descent from Richard Hildreth, who came to Cam- bridge from England in 1642 or 1643. He was

educated at the New Ipswich Appleton Academy, graduating therefrom in 1860, and at Dartmouth College, which he entered the same year. Leav- ing college in the autumn of his junior year, he entered the employ of the United States Sanitary Commission, and served in the field. He was with Burnside at Fredericksburg and with Banks upon the Red River Expedition, and subsequently was inspector of camps and hospitals for the Department of the Gulf. He received his degree from Dartmouth, being graduated in July, 1864, al- though not present at commencement. He was some time a school-teacher, beginning the teaching

JOHN L. HILDRETH.

of district schools in New Hampshire in the autumn of 1857. The next autumn he was prin- cipal of the High School in Ashby, Mass. From this time he taught regularly winters, and some- times in the autumn, till the spring of 1862. In the spring of 1865 he became the principal of the Peterborough Academy, and held this position for nearly three years, at the same time studying medicine at the Harvard Medical School and at the Dartmouth Medical College. Graduated from the latter in November, 1867, with the first prize for scholarship, he began the practice of medicine the following month, established in the town of Townsend, Mass. In 1870 he removed to Cam-

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bridge, where he has since resided. He was made surgeon of the Fourth Battalion, Massa- chusetts Infantry, in 1874, and medical director of the First Brigade in 1877 ; and was appointed medical examiner for Middlesex County in 1877. He organized the Cambridge Dispensary in 1873, and was its clerk for six years ; was visit- ing physician to Avon Home from 1873 to 1879 ; and has been visiting physician and surgeon to the Cambridge Hospital since the opening of that institution. He is also professor of clinical medi- cine in Tufts College Medical School. In Town- send, and afterward in Cambridge for a long period, Dr. Hildreth rendered most efficient ser- vice on school committees. He was a member of the Townsend School Board from 1868 until his removal to Cambridge, and served on the Cam- bridge School Board from 1873 almost continu- ously to 1889, being chairman of the High School committee the last three years. Among the notable things accomplished by Dr. Hildreth as a member of the Cambridge School Board were : the establishment of the rule that scholars coming from homes where there were contagious diseases, espe- cially scarlet fever and diphtheria, could not be al- lowed to attend school,- a rule now in force in all the cities and towns of New England and probably in the United States, and which Cambridge was the first in the country to make : the securing of a systematic and thorough inspection of the sanitary condition of all the school-houses in the city, with an elaborate report of the committee, of which he was chairman, in large part his work, which brought afterward some good fruit for better school-houses; the introduction of the laboratory methods in the High School for the teaching of chemistry and physics with a completeness not before attained ; and securing the division of the High School into a Latin School and an English High, and the building of probably the most com- plete high school building, as far as lighting, heat- ing, and ventilation are concerned, in the country. He is a trustee of the Boston Dental College ; a trustee of the New Ipswich Public Library ; presi- dent of the Boston Alumni of Dartmouth College : chairman of the executive committee of the General Alumni Association of Dartmouth Col- lege ; president of the Board of Trustees of the permanent funds of the Social Union of Cam- bridge, an organization similar to those in other cities called the Young Men's Christian Associa- tion ; president of the Society for the Study of the

Genealogy of the Hildreth Family; member of the St. Botolph Club of Boston and of the Colo- nial Club of Cambridge. As chairman of the advisory committee of the executive board of the alumni of Dartmouth, Dr. Hildreth made an elaborate report, which was regarded by friends of the college as the best work he has done outside of strictly professional work; and he has had the satisfaction of seeing two of the three things recom- mended by his committee constructed, and in active operation with much benefit to the college. -the athletic field and grand stand and the water-works for the town of Hanover. In 1885 he prepared a careful and interesting history of the gifts from the estate of Edward Hopkins, and in recognition of this work was the next year made one of the trustees administering them, hav- ing as associates l'resident Eliot, Roger Wolcott, and others of similar standing and note. In 1895 he was appointed by Governor Greenhalge a member of the State Board of Lunacy and Charity. Dr. Hildreth was married March 2, 1864, to Miss Achsah Beulah Colburn, of Temple, N.H. They have two sons and a daughter : John Lewis, Jr., Beulah Gertrude (now Mrs. Barrett), and Alfred Hitchcock Hildreth.

HOBART, ARTHUR, of Boston, treasurer and director of manufacturing and other corporations, is a native of Boston, born March 2, 1844, son of Aaron and Anna Mann (Brown) Hobart. His ancestry on the Hobart side is traced to Thomas Hobart, brother of the Rev. Peter Hobart, the first minister of the Old Ship Church in Hing- ham, and on the side of his father's mother to Kenelm Winslow, brother of Governor Edward Winslow of the "Mayflower" party; on his mother's side, to Colonel Nathan Tyler, an officer of the army of the Revolution. He was educated in the Boston public schools, primary, grammar, and English High. He graduated from the Dwight Grammar School in 1859, and from the English High in 1862, receiving from each the Franklin medal. He began business life as a clerk in the counting-room of William F. Freeman & Co., Boston, which he entered in 1862, and in 1863 was transferred to the service of the Etna Mills, a corporation organized in that year by Messrs. Freeman & Co. to do a woollen manu- facturing business at Watertown, Mass. Subse- quently, in 1888, he was made treasurer of the

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mills, which position he still holds. He is also at the present time a director of the West Point Manufacturing Company and the Lanett Cotton

ARTHUR HOBART.

Mills of West Point, Ga .; a director of the Win- throp National Bank of Boston and of the Boston Wharf Company; and a trustee and member of the investment board of the Franklin Savings Bank, Boston. In politics Mr. Hobart is an In- dependent Republican ; and, while he has held no public office, he has been active in public affairs, having given much attention to political reforms, such as those of the civil service, the Australian ballot, corrupt practice legislation, and caucus re- form, and aided materially in their advancement. He has been secretary of the Boston Civil Service Reform Association since its organization, and was one of the early members of the Boston Mu- nicipal League. He is a member of the Union Club and of the Unitarian Club. He was mar- ried November 2, 1881, to Miss Anna E. Turner, of Vineland, N.J.

HUBBARD, ORRIN CALVIN, of Boston, mer- chant, was born in Rowley, May 13, 1851, son of Calvin and Mary E. (Chaplin) Hubbard. He is of New England ancestry, tracing back two hun-

dred years. He was reared on a farm, and edu- cated in the district school. At the age of nine- teen he came to Boston, and engaged with the firm of Brown & Wilcox in the hatter's trade. Here he remained for fourteen years, working in the manufacture of silk hats, and then ( 1884) entered business on his own account, establishing the firm of Lamson & Hubbard, in the hat and fur busi- ness, wholesale and retail. At the beginning the firm employed but a few hands; but its business steadily expanded, and the force increased until now upward of one hundred and fifty persons are required to do the work of the establishment. It is an extensive manufacturer of Knights Tem- plar regalia. Mr. Hubbard is connected with the Masonic fraternity, a past high priest of the Som- erville Royal Arch Chapter; and is a member of the Central Club of Somerville. In politics he is a Republican. He was married February 10,

O. C. HUBBARD.

1876, to Miss Amaryllis F. Faulkner, of Boston. They have one child : Amy Louise Hubbard.

HUMPHREYS, RICHARD CLAPP, of Boston, trustee of estates, was born in Dorchester, June 10, 1836, son of Henry and Sarah Blake (Clapp) Humphreys. He has the distinction, rare in this

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country, of having been born on a family home- stead dating back to the early seventeenth cen- tury. His first ancestors in America, James and Joseph Humphreys, father and son, came from England in 1634, and, settling in Dorchester, erected a house on their farm on the spot where their descendants in the direct line have ever since lived. The house has been twice rebuilt, but a portion of the original one is yet preserved in the present structure. Mr. Humphreys is of the seventh generation born on this historic spot. The Humphreys farm, occupying a large territory, has been so subdivided from time to time with the growth of Dorchester that within its original limits are to-day the dwellings of three hundred families. Henry Humphreys, the father of Rich- ard C., born April 8, 1801, and still living in the old house, carried on the tanning business in Dor- chester, which had descended in the family from the first Humphreys, until his retirement from active pursuits. Mr. Humphreys's mother, also a native of Dorchester, was born near the spot where the first free public school in this country stood. He is the oldest survivor of a family of thirteen children. He attended school, beginning at the age of four, in a wooden school-house still standing, which then occupied the site now covered by the Edward Everett School-house, but was afterward moved to another lot. This accommo- dated a primary and grammar school; and he passed through both grades, graduating in 1851. The following year he entered the grocery store of J. H. Upham & Co. at Upham's Corner, Dorches- ter, as a boy, and nine years later became a part- ner. He continued in this business for twenty years, and next entered the real estate business in Boston, associated with Holbrook & Fox, where he remained eight years. Then retiring, he en- gaged in his present occupation, that of trustee of estates, receiving in course of time more than fifty appointments from the courts as executor, admin- istrator, trustee, or guardian. Much of his time for the past twelve or fifteen years has also been given to charitable, philanthropic, and educational work. During the greater part of this period he has been president of the Dorchester Branch of the Associated Charities of Boston, president of the Dorchester Employment and Relief Society, and an overseer of the poor; and he is now connected with upward of twenty beneficent and religious organizations, the list including the Mas- sachusetts School for Feeble-minded, the New

England Hospital for Women and Children, the Boston Home for Incurables, the Municipal Re- form League, the Unitarian Sunday School Union, the Christian Register Association, the Dorchester First Parish Sunday-school, and others. Since 1888 he has been a member of the Boston School Committee, in that body serving as chairman of the committees on nominations, supplies, school- houses, and annual report, and having a part in much of its important work ; and has interested himself meanwhile in various municipal reforms. He is prominently connected with the First Parish Church of Dorchester,- now the oldest religious

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RICHARD C. HUMPHREYS.

society in Boston, with which the Humphreys family have worshipped since the first coming of James and Joseph in 1634,- being treasurer of the society and associated in the diaconate with his father, who has held the office for sixty years ; he is president of the Norfolk Unitarian Confer- ence, having held that position for more than ten years, treasurer of the Unitarian Sunday School Society for the past ten years; and is at present associated with various activities of the Unitarian denomination. In politics he is an Independent Republican, conservative in his views, strong in his convictions, quick to " bolt" a bad nomination and to lead or join an unpopular movement in the

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principles of which he believes. Mr. Humphreys was married March 5, 1863, to Miss Sarah F. Beals, of Dorchester, by whom he had one son : Clarence B. Humphreys. She died in 1889. . He married second, June 30, 1892, Mrs. Susan M. Clapp, daughter of Alexander Campbell, of Cherry- field, Me.

JACKSON, WILLIAM BENJAMIN, M.D., of Lowell, was born in Dracut, February 28, 1853, son of Henry and Elizabeth ( Butterworth) Jack- son. His parents were middle-class English peo- ple who came to this country in the forties.

WILLIAM B. JACKSON.

After a few years in the mills in Lowell his father moved the family to Stowe, Vt., where they lived on a farm till 1871 ; and in 1875 they returned to Lowell. He was educated in com- mon and high school in Vermont, at the State Normal School in Plymouth, N.H., and at the New Hampshire Conference Seminary in Tilton, N.H. He taught school three years in Vermont and New Hampshire, and then took up the study of medicine. One year was spent in the office of Dr. Pinkham in Lowell, and three years at the Harvard Medical School, where he graduated in 1880 ; and subsequently, in 1892, he took a post- graduate course in anatomy in the medical school.

He began practice immediately upon his gradua- tion in 1880, established in Lowell, and has since continued there. He has been a member of the staff of the Lowell Hospital since about 1886 ; surgeon to the Lowell General Hospital since its organization in 1894; gynæcologist to St. John's Hospital since 1893; surgeon to out-patients at St. John's since 1894; and agent of the Board of Health of the town of Tewksbury since 1894. He has no specialty, doing a general practice. But he is most interested in surgery and bacteri- ology. He has performed, either in the hospitals or in private practice, about all the major opera- tions. About the year 1886 he began to make examinations of sputa for tubercle bacilli for diag- nostic purposes. He was the first in Lowell to make a bacteriological diagnosis of diphtheria. For several years he has made microscopical ex- aminations of tumors for other physicians. He is prominent in medical organizations, having been a councillor in the Massachusetts Medical Society since about 1892 ; and treasurer of the Middlesex North District Medical Society for seven years, beginning about 1884. He was one of the organ- izers of the Lowell Medical Club and its presi- dent in 1894; and is a member of the Harvard Medical Alumni Association. Dr. Jackson is prominently connected also with fraternal organi- zations. He is a member of Waverly Lodge, Sons of St. George, was the first grand president of that order in this State, has been a representa- tive to the Supreme Lodge, and is now a member of that body; is senior deacon of Kilwinning Lodge of Freemasons, member of Mt. Horeb Chapter of Royal Arch Masons, and member of Pilgrim Commandery of Knights Templar. In politics he has never done anything more than to vote. He was a Republican until 1884, since which time he has been a Democrat. He was married May 10, 1882, to Miss Clara T. Clark, of Plymouth, N. H. They have had four chil- dren : William C. (born in 1883), Harry F. (born in 1885, died in 1887), Helen (born in 1889), and Lawrence M. Jackson (born in 1891).

JENKS, WILLIAM SAMUEL, of Adams, manu- facturer, is a native of Adams, born December 1, 1855, son of Edwin F. and Nancy S. (Fisk) Jenks. His paternal great - great - grandparents were Edmund and Kesiah (Olney) Jenks, of Rhode Island ; his great-grandparents, Samuel and

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MEN OF PROGRESS.

Lurania (Ballou) Jenks ; and his grandparents. Daniel and Lucy (Brown) Jenks. He was the youngest of a family of four, the others being

W. S. JENKS.

Edmund D., Charles C., and Lucy B. His edu- cation was acquired in public and private schools, attending the former until nine years of age, then a boarding-school at Clinton, N.Y., for two years, and Mills Institute, South Williamstown, where he was prepared to enter Williams College in 1873. From 1875 to 1880 he made a thorough study of the manufacture of paper at Holyoke, under the supervision of his brother, Charles C. Jenks, who is now president of the Whiting Paper Company of Holyoke, and the L. L. Brown Paper Company of Adams. Subsequently he was associated with Charles E. Legate in the merchant tailoring and ready-made clothing business, under the firm name of Jenks & Legate, at Adams for a period of eight years. He is now a director of the L. L. Brown Paper Company, also a director of the First National Bank of Adams, and clerk of the South Adams Savings Bank of Adams. Mr. Jenks has served his town as chief of the fire department for four years, and is now serving a second three years' term of the prudential committee of the Adams fire district. In 1893 he was first elected to the Legislature for the term of 1894, and, re-

elected, is now serving his second term. During his first term he was a member of the committee on printing, and in his second term on the com- mittee on roads and bridges, active as clerk of the committee. In politics he has always been a Re- publican and a Protectionist. He belongs to the Masonic fraternity, a member of the Berkshire Lodge, the Corinthian Chapter, the St. Paul Commandery, Knights Templar, and the Aleppo Temple, Mystic Shrine ; and he is also a Knight of Pythias, member of Adams Lodge, No. 67. lle was married October 13, 1881, to Miss Cor- nelia Bliss Dean. They have two children : Mildred Dean and Jessica Estelle Jenks.

JONES, LOMBARD CARTER, M.D., of Melrose, was born in Sandwich, February 17, 1865, son of Isaiah T. and Hannah C. (Weeks) Jones. He is descended on the paternal side from William Bradford, the second governor of the Plymouth Colony. On the maternal side the male members of the family were almost all seamen, and among

LOMBARD C. JONES.

them were some of the most successful whaling captains who ever sailed from New Bedford. His preparatory education was acquired in the public

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schools of Sandwich, graduating from the high school in 1882, and his collegiate training at Har- vard, where he graduated " cum laude " in 1887. Entering the Harvard Medical School in Septem- ber following his graduation from the college, he graduated there in June, 1890, and at the begin- ning of the next year entered the Boston City Hospital as first surgical house officer, where he served until July, 1892. Then in September of that year he began the regular practice of his pro- fession in Fall River. Three months later, how- ever, he moved to Melrose, where he has since been established. While in college, he was a member of the Pi Eta Society, of the Harvard Athletic Association, and of Theta Delta Chi: at the medical school, of the Boylston Medical So- ciety and of the Doctors' Club. He is now a member of the Massachusetts Medical Society, of the Harvard Medical Alumni Association, and of the Boston City Hospital Club ; and is connected with the Masonic fraternity as a master Mason.

KELLEY, SETH WIGHT, M.D., of Woburn, is a native of Maine, born in Oxford, June 26, 1848, son of Cyrus Kingsbury Kelley, M.D., and Mary Moore (Wight) Kelley. On the paternal side he is a descendant of John Kellie, of the parish of Kellie, Devonshire, England, who came to AAmer- ica in 1710, and settled in New Hampshire ; and on the maternal side he descends from Seth Wight, of the Isle of Wight, who was one of the first settlers of Western Maine. He was educated at the Plymouth (N.H.) Academy, graduating in 1862, at Kimball Union Academy, Meriden, N. H., graduating in 1865, and at Dartmouth College, graduating in 1869, with the degree of A.M .; and his preparation for his profession was at the Har- vard Medical School, where he graduated M.D). in 1874. During the latter part of his course at Dartmouth he was also engaged in teaching, as principal of the Haverhill (N. H.) Academy (1868- 69); and in 1869-70 he was assistant principal of the Monson (Mass.) Academy. While at the medical school, he was an assistant in the Boston Dispensary, 1872-73, and hospital interne in the United States Marine Hospital, 1873-74. He began regular practice in Cambridge in 1874, removing to Woburn the following year. In 1893-94 he was chairman of the Woburn Board of Health. He has served two terms (1876-77) as a member of the School Committee. Dr.

Kelley belongs to a number of professional and other associations, in several of which he holds or has held official position. lle was president of the East Middlesex Medical Society in 1884-85- 86; is a councillor of the Massachusetts Medical Society, having served since 1887 ; was president of the Pine Tree Club of Woburn in 1890-91 ; has been vice-president of the Woburn Suffrage League since 1885 ; and is also a member of the Boylston Medical Society, of the Handel and Haydn Society, Boston, of Phi Beta Kappa (Dart- mouth), of the Dartmouth, Harvard Medical, and Kimball Union Academy Alumni associations,

SETH W. KELLEY.

and of Psi Upsilon Fraternity. He belongs to the Masonic fraternity, a member of Mt. Horeb Lodge ; and to the Ancient Order of United Work- men, member of the Mishawum Lodge. He was married July 26, 1883, to Miss Emma Amanda Putnam. She died in 1890, leaving one child : Christine Putnam Kelley (born June 17, 1885).

KRAUS, ADOLPH ROBERT, of Boston, sculptor, is a native of Germany, born in Zeulenroda, Au- gust 5, 1850, only son of Adolph and Amalie (Krause) Kraus. He attended public school in

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MEN PROGRESS.

his native place, and began practical work in the line of his profession when not quite fourteen years of age, in carving stone and wood, model- ling and designing for art industry and for decora- tive purposes generally. Before long he ex- changed the workshops for studios, becoming an assistant to sculptors of note. He was well paid for his labors, and through the practice of econ- omy was enabled at the age of twenty-three to go to Rome and pursue his art studies there. He first studied the antique under Professor Emilio Wolf (Thorwaldsen's intimate friend). When he had been but a year in the Eternal City, he re- ceived the first prize in the newly established Royal Institute of Fine Arts, founded by the Ital- ian government, which had a few years before oc- cupied Rome, reformed all educational institutes, and closed the Papal Accademia di San Luca, opening this institute in its place, with Professors Monte Verde, Masini, and other sculptors of the modern realistic school as teachers. His work for which the prize was awarded represented " A Puritan." In consequence of this achievement he received a small pension from the Prussian government (Cultus ministerium) by order of Em- peror William. Then, believing in Fortune's smile, he opened a studio and undertook ambi- tious work,-modelling an Eve, an Indian in combat with a snake, and "The Last Moments of a Condemned," in the latter expressing his abhor- rence of capital punishment and the destruction of a beautiful human being. These, however, proved to be too great undertakings for a slender purse ; and in 1876, in the hope of earning money sufficient to complete them, he returned to Ger- many, where he engaged in teaching in a large school of architecture, modelling meanwhile por- traits and doing other work. A desire to see London drew him to that city in 1877; but, after in vain struggling to establish a studio there, he decided to come to this country. He had then married an English lady, Miss Anme Cullimore. They arrived first in Philadelphia, in 1881; and his observations in that city gave him the impres- sion that a sculptor could not speedily prosper in America. But before returning to Germany he wished to visit New York, Boston, and other cities. Boston with its surroundings, the finest of any great city he had seen, impressed him most favorably; and he decided to remain here, for a while at least. At this time Carl Fehmer, the architect, was building the house of Governor

Oliver Ames in Commonwealth Avenue; and Kraus was persuaded by him to model the deco- rative statuary for the interior. Thereafter, Mr. Fehmer and Mr. Ames were both helpful in ad- vancing him as a Boston sculptor. Upon his suc- cess in a competition for a bust of the poet Karl Heinzen (now in Forest Hills Cemetery, Roxbury) he opened his studio here. His next important success was in the competition for the Theodore Parker monument, for which there were twenty- two competitors. Reliefs on this work, which he subsequently produced, - " Awakening," " Truth unmasking Error, " and " Humanity " taking to her

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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 77

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