Men of progress one thousand biographical sketches and portraits of leaders in business and professional life in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Part 79

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 79

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F. H. MORSE.

home and abroad, in the newer theories of elec- tricity as applied to medicine ; and after much in- vestigation of the subject, making frequent trips

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to New York and visiting some of his old college professors who had become specialists in this method of treating many diseases, he fitted his office with all the best appliances he could find in the country. In 1892 he went to Europe still further to study the subject, and spent the greater part of his time abroad in Paris, where the best opportunities were offered. Upon his return he opened an office in Boston on Boylston Street, and is now established on Beacon Street as an electro-therapeutic specialist. He is also lecturer of electro-therapeutics in the Tufts College Medical School. Dr. Morse is a member of the Massachusetts Medical Society, of the Gynaco- logical Society of Boston, and of the American Electro-therapeutic Association. He is connected with the Masonic fraternity, a member of the Hugh de Payens Commandery, Knights Templar, and with the Odd Fellows, belonging to the Mel- rose Lodge. He is a member also of the Melrose Club. He was married October 31, 1881, to Miss Mary Elmira Maxwell, of Lewiston, Me., only daughter of O. M. Maxwell, a prominent mer- chant of that city. They have one child : Mildred M. Morse (born in 1884).

MORSE, NATHAN RANSON, A.M., M.D., of Salem, was born in the town of Stoddard, N.H., February 20, 1831, being the first-born child to Nathan and Jane (Robb) Morse, well known and honored in the community, who reared a large family of eight children,- four sons and four daughters,- all of whom are alive and in good health (1895), and alike honored in the community in which they reside, not one of whom has ever used tobacco or alcoholic stimulants. He is, on his mother's side, grandson of Captain Samuel Robb, of Stoddard, who served in the Revolution under General Stark; and, on his father's side, great-grandson of Deacon Eli Morse, of Dublin, N.H., who was the second son of Nathaniel Morse, of Medford, Mass., and he a great-grandson of Samuel Morse, the distinguished Puritan ancestor who emigrated from England to America with his family in 1635 at the age of fifty, in the ship " Increase," and settled in Ded- ham, Mass., where he was one of the most promi- nent among the leading spirits in the settlement, and its town treasurer for many years. The early life of Dr. Morse, like that of most country boys, was spent upon the farm, with such limited in-

struction as the common schools of his native town then afforded. At the age of twenty-one he resolved that he would fit himself for college, and, if possible, work his way through. This he successfully accomplished by teaching school in the winter, selling books, and canvassing for sub- scriptions during the summer vacations. He attended two terms at Tubbs Union Academy, Washington, N. H., under Professor Dyer H. San- born, and completed his preparatory fitting at Nashua, N.H., as a private pupil, in connection with the late Dr. J. H. Woodbury, of Boston, under the tuition of that classical scholar and dis-

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NATHAN R. MORSE.

tinguished instructor, the late M. C. Stebbins, A.M., of Springfield, Mass., who later was the in- structor and mentor of the Rev. Dr. Charles H. Parkhurst, of New York, and now of world-wide renown. Entering Amherst College in 1853, at the urgent request of Mr. Stebbins, he was gradu- ated there in 1857. During his senior year he was publisher of the Amherst Collegiate Magazine. He was one of the best known students in col- lege,- prominent in the famous foot-ball game of the freshmen in 1853, also in assisting l'resident Edward Hitchcock in securing some of the most noted bird-tracks in the Connecticut valley, and in other geological work; but more especially

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known through his prominence in political life. he being the only Democrat in his class during the Kansas-Nebraska excitement of 1854-55. under the administration of Franklin Pierce. After graduation Dr. Morse taught school in Marion and Duxbury, was principal of the High School, Holyoke, in 1859 and 1860, and spent the ever-memorable winter of 1860-61 as private tutor in the families of W. A. Parks, Ouachita City, and his father, the Rev. Levi Parks, Bas- trop, La. Returning north in June of 1861, after the Civil War had begun, he entered the Harvard Medical School, and, continuing his studies at the medical department of the University of Vermont. graduated from the latter in June, 1862, the first in his class. In August, the same year, he lo- cated in the town of Reading, Mass., and there engaged in the successful practice of medicine. After a few months' residence in the town, upon the resignation of Master Batchelder, chairman of the School Committee, he was appointed a mem- ber of the board, and was at once elected chair- man, to which position he was re-elected each suc- ceeding year till his resignation in July, 1865, upon his removal to Salem, where he also subse- quently served on the School Committee for a period of six years. He has resided in Salem since 1865, and for several years enjoyed one of the largest clientage in his profession in that his- toric city. Dr. Morse has a kind word and a large heart, full of sympathy for all in distress : and no worthy applicant comes to him for aid or assistance and goes away empty-handed. He is genial in his intercourse with others, but firm and independent in his conviction of duty. He is never idle, a man of great energy, large enthusi- asm, and strict integrity, who never shirks respon- sibility in the discharge of any duty. He has been repeatedly urged to accept offices of honor and trust in his adopted city, but has firmly re- fused all, save that of membership in the School Committee. He stands high in his profession as a physician, his services being often required in consultation outside of his immediate practice. He was professor of diseases of children in the medical department of Boston University from 1874 to 1879, and one of the founders of the in- stitution. He was secretary of the Massachusetts Homeopathic Medical Society during 1878-79, edited volumes IV. and V. of the society's Transac- tions, and was its orator in 1874. He was secre- tary of the Essex County Homeopathic Medical

Society from 1872 to 1879. and then its presi- dent, and he was also president of the Massachu- setts Surgical and Gynacological Society ; and he is a senior member of the American Institute of Homeopathy. In 1854 he first joined a secret society in college during his freshman year; but the " Know Nothings " appeared the same year, and, being disgusted with much of their political work, he renounced all affiliation with secret or- ganizations till the year 1866, when, forming a favorable opinion of Masonry, he made application to Essex Lodge of Salem, and was made a master Mason the same year. A few years later he joined the Odd Fellows, and he was a charter member of the North Star Lodge of the Knights of Pythias. He is a member of the thirty-second degree Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite and a ninety-fifth degree of the Royal Masonic Rite, and past most wise of Boston Rose Croix Chap- ter. In September, 1878, he was requested to examine a copy of the constitution and by-laws of the Royal Arcanum, and then give his opinion upon that form of graded fraternal insurance. His opinion being favorable, he at once became interested in forming Salem Council, No. 14, of the order. He was elected its past regent, and upon the institution of the Grand Council to Massachusetts was elected grand vice-regent. In February, 1879, he secured seventy-five charter members for a council of the American Legion of Honor. He was elected past commander of Naumkeag Council, No. 8, and upon the organiza- tion of the Grand Council of Massachusetts was selected for its grand commander, but, declining the honor, was elected the first representative to the Supreme Council of the order. He was honored in that body by being successively elected to the office of chaplain, sentry, and chair- man of the finance committee for three successive years. In March, 1880, after much solicitation, he organized John Endicott Colony, No. 9, United Order of the Pilgrim Fathers, in Salem, and be- came its first ex-governor, admitting him to the supreme colony. He was at once elected to the board of directors in that body, and subsequently supreme medical examiner, supreme lieutenant governor, and supreme governor in 1885-86-87. He is given the credit of having made the Pilgrim Fathers one of the best of the fraternal insurance associations now in New England during his long official connection with the order. In politics Dr. Morse has been a lifelong Jeffersonian Demo-

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crat. He has served as a member and chairman of the Democratic city committee and as presi- cent of the National Democratic Club of Salem. In 1886 he was the Democratic candidate for the Governor's Council, Fifth District, running some five hundred votes ahead of the ticket ; and he was suggested by a leading Democratic journal, the New Hampshire Patriot, as a suitable candidate, in every way qualified, for governor of the Commonwealth in 1889. In 1887 he pur- chased Baker's Island in Salem Harbor, and erected a hotel thereon, which he has since en- larged several times, making it one of the pleasantest of summer resorts on our beautiful New England coast. The island is reached by steamboats from Boston, Salem Willows, and Beverly ; and the sail from Boston is one of the finest excursions on the coast. Dr. Morse is sixty-four years of age, but he is as active and vigorous as most men at forty. He has been twice married. In 1859 he married Miss Lottie L. Barden, second daughter of the late Captain Frederick Barden, of Marion, formerly of Charles- ton, S.C., who for twenty years before the Civil War was the owner of the steamers now known as the " Gordon " and " Sumpter," famous Confeder- ate privateers. His first wife died in May, 1862, leaving two sons, Frederick L. and William N. Morse. In December, 1864, he married Miss Rebecca H. Brown, preceptress of Powars Insti- tute, Bernardston, Mass., only daughter of the late Joshua L. Brown, of Gorham, Me., by whom he has three sons : Charles Wheeler, George A., and Henry W. Morse; and one daughter, Helen B. Morse. The eldest son by his second wife is a young and promising physician and sur- geon in Salem, who spent the winter of 1893-94 in Vienna, perfecting himself for his life-work. George A. is a graduate of Amherst College, class of '91, and at present student in the Har- vard Law School ; and Henry W., the younger, is in the scientific department of Harvard Uni- versity.

MORTON, CHARLES, of Boston, civil engineer and landscape architect, is a native of Boston, born July 19, 1841, son of Josephus and Sarah (Lewis) Morton. He is a descendant of George Morton, who came from England to the Plymouth Colony in the ship " Ann" in 1621. His educa- tion was acquired in the Boston public schools, including the Franklin, Dwight, and English High

schools, and at the Norwich University, Norwich, Vt. (now at Northfield, Vt.), where he graduated in 1860. Upon leaving the military college, he was immediately employed in Southern Minnesota and Northern Jowa, engaged in surveying govern- ment lands. Then, returning East, from 1862 to 1865 he was employed on the Boston Back Bay Improvement, assisting in the development of the Commonwealth and Boston Water Power Com- pany's lands from Arlington Street to Chester Park (now Massachusetts Avenue), and Tremont Street to the same thoroughfare. In 1865 he be- came connected with the office of the Boston city engineer, and after a service here of two years as assistant entered the city surveyor's office, where he remained for eighteen years (1867-85), en- gaged during that period in much important work. He was next in charge of the street and bridge departments of the city as acting and deputy superintendent for two years, 1886 and 1887. The following year he was general superintendent of the Boston Heating Company. Then he re- turned to the service of the city as superintendent of sewers, which position he held through 1889

CHAS. MORTON.

and 1890. In 1891 he was appointed a member of the Board of Survey of the City of Boston, upon which he is still serving. He also continues

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the general practice of his profession as a member of the firm of Morton & Quimby, civil engineers and landscape architects. Mr. Morton is promi- nently connected with the Masonic fraternity, being a member of the Aberdour Lodge, St. Paul's Chapter. Roxbury Council. and Joseph Warren Commandery : is a member of the Wash- ington Lodge, Odd Fellows, of the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association, and of the Bos- ton and Roxbury clubs. In politics he is not a partisan. Ile is generally a Republican, but votes for the best man according to his judgment. He was married December 25, 1865, to Miss Annie H. Hunt, of Dorchester. They have no children.

MOTT. JOSEPH VARNUM, M.D., of Boston, is a native of New York, born in New York City. Sep- tember 5, 1849. eldest son of the late Henry A. Mott, a noted lawyer of New York City, and Mary Varnum Mott, daughter of Joseph B. Varnum. Ile is a grandson of Dr. Valentine Mott, of New York, known in his day as the "king of sur- geons." He was educated in the Lyons Institute and by private tutors, and graduated from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of New York in 1872. Thereafter he was connected with vari- ous hospitals and dispensaries. He was a mem- ber of the New York County Medical Society, of the Harlem Medical Association, of the Physi- cians' Mutual Aid Association, and of other medi- cal societies. He continued in general practice in New York until 1882, when he devoted two years to foreign travel, visiting Australia, Philip- pine Islands, China, Europe, and other parts of the world : and on his return in 1884, at the solicitation of friends, established himself in Bos- ton. Here he early enjoyed an extensive prac- tice. Of late years he has devoted his time to fraternal work, and holds official positions in a large number of philanthropic organizations. He is eminently qualified as a public speaker, and the subject of fraternity as presented by him never fails to interest and entertain the large audiences he often addresses. He is medical examiner for the Ancient Order of United Workmen, the New England Order of Protection, the Royal Society of Good Fellows. the American Legion of Honor, and the Bay State Beneficiary Association. In June, 1893, appreciating the desires of many of the members of the Ancient Order of United Workmen for an additional insurance, he organ-

ized the Workmen's Benefit Association, and asso- ciated with himself as incorporators Charles E. Spencer, Thomas F. Temple, Fred C. Ingalls, and

J. VARNUM MOTT.

other well-known Workmen. He is the supreme secretary and supreme medical examiner of the association ; and through his earnest efforts and liberal financial support it was enabled in less than ten months to pay the full benefit of one thousand dollars. Dr. Mott is also treasurer of the Good Fellows' Club, past grand ruler of the Royal Society of Good Fellows, chairman of the trustees of the Twenty-five Associates, and a jus- tice of the peace for this Commonwealth. He has been twice married, and has two children living : Marie Louise and J. Varnum Mott. Dr. Mott resides with his wife at Hotel Ericson, No. 373 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston.

MILES, CHARLES EDWIN, M.D., of Boston, chairman of the State Board of Registration in Medicine, was born in Stow, December 31, 1830, son of Charles and Sophia J. (Brown) Miles. He is of English ancestry, a descendant of John Miles, -then Myles,- settled in Concord in 1637, and made a freeman of Massachusetts Colony in

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1638. The family has continuously resided in Concord to the present time. His boyhood was spent on a farm in Marlborough, to which his par- ents removed soon after his birth. He attended the common schools till he was old enough to deter- mine his course in life ; and, choosing the profes- sion of medicine, he sought the wider training which the academy afforded. He first became a student in the Academical Boarding School, Berlin, Mass., and afterward took the course of the Prov- idence Conference Seminary at East Greenwich, R.I., interspersing his studies with teaching, as he relied largely upon his own resources for his edu-

C. EDWIN MILES.

cation. In 1856 he began the study of medicine in the office of Dr. Charles Putnam, of Marl- borough, and continued with Dr. F. H. Kelley, of Worcester, also studying at the Worcester Medical College, from which he graduated February 16. 1859. He began practice the following June in Roxbury, and has remained there continuously to the present time. He has always proclaimed his adherence to the principles of eclectic medicine, but has displayed a catholic spirit toward those of other views. It has been said of him, in a sketch of his professional life, that, while he is "a firm believer in the fundamental principles of modern eclecticism, and is recognized as one of

its ablest exponents, he has always advocated the broadest liberality in medical thought and prac- tice, and encouraged the fullest investigation among the different schools of medicine, deprecat- ing partisan strife and arrogant exclusiveness, and, regardless of isms and pathies, sought to establish the closest fraternal relations among all reputable members of the profession." He at- tained early in his career a superior position in his profession. In 1867 the Eclectic Medical In- stitute conferred the honorary degree of doctor of medicine upon him. In 1872 he was elected president of the National Eclectic Medical Associa- tion at its annual meeting in Indianapolis, Ind., and re-elected at Columbus, Ohio, in 1873, an honor which has never before been bestowed on any member. In June, 1894, he was appointed to the new State Board of Registration in Medicine, and in July was elected chairman of the board. He was a charter member of the Massachusetts Eclec- tic Medical Society, of the Boston District Eelec- tic Medical Society, and of the Boston Eclectic Gynacological and Obstetrical Society, and has been president of each of these organizations. He has contributed much to the periodical and other literature of eclectic medicine, and is at present one of the associate editors of the Massa- chusetts Medical Journal. Among his principal published papers are : "Glimpses at the Medical Art and Profession of the Present Day," the annual address before the Massachusetts Medical Society, June 6, 1867 ; " Reminiscences and Con- clusions drawn from an Obstetric Practice of Twenty-two years," read before the Boston Eclec- tie Gynacological and Obstetrical Society ; " Chlo- rosis," read before the National Eclectic Medical Association, June, 1883 ; "Resume of Typhoid Fever," read before the Boston District Eclectic Medical Society, September 13, 1892 ; and "La Grippe and its Treatment," read before the Mas- sachusetts Eclectic Medical Society, June, 1893. Dr. Miles is also prominent in the Methodist Episcopal Church, which he joined in 1848, and is an active mover in all its organizations as a lay- man. He was elected president of the Methodist Social Union in December, 1891. In politics he has pronounced opinions, but has never sought office. For two years he served in the Boston School Committee. He was married in 1866 to Miss Eunice Peirce Dyer, of Boston. They have had one daughter (born January 25, 1868 : died, July 28, 1871).

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MUDGE, FRANK HERBERT, of Boston, printer, was born in Boston, February 10, 1859, son of Alfred A. and Abby C. (King) Mudge. He is

FRANK H. MUDGE.

descended from the Mudges coming from England in 1640, and settled in Boston ; and on the mater- nal side from Governor Bradford of the Plymouth Colony. He was educated in the Boston schools. Learning the printer's trade, he entered the print- ing business in 1875, and five years later was ad- mitted to the firm of Alfred Mudge & Son. For the past ten years he has been the sole proprietor of the business. He now employs about two hun- dred hands, and is engaged in the general print- ing business of high grade. He has served as vice-president of the United Typotheta of Amer- ica and as president for two years of the Boston Master Printers' Club. He was connected with the Massachusetts Militia for several years, serv- ing as lieutenant in Battery AA, and in 1892 was adjutant of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company. He belongs to the Masonic fraternity, the Odd Fellows, the order of Red Men, the Knights of Pythias, the United Order of Work- men, and the Elks, and is a member of the Boston Athletic Club and of the Orpheus Musical Society. Mr. Mudge was married in 1882 to Miss Agnes V. Green, of Boston. They have no children.

PARKMAN, HENRY, of Boston, member of the Suffolk bar, is a native of Boston, born May 23, 1850, son of Samuel and Mary Eliot (Dwight) Parkman. The Parkmans were early settlers in Massachusetts, and his great-great-grandfather, Ebenezer, was pastor of Westborough, Mass., for over fifty years ; and on his mother's side he is descended from the Eliots, Atkins, and from Gov- ernor Dudley, at one time governor of the P'rov- ince. He was educated at Chauncey Hall, in Mr. Dixwell's school, under private tutors, and at Har- vard College, graduating in the class of 1870. Subsequently he studied law in the Harvard Law School and in the office of Russell & Putnam, Boston, and was admitted to the bar in June, 1874. He has practised in Boston from that time. He has performed much public service, beginning in the Common Council of Boston, of which he was a member for six years,- from 1879 to 1884, inclusive,- and continuing in both branches of the Legislature. He was a representative in the lower house for Ward Nine of Boston in 1886 -87-SS, and a senator in 1892-93. During his service in the House he was a member of the

HENRY PARKMAN.

committees on rules, labor, bills in the third read- ing, cities, street railways, and constitutional amendments ; and in the Senate chairman of the

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MEN OF PROGRESS.

committees on cities and on rules, and member of those on election laws and on parishes and relig- ious societies. In 1894 he was a member of the Prison Commission. In politics Mr. Parkman is a Republican, active in the party organization. He has been president of the Republican city committee of Boston at various times. He is a member of the Union Club, of the Boston Ath- letic Association, of the St. Botolph, Exchange, Country, Puritan, and Eastern Yacht clubs. He was married August 21, 1890, to Miss Mary Fran- ces Parker, of Newark, N.J. They have three children : Mary Elizabeth, Edith Wolcott, and Henry Parkman.

PARKS, JOHN HENRY, of Duxbury, manufact- urer, is a native of Missouri, but of old New Eng- land stock,- on the paternal side of Connecticut, and on the maternal side of Maine. He was born in St. Louis, July 25, 1849, son of John C. and Mary McClellan (Drew) Parks. His father was a native of Meadville, Penna., and his mother of Newfield, Me. His paternal grandmother was

JOHN H. PARKS.

Lucretia Kirby, of Great Barrington, Mass. ; and his paternal grandfather, James Parks, of Clinton, Mich., both of old Connecticut stock, originally of

Middletown, Conn. The Drews were early Maine settlers, the present generation being prominent and highly connected in that section. Mr. Parks was educated at the Notre Dame University, South Bend, Ind., the Partridge AAcademy, Dux- bury, Mass., the McKendree College, Lebanon, Ill., and at Allen's English and Classical School, West Newton, Mass., where he finished. He began business life about 1866, with Woodward, Brown, & Co., commission merchants, then at No. 28 South Market Street, Boston, where he re- mained until 1869. In that year he married at Duxbury the only child of Samuel Loring, and entered the employ of Mr. Loring, in the latter's business at Plymouth, where he remained until 1882. In 1882 he became treasurer of the Cen- tral Manufacturing Company of Boston, and oc- cupied that position until August, 1886. This corporation then being dissolved, he returned to Plymouth, and in September that year became partner of Mr. Loring, under the firm name of Loring & Parks. Mr. Loring died in May, 1887 ; and Mrs. Loring continued with Mr. Parks under the same firm title until 1891. In May, 1891, the business was sold out to the Atlas Tack Corpora- tion of Boston, of which Mr. Parks was the prin- cipal promoter and organizer, and became its treasurer. This position he still retains. The corporation is the oldest and several times the largest maker of tacks and small nails in the world. Its business was founded in 1810, and consolidated in 1891. It has large works in Taunton, Whitman, Fairhaven, and Plymouth re- spectively, its mills at Taunton and Whitman being unapproached anywhere in the world, of their kind, in size and capacity. The company also has extensive warehouses, where it carries large stocks of goods, at New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Chicago, Lynn, Boston, and San Fran- cisco; and its trade reaches to all civilized na- tions. Mr. Parks is also a director of the Old Colony National Bank of Plymouth. In the com- munity in which he lives he has been prominent and influential in many ways. He is a trustee of the Partridge Academy, Duxbury; trustee of the Partridge Ministerial Fund, Duxbury; was for two years president of the Marshfield Agricultural So- ciety of Marshfield; and has been a justice of the peace for fourteen years. He has declined all public offices, though several times requested to accept prominent nominations. His politics are Republican. He is connected with the Ma-

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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 79

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