Men of progress one thousand biographical sketches and portraits of leaders in business and professional life in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Part 83

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 83

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ALLEN, THOMAS, of Boston, artist, was born in St. Louis, Mo., October 19, 1849, son of Thomas and Ann C. (Russell) Allen. He is of notable New England ancestry on the paternal side, and of Virginian on the maternal side. His great-grandfather, Thomas .Allen, native of North- ampton, Mass., was the first ordained minister in Pittsfield, beginning his ministry there in 1764, and continuing until his death in ISIo. He

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served in the War of the Revolution as a chap- lain, and took active part in the battle of Benning- ton, thereby becoming known as the "Fighting Parson of Bennington Fields." His wife, Eliza- beth, was a daughter of Jonathan Lee, of Salis- bury, Conn., a descendant of William Bradford, governor of the Plymouth colony. Jonathan, grandfather of the present Thomas Allen, was one of nine sons of the Rev. Thomas, and became a leading Berkshire farmer. He was some time member of the Legislature, one of the founders and an early president of the Berkshire County Agricultural Society, the pioneer society of its

THOMAS ALLEN.

class, and among the first to import merino sheep. Jonathan's son Thomas, father of the subject of this sketch, born in Pittsfield, was a graduate of Union College, Schenectady, N.Y. (1832); a lawyer, journalist, railroad president, and Con- gressman, and identified with the development of Western railroads and the resources of Missouri. He was founder of the Madisonian in Washington, D.C., the government organ during President Tyler's administration, and subsequently, in 1842, settling in St. Louis, became the undertaker of the great internal improvements of Missouri, served as State senator in 1850 and 1854, was the first president of the Missouri Pacific, and put on that

line the first locomotive that ever crossed the Mississippi, later engaged in building railways in the South-west and in opening up the extensive mineral wealth of his adopted State, and was a representative in Congress for the Second Con- gressional District of Missouri at the time of his death in Washington, in 1882. His wife, mother of Thomas, was only daughter of William Russell, of St. Louis, and formerly of Virginia, civil engi- neer. She was a woman of rare cultivation and artistic temperament, and gave to her son his taste for the fine arts. Mr. Allen was educated in the High School of Pittsfield, at Williston Sem- inary, Easthampton, and at the Washington Uni- versity, St. Louis. In 1869 he accompanied Professor J. W. Pattison of the Washington Uni- versity on an extended sketching expedition into the Rocky Mountains, making sketches himself merely as notes of the trip, with no thought then of following art as a profession ; but his interest in this work led him, upon his return, to perfect himself in drawing, and from that he was drawn into the artist's life. In 1871 he went abroad for systematic study in the art schools, intending to make a protracted stay in Paris. But, finding affairs there unsettled and the painters scattered, he went to Düsseldorf. Entering the Royal Acad- emy in the spring of 1872, he passed through the several classes, and graduated in 1877, having spent the vacations of each year in travel and study in various cities, visiting Holland, Belgium, France, England, and Bavaria. After finishing at Düsseldorf, he returned to Paris, and, settling in the artist colony in the suburb of Ecouen, re- mained there two or three years, painting indus- triously and producing notable work. In 1876 he sent over his first canvas for exhibition at the National Academy of Design in New York,- " The Bridge at Lissengen,"- which was well re- ceived by the critics. After nearly ten years abroad he returned to America in the spring of ISSo, and established himself in a studio in Bos- ton. That year he was made a member of the Society of American Artists, and in 1884 he be- came an Associate of the National Academy. Two years before he had first exhibited in the

Paris Salon, showing his " Evening in the Market Place, San Antonio," now owned by J. A Newton, of Holyoke. In the Salon of 1887 he was repre- sented by "On Guard," showing a majestic bull in the left foreground, with cattle grazing near by, and others lying among the field daisies. His

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first important exhibition in Boston was in the winter of 1883. Since that time his canvases have appeared in leading exhibitions there and in other cities from season to season. At the World's Fair, Chicago, he had four oil and three water- color paintings,- namely, " Moonrise," " Thor- oughbreds," "Under the Willows," "Coming through the Wood," " Portal of Ruined Mission of San Jose, Texas," "Pasture by the Sea," and "Changing Pasture, Dartmoor, England," - but was out of the competition, being a member of the National Jury and of the International Board of Judges of Award. Among his best known works, besides those already mentioned, are: " Moonrise : Over all the Hill-tops is Rest," now at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston ; "Maplehurst at Noon," owned by T. B. Clarke, New York; "Toilers of the Plain," owned by the Berkshire Athenaum ; " Maplehurst Herd " and " Upland Pasture," owned by J. Montgomery Sears, Boston ; "Guern- sey Water Lane," owned by Arthur Little, Boston ; "A Berkshire Idyl," owned by J. L. Graves, Bos- ton ; "Woodland Glade," in the collection of the late Professor Horsford, Cambridge: "Calm Evening, Gulf of Mexico," owned by Professor Whitney, Cambridge ; "Grasmere Meadow," owned by the Boston Art Club; and " Market l'lace, San Antonio," owned in Worcester. Mr. Allen is president of the Boston Society of Water- color l'ainters, president of the Paint and Clay Club, vice-president of the Boston Art Club, 1889 to 1894, and member of the permanent committee of the School of Drawing of the Boston Art Museum. He was married first, at Northampton, June 30, ISSO, to Miss Eleanor G. Whitney, daughter of Professor J. D. Whitney, of Cam- bridge. She died at Ecouen, France, May 14, 1882, leaving one child : Eleanor Whitney Allen. He married second, October 23, 1884, at Boston, Miss Alice Ranney, daughter of the Hon. Am- brose A. Ranney. They have two children : Thomas Allen, Jr., and Robert Fletcher Allen.

AUSTIN, JAMES WALKER, of Boston, member of the bar, was born in Charlestown, January 8, 1829, son of William and Lucy (Jones) Austin. His father, a graduate of Harvard College of the class of 1798, was some time senator and repre- sentative for Middlesex County in the General Court and a member of the Suffolk Bar. He was the author of "Peter Rugg, the Missing

Man," and other New England tales, and of " Let- ters from London." Thomas Wentworth Higgin- son in one of his essays has called him "the precursor of Hawthorne." A volume containing his writings under the title of "The Literary Papers of William Austin, with a Biographical Sketch by his Son, James Walker Austin," was published by Messrs. Little & Brown of Boston in 1890. The Austin family of Charlestown are descended from Richard Austin, who became a freeman of that town in 1651, and from him descended Benjamin Austin, commonly called "Honestus." Jonathan Loring Austin, secretary

JAMES W. AUSTIN.

to Dr. Franklin in Paris, and afterward secretary of state and treasurer of Massachusetts, and the late Attorney-general James Trecothick Austin. Mr. Austin was educated at the Frainingfield School, and at Chauncy Hall School in Boston, when Gideon F. Thayer and Thomas Cushing, of fragrant memory, were the principals. He entered Harvard College, and was graduated in the class of 1849. He studied law at the Dane Law School, Cambridge, and received the degree of LL.B. in 1851. He was admitted to the Suffolk bar Janu- ary 22, 1851. In February of that year he sailed for California, and in August visited the Hawaiian or Sandwich Islands, where by the advice of

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Chief Justice William L. Lee he was induced to remain. He was admitted to the Hawaiian bar in September, 1851. In 1852 he was appointed dis- trict attorney for the Second Judicial District, holding that office for several years. He was three times elected a member of the Hawaiian Parliament, and was for a time the speaker of that body. By special act of the Legislature he was appointed one of the commissioners for the codifi- cation of the laws; and the Civil Code and the Penal Code of the Hawaiian Islands, the former published at Honolulu in 1859, and the latter in 1869, were the result of that commission. They were modelled largely from our Massachusetts Statutes, Judge Austin was also for some years the guardian of Lunalilo, who afterward became king ; and in 1868 he was appointed justice of the Supreme Court, which position he held with Elisha H. Allen, formerly a member of Congress from Maine, and afterward Hawaiian minister at Washington. He returned to Boston for the edu- cation of his children after a residence of twenty- one years in the Hawaiian Islands. Mr. Austin is a member of the New England Historic-Gene- alogical Society, of the Colonial Society of Mas- sachusetts, of the Unitarian Club, and an honorary member of the Hawaiian Historical Society. He was married to Miss Ariana E. Sleeper, daughter of the Hon. John S. Sleeper, late mayor of Rox- bury, July 18, 1857, and their children were : Her- bert, Charles, Walter, class of 1887 H.U., LL.B. Dane Law School, admitted to the Suffolk bar, 1890, William Francis (all born in Honolulu), and Edith (born in Boston).

BARTA, LOUIS, of Boston, printer, head of the firm of L. Barta & Co., the Barta Press, is a native of Boston, born November 24, 1854. He began as clerk in the commission house of Gard- ner Brewer & Co., and subsequently became connected with the Forbes Lithograph Company. In 1884 he, with Lorin F. Deland, organized the printing house of Deland & Barta, as successors to W. L. Deland & Son. This partnership continued until 1886, when Mr. Barta purchased Mr. De- land's interest, and has since been the sole owner of the establishment. The firm of L. Barta & Co. is a direct descendant of the Boston printing-office of Andrews, Prentiss, & Studley, founded over half a century ago, the line of succession including Prentiss & Sawyer, founded in 1851 ; Prentiss,

Sawyer, & Co., 1857 ; Prentiss & Deland, 1860 ; W. L. Deland & Son, 1877. Speaking of the diversity of the capacity of the Barta Press, the

L. BARTA.

leading advertising and printing expert has writ- ten : "There is no class of work from a visiting- card to a dictionary, from a newspaper to a book of plate engravings, that the Barta Press cannot handle as well as any establishment in the United States ; and there are few, if any, printing houses which have the material and originality to create the highest of high-grade display and press work. There is not an old press or a dead piece of type under the roof." Mr. Barta is a member of the Master Printers' Club, and was its secretary in 1889 and 1890. He is a member of the Calumet Club of Winchester, and was its president in 1891 and 1892.

BARTON, CHARLES CLARENCE, of Boston, member of the Suffolk bar, is a native of Con- necticut, born in the town of Salisbury, September 4, 1844, son of Pliny L. and Mary Ann (Lock- wood) Barton. His father, still living in his eighty-seventh year, filled many town offices, served three terms in the Connecticut House of Representatives and one in the Senate. Mr. Barton was educated in the public and private

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schools of Salisbury, at the Amenia Seminary, N.Y., and at Trinity College, Hartford, where he graduated in 1869. He passed his early life on his father's farm. During 1864-65 he taught school in Salisbury to obtain means to pay for his college education, and in his junior year taught in Milford, Del., at the same time doing the junior college work. After graduation he continued teaching for three years, from 1869 to 1871 having charge of a school in Watertown, Conn., and one year being master of the Great Barrington High School. He began the study of law in 1872 in the office of Ira T. Drew, and in the autumn of the same year entered the first class in the Boston University Law School, where he grad- uated in 1873. He was admitted to the Middle- sex County bar in April that year, before the close of the college season, and at once began practice in Boston. As a lawyer, his business has been largely in real estate and corporation law. From 1873 to 1875 he resided in Boston, Irom 1875 to 1893 in Newton Centre, and in 1893 returned to Boston. While living in Newton, he served as a member of the Common Council for the years

C. C. BARTON.

1878-79, president of the body the last year, and as member of the School Board from 1883 to 1889, chairman of the board the last two years.

Mr. Barton is now a member of the Boston Chamber of Commerce and of the University and Art clubs. He was married first, August 24. 1870, to Miss Emma Conant Drew, daughter of Dr. E. C. Drew, of Boston, who died November 24, 1886, leaving five children : Charles Clarence, Jr. (now in Boston University Law School), Ches- ley Drew, Katharine Louise. Philip Lockwood. and Elizabeth Conant Barton. He married sec- ond, April 5, 1893, Miss Katharine Haynes Drew. sister of his first wife.

BATES, JOHN LEWIS, of Boston, member of the Suffolk bar, was born in North Easton, September 18, 1859, son of the Rev. Lewis B., D.D., and Louisa D. (Field) Bates. He is a descendant of John Rogers, the martyr. His father is the pres- ent pastor of the Bromfield Street Methodist Epis- copal Church of Boston. His preparatory educa- tion was acquired in the public schools of Taun- ton and Chelsea and at the Boston Latin School. where he graduated in the class of 1878. Enter- ing Boston University, he graduated from the academic department in 1882 with the degree of A.B. : and then, taking the law school course, graduated LL.B. in 1885. After graduating from the college, and part of the time while a law stu- dent. he taught school, in Western New York in the years 1882 and 1883, and in the Boston even- ing schools during 1883 and 1884. He was ad- mitted to the Suffolk bar in 1885, and from that time has been engaged in active practice in Bos- ton. He has served in the Boston Common Council two terms (1891-92) and in the lower house of the Legislature : at present (1895) a rep- resentative for East Boston, having served also in 1894. In the latter body he served on the committees on insurance and revision of cor- poration laws in 1894, and in 1895 on the committee on insurance, and as chairman of that on metropolitan affairs. He has taken an ear- nest interest in local affairs, and in 1893-94 was president of the East Boston Citizens' Trade As- sociation. In politics Mr. Bates is Republican. He is connected with the Masonic fraternity as a member of Baalbec Lodge, with the order of Odd Fellows, member of the Zenith Lodge, and with the United Order of the Pilgrim Fathers, presi- dent of the latter organization in 1892-93-94. He is a trustee of the Methodist Episcopal Church Bethel of East Boston and of the Brom-

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field Street Church in the city proper. He is sec- retary and a director of the Columbia Trust Com- pany of Boston. Mr. Bates married July 12,

J. L. BATES

1887, Miss Clara Elizabeth Smith. They have had two children : Lewis B., 2d (born July 9. 1889, died December 31, 1891), and John Harold Bates (born May 10, 1893).

BICKNELL, ALBION HARRIS, artist, was born at Turner, Androscoggin County, Maine, March 18, 1837, son of Nehemiah Bosson and Louise (Drew) Bicknell. On both sides he descends from ancestors who bore an honorable part in the settlement and defence of New England. He is a lineal descendant of Captain John Bick- nell, of the British Navy, who came to this country with his family, and settled in Weymouth, Mass., in 1636. On the maternal side he is a lineal de- scendant of Thomas Bisbredge (the common an- cestor of the New England family of Bisbee), who came to America early in 1634, and settled in Plymouth. He is a great-grandson of Luke Bick- nell, of Abington, who was a private in Captain Reed's company. Colonel Bailey's regiment, at the Lexington alarm ; later corporal in Captain Reed's company, Colonel Thomas's regiment, at the siege

of Boston, eight months' service ; adjutant of the regiment raised to re-enforce the Continental army for three months from July, 1780; captain in Colo- nel Putnam's regiment in 1781 ; and for six years after the Revolution representative of the town of Abington in the Massachusetts General Court. Mr. Bicknell's early education was acquired in the public schools of Turner, Hartford, and Buckfield, Me. He began to study art at the age of four- teen, soon after coming to Boston with his father. He became a student at the Lowell Institute, and for a short time was under the instruction of Will- iam T. Carlton. In the Lowell Institute and in the Athena um he continued his studies from life and from the antique until he went abroad in 1861, and entered the atelier of Thomas Couture and the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where he remained, working indefatigably for two years. After the close of his student life in Paris he visited the principal art centres of other European countries, making a long stay in Venice. He re- turned home in the autumn of 1863, and opened a studio in Boston. Among his fellow-students in Paris with whom he was specially intimate had been D). Ridgway Knight, Thomas Robinson, J. Foxcroft Cole, George H. Boughton, and Sis- ley, the impressionist landscape painter. In Bos- ton Mr. Bieknell soon became intimately associated with William Morris Hunt, Joseph Ames, Elihu Vedder, Foxcroft Cole, and Thomas Robinson, and was among the foremost in laboring for the advancement of art. He was particularly con- spicuous in the formation of the once famous Allston Club, which, though of a brief life, had a positive influence in shaping the course of art in Boston. Mr. Bicknell was in the full tide of suc- cess, when his health failed, and forced him to seek the repose and quietude of the country ; and for the last twenty years his home and studio have been in Malden, where he has continued to apply himself to his profession with all the ardor of his youth. The range of subjects which he has painted is exceptionally wide, embracing marines, flowers, still-life, genre, landscape, portraits, his- torical compositions, and cattle pieces. The num- ber of his portraits is very large, and includes many distinguished public men. His " Lincoln at Gettysburg " and " The Battle of Lexington " are his two best known historical works, and rank high among American productions of this class. Both of these are very large canvases. The " Lincoln at Gettysburg " is of historical worth, as

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it contains twenty-two life-size portraits of the statesmen and generals of the period. It is now the property of the city of Malden, through the generosity of the llon. E. S. Converse. As an etcher and black-and-white artist, Mr. Bicknell is well known. His portfolio of etchings published by Dodd, Mead, & Co., New York, in 1887, gives a fair idea of his talent as an etcher. As an illus- trator, he is not without experience, having pro- fusely illustrated " Arcadian Days," by William Howe Downes ( Boston, 1891). As a landscape painter, and more recently as a cattle painter, Mr. Bicknell takes a high rank for the originality of his observation, the competence of his workman- ship, and the sympathetic and scholarly character of his interpretations. The essentially American quality and atmosphere of his pictures have been frequently remarked. Among his impressions of nature in New England there are some masterly pages of landscape art, conceived in a noble vein. and having a dignity, breadth, and grandeur of design as unusual as they are impressive. In person Mr. Bicknell is most interesting, genial, and delightful. He has been a great reader, and

A. H. BICKNELL.

the quiet and retired life he has led for so many years has given him uncommon opportunities to gratify his literary proclivities. His opportunities

for getting books have been of the best. and his knowledge of the best literature is as broad as his memory is phenomenal. As a student, Mr. Bick- nell has been possessed of a life-long persistency and an untiring passion for learning, not only in the technical branches of the artist's profession, but in all other directions, so that he has kept in touch with the literary, political, and business movement of the time as few artists are able or willing to do. Mr. Bicknell's intimacy with the late William M. Hunt was truly exceptional, and in many ways the two men were of great service to each other. The honorary degree of A.M. was conferred upon him by Colby University in 1884. Mr. Bicknell was married July 20, 1875, in Somer- ville, to Miss Margaret Elizabeth Peabody, daugh- ter of Oliver W. and Sarah (Simpson) l'eabody.

BOYDEN, ALBERT GARDNER, of Bridgewater, principal of the State Normal School, was born in South Walpole, Norfolk County, February 5, 1827, son of Phineas and Harriet (Carroll) Boyden. He attended the district school summer and winter until ten years of age, and in winter until eighteen. At fourteen years of age he decided to be a teacher, and strongly desired to go to college, but could not command the funds. Ile gave his evenings to study, determined to do the best he could for himself. He worked on the farm and in his father's blacksmith shop until he had mas- tered the trade at twenty-one years of age, and in the mean time had taught school three winters. On reaching his majority, he had good health, good habits, his trade, and the assurance of suc- cess in teaching. After earning a part of the requisite funds, he entered the State Normal School at Bridgewater, paying the remainder of his expenses by serving as janitor of the school. He was graduated from the school in November, 1849 ; taught a grammar school in Hingham dur- ing the following winter; received the appoint- ment of assistant teacher in the State Normal School at Bridgewater in July, 1850, and held the position three years under the distinguished founder of the school. Nicholas Tillinghast : was principal of the English High School in Salem from 1853 to 1856: next submaster in the Chap- man Grammar School, Boston, from September, 1856, to September, 1857: then first assistant again in the State Normal School at Bridgewater three years under the second principal, Marshall

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Conant ; and appointed principal of the school in August, 1860. That year he received the honor- ary degree of A.M. from Amherst College. He was a diligent student, studying under private tutors; and during the time he was assistant in the Normal School he was called upon to teach nearly all the studies in the course, and to make a careful study of the principles of teaching. Under his principalship the institution has ex- panded, the pupils have greatly increased, its methods of instruction have been improved and developed ; additions and improvements have been made from year to year to its buildings and

A. G. BOYDEN.

grounds, and it is now one of the best appointed normal schools in this country, enjoying a na- tional reputation. Mr. Boyden has long been prominent in educational matters, and has con- tributed much to the advancement of the teacher's art. From 1865 to 1870 he was editor of the Massachusetts Teacher, and he is author of numer- ous educational addresses. He has been presi- dent of the Plymouth County Teachers' Associa- tion, was president of the Massachusetts Teachers' Association in 1872-73, and of the Massachusetts Schoolmasters' Club in 1888-89. He is a mem- ber also of the Old Colony Congregational Club, and was its president from 1883 to 1888; mem-

ber of the Boston Congregational Club, and of the Bridgewater Normal Alumni Club. He is con- nected with the Central Square Congregational Society in Bridgewater, and has held the position of clerk of the organization since 1863, a period of thirty-two years. He has been a trustee of the Bridgewater Savings Bank since 1890. In politics he is a " straight" Republican. Mr. Boyden was married in Newport, Me., Novem- ber 18, 1851, to Miss Isabella Whitten Clarke. daughter of Thomas and Martha Louise (Whitten) Clarke. They have had three sons: Arthur Clarke Boyden, A.M., now the teacher of history and natural science in the Bridgewater Normal School ; Walter Clarke Boyden, deceased ; and Wallace Clarke Boyden, A.M., submaster in the Boston Normal School.

BOYLE, EDWARD JAMES, of Boston, merchant, was born in Millville, May 14, 1857, son of James H. and Isabella (Ford) Boyle. He is of Irish parentage. His general education was ac- quired in the grammar school of Millville and the High School of Blackstone; and he took the regular course of the Bryant and Stratton Busi- ness College in Providence. R.l., from which he graduated January 30, 1875. Immediately after graduation he started out as a canvasser, and travelled over New England for different com- panies, always on commission, never on salary. He had natural selling ability, a pleasing address, was a good talker, patient, persevering; and he made a success of everything he handled. Ile received tempting offers from several houses, which had heard of his success in disposing of goods, to manage their business. He preferred, however, doing business for himself, and, after four years' travelling, organized troupes of can- vassers, whom he trained to sell his goods on his plan. As his business increased, he placed com- petent managers in charge of these travelling salesmen, and opened an office in Providence, R.I., as his headquarters, where he engaged his canvassers, instructed them thoroughly, and sent them to various parts. Next, placing a manager in charge of this office, he opened a Boston office, which became his permanent headquarters. Sub- sequently he had thirty branch offices in New England, employing hundreds of salesmen on the road, and eventually worked up the largest busi- ness of its kind in this section of the country.

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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 83

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