Men of progress one thousand biographical sketches and portraits of leaders in business and professional life in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Part 84

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 84

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He has always sold his goods on the credit, or instalment, plan ; and at one time had twenty-five thousand open accounts on his books, requiring

E. J. BOYLE.

an office force of sixty-six clerks to follow, and a large number of collectors. Mr. Boyle is also interested in the credit clothing business, having a store at No. 851 Washington Street, Boston. His brother, Thomas F. Boyle, five years younger, was early associated with him, under the firm name of Boyle Brothers. He is not connected with societies or clubs, nor active in politics, giving his undivided attention to his business. He is unmarried.

BRACKETT, WILLIAM DAVIS, of Boston, manufacturer, is a native of New Hampshire, born in Londonderry, June 9, 1840, son of Will- iam D. and Almeria (Brown) Brackett, both natives of Eastham, Mass. When a child, his parents removed to Swampscott, Mass .; and there he was educated in the public schools, and began his business career. He left school at the age of twelve, and took a place in a general store kept by his father. At twenty he became propri- etor of the store, purchasing his father's interest, and conducted a successful business there until

1865. Then, coming to Boston, he formed a partnership with J. L. Goldthwait, under the firm name of Goldthwait, Brackett, & Co., and engaged in the wholesale and retail boot and shoe trade. In 1868, upon the death of Mr. Goldthwait, the firm of Cressey & Brackett was formed, composed of T. E. Cressey and Mr. Brackett, as manufact- urers and wholesale dealers in boots and shoes. Two years later Mr. Cressey retired, and the firm became Mann & Brackett. In ISSo Mr. Mann's interest was purchased by Mr. Brackett, and the firm name was changed to W. D. Brackett & Co., the present style. In 1889 W. H. Emerson and Mr. Brackett's son, Forrest G. Brackett, were ad- mitted as partners. The firm have several fac- tories, and do a large manufacturing business, to the general oversight of which Mr. Brackett gives his entire attention. He has held no public office other than that of town clerk of Swampscott for a number of years ; and, although a strong Re- publican, he has taken no public part in politics. He served in the Civil War as corporal of Com- pany E, Forty-fifth Regiment, Massachusetts Vol- unteers, during its term of service. He is a mem-

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W. D. BRACKETT.

ber of the Home Market Club, of the Boot and Shoe Club, and of the Hugh de Payne Command- ery, Freemasons. He was married January 1.

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1865, to Miss Sarah A. Lee, of Lowell. They have had one son and one daughter : Forrest G. (born November 3, 1868) and Blanche E. Brackett (born .August 3, 1870). He resides in Stoneham.

BUTLER, WILLIAM MORGAN, of New Bedford, member of the bar, president of the State Senate in 1894 and 1895, is a native of New Bedford, born January 29, 1861, son of James D. and Eliza B. (Place) Butler. He is lineally descended from Thomas Butler, who came to Lynn in 1629, and removed to Sandwich in 1637. Benjamin,

WM. M. BUTLER.

the great-grandson of Thomas, went to New Bed- ford in 1750, in which place the family of the sub- ject of this sketch has since lived. His grand- father, Daniel Butler, was prominent in the early business life of New Bedford ; and his father, the Rev. James D. Butler, was for many years con- nected with the ministry of the Methodist Episco- pal Church in the New England Southern and Providence Conferences. William H. Butler re- ceived his education in the public schools of New Bedford, and fitted for his profession at the Bos- ton University Law School, where he was grad- uated in June, 1884. He was admitted to the bar in September preceding his graduation, and has

practised in New Bedford from that time. He early came forward in public life ; and, after serv- ing one year in the New Bedford Common Coun- cil (188G), he was elected to the House of Repre- sentatives in 1889, and has served continuously in the Legislature, two terms in the House of Representatives (1890-91), and four in the Senate (1892-95), the last two years as president of the Senate. During both years of his service in the House he was a member of the committee on the judiciary of that branch ; and during his first two years of the Senate he served on the Senate committee on the judiciary, the second year as its chairman. He was also chairman of the joint special committee on administrative boards and commissions, and a member of the committee on mercantile affairs in 1892, chairman of the Sen- ate special committee to investigate the penal in- stitutions in 1893, and member of the committees on probate and insolvency, bills in the third read- ing, and printing. He was also a member of the joint special committee of inquiry into the Torrens system of land transfer, the committee to revise the corporation laws, and the committee upon the revision of the judiciary system. He is one of the youngest presidents the Senate has ever had, and was chosen to the position both years without op- position and by a unanimous vote. In politics, Mr. Butler is a Republican. He belongs to the local clubs of New Bedford, the Wamsutta and the Dartmouth, and is connected with the Ma- sonic fraternity and the order of Odd Fellows. He was married July 15, 1886, to Miss Minnie F. Norton, of Edgartown. They have three chil- dren : Morgan, Gladys, and Lawrence Butler.

CAMP, SAMUEL, M.D., of Great Barrington, is a native of Connecticut, born in Winsted, Litch- field County, May 5, 1829, son of Samuel Sheldon and Betsey (Mallery) Camp. His father and mother were also natives of Win- sted. He is of English descent and Puritan stock, who came to America from 1630-1640, and settled in Boston, New Haven, and Wethersfield, Conn. He is a direct descendant of Nicholas Camp who came from Nasing, Essex County, Eng- land, in 1638, married Catherine, widow of An- thony Thompson, and settled in Milford, Conn. He is also a descendant of Henry Buck, Nathan- iel Foote, John Robbins, Josiah Churchill, and Richard Treat, who were among the first settlers

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of Wethersfield, and Thomas Carter, first minister at Woburn, Mass. Ilis great-great-grandfathers were Lieutenant Samuel Gaylord and (Captain) Dr. Abraham Camp, who married Martha, daughter of Moses Parsons, and practised medi- cine in Windham, Conn., afterward moving to New Milford, thence to Norfolk, Conn. His great-grandfather was Moses Camp, who married Thankful Gaylord. He was a private in Captain Bostwick's company, Charles Webb's regiment, which crossed the Delaware on the eve of Decem- ber 25, 1776. Other members of the family served in the Revolutionary War, among whom

SAMUEL CAMP.

was Colonel Giles Jackson on Gates's staff, Ancestors of Dr. Camp were also more or less identified with the other wars of the country. The professions followed were those of ministry and medicine. Samuel Camp obtained his pre- liminary education in Norfolk, Conn., and began the study of medicine there at the age of fifteen years with Dr. William Welch. His collegiate training was at Woodstock, Vt., and at the Uni- versity of New York, where he was graduated March 5, 1851. He established himself first in New Marlborough, Mass., immediately after his graduation. Four years later he removed to St. Joseph, Mich. Then, returning to Berkshire

County in 1859, he settled in Great Barrington, and has resided there from that time, engaged in active practice as physician and surgeon. At the opening of the Civil War he was appointed by Governor Andrew to examine excepts from draft, and as recruiting agent ; and on the 21st of Sep- tember, 1861, he was made assistant surgeon of the Twenty-seventh Regiment, Massachusetts Volun- teers. In the following May, however, on the 27th he resigned the latter commission on account of ill-health. When his health was re- stored, he renewed his interest in procuring re- cruits ; and on October 17, 1863, when the call for three hundred thousand men for three years was made, he was again appointed at a special town meeting to enlist men, This agency he held until January, 1865. Dr. Camp has been surgeon of the D. G. Anderson Post, No. 196, of the Grand Army of the Republic, since its organization ; from 1877 to 1892 he was medical examiner for South- ern Berkshire; and from 1889-93 was United States pension examiner, under appointment of President Harrison. He was admitted to member- ship in the Massachusetts Medical Society, and of the Berkshire County Medical Society in 1852. In politics he has been a lifelong Republican. Dr. Camp was married August 12, 1852, to Miss Sarah J. Jones, of New York City. They have had four children : H. Isabel, Charles Morton, Frank Barnum, and Mary Emily Camp.

CHAGNON, W. JOHN BAPTISTE, M.D., of Fall River, was born at St. Jean Baptiste, in the county of Rouville, Province of Quebec, Decem- ber 28, 1837, son of Antoine and Marie Anne (Bernard) Chagnon. His first ancestor in Amer- ica was François Chagnon, who emigrated to Canada, then the New France, in the latter half of the seventeenth century, a wool-carder by trade, and the first to build on the St. Lawrence River one of those round stone windmills such as that now seen in Newport. John B. attended the element- ary and grammar schools of his native place, and then went to the Chambly Commercial College to take a business course. Not satisfied with this, however, he turned his attention to classical studies, and devoted some time to their pursuit in the college of St. Hyacinthe and St. Assomption. The study of medicine was begun in May, I858, first under Dr. F. X. Beigue, the local physician in his native town, who is still living at the age of

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eighty, and continued with Dr. M. Turcot, the leading physician of the city of St. Hyacinthe at that time. With this preparatory training he came to New York, and, entering the Medical College of the University of the City of New York, graduated there April 12, 1860. Upon his return to his native country to practise his pro- fession, he was obliged, on account of a protec- tive medical law just enacted there, to pass a new examination in order to insure his license ; and this he did the following year before the medical board of the University of McGill, receiving not only the regular degree of doctor in medicine, but

J. B. CHAGNON.

also that of master in surgery. For some years thereafter he practised in the town or parish of St. Dominique, a country place, with the ordinary success of all beginners. In 1867 he went to St. l'ie, where he enjoyed a wider field, with an increase of his professional labors. Equally pat- ronized by French Canadians and by the numer- ous wealthy English settlers of AAbbotsford, he soon achieved a popularity which brought him to a position among the foremost of citizens. Besides his professional duties he devoted some of his time to the education of the children of the town, and to the maintenance of order in cases of trouble and contention, acting in this respect as

justice of the peace. He also organized a company of fifty militia men, instructing them in his leisure hours, which body proved effective on the frontier against the Fenian raid in 1870. In the autumn of 1878 Dr. Chagnon became a candidate under the Mckenzie government on the issue of revenue tariff against high protection, having secured the nomination from his party in preference to the late ex-Premier Mercier. He opposed the Hon. A. Mousseau, and was beaten by a small majority in that memorable contest in which the Liberal Party was swept off. After this campaign, dis- gusted with the ungratefulness of both his friends and his own relatives, who had most opposed his election, Dr. Chagnon decided to seek another field of action. He then came to Fall River, bought a house in the suburbs, and opened a drug store in the city. A few years later he extended his business, taking another store in the centre of the city. In December, 1884, he went abroad, and spent the succeeding six months in Paris, attending there the lectures of able specialists, in branches which he proposed to practise upon his return. Meanwhile his business in Fall River had been left under the superintendence of his clerk, Aimé Barry ; and he had intrusted the education and care of his daughters (his wife having died in May, 1883) to Sister H. Alphonse, the superior of the convent of Marieville in Canada, and the instruction of his sons to the college of the same place. After a brief vacation in Germany and Italy, he returned, and, selling his interests in pharmacy, concentrated his attention again upon the practice of his regular profession, with suc- cess fully up to his expectations. Dr. Chagnon has trained several young men as pharmacists and physicians, among the number being Dr. A. W. Petit, now of Nashua, N.H .; Dr. \. Petit, of Phenix, R.I. ; Dr. L. Beaudry, of Pawtucket, R.I .; Dr. A. Langevin, of Millbury, Mass. ; Dr. E. Car- din, of Swanton, Vt. ; and Dr. N. Normand, lately graduated ; and, as pharmacists, Aimé Barry, now one of the leaders among the druggists of Fall River, his brother Aladin Barry, to-day a busy physician, and D. Jarry, one of the firm of Dan- durand, Pease, & Co., of New Bedford. In Canada Dr. Chagnon held the offices of justice of the peace, commissioner of the court of equity, president of the board of school committee in 1875 ; and was a member of the College of Phy- sicians and Surgeons of the Province of Quebec. In Fall River he was a member of the Common

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Council in 1883. He was one of the founders of the Good Samaritan Hospital of Fall River, now a prosperous institution. He is a member of the Histological Society of Paris, of the Massachu- setts Medical Society, of the Medical Association of Fall River, and of the South Bristol Medical Association. He has contributed a number of articles to medical publications. His single busi- ness interests outside of his profession are now the Lafayette Bank of Fall River, of which he is president, and the Fall River People Steam- boat Company, in which he is acting as director. Dr. Chagnon is a cosmopolitan practitioner, in the full sense of the term. He is patronized by all nationalities of his city. Dr. Chagnon married June 17, 1861, Miss Marie Victorine Desnoyers. by whom he had ten children. all of whom are yet living : Maria, Charles Emile (now a physician at Artie Centre, R.1.), Rosa Anna (now wife of Dr. A. W. Petit), L. Alfred (physician, practising in Mizola, Mont.), Maric Victoria (wife of Emery Paneton, druggist in Fall River), Marie Louise (wife of A. E. Lafond, editor of the Tribune of Woonsocket. R.l.), Concorde (wife of Dr. A. Petit, of Phenix. R.J.), Martha Zoe, Eugenie, and Blanche Chagnon. Dr. Chag- non is already grandfather of twelve children. Ile married second, in 1885. Mrs. Mary Ann Gigault Phaneuf, widow of D. Phaneuf, formerly a merchant of Canada, and sister of George Gigault, the deputy minister of agriculture in the Canadian government.

CHIASE, ANDREW JACKSON, of Boston, presi- dlent of the Chase Refrigerator Company, is a native of Maine, born in Hallowell, July 25, 1836, son of Oliver A. and Rachael (Trask) Chase, daughter of Elder Samuel Trask. llis maternal great-grandfather, when a lad, was captured, and made to serve as cabin-boy with the notorious pirate, Kidd, until the latter's craft and crew were taken by the English ; and it is said that the crew pleaded with their executioners to spare the boy's life, which was the only one spared. education was limited to the country school. At

His the age of seventeen he came to Boston, and there was first employed in the manufacture of what was then known as mineral waters and syrups. Upon the outbreak of the Civil War he was among the earliest to enlist, joining the Twelfth Massachusetts, Webster Regiment. He

served through the principal battles of the Poto- mac: and on May 23. 1864, was severely wounded at Jericho Ford, North Anna River, on the last march of Grant toward Richmond. For a year thereafter he was dependent upon crutches. Returning from the war, he resumed his former occupation. He first became engaged in the cold blast refrigerator business in January, 1866. under the first patent. This was subsequently greatly improved until the scientific cold-blast system was fully perfected. and the business meanwhile largely extended. There are now not less than ten thousand of the Chase Cold-blast

A. J. CHASE.

Refrigerator cars engaged in the fresh meat trade alone. The first successful shipment of fresh beef to Europe was made from Chicago to Boston in cold- blast cars, and then by steamship, fitted in like manner, by Mr. Chase in 1878 or 1879 ; and since that time large shipments have been regularly made by means of cold-blast preservation. Mr. Chase is also the well-known inventor of the scien- tific process for distilling pure water. Among other valuable discoveries of his is a method for extract- ing a meat and fish preserving and baconizing fluid from the sugar maple tree. He attributes his present youthful state to the constant use of aero-distilled water, which has been freely used

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for the past six years. He has never used tobacco or liquors of any kind. Mr. Chase is a member of the Massachusetts Charitable Me- chanic Association. In politics he has always been a practical reformer and Republican. He was married January 15, 1856, to Miss Sarah Harny, daughter of Captain John Harny, of Hali- fax, N.S. They have had a family of four chil- dren : Ella F., Warren 1., Sarah Edith (deceased), and Confucius Chase.

CHASE, CALEB, of Boston, merchant, was born in Harwich, December 11, 1831, son of Job and Phæbe (Winslow) Chase. His father was a ship- owner and a sea-faring man in early life, and afterward kept a general store in Harwich until about twenty years previous to his death, which occurred at the ripe age of eighty-nine. He was a public-spirited man, much interested and influ- ential in affairs, one of the original stockholders in the old Yarmouth Bank, and prominent in public enterprises of his day. Caleb Chase was educated in the public schools of Harwich, and

CALEB CHASE.

early went to work in his father's store, where he remained until he reached his twenty-fourth year. Then, coming to Boston, he entered the employ

of Anderson, Sargent, & Co., at that time a lead- ing dry-goods house of the city. After about five years with this firm, during which period he trav- elled in its interest, first through Cape Cod towns, and later in the West, he became connected with the wholesale grocery house of Cloflin, Saville, &' Co., beginning in September, 1859. This con- nection continued until the first of January, 1864. shortly after which he engaged in the business on his own account as a member of the firm of Carr, Chase, & Raymond then formed. In 1871 this firm was succeeded by Chase, Raymond, & Ayer ; and in 1878 the present house of Chase & San- born was organized for the importation of teas and coffees exclusively. Mr. Chase is now the head of the house, which ranks as the largest importing and distributing tea and coffee house in the country. Large branch houses are also estab- lished in Montreal and in Chicago. In politics Mr. Chase is a Republican. He has often been solicited to enter the field for public service, but he has invariably declined, preferring to devote his energies to his extensive business interests. He is a member of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company, and of the Algonquin Club. He was married in 1864 to Miss Salome Boyles, of Thurston, Me. They have no children.

COLE, JOHN NELSON, of Andover, editor and publisher of the Tironsman, was born in Grove- land, November 4, 1863, son of George S. and Nancy Emeline (Bodwell) Cole. His first ances- tor in America on the maternal side came in 1670. On his father's side he traces back four generations to settlers in New Hampshire. He was educated in Andover public schools and at the Punchard High School. Ilis business career was begun as clerk and paymaster in the office of the well-known Andover Woollen Mills of M. T. Stevens & Sons. In 1887 he purchased the An- clover Bookstore, and, as treasurer of a stock com- pany called the Andover Press, began the publica- tion of the Andover Townsman, and the conduct of a general printing and publishing business. He assumed the editorship of the Townsman in 1890. Under his direction the paper has been prosperous from the start ; and he holds that its success has come, in a large measure, from a strict adherence to two rules, -(1) that the local paper has only a local mission, and (2) that it is more important to leave out the wrong than to put

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in the right. in a home paper. It is now the only journal published in the town. The printing- office of the Andover Press has all the work in

JOHN N. COLE.

foreign languages as well as English for Phillips (Andover) Academy, the Andover Seminary, and other schools in Andover ; and in the last five years its business has more than doubled. Mr. Cole is a member of the Andover School Board, and has served in that body since 1893. He is connected with the Masonic fraternity. the Odd Fellows, the Royal Arcanum, and the Ancient Order of United Workmen. In polities he is Republican. He was married September 21, 1886, to Miss Minnie Poor, of Andover. Their children are: Abby, Beth, Margaret, and Philip l'oor Cole.

CONVERSE, JAMES WHEATON, of Boston, mer- chant, manufacturer, banker, benefactor, was born in Thompson, Conn., January 11, ISO8 ; died in Swampscott, August 26, 1894. He was son of Elisha Converse, farmer, and his wife, Betsey (Wheaton) Converse. His opportunities for an education were confined to the country schools, which he attended until he was thirteen, and to night schools and lectures in Boston afterward. When he was six years old, his parents removed

to Woodstock, Conn., two years later to Dover, Mass., and not long after to Needham. One day in 1821, then thirteen years of age, while hoeing with his father, he suddenly looked up into his father's face, and asked for his time, saying that he would like to go to Boston, believing that he could help the family more by so doing than by remaining on the farm. His father consenting, he started off with his belongings in a bundle, and upon his arrival in town at once found employ- ment with his uncles. Joseph and Benjamin C'on- verse, who were then occupying a stall in the Boylston Market. He began for five dollars a month and board as wages, and worked with such energy and faithfulness that within a few years he had made substantial progress. In 1828 he started out for himself, his uncles selling him part of the business upon his agreement to pay them for it as fast as he could. He worked regularly from four in the morning to ten at night, and by assiduity and prudence he was enabled to pay off his debt with such rapidity as to astonish his uncles. In 1831 he sold out this business, and on January 1, 1832, formed a partnership with William Hardwick, under the firm name of Hard- wick & Converse, to engage in the boot and shoe business, on the corner of Milk and Broad Streets. Just a year later he joined Isaac Field, and, under the firm name of Field & Converse, founded the hide and leather house with which he continued actively connected for nearly forty years. In 1838 Mr. Field retired ; and his brother, John Field, took his place. The first store of the firm was on Broad Street. Thence removal was made to Blackstone Street, from there to North Street, next to Pearl, and thence to High Street, where the house was long established. Mr. Converse finally retired from this business January 1. 1870. In 1836, upon the organization of the old Me- chanics' Bank of Boston. Mr. Converse was elected one of the directors of that institution ; and in 1847 he was made its president, which po- sition he held continuously until January, 1888. when he resigned. The Mechanics' was one of the few banks that went safely through the panics of 1837 and 1857, and its high standing was fully maintained throughout Mr. Converse's administra- tion of forty-one years. In 1850 Mr. Converse first went to Grand Rapids, Mich., making the journey partly by canal boat and partly by stage, his mission being to save the rights of the Amer- ican Baptist Missionary Union in what was at

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that time known as the Baptist Indian Reserve on the west side of the Grand River. In this he was successful. Subsequently he purchased the property, then almost a wilderness; and in its subsequent development into the present thriving place he had a leading part. In 1856 he pur- chased an interest in the Gypsum Quarries, and was largely instrumental in developing the plaster industry. In 1868 he furnished the means to build a railroad from Kalamazoo to Grand Rapids, which was the first road to enter the centre of the city. It was promised to be finished to Grand Rapids on a certain day ; and at six o'clock on

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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 84

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