Men of progress one thousand biographical sketches and portraits of leaders in business and professional life in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Part 87

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 87

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MEN OF PROGRESS.

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promised, and success assured, when his death occurred. Mr. Grady is now and has been a justice of the peace for a number of years. He

T. B. J. L. GRADY.

is a member of the Odd Fellows and of the Methodist Ministers' Social Union. His family are firm adherents of the Methodist Episcopal Church, he himself being one of the stewards in the same. In politics, while a subject of the queen of England, he was .a Reformer ; and during his fifteen years as a resident in the United States he has been a Republican. He is a strong advocate of shorter hours of labor for the workingman, and fully persuaded that eight hours for sleep, eight hours for labor, and eight hours for pleasure, recreation, and getting ac- quainted with one's family, is the proper division of time, and will of itself help to solve the difficulty between capital and labor, by equalizing matters. Mr. Grady is an author and also a writer of verses, having produced, among other poems, "How I Like the South," which was widely copied a few years ago. He was married March 24, 1870, to Miss Margaret Arthurs, of Toronto, Ontario, grand-daughter of Colonel William Ramsey, of her Majesty's service. They have six children : Albert Arthur (twenty-four years), Alice Harriet (twenty-two years), Mary Ellen

(twenty). Margaret Rebecca (eighteen), Thomas 'Talmage (sixteen), and Wallace Garfield Grady (fourteen).

GUMBART, ADOLPH SAMUEL, of Boston, pastor of the Dudley Street Baptist Church, is a native of Boston, born November 25, 1853. son of William and Mary Gumbart. He is a descendant of French Huguenots who escaped to Germany during the Huguenot persecutions. His education was acquired in the public schools of New York City, at Cooper Union, and through private instruction in special courses in Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and German. Although he is a son of parents in modest circumstances, by dint of earnest study and a supreme love of books there are few sciences in which he is not versed. Among his professional brethren he is regarded as specially qualified along the lines of general science. He is also an excellent German scholar, and familiar with German theology and philosophy. He was ordained to the ministry in 1878 at l'ort Richmond, Staten Island, where he preached for some time, always to crowded congregations.

A. S. GUMBART.

Other pastorates followed, in which Mr. Gumbart was always successful and popular. In 1890 he came to Boston as pastor of the Dudley Street Bap-

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tist Church, his present charge, one of the largest Baptist churches in the city, and embracing in its membership some of the most influential of Bap- tist laymen there. He is zealous in pastoral and denominational work as well as a popular pulpit orator, always preaching to full pews. Under his active leadership his church carries on many char- ities and performs much other work. Scarcely a day passes but he is in receipt of invitations to deliver addresses and sermons before associations or conventions ; and he conducted for several years with much ability the Sunday-school depart- ment of the Watchman, giving full and suggestive explanations of the lessons each week. Of his pulpit work the Rev. Dr. F. R. Morse, of New York, has written, in a series of papers on " Noted Preachers": " His sermons show the results of faithful and careful study, and are marked by freshness of ideas and eloquence of thought. It is his habit to dictate the substance of each dis- course to a shorthand writer, but he never uses a manuscript in the pulpit. He speaks with marked ease, is attractive in manner, often dramatic,- never offensively so,- is forcible in utterance, is suggestive in statement, is apt in illustration, clear in diction." At various times Mr. Gumbart has held important and honorable offices in societies connected with the denomination to which he be- longs. He was married September 4, 1876, to Miss Lucinda B. Parkinson, of Keyport, N.J., who is ardently devoted to the duties of a minis- ter's wife. They have two daughters : Dora and Carrie Gumbart.

GUPTILL, IRA CLARK, M.D., of Northbor- ough, is a native of Maine, born in Cornish, York County, April 9, 1844, son of Obadiah True and Harriet Newell (Cilley) Guptill. His ancestors on both sides were closely connected with the early history of the Pine Tree State. His great- grandfather, Daniel Guptill, was a native of North Berwick, Me., where he married Miss Sarah Mor- rill ; and they reared a large family of children. His maternal grandfather was Benjamin Cilley, of Limerick, Me. Dr. Guptill's early education was obtained from the common, high schools, and the classical institutes, and his collegiate training at Bowdoin and Dartmouth. He graduated from the medical department of Dartmouth College November 4, 1874, and further fitted for his pro- fession through clinical practice in connection with the office of his instructor, Dr. Alvin Brawn,

who was city physician of Biddeford, Me. Soon after his graduation he settled in Manchester, N.H., and was in active practice in Manchester and Auburn for three years, when on account of poor health he travelled for a while. Upon his return he resumed practice in his native State, and in October, 1879, removed to Northborough, where he has since remained in the enjoyment of an extensive practice and a very pleasant home. He is a member of the Worcester District Medi- cal Society and a Fellow of the Massachusetts Medical Society. He has read several papers be- fore the societies, has been concerned in a num- ber of literary works, and has also contributed poems to magazines and newspapers, which have been quite extensively copied. He belongs to the Masonic fraternity, the Odd Fellows, to the Royal Society of Good Fellows, and is president of the Fredonia Club of Social Fellows. He has been a lifelong Republican, and has served on the town committee. In his professional work, by offices of kindness and gratuitous service, he has done much, often at a sacrifice, to ameliorate the con- dition of the poor and unfortunate, which has

1. C. GUPTILL.

been the pleasure of his ambition. Dr. Guptill was married November 4, 1871. to Miss Jennie J. Jones, of North Lebanon, Me., a graduate of

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the West Lebanon Seminary, and a very success- ful teacher. No children have been born to them.

CHAS. H. HARRIMAN.

HARRIMAN, CHARLES HENRY, M.D., of Whitinsville (Northbridge), is a native of New llampshire, born in Goffstown, November 16, 1852, son of Warren and Sarah A. (Whipple) Harriman. His early education was acquired in the public schools of Goffstown, and he graduated from the Norwich (Vt.) University. He was fitted for his profession through practical instruction and work with Professor L. B. How, of Manches- ter, N.H., and at the Dartmouth Medical College. where he graduated in 1877. He began practice that year, established in llopkinton, N.H., and continued there until 1882, when he came to Whitinsville. Ile has served some time on the Northbridge School Committee, and was repre- sentative in the General Court for the Tenth Worcester District in 1891, being the only Demo- crat ever elected from that district. He is promi- nent in the Masonic order, being a member of the Granite Lodge, Whitinsville, and St. Elmo Chapter, Royal Arch Masons, Whitinsville, of the Lodge Perfection, Worcester, and the Shrine Aleppo Temple, Boston. He belongs also to the Knights of Pythias, the Knights of Golden Eagles,

the Foresters, and the Red Men. Dr. Harriman was married October 18, 1877, to Miss Servilla Marion Jones, of Goffstown, N.H. They have one child : Willis Warren Harriman, aged sixteen years.

HARRIMAN, HIRAM P., of Boston, judge of the Probate and Insolvency Court for Barnstable County, was born in Groveland, February 6, 1846, son of Samuel and Sally (Adams Hilliard) Harri- man. His father and mother were both natives of Georgetown ; and their ancestors were among the earliest settlers of that part of Essex County. farmers by occupation. He was educated in the common schools of his native town, at Phillips (Exeter) AAcademy, where he was fitted for college, and at Dartmouth, graduating there in the class of 1869 with honors. His law studies were pursued at the Albany Law School ; and he was admitted to the bar immediately upon his graduation, in June, 1871. From that time he has been engaged in active practice, for a number of years having his office in Boston. He was appointed to his present position of judge of probate and insol-

H. P. HARRIMAN.

vency for Barnstable County in June, 1882. Dur- ing the illness of Judge MeKim in 1892 he also held the Probate and Insolvency Court of Suffolk

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for several months; and in 1893, at the time of the illness and death of Judge George M. Brooks, he held the Middlesex County Probate Court. He has been the leading lawyer in Barnstable County for many years, and since he opened a law office in Boston has had a large practice there. In politics he has always been a Republican ; but he has never held or stood for political office. He is a member of the Boston Art Club. Judge Harri- man was married September 20, 1870, to Miss Betsey F. Nickerson. They have one child : Olivia C. Harriman.

B. F. HASTINGS.

HASTINGS, BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, M.D., of Whitman, was born in Richmond, Berkshire County, August 23, 1836, son of Ozial W. and Ruth S. (Stevens) Hastings. His early education was acquired in the common schools of Lenox. He was fitted for college at the Lenox Academy, and, entering Williams, graduated there in the class of 1861. Then he took the regular course of the New York University Medical College, graduating in March, 1863. He at once entered the army for service in the Civil War, becoming assistant surgeon of the Eighteenth Regiment, Massachu- setts Volunteers, and remained with his regiment from March 13, 1863, to September 2, 1864, the

expiration of its term of service. Upon his return he first settled as a general physician in the town of Rockland, but two years later removed to Whit- man (formerly South Abington), where he has since been established in active practice. For the past twenty years he has been United States examining surgeon for pensions. He is a mem- ber of the Massachusetts Medical Society. He has been a member of the School Committee of the town since its incorporation (twenty years), most of the time chairman of the board. He is connected with the Masonic fraternity, member of the Puritan Lodge, with the order of Odd Fel- lows, member of Webster Lodge, and with the Grand Army, member of Post 78. In politics he is a Republican. He was married November 29, 1866, to Miss Miranda Torrey, of Rockland. They have no children.

HENDERSON, CHARLES RUSSELL, M.D., of Reading, is a native of England, born at Bushy Heath, Hertfordshire, July 24, 1867, son of Charles Alan and Helen Elizabeth (Power) Hen-

CHAS. R. HENDERSON.

derson. Coming to this country when a child, he was educated in a private school in Brookline and at the Roxbury Latin School from ISSo to 1886,

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having previously, in 1878, spent a year in Eng- land and France. He entered the Boston Uni- versity School of Medicine, and graduated with the regular degree in June, 1889. The following September he began active practice at Reading, where he has since remained. For a year, from November, 1888, he was house surgeon in the Massachusetts Homeopathic Hospital. From 1892 to 1895 he was chairman of the Reading Board of Health. He is a member of the Massa- chusetts Surgical and Gynacological Society. He has been a Freemason since 1892, member of the Good Samaritan Lodge of Reading. Dr. Hender- son is unmarried.

HEYMER, JOHN CASPER, of Boston, founder of the electrotyping and stereoptyping house of J. C. lleymer & Son, was born in New York City, June 20, 1825 : died in Boston, February 4, 1895. HIe was son of John Jacob and Sarah Ann (Wal- lace) Heymer, the second of a family of five chil- dren. His father and mother were also natives of New York, the former born January 28, 1797, and the latter, August 26, 1804; and they were married in that city July 2, 1822, by the Right Rev. Bishop Connelly. On the maternal side he is of Scottish descent. His parents being well off in worldly goods during his carly boyhood, he received a good education ; but, his father dying young and his mother meeting with reverses, and losing all of her property, he was apprenticed to the printer's trade when still a lad. At the age of eighteen he was foreman of a stereotype foun- dry in New York. When the art of electrotyping was discovered, being in the same line, he of course adopted that ; and he followed its growth from the crude plating of its infancy to the skilled productions of the present day. He continued as foreman, having charge of some of the larg- est offices in the country, until about 1877, when he started in business for himself, founding the present house. Brusque and impetuous in his ac- tions, all his faults were on the surface; and he was widely respected for his honesty, good work, and kindness of heart. He served in the Civil War as a member of the "Merchant's Guard," Forty-seventh Regiment, Massachusetts Volun- teers ; and the high character of his services is thus referred to in a letter from Colonel Lucius B. Marsh, the commander of the regiment: "I first became acquainted with him as a member and

clerk of Company A, Forty-seventh. This com- pany was known as the . Harvard University Company'; and First Lieutenant - as I now call

J. C. HEYMER.

him - J. C. Heymer sent to Harvard, monthly, a report of it. Recognizing his worth and ability, I appointed him commissary sergeant of the regi- ment. He greatly assisted me in settling up each company's account with the government; and so accurate and careful was he to follow in the line of the government's requirements that the Forty- seventh Regiment was, I believe, the first regi- ment which settled fully with it. When the Sixti- eth Regiment was raised, I had considerable to do in preparing it for the field. I had appointed John C. Heymer quartermaster, with the rank of first lieutenant. ... At the close of the service of this regiment he settled its accounts with the gov- ernment. The Sixty-second Regiment was being recruited at my office, and was nearly completed, when the war ceased. The most active man was Lieutenant Heymer. The colonel was to be Ansel D. Wass, and Lieutenant Heymer was to be quartermaster ; and he was fully qualified for that position. I valued his services very highly. He was very useful to me, and to the government, which needs in time of war for every regiment, every brigade, division, and army corps, men of

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his capacity and peculiar ability, with his sterling integrity. In him I had the fullest confidence, so that, when I had retired from active service in the army, it was my pleasure to recommend him ; and he was placed in position of responsibility and trust. Company A was recruited under the au- spices of Harvard College. ... The late Governor Washburn marched in with the company from Cambridge, and made some remarks as he turned it over to me in front of my store .... When I began to recruit my regiment, it was called the . Merchant's Guard'; and it bore that name until the number was given to me at the State House. It was so named because I was the only merchant up to that time who had commanded a regiment in the war." Charles Beck also wrote in a letter to Governor Andrew, under date of February, 1865, respecting Lieutenant Heymer : " He is a man of intelligence, good education, and irre- proachable character. Nearly three years ago he enlisted in the Forty-seventh Regiment ; and his intelligence pointed him out, during his connection with that regiment, as a suitable person for the performance of administrative duties." Mr. Hey- mer was a member of Charles Beck Post, No. 56, Cambridge. He was married December 27, 1849, to Miss Caroline M. Stevens, of Cairo, N.Y. They had two sons: Frederic W. and John E. Heymer, the latter associated with his father in the electrotyping business.

HODGKINS, DAVID WEBB, M.D., of East Brookfield, is a native of Maine, born in Jefferson, July 31, 1834, son of David and Catherine Webb (Hussey) Hodgkins. On the paternal side he is descended, in the seventh generation, from Kenelm Winslow, of the Plymouth Colony, and on the maternal side from the Webb family, who for many generations have filled an honorable place in Maine history, one of whose kindred oc- cupied the White House in the person of Lucy Webb Hayes. His great-great-grandfather, David Hodgkins, was a soldier of the Revolution ; and his grandfather was in the War of 1812. His education was acquired in the public schools, at the Newcastle Academy and through private study. He first followed teaching for several years in Maine, and was afterward some time connected with the business department of Rut- gers Female Institute, New York City. In 1859 he began the study of medicine with Dr. William

Newman, of New York, subsequently entering the College of Physicians and Surgeons, from which he graduated in March, 1862. Immediately after graduation he entered the hospital service of a large city institution, where he remained two years, leaving to enter the United States service as acting assistant surgeon United States army. He served in the latter capacity from May, 1862, until discharged July 31, 1865. After his return from the army he began regular practice, estab- lishing himself in Waldoborough, Me. He met with good success ; but, an advantageous opening appearing in East Brookfield, he removed thither

DAVID W. HODGKINS.

in the spring of 1868. Here he has since re- mained. He has been one of the medical exami- ners for the county of Worcester for the past eighteen years, or since his first appointment in 1877. Dr. Hodgkins has served his town as a selectman, a member of the School Committee for twenty years, and one of the Board of Trustees of the Merrick Public Library (a munificent gift to the town from the late Judge Merrick) for twenty- five years. He represented his district in the State Legislature in ISSI-S2. He has been a justice of the peace since 1874. In politics, he has always been a Republican, and in religious faith a Baptist, having been a communicant of the

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Baptist Church since early manhood. He is an active citizen, and interested in all things affect- ing the prosperity of the community, whether physical, intellectual, or moral. He is a member of the Massachusetts Medical Society, of the Worcester District Medical Society : and he be- longs to the Masonic fraternity. Dr. Hodgkins was married first, October 15, 1857, to Miss Clara S. Noyes, of Jefferson, Me. She died in 1859, leaving an infant son, Fred Pierce Hodg- kins. He married second, May 17, 1866, Miss Martha A .. Browning, of New York. By this union were five children, three of whom survive : Isabelle Marion, David Harwood, and Chester Hussey Hodgkins.

HOLBROOK, WILLIAM, M.D., of Palmer, was . born in Sturbridge, Worcester County, June 23, 1823, son of Erasmus and Betsey (Smith) Hol- brook. He is a descendant in the eighth genera- tion of Thomas Holbrook, of Brantry, England, who at the age of thirty-four sailed in the ship "Record " from Weymouth, England, "ye 20th of March, 1635-6, bound for New England," with "Jane, his wife, aged thirty-four years, and children,- John, his sonne, aged eleven years, Thomas, Jr., his sonne, aged ten years,"- and settled in Weymouth, his name appearing on the record in 1640. Thomas, Jr., settled in Braintree in 1653. married Johanna -, had five chil- dren, and died in July, 1697. Deacon Peter, son of Thomas, 2d, married Elizabeth Pool, settled in Mendon in 16So, and had eleven children. The lands he distributed to his sons were mostly in Bellingham. John, fourth generation, son of Deacon l'eter, married Hannah l'ool, had eight children, died in 1765, aged eighty-six. Fifth generation, John, son of John, born 1721, married Patience Fisher in 1747, settled in Sturbridge, had nine children. Sixth generation, Lieutenant John, son of John, born 1751, a lieutenant in the Revolution, married Lucretia Babbett, had ten children, died in 1830. eighty-seven years old. Seventh generation, Erasmus, son of Lieutenant John, born in 1793. married Betsey Smith in 1819, had ten children, died in 1849, fifty-six years old. Eighth generation, William Holbrook, his son, the subject of this sketch. Dr. Holbrook was born on a farm owned by his father, and which had be- longed to his grandfather and great-grandfather. and lived and worked there until he was twenty-

one. All of his education, aside from the instruc- tion received from the common schools of Stur- bridge, which he attended summers until ten years old, winters until sixteen years old, was obtained after that time, and through his own in- dividual effort without any outside assistance. He was a pupil first in the Quaboag Seminary in Warren, and afterward at Monson Academy, Monson; and, while teaching school for five winters, he continued his studies, giving all his spare time to them. He began his medical studies with Dr. Alvan Smith, of Monson, and continued them in the Berkshire Medical College.

WM. HOLBROOK.

where he spent the summer and autumn of 1846. In the autumn of 1847 he entered the New York Medical University, and was there graduated in the spring of 1848. Immediately thereafter he entered upon the practice of his profession in Bondsville (a village in the town of Palmer). Here, however, he remained but a short time, re- moving in July, 1849, to " Palmer Depot," where he established a drug store in connection with his practice. In 1858 he was appointed consulting physician and surgeon at the State Almshouse in Monson. Early in the Civil War period he was commissioned by Governor John A. Andrew as- sistant surgeon of the Tenth Massachusetts In-

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fantry (June 21, 1861, date of the muster), and on January 13, 1862, was promoted to the rank of surgeon, and assigned to the Eighteenth Massachusetts Regiment. Soon after he was appointed surgeon in chief of the First Brigade, First Division, Fifth Army Corps, Army of the Potomac, and subsequently chief operator in the brigade ; and he also had charge of the Brigade Hospital at Beverly Ford, Va., through the winter of 1863 and 1864. While in the service, he par- ticipated in nearly all the principal battles in which the Army of the Potomac was engaged up to the time that Petersburg was invested. He was mustered out in September, 1864, and re- turned to his practice in Palmer. In April, 1876, he was appointed physician to the State Primary School at Monson, and continued in that position until August, 1886. He is still consulting physician there. He was pension ex- aminer from 1865 to 1892, when he resigned. Since 1877 he has been one of the medical examiners of Hampden County, first appointed by Governor Rice. While holding these posi- tions, he has been actively engaged in extensive general practice in medicine and surgery. He has been a member of the Hampden District and Massachusetts Medical societies since 1854. Dr. Holbrook has also been active in public affairs. After returning from the war, he was appointed in the autumn of 1864 to fill a vacancy in the School Board of Palmer, and continued on the board for about twelve years. At different times he has been a member of the Board of Health of the town. In 1882 he was a representative in the Legislature for the Second Hampden District. In politics, originally a Whig, he is now a Repub- lican. Under President Fillmore he was post- master of Palmer Depot in 1850. He has served on various Republican town and county commit- tees. He is a leading member of the Eastern Hampden Agricultural Society, having been sec- retary from soon after the granting of its charter, and president of the organization many times. From 1884 to 1893 he was a member also of the State Board of Agriculture. He has been con- nected with the Masonic fraternity since 1858, and is a charter member and past commander of L. L. Merrick Post, No. 107, Grand Army of the Republic. Dr. Holbrook was married February 24, 1850, to Miss Clara Belknap, of Sturbridge. They have a son and two daughters : William Edward (born July 25, 1852), Clara B. (born

August 20, 1856), and Idella Louise Holbrook (born July 20, 1865).

CHAS. J. HOLMES.

HOLMES, CHARLES JARVIS, of Fall River, banker, was born in Rochester, March 4, 1834. son of Charles J. and Louisa (Haskell) Holmes. His ancestry is traced back to times in carly Eng- lish history. The founder of the Holmes family is said to have been one John Holmes, who took his surname from Stockholm, the capital of his native country. He came to England as a volun- teer, with the army of William, Duke of Nor- mandy, in the year 1066. "Being of ancient fam- ily and of handsome conduct, he was noticed by William himself, and made a captain in his army ; and, having performed his part to the satisfaction of the Conqueror, he was rewarded by him with an estate in Yorkshire. He and his descendants continued in possession of this estate until the reign of King John, in the beginning of the thir- teenth century, at which time Hugh Holmes was the head of the family. Incurring the displeas- ure of King John in the controversies of that turbulent period, Hugh fled to the northward, and found safety at Mardale, having for refuge a cave, still known as 'Hugh's Cave.' He subsequently purchased the Dalesmans estate, which is still in

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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 87

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