Men of progress one thousand biographical sketches and portraits of leaders in business and professional life in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Part 9

Author: Herndon, Richard; Bacon, Edwin M. (Edwin Monroe), 1844-1916
Publication date: 1896
Publisher: Boston : New England Magazine
Number of Pages: 1036

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the library was transferred to the Boston Public Library, forming the nucleus of the present South End Branch, and the institution reorganized and put on its present firm footing as the leading social club of the South End. Mr. Lane is a life member, and keeps up his interest in the organ- ization, and is also an active member of the Bos- ton Art Club ; but he is too fond of home life to be much of a club man. Since 1887 he has been president of the Boston Merchants' Association for the longest term yet served, and his adminis- tration has made the annual dinners of that body notable for the character of their discussions and

JONA. A. LANE.

their array of eminent speakers from all parts of the country. In politics Mr. Lane was originally a Whig, but joined the Republican party in its infancy, and has found no cause to leave it. He served as member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1863 and 1864. and in the Senate in 1874 and 1875, being elected the former year as an independent over a competitor who had the regular nominations of both parties. In 1878 he was appointed by Governor Rice to serve in the Executive Council for the remainder of the term of a member who resigned, and in 1892 he represented the Ninth Congressional Dis- trict as one of the Massachusetts presidential

MEN OF PROGRESS.

electors. Of late years Mr. Lane has especially identified himself with the cause of tax reform, strongly advocating the total abandonment of the present methods of attempting to tax personal property and the substitution of a system whereby the local assessor shall be limited in his jurisdic- tion to real estate, and personal property be taxed in its corporate form, or through inheri- tance or succession taxes, by the State alone. As chairman of various committees on the matter, he has prepared reports which rank among the lit- erature of the subject. In religion Mr. Lane walks in the footsteps of his fathers. From boy- hood he has been a member of the Union Con- gregational Church of Boston. He is president of the Congregational Club and a life member of the Boston Young Men's Christian Association and of the Boston Young Men's Christian Union. He is also one of the advisory board of the Bos- ton Children's Friend Society, a director of the Old Men's Home, a State trustee of the Baldwin- ville Cottage Hospital, and is interested officially or otherwise in many other benevolent organiza- tions. Mr. Lane married on November 13, 1851, Miss Sarah Delia Clarke, the second child of the Rev. Benjamin F. Clarke, and a graduate of Mt. Holyoke Seminary in 1845. The first few years of their married life were spent in a little house on Tyler Street, Boston ; but in 1856 they moved to their present residence on Tremont Street, where they have now lived thirty-seven years. Of six children born to them, a daughter died in infancy, and five sons- John C., Frederic H., Alfred C., Benjamin C., and Lucius P. - are liv- ing. The eldest, Judge John C. Lane, is a lawyer and politician of prominence in the town of Nor- wood.

LATHROP, JOHN, justice of the Supreme Ju- dicial Court of Massachusetts, was born in Bos- ton, February 8, 1835, son of the Rev. John P. and Maria Margaretta (Long) Lathrop. He is a lineal descendant in the eighth generation of the Rev. John Lothrop who came out in the "Grif- fin " in 1634, and was the first minister at Scitu- ate and at Barnstable. His father was a clergy- man of the Episcopal church, and at the time of his death, in 1843, was chaplain in the United States Navy, attached to the " Princeton": his grandfather, John, graduate of Harvard in 1789. was a man of letters ; and his great-grandfather,

the Rev. John, graduate of Princeton, 1763, was minister of the Second Church in Boston from 1768 to 1816, and was a Fellow of Harvard Col- lege from 1778 to 1816. His early education was attained in the Boston public schools ; and his advanced studies were pursued in New Jersey,

JOHN LATHROP.

where he entered Burlington College in the class of 1853, and graduated in due course. Three years after graduation he received the honorary degree of A.M. from his Alma Mater. From Bur- lington he came directly to the Harvard Law School. Graduating therefrom in 1855, he com- pleted his preparation for the legal profession in the office of Francis C. Loring. In 1856 he was admitted to the Suffolk bar, and at once opened an office in Boston. His practice, although in all branches of the law, was largely in admiralty ; and in 1872 he was admitted to the bar of the United States Supreme Court, where he practised extensively. From 1874 to 1888 he was reporter of decisions in the Massachusetts Supreme Court. and from this position was first raised to the bench by Governor Ames, who in 1888 appointed him a justice of the Superior Court. He was promoted to his present position on the bench of the higher court by Governor Russell in 1891, upon the death of Judge Charles Devens. Judge

MEN OF PROGRESS.

Lathrop was a lecturer at the Harvard Law School in 1871 and 1873, and at the Boston Uni- versity Law School in the years 1873-So-83. During the Civil War he served a year in the field, going out in 1862 as first lieutenant in the Thirty- fifth Regiment, and subsequently promoted to a captaincy, when he was obliged to resign on ac- count of disability, the result of illness contracted in the service. He is a member of the Union and St. Botolph clubs of Boston, and of the Co- lonial Society of Massachusetts. He was married in Boston, June 24, 1875, to Miss Eliza D., daugh- ter of Richard G. and Mary Ann (Davis) Parker.

LEE, WILLIAM, senior partner of the book pub- lishing firm of Lee & Shepard, from its earliest days to the present, was born in the North End district of Boston. April 17, 1826, eldest son of John and Laura (Jones) Lee. He claims from his ancestry sturdy independence and an honest strain through English, Scotch, and Welsh com- minglings. His father died in 1837, leaving the mother and her six children in such poor circum- stances as to necessitate William's removal from school, and apprenticeship to Samuel G. Drake, antiquarian and bookseller of Cornhill. Two years later he was enabled to resume his school work, and in two more he had prepared for col- lege; but at this time he made a final decision in favor of the book trade, and found employment with a bookseller. At eighteen he secured a po- sition in the prosperous house of Phillips & Samp- son, where ability and attention to business pro- cured him rapid promotion. He became expert as a salesman, both at the evening auctions, then a marked feature of the business, and in dealing with " the trade." He received a share in the profits of the house from his twenty-first birthday, and at twenty-four he was made an equal partner. In 1857, having acquired what he regarded as a competency, he sold his interest back to the firm, taking their notes therefor to the amount of $66,000 with the intention of indulging himself in five years of rest and travel. He spent some months visiting points of interest in his own coun- try, and in June, 1858, sailed for Europe in com- pany with Willard Small, the accomplished scholar and publisher. Naturally a quick and acute ob- server of men and things and broadly interested in all social questions affecting the destiny of

peoples, it was in this kind of study that he pro- posed to find amusement and rest. Ile journeyed therefore in a very leisurely way through Great Britain, Germany, France, and Spain. Unsatis- fied with his first tour in the latter country, he was just on the point of taking a second, when he received news of the death of both Phillips and Sampson, and of the financial embarrassment of the concern, which made it imperative for him to be in Boston at the earliest possible moment. He reached Liverpool short of funds after the steamer he wished to catch had hauled into the stream, but managed by stratagem and "bluff " to have his belongings and himself put on board by the mail tug. He arrived in Boston to find his claim against the new firm of Phillips, Samp- son, & Co. disallowed by the assignees, and to be advised by the lawyers that his remedy was against the private property of his dead partners. the sole support and dependence of their families. His claims were allowed by the widows, but Mr.

WILLIAM LEE.

Lee promptly gave them a release, and instituted legal proceedings against the assignees, under which, through his intimate knowledge of every- thing in the late business, he was able to force a compromise with them, and to secure about half his due under the notes. With this sum, and cash

MEN OF PROGRESS.

already in hand, he purchased an interest with Crosby. Nichols, & Co., and the style of this firm was changed to Crosby, Nichols, Lee, & Co. Ar- rangements were immediately made to enlarge the business, and large ventures were pushed West and South. But secession and war caused so heavy losses and such depression in the book- trade that this move proved unsuccessful: and in the autumn of 1861 Mr. Lee chose to go out of the concern rather than pursue the effort, and did so to the loss of his entire investment. Literally without a dollar in the world, he now for some months passed through experiences of which he relates little, even to his best friends. But he had not lost courage, and he watched attentively the signs of the times. One day he met Charles A. B. Shepard, for some years manager for John P. Jewett, the publisher of " Uncle Tom's Cabin," and later head of the firm of Shepard, Clark, & Brown. Like William Lee, he had lost his last dollar in the crash of 1861. All that these two now had to go upon was brains, experi- ence, and the confidence and sympathy of the trade. On that they decided to launch the new firm of Lee & Shepard. And, whatever has ac- crued to it, that original capital yet remains a distinet asset of the firm. At first they thought only of bookselling. They secured at a low rental half of an ancient, two-story wooden build-

ing, nearly opposite the Old South Meeting-house, known as the "Chelsea Dye House." shrewdly replacing that sign with one reading " The Oldest House in Boston." This name created the de- sired comment, and, being true in one sense, no little amusement. Trade came their way. At

first they had no bank account, no clerks, no porter. Each was everybody, from office boy to book-keeper, salesman, buyer, proprietor, and packer. But in time all these individualized. And then, one day, the owner of some of the Phillips, Sampson, & Co. stereotype plates offered

to sell them and take notes in payment. The new firm took the offer. These plates included

the earliest juveniles of W. T. Adams (Oliver Optie), then a Boston schoolmaster, - the " Boat Series" in six volumes, and the " Riverdale Stories." twelve volumes. New editions of these were the first books issued bearing the imprint

of Lee & Shepard. Returns from this venture were so satisfactory that Mr. Adams was immedi- ately commissioned to write some stories for girls ; and then followed the long series of Oliver

Optic books, already over a hundred in number, so well known wherever the English language is spoken. After occupying the quarters in "the old dye house" for three years, Lee & Shepard transferred their business to No. 307 Washing- ton Street, where increasing trade, sales reaching some years to upwards of a million dollars, com- pelled extensive improvements and enlargements in the rear until 1873. Then, after losing nearly $200,000 by the "Great Fire " of 1872, they moved into a new building on Franklin Street, where they remained till 1885, when they changed to their present quarters, No. 10 Milk Street. The concern now owns over two thousand sets of valuable plates and copyrights, including high school, grammar school, and kindergarten books. juveniles, art books, travels, poetry, fiction, history, and philosophy, by popular writers. The house originated and still continues the issue of illus- trated editions of popular songs and poems. Even a partial list of authors whose works it has given to the public would be impracticable within the limits of this article. But the names of " Oliver Optic," " Sophie May," Curtis Guild, Mary A. Denison, Mary A. Livermore, Julia Ward Howe, Julia C. R. Dorr, Irene Jerome, Ednah 1). Cheney, James Freeman Clarke, Amanda M. Douglas, Virginia F. Townsend, the Rev. Elijah Kellogg, J. T. Trowbridge, " Petroleum V. Nasby," Charles Sumner, Francis H. Underwood, T. W. Higginson, Wendell Phillips, Robert Coll- yer, Samuel Adams Drake, and Horace Mann, will be sufficient to indicate the estimation of the firm with authors and the enterprise which has characterized its business. Mr. Shepard died in January, 1889 ; and since that time Mr. Lee has, single-handed, directed the affairs of the concern, attending personally to every important detail, and directing every interest of the busi- ness, but is rarely too busy for a social chat with his authors or colaborers who may drop in upon him. Mr. Lee is also a charter member of the Boston Art Club : a member of the Algonquin and Twentieth Century clubs of Boston, and of the Aldine Club, New York. Politically, he is an Independent, with Republican proclivities. Ex- cept as a justice of the peace and notary public he has never aspired to, or filled. any public office. He has been twice married. His first

wife was Miss Anna Leavitt, daughter of Thomas Leavitt, of Hampton, N.H. She died in 1883. He married second, in 1888, Miss Sarah Louise

MEN OF PROGRESS.

White, daughter of J. Welles White, of New York ('ity. He has one daughter, Alice Lee.

LORD, ELIOT, editor-in-chief of the Boston Evening Traveller, though a native of the West, is of sterling New England stock, descended from two of the oldest New England families. He was born in Milwaukee, Wis., November 9, 1852, son of the Rev. William Henry Lord and Persis (Kendall) Lord. On his father's side his ances- tors were among the first settlers of Maine, while from his mother he inherited the blood of the

ELIOT LORD.

earliest Massachusetts colonists. His great-uncle was Nathan Lord, long president of Dartmouth College (from 1828 to 1863); and one of the brothers of his father is Dr. John Lord, of Stam- ford, Conn., the historian and lecturer. His ma- ternal grandfather was the Rev. James Kendall, who for more than fifty years was pastor of the old First Church in Plymouth. Eliot Lord was educated in the East, in the public schools of Plymouth and at Harvard College, which he en- tered in the class of 1873. During his college course he won the Lee, Boylston, and Bowdoin prizes ; and he graduated with high honors, de- livering one of the eight commencement parts.

Upon leaving college, he was made instructor in Latin and mathematics at the Adams Academy of Quincy. Here he remained until the close of the academic year, when he resigned to accept an assistant professorship of history and English at the United States Naval Academy, Annapolis, under Professor James Russell Soley, afterwards assistant secretary of state in the Harrison ad- ministration. His services here covered a period of three years, during which time he also pursued a special course in modern history and interna- tional law, and received from Harvard (in 1876) the degree of A.M. for proficiency in these de- partments. Resigning from the Naval Academy, he entered the profession of journalism, for which his studies and training had well prepared him, beginning on the staff of the New York Herald. An offer from the World, then under the editorial direction of William Henry Hurlbert, early drew him to that paper ; and here he was employed until 1879, when he accepted an offer from Clar- ence King, director of the United States Geolog- ical Survey, to write the history of the develop- ment of the mining industry of the United States. The preparation of this work, published in 1882, by the Geological Survey, under the title of " The Comstock Lode," occupied the next few years, which Mr. Lord spent in large part in the Western mining districts ; and upon its completion he was selected by Mr. King to assist in collecting the social statistics of the mining districts west of the Rocky Mountains for the Tenth Census. Remor- ing to Washington, in 1885-86 he edited the Washington Weekly Post during the Congressional session ; and in the autumn of 1886 he came to Boston, joining the editorial staff of the Daily Advertiser. Two years later he resigned this posi- tion to take the editorship of the Duluth (Minn.) Herald. Returning to Boston in 1891, he was engaged upon the Boston Herald as political news writer during the State campaign of that year. Subsequently he was some time Boston corre- spondent of the Springfield Union. Worcester Tele- gram, and other newspapers, and in the spring of 1893 was appointed to his present position. He is a member of the University, Papyrus, and Press clubs of Boston.

LOWELL, JOHN, ex United States circuit judge, son of John Amory and Susan Cabot (Lowell) Lowell, was born in Boston, October 18,

MEN OF PROGRESS.

1824. His father was a prominent Boston mer- chant, connected as treasurer and director with several of the mills at Lowell; and his mother was a daughter of Francis C. Lowell, for whom the city of Lowell was named. His paternal grand- father was an eminent lawyer ; and his great- grandfather was the first Judge John Lowell,- the first judge of the District Court for the Massachu- setts district, appointed by President Washington September 26, 1789, and then in 1801 made by President John Adams chief judge of the Circuit Court as then existing for the first circuit (estab- lished under act of Congress in 1801, repealed in

JOHN LOWELL.

1802). This first Judge Lowell was a member of the convention which framed the constitution of Massachusetts in 1780, and procured the inser- tion of the first article of the Bill of Rights, for the purpose, as he declared, "of preventing slavery from being thereafter possible in the State." John Lowell, the present, was educated in the private school of Daniel G. Ingraham, a noted Boston school in its day, and at Harvard College, from which he graduated in the class of 1843. He studied law in the Harvard Law School, grad- uating therefrom in 1845, and in the office of Charles G., F. C., and C. W. Loring, and in 1846 was admitted to the Suffolk bar. He began the

practice of his profession in Boston, and for a number of years was associated with William Sohier. In March, 1865, he was made judge of the District Court of the United States by Presi- dent Lincoln, in place of Judge Sprague, re- signed; and thirteen years later (December 16, 1878) he was appointed by President Hayes jus- tice of the Circuit Court for the first circuit, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Judge Shep- ley. In May, 1884, he resigned, and returned to general practice, with offices in Boston. On the bench he was eminent as a jurist, especially dis- tinguished in the department of law relating to bankruptcy. Since his retirement and return to practice his services have been much sought as referee and special master in important cases, his judicial impartiality and ability being widely recognized. Judge Lowell married May 19, 1853, Miss Lucy B. Emerson, daughter of George B. Emerson, LL.D., and Olivia ( Buckminster) Em- erson. They have two sons and two daughters : John Lowell, Jr., now a member of the Suffolk bar, and associated with his father in practice ; James Arnold (graduate of H. C. 1894); Lucy Buckminster ; and Susan (now Mrs. William H. Aspinwall) Lowell.

MASON, ALBERT, chief justice of the Superior Court, is a native of Middleborough, born Novem- ber 7, 1836, son of Albert T. and Arlina (Orcutt) Mason. He was educated in the common schools, and in Pierce Academy, Middleborough, and studied law in the office of Edward L. Sher- man in Plymouth. There, admitted to the bar in 1860, he began practice. Two years later he entered the Union army as second lieutenant of the Thirty-eighth Regiment, Massachusetts Vol- unteers ; and he remained in the service until the close of the Civil War. Early in his career as a soldier he was detailed for staff duty, and served as regimental and brigade quartermaster ; and subsequently, he was commissioned captain and assistant quartermaster. Returning to Plymouth in 1865, he resumed the practice of his profes- sion. The next year he was made chairman of the board of selectmen of the town, which posi- tion he retained eight years ; and in 1873 and 1874 he was a member of the lower house of the Legislature, ranking with the leading members, and serving on numerous important committees. In January, 1874, he opened an office in Boston

MEN OF PROGRESS.

with Charles H. Drew, still retaining his Plym- outh office, and a few months later formed a part- nership with Arthur Lord, of Plymouth, now

ALBERT MASON.

member of the State Civil Service Commission. The same year, in July, he removed from Plym- outh to Brookline, where he has since resided ; and in December was appointed by acting Gov- ernor Talbot to the Board of Harbor Commis- sioners. He continued practice in Boston and Plymouth, and as a harbor commissioner until his elevation to the bench in February, 1882, by Gov- ernor Long, as a justice of the Superior Court. He became chief justice by appointment of Gov- ernor Brackett in September, 1890, succeeding Judge Brigham, resigned. Judge Mason was married November 25, 1857, to Miss Lydia F. Whiting, daughter of Nathan and Experience (Finney) Whiting. They have six children : John W., Mary A., Alice, Charles N., Martha. and Grace W. Mason.

MAYNARD, ELISHA BURR, of Springfield. justice of the Superior Court of the Common- wealth, is a native of Wilbraham, born November 21, 1842, son of Walter and Hannah (Burr) May- nard. His early education was acquired in the

public schools of Wilbraham and of Springfield. to which city his father early removed; and he was prepared for college by the Hon. Marcus P. Knowlton, now of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts. Entering Dartmouth, he grad- uated therefrom in the class of 1867 with honors. He read law at Springfield in the office of the Hon. George M. Stearns and Hon. Marcus P. Knowl- ton, then constituting the law firm of Stearns & Knowlton, and was admitted to the Hampden county bar in 1868. He spent a year in travel in his own country, and then began practice in Springfield, where he remained till his appoint- ment to the bench. In 1871, 1872, 1875, and 1882, he was city solicitor of Springfield. Dur- ing that period, and later, he was also promi- nent in municipal affairs, serving two terms (1872-73) as a member of the Common Council ; as mayor of the city in 1887 and 1888; and as member at large of the School Committee in 1892-93-94. In 1879 he was a member of the General Court from Springfield ; and in 1889 and 1890 he was the Democratic candidate for attor- ney-general of the State. He was appointed

ELISHA B. MAYNARD.

associate justice of the Superior Court by Gov- ernor Russell in June, 1891. Judge Maynard has served in the militia of the State, having been at

MEN OF PROGRESS.

one time a member of the City Guards, Company B of the Second Regiment. He has long been connected with the Springfield Commandery Knights Templar, and is a member of the Win- throp Club of Springfield, of the Mayors' Club of Massachusetts, and of the University and Dart- mouth clubs of Boston. He was a corporate member of the Springfield Hospital, of the Union Relief Association, and of the Christian Indus- trial and Technical School of Springfield. He married August 25, 1870, Miss Kate Doty, of Springfield, Penna., who died April 4, 1889 ; and second. July 19. 1893. Miss Luella E. Fay, of Springfield, Mass. His children living are : Robert Doty, Ruth, and William Doty Maynard.

M'GLENEN, HENRY ALOYSIUS, late business manager of the Boston Theatre, was born in Bal- timore, Md., November 28, 1826, son of Patrick and Sarah (Carrigan) M'Glenen: died in Boston,

H. A. M'GLENEN.

March 24. 1894. His early education was at- tained in the Baltimore public schools; and at twelve years of age he began work, entering a printing-office as an apprentice. Subsequently he attended St. Mary's College, Baltimore, and there also worked in a printing-office established by the

faculty. At the age of nineteen (in 1854) he started for Boston by way of Philadelphia and Norfolk, and arrived in the city with scanty bag- gage and a cash capital of six cents. He immedi- ately sought work at his trade, and the first job secured was in the composition-room of the Daily Bed. Then he worked at odd times as a composi- tor in the offices of the Times and the Journal, and later on obtained a regular position on the Advertiser. In 1846 he resigned this position to enlist as a private in the army, off for the con- quest of Mexico. He joined the company which was commanded by Captain Edward Webster, son of Daniel Webster, and remained in the service until 1848, when he returned to Boston, and re- sumed work at his trade in newspaper offices. In 1850 he became a reporter for the Herald, and subsequently went to the Daily Mail. A year or two later he was given charge of the Times job- office, where he formed the acquaintance of a number of railroad men and theatrical folk. While in this position, he took charge of Dan Rice's circus in Boston, and several other enter- prises, in all of which he was most successful. For two years he managed the business of the Marsh children at the Howard Athenaum, after which he was connected with several companies. When Wyzeman Marshall had leases of the Howard and the Boston Theatre, he looked after Mr. Marshall's interests: and for the two years during which Harry C. Jarrett managed the Bos- ton Theatre he gave much of his time in behalf of that manager. In 1866 he relinquished the print- ing business entirely, and took charge of the con- cert tour of Parepa Rosa, the great cantatrice. The following year he took the Mendelssohn Quintette Club on an extended tour West ; and in the spring of 1868 the Hanlons secured his ser- vices as manager for their season at Selwyn's Theatre, and the three following years he was re- tained in a similar capacity by John Selwyn and Arthur Cheney. In 1871 he became business agent of the Boston Theatre ; and this position he held until his death. He was one of the best known theatrical men in the country, of wide ac- quaintance and many strong friendships, possess- ing the confidence and respect of all with whom he was brought into business relations. Mr. M'Glenen was also identified with many matters of public concern. He was president of the Mas- sachusetts Volunteers in Mexico, vice-president of the National Association of Mexico Veterans,

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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 9

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