Men of progress one thousand biographical sketches and portraits of leaders in business and professional life in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Part 90

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 90

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MEN OF PROGRESS.

railways, gas, electric light, water, telephone and telegraph companies, - which came from the first- mentioned committee and were passed that ses- sion. He also had a hand in drafting a munici- pal conduit bill, authorizing any municipality to construct conduits for electric wires in its own streets, which he advocated with much force, but which was finally defeated. In the Legislature of 1895 he was appointed House chairman of the committee on the judiciary, and remained still a member of the committee on rules, and of course took an active part in the laborious work of that committee during the session. In politics Mr. Myers is a Republican. He is a member of the Massachusetts Republican Club, of the Middlesex Club, the Massachusetts Reform Club, the Mer- chants' Club, the Union, St. Botolph, and Uni- versity clubs of Boston; of the University and Zeta Psi clubs of New York City and of the Cam- bridge and Colonial clubs of Cambridge. He is also a member of the Citizens' Trade Associa- tion of Cambridge, and a trustee of the Prospect Union. He is unmarried.

J. A. NEWHALL.

NEWHALL, JOSEPH ALLSTON, of Boston, leather merchant, was born in Saugus, May 29, 1847, son of Joseph Stocker and Emeline Augusta

(Ware) Newhall. He was educated in the public schools of his native town and at Chauncy Hall, Boston. He began business life in Boston the first of January, 1870, as a salesman for George F. Breed, High Street. in the leather trade, and remained in his employ for two years. The next three years he was with B. F. Thompson & Co .. in the same business and on the same street. Then he entered the business on his own account. forming a partnership with E. H. Keith, under the firm name of Newhall & Keith, and also established on High Street. This partnership continued until 1880, when it was dissolved, and the present firm organized under the name of J. Allston Newhall & Co., with no change in location. Mr. Newhall, therefore, has been on High Street continuously for twenty-five years. He is now also president of the Common- wealth Mutual Fire Insurance Company, and treasurer and manager of the Allston Company. In Saugus he has served on the Board of Select- men three terms, 1878-79-80, and was the repre- sentative of his district in the State Legislature in ISSO. For four years he was adjutant of the First Battalion of Artillery. He is a member of the Veteran Association of the First Corps of Cadets, of the Algonquin and Athletic clubs of Boston, and of the Reform Club of New York. Ile was married December 24, 1873, to Miss Amelia B. Westermann, of Saugus. They have one child.

NICKERSON, WILLIAM LOMBARD, of Chat- ham, special marine news reporter from Cape Cod, is a native of Chatham, born November 28, 1856, son of Ziba and Sarah (Payne) Nickerson. He is a direct descendant through nine genera- tions from the original Puritan William Nickerson, who was the first white man to own and settle in what is now Chatham, in 1665. He was educated in the Chatham schools, graduating from the High School in 1873. He began business life in the wholesale boot and shoe business in Boston in 1874, and continued in this trade till 1879. The latter year he returned to Chatham to assist his father in the post-office and telegraph office there, and also in the boot and shoe business. In 1881 his father retired from the post-office, and the two added to their other business that of lumber and coal. In 1886 Mr. Nickerson began systematic reporting of passing steamers to their owners in Boston, New York, Portland. and other

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ports, and afterward extended his service to news- papers and to the Boston Chamber of Commerce. In 1887 he entered the service of the Boston

W. L. NICKERSON.

Globe as special correspondent at Chatham. Four years later he was put in charge of Cape news service from Barnstable to Truro for that paper, and is still in that position. He is a prac- tical telegraph operator, and telegraphs his own reports mostly, having a special wire to his Marine Observatory, connecting direct with the Boston Chamber of Commerce and the Globe office. In ISSo he was appointed displayman of the United States Signal Service, which posi- tion he still holds. Mr. Nickerson is prominent in politics, an active working Republican, and has served as chairman of the Republican town committee, resigning in 1893, and as member of the Thirteenth District Republican Congressional Committee. He seeks no office, but works for the nomination and election of those he considers the worthiest for positions. He is a member of the Chatham School Committee, elected in 1894, and a trustee of the Public Library. He is offi- cially connected with numerous fraternal organi- zations, -treasurer of St. Martin's Lodge, Free Masons, of Chatham; treasurer of Monomoit Council, American Legion of Honor, Chatham ;

officer in Sylvester Baxter Royal Arch Chapter, West Harwich ; and member of Hyde Park Coun- cil, Royal Select Masons of Hyde Park, Cyprus Commandery, Knights Templar, Hyde Park, and Aleppo Temple, Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, Boston. In religious faith he is a Uni- versalist, and has been chairman of the trustees of the Universalist church, Chatham, for thirteen years, and assistant superintendent of the Sunday- school for the past eight years. He was married January 12, 1886, to Miss Euphemia Crowell, of East Harwich. They have one daughter : Rhoda Lombard Nickerson (born August 24, 1887).

NOYES, RUFUS KING, M.D., of Boston, was born in New Hampshire, in the town of Hamp- stead, May 24, 1853, son of Joshua Flint and Lois Ann (Noyes) Noyes. Joseph Noyes on his father's side and Humphrey Noyes on his mother's side both served in the war of the Revo- lution. His maternal grandfather was a soldier in the War of 1812. His general education was acquired at the Atkinson Academy, Atkinson,

RUFUS K. NOYES.

N.H .; and he studied for his profession at the Dartmouth Medical College, where he graduated in I875. From 1876 to 1877 he was house

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surgeon in the Boston City Hospital, and then entered upon general practice in medicine and surgery, which he has since pursued with success in Boston and vicinity. He has been active in modifying the law which required vaccination of all children before entering the public schools, on the ground that isolation, notification, quarantine, disinfection, and sanitation are the only means of preventing and " stamping out " small-pox. He holds that vaccination has no influence to prevent or mitigate small-pox, while it has often produced ill- health, devitalization, and sometimes death. In politics Dr. Noyes, though born a Democrat, is now an Independent. He is agnostic, scientific, and materialistic in philosophy and belief. He is quite a voluminous contributor to the press of the State and a forcible essayist on scientific and philosophic subjects, appearing before literary societies and clubs, and frequently on the public rostrum. Dr. Noyes is a candidate for the So- ciety for the Sons of American Revolution. He is not married.

PADDOCK, FRANKLIN KITTREDGE, M.D., of Pittsfield, is a native of New York, born in Ham- ilton, December 19, 1841, son of Hiram C. and Eunice C. (Kittredge) Paddock. His maternal grandfather, Dr. Abel Kittredge, of Hinsdale, Mass., was a surgeon in the Massachusetts mili- tia in 1800. The late Dr. Benjamin Franklin Kit- tredge, of Hinsdale, was his uncle. He was edu- cated in the Normal School at Hamilton, N. Y. It was his intention to complete his studies at Madison University, but several years' invalidism from inflammatory rheumatism after the age of sixteen prevented. He attended one course at the Albany Medical College and two at the Berk- shire Medical College in Pittsfield, and graduated from the latter in November, 1864. He then spent six months in New York, attending lectures and the hospitals. In 1865 he entered into part- nership with his former preceptor. Dr. William Warren Greene, of Pittsfield, and began active practice there. Five years later, in 1870, he formed a partnership with Dr. J. F. A. Adams, which continued for fourteen years. He was dean and professor in the Berkshire Medical College at the time of its discontinuance in 1868. He has been medical examiner for the Second Berk- shire District since 1881, consulting surgeon of the Pittsfield House of Mercy Hospital since its foundation in 1874, and medical director of the

Berkshire Life Insurance Company since 1870. Dr. Paddock is a member of the American Medi- cal Association, of the Massachusetts and New

F. K. PADDOCK.

York Medico-legal societies, and of the Massachu- setts Medical Society, elected president of the lat- ter in June, 1894. He has belonged to the Pitts- field Monday Evening Club since its organization. He has held no political offices. He was married March 11, 1867, to Miss Anna Danforth Todd, daughter of the late Rev. Dr. John Todd. Their children living are: Mrs. Frederic G. Crane, of Dalton, Alice, and Brace W. Paddock. Three have died : Mary, an infant ; Mary Todd, three years of age, of diphtheria ; and Franklin Eugene. drowned at the age of seventeen.

PARKER, FRANCIS STANLEY, merchant, was born in Hong Kong, China, September 1, 1863, son of Ebenezer Francis and Elizabeth Clapp (Stone) Parker. His first ancestor in the United States, originator of his branch of the Parker family, was William Parker, who married Zeruia Stanley at Portsmouth, N.H., in 1703. His pa- ternal grandparents were Matthew Stanley and " Nancy " (or Anne) (Quincy) Parker, the former son of Matthew Stanley Gibson and AAnne (Rust)

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MEN OF PROGRESS.

Parker, and the latter daughter of Henry and Eunice (Newell) Quincy, and a niece of " Dorothy Q." who married John Hancock. His maternal

FRANCIS S. PARKER.

grandparents were Henry Baldwin Stone, son of Jonas and Lucretia (Baldwin) Stone, and Eliza- beth (Clapp) Stone, daughter of Ezra and Grace (Mather) Clapp. Mr. Parker was educated in private schools at Jamaica Plain, Mass. (now West Roxbury District, Boston) from 1869 to 1876, in G. W. C. Noble's private school, Boston, from 1876 to 1882, and at Harvard College, which he entered in the autumn of 1882 with the class of 1886. Leaving college to enter business in April, 1885, he began as clerk in the office of Gay & Parker, Boston, wholesale coal merchants, and so continued until October, 1887, when the firm was incorporated as the Gay & Parker Company ; and he was elected clerk of the corporation and also a director. In August, 1889, he was elected presi- dent, still retaining the office of clerk, which posi- tions he still holds. Mr. Parker has been con- nected with the State militia for several years, first enlisting as a private in Company A, First Corps of Cadets, August 14, 1885, and serving until August 14, 1888, when he was discharged. On April 21, 1891, he was appointed sergeant and color-bearer on the staff of the Second Bri-

gade, and on July 9, 1894, commissioned captain and engineer of the Second Brigade staff, which position he continues to occupy. While in college he was a director of the Harvard Co-operation Society, a steward from the class of 1886 for the Harvard Athletic Association, and secretary and for a short time assistant treasurer of the Harvard Boat Club. He also belonged to the Porcellian Club, the Hasty Pudding Club, the Delta Kappa Epsilon Society, Alpha Delta Phi Society, and the Rabbit Club. He is now a member of the Somerset, the Country, the Athletic, the Ex- change, and the Nahant clubs, and of the Mili- tary Service Institution of the United States. He was married in Boston, December 27, 1888, to Miss Harriet Amory Anderson. They have two children : John Stanley (born January 15, 1890) and William Amory Parker (born December 31, 1892). Mr. Parker has been a resident of the town of Nahant since he became of age.

PARKER, FREDERICK WESLEY, of Boston, banker and broker, is a native of Boston, born

F. W. PARKER.

May 9, 1863, son of Jerome W. and Ann Eliza (Wright) Parker. He is of sturdy Revolutionary stock, his great-grandfathers on both sides having

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MEN OF PROGRESS.

held commissions under Washington ; and his paternal grandfather was with Ethan Allen at Ticonderoga. lle received a good common- school education. When he was a lad of fourteen, his father having met with business reverses, he was obliged to enter commercial life. Beginning at the lowest round of the ladder in the whole- sale millinery establishment of Davis, Roundy, & Cole, Boston, at sixteen he was representing the firm " on the road." At the age of seventeen he went to New York, and there engaged with Barmberg, Hill, & Co., Broadway, in the same business, as commercial traveller for the house in the New England States. Not being satisfied with this business, although successful in his work, he left it after a few years, and, returning to Boston, took a minor clerkship in the banking and brokerage house of Perkins, Dupee, & Co., No. 40 State Street. He rose rapidly, and in 1888 engaged in business on his own account, forming with Arthur W. Sawyer and Hazen Clement the firm of Sawyer, Clement, & Co. In 1892, Mr. Sawyer retiring, the firm be- came Clement, Parker, & Co., as at present. Their house is now at No. 53 Devonshire Street. Mr. Parker is a member of the Boston Stock Exchange. In Somerville, where he re- sides, he is a member of the Common Council, having been first elected for 1894, serving on the committees on finance and public property. He is also a director of the Somerville National Bank. He is connected with the Masonic fra- ternity, belonging to the John Abbott Lodge, the Somerville Royal Arch Chapter, the Orient Council, Somerville, and the De Molay Com- mandery, Boston ; and he is a member of the Exchange Club, Boston, and the Central Club, Somerville, a director of the latter. From 1885 to ISSS Mr. Parker was a member of the First Corps of Cadets. In politics he is a Repub- lican. Mr. Parker was married June 15, 1887, to Miss Nellie Elizabeth Blodgett, of Cambridge. They have one child: Mildred Blodgett Parker (born March 22, 1889).

PASTENE, JOSEPH NICHOLAS, of Boston, mem- ber of the Suffolk bar, was born in Boston, Octo- ber 3, 1863, son of Louis and Clara C. (Moltedo) Pastene. His parents were natives of Rapallo, province of Genoa, Italy. He was educated in Boston public schools, graduating from the Eliot

Grammar School, and afterward attending the High School ; and privately for four years, under the late Professor John B. Torricelli, following a general college course. Then he entered the Bos- ton University Law School, and graduated there, cum laude, in June, 1888. He was admitted to the Suffolk bar on July 17 following, and immedi- ately opened bis law office in Boston. Here he has since been established and engaged in gen- eral practice, more particularly connected with civil and probate matters. He was appointed a public administrator for Suffolk County April 29, 1891. lle is a member of the Boston University

J. N. PASTENE.

Law School Alumni Association, and was presi- dent of that organization in 1894. In politics Mr. Pastene is a Democrat, but he has never en- tered public life. He was married in Boston, April 21, 1889, to Miss Pauline M. Ceppi. They have one child : Alexander Pastene (born July 13, 1892).

PHIPPS, WALTER ANDRUS, M.D., of Hopkin- ton, is a native of Hopkinton, born February S. 1854, son of Marcus C. and Amey (Wheelock) Phipps. He is a lineal descendant of Sir William Phipps, royal governor of Massachusetts in 1692. His education was attained at the West Newton

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MEN OF PROGRESS.

English and Classical School, at Phillips (Exeter) Academy, and at Amherst College, where he spent one year. He then studied medicine at Harvard Medical School, graduating in 1878. Immedi- ately after his graduation he settled in his native town, and has practised his profession there ever since. Dr. Phipps is a member of the Massachu- setts Medical Society, of the Thurber Medical So- ciety, and of the Harvard Medical Alumni Asso- ciation. He was married February 3, ISSo, to

WALTER A. PHIPPS.

Miss Hattie Anna Corthell, of Whitman. They have three children : Marcus Lawrence, Mary Avis, and Roland Corthell Phipps.

PIERCE, CHARLES FRANK, of Boston, artist, is a native of New Hampshire, born in Hillsborough County in 1844, son of John A. and Phila A. (Warner) Pierce. He is of English ancestry. He was educated in the common schools. In 1866, at the age of twenty-two, he came to Boston, and began the study of art under the best in- structors to be found at that time ; but the greater part of his art education was acquired through ob- servation and practice at home and in Europe, having studied abroad through the years 1878 and 1879. Since his return to Boston he has spent

the winter seasons in the city, pursuing his profes- sion, and his summers on his farm in Peterbor-

CHAS. F. PIERCE.

ough, N.H. His work is in numerous private collections : and examples of it are also in the Boston Art Club, the Newton Club, and the Penn- sylvania Academy of Fine Arts. He is a member of the Boston Art Club and of other art associa- tions in Boston. He was married August 3, 1876, to Miss Luena R. Wilder, of Peterborough, N.H.

PROCTOR, THOMAS EMERSON, of Boston, mer- chant, was born in South Danvers (now Peabody), Essex County, August 29, 1834; died in Boston, December 7, 1894. He was the son of Abel and Lydia Porter (Emerson) Proctor, both of early Essex ancestry. On his paternal side his ances- tors came from England about 1630 in the " Susan and Ellen"; and he was sixth in descent from John Proctor, the martyr to the "witchcraft delu- sion," and one of the last to be hanged on account of that superstition in Massachusetts. His mater- nal ancestor, John Emerson, was an early minister in Topsfield; and through this branch he was re- lated to Ralph Waldo Emerson, his great-grand- father and the latter's grandfather having been brothers. It was possibly through this connec-

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tion that Mr. Proctor inherited his scholarly tastes, which even his extensive business affairs did not prevent his indulging. He was widely read, and had a large acquaintance with the best literature of the time. When having completed the ordinary public school course and prepared himself to enter college, his father's poor health obliged him to give up his college aspirations and enter the lat- ter's office, which was one of the great crosses of his life. At the age of eighteen he was made a full partner in the concern, which then became Abel Proctor & Son, with offices in Boston and tanneries at South Danvers. " War times " created a demand for leather of which Mr. Proctor was quick to avail himself, this being in a large meas- ure the foundation of his subsequent fortune. About this time the firm's name was changed to Thomas E. Proctor. In 1887 Mr. Proctor organ- ized his affairs into a stock company, the Thomas E. Proctor Leather Company, which in turn was merged into the United States Leather Company (the Leather Trust) in 1893. Mr. Proctor was the master spirit of the trust, and it was his hand which steadied it through its various crises to a well-established basis. The fact that this great organization was launched successfully in a time of intense business depression emphasizes his wonderful executive ability, shrewdness, nerve, and grit. He was thoroughly self-reliant ; yet. while he pursued his occupation with great cour- age, his spirit of enterprise was blended with a conservatism that always kept him within the lines of safety. He seldom sought the counsel of his contemporaries, but felt perfectly competent to manage his own affairs, great as they came to be. For more than a generation the Proctor Tannery was a landmark in the town of Peabody and one of the chief industries of the place. He volunta- rily chose the quiet, unostentatious side of life, declining always the allurements of conspicuous public place. Political preferment was easily within his reach : but, without abating one jot in his intensity of feeling on political issues or in true public spirit of the broader kind, he preferred the private station. In politics he was a Demo- crat, though not in any sense an aggressive poli- tician. His public offices were confined to the position of commissioner at large from Massachu- setts to the World's Columbian Exhibition at Chicago in 1893, an appointment at the hands of President Harrison, and a trusteeship of the Mas- sachusetts General Hospital, in which institution

he became intensely interested, as he was in every worthy practical movement for the welfare of Boston, leaving it at his death the generous be- quest of $100,ooo with which to erect a building for the care of the insane (of the MeLean Asylum). He was a director of the Eliot National Bank, a foremost member of the New England Shoe and Leather Association, and president of the United Electric Securities Company. A great capacity and love for work, a keen and accurate power of analysis, an ability to grasp and retain minutia, unflagging energy, and great tact were his fore- most characteristics. The most complex of busi-

THOMAS E. PROCTOR.

ness problems were placed in orderly clearness under his keen analysis. His alert, retentive mind. his participation in many affairs, and his affable and unaffected manners made him a most agreeable companion. He was married in 1865 to Miss Emily Howe, of New York, who survives him with two sons and two daughters : James H., Anne P. (Mrs. Charles G. Rice). Emily W .. and Thomas E. Proctor, Jr.

PUSHEE, JOHN CLARK, of Boston, manufact- urer, was born in Lansingburgh. Rensselaer County, N. Y., March 11, 1832, son of John and

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MEN OF PROGRESS.

Rosanna (Clark) Pushee. The Pushees were de- scendants of the Huguenots, and for nearly two hundred years lived at and near Littleton, Mass .; and the Clarks were English, and among the early settlers of Rensselaer County, New York. He was educated in the common schools. Immedi- ately after leaving school he learned practical brush-making, and in 1864 established at Lansing- burgh the brush manufacturing business of which he has since been the head. He moved to Boston in December, 1879, the change being made to meet the demand for greater facilities, in order to keep pace with the increasing popularity of the

J. C. PUSHEE.

goods manufactured by him. The present factory, on the corner of Harrison Avenue and Randolph Street, covering an area of eighty-five hundred feet with a floor space of thirty-five thousand feet, was occupied in March, 1892. It is equipped with the most modern machinery, and a number of labor-saving devices not known on the market, which enable the firm to meet the requirements of their steadily increasing trade with a facility that few concerns of like manufacture possess. The motive power used is both steam and elec- tricity : and two hundred and forty experienced hands are employed. The goods now manufact- ured are practical brushes for artists, painters,

and varnishers; and shaving brushes, of which the firm are also leading manufacturers. The present style of the firm, J. C. Pushee & Sons, was adopted when Mr. Pushee's two sons, George D). and John E., were admitted to partnership. Each member of the firm has a practical knowl- edge of the business, and under their combined energy and skilful management its founder has the satisfaction of seeing it in the foremost posi- tion in its line of manufacture in the country. He is still in the prime of life, and with unim- paired energy devotes his mature skill and experi- ence to keeping his works abreast the times. While a resident of Lansingburgh Mr. Pushee was prominent in local affairs. For nine years, from 1870 to 1879, he held the position of police com- missioner ; and he was a supervisor from 1874 to 1877. He is a member of the Sans Souci Club of Lansingburgh, and of the Masonic lodge, Phoenix 58. In politics he is Republican. He was married November, 1853, to Miss Eliza Arnold Hunt, of Lansingburgh. They have three sons and two daughters : George Durant, John F ... Elizabeth, Anna, and Leslie D). Pushee.

RICHARDS, DEXTER NATHAN, of Boston, manufacturer, was born in Enfield, May 18, 1823. son of Ephraim and Susanna (Chenery) Richards. He is a descendant in the seventh generation of Edward Richards, who came from England in the ship " Lion" in 1632, settled with his brother first in Cambridge, and in 1636 became one of the proprietors of Dedham, and the sixty-second signer of the social compact. Edward Richards married Susan Hunting, daughter of Elder John Hunting of Watertown, and was one of the prin- eipal men of the new township of Dedham. Dex- ter N. was educated in common and private schools in his native town and at Westfield Aead- emy, where he spent two years. At the age of eighteen he began business on his own account in a general merchandise store in the town of Prescott, which he successfully conducted for three years. Then he sold out, and came to Boston to settle an estate for Archibald 1). Bab- coek, a relative. This accomplished, he entered the dry-goods jobbing house of H. Ammidown & Co. as a clerk, and two years later was admitted to the partnership. His connection with this house covered about eight years. He next be- came a member of a new firm under the name of

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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 90

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