Men of progress one thousand biographical sketches and portraits of leaders in business and professional life in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Part 96

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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Society, the Medico-Legal Society. and the Asso- ciation of Military Surgeons of the United States. He belongs to the order of Freemasons, and is a

ORLANDO J. BROWN.

member of the Board of Trade and of several be- nevolent organizations of North Adams. In poli- tics he is a Republican, and in religious faith a Universalist. He has been deacon of the First Universalist Church of North Adams since 1885, and superintendent of the Sunday-school since 1872. He was also a member of the building committee for the present church edifice of the society erected in 1892. Dr. Brown was married first, November 22, 1871, to Miss Eva M. Hods- kins, who died October 14, 1873, at the birth of her child, William O. Brown, since deceased. He married second, September 13, 1876, Miss Ida M. Haskins, by whom he had two children : Agnes O. and Ida M. Brown. She died in 1881, at the birth of her second child. His present wife was Miss Alice T. Stowell, daughter of Edward and Celestia (Stevens) Stowell, whom he married December 16, 1884. They have no children.

BROWNELL, STEPHEN ALLEN, of New Bed- ford, merchant and manufacturer, mayor of the

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city 1894, was born in Westport, January 5, 1844, son of Ezra P. and Ann Maria (Allen) Brownell. His great-grandfather, Benjamin Brownell, his grandfather, Jireh Brownell, and his father, Ezra, were all residents of Westport, and all more or less honored by their fellow-townsmen by selec- tion for official position, his father especially hav- ing been frequently called to public place. He was educated in the common schools and at Pierce Academy, Middleborough. After leaving the academy, he taught country schools for four terms, and then began his business career. He was for six years a store-keeper and the post- master of Central Village, in Westport (from 1864 to. 1870), and subsequently, after the death of his father, in association with his late father's partner for six years in the live cattle trade, to which was soon added the slaughtering of cattle. He came to New Bedford in 1878, and was first employed here by l'. Cornell, wholesale meat- dealer, as manager. He remained in this position six years, then became a partner in the business, and six years later succeeded to the entire busi- ness of P. Cornell & Co., becoming the New

S. A. BROWNELL

Bedford agent of P. D. Armour, of Chicago. Meanwhile he engaged in numerous other inter- ests, including manufacturing and banking. He

is now a director of the Dartmouth and West- port Electric Railroad, the New Bedford Safe Deposit and Trust Company, and the New Bed- ford Co-operative Bank. His public life was be- gun while he was a resident of Westport, as a member of the lower house of the Legislature, in 1870. In New Bedford he was first con- nected with the city government in 1886, when he was a member of the City Council. He was returned the following year, and then was elected to the Board of Aldermen, where he served through the years 1888-90-91-92. He was first chosen to the mayoralty in the December elec- tion of 1893. As mayor, he is chairman of the Board of Aldermen and the School Committee ; and he is also chairman of the Board of Public Works, the Park Commission, the Water Board, and the trustees of the Free Public Library. In politics he is a Republican, and has been some time a member of the Republican city committee of New Bedford. He belongs to the Masonic fraternity, a past master of Noquochoke Lodge, member of Adoniram Royal Arch Chapter, of Sutton Commandery Knights Templar, a Scottish Rite thirty-second degree Mason, and of the Mys- tic Shrine, Aleppo, Boston ; and is also a member of the Knights of Honor, the American Order of United Workmen, the New Bedford Lodge of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the Acushnet Lodge of Odd Fellows, and the Stella Lodge of Daughters of Rebecca. He is presi- dlent and director of the Odd Fellows' Building Association of New Bedford. His club associa- tions are with the Wamsutta and Hunters' of New Bedford, the Mayors' Club of Massachusetts, and the Club of the Legislature of 1870. Mr. Brown- ell was married November 13, 1864, to Miss Mary L. Sisson, of Mattapoisett. They have had five children, three of whom died before reaching the age of three years. The others still living are: Albert R. Brownell and Mabel W., now Mrs. Albert Braley.

CAMPBELL, BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, M.D., of Boston, was born near Halifax, September 12. 1834, son of Benjamin W. H. and Isabel (Sutherland) Campbell. He is of Scotch descent, and his ances- tors were among the early settlers of New Eng- land. His education was begun in the common schools of his native place, and finished in New York, to which city he moved in early life, and

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MEN OF PROGRESS.

where in various classical schools he prepared for college. He entered the Harvard Medical School in 1854, and graduated in 1857. He then went abroad. and took a special course in surgery under Christopher Heath in London, also visiting the various hospitals in London, Edinburgh, and Paris. Upon his return he established himself in East Boston, and soon acquired an extensive practice, which is now limited only by his endurance. Dur- ing the Civil War he served as surgeon in the gen- eral field hospital on the Pamunky River, Virginia, in 1862, and in 1864 as acting assistant surgeon, United States army, at the Webster General Hos-

BENJAMIN F. CAMPBELL.

pital in Manchester, N.H. He is now surgeon of Joseph Hooker Post, No. 23. Grand Army of the Republic. Dr. Campbell was a member of the lower house of the Legislature of 1882-83, serving as chairman of the committee on water-supply. Dur- ing his first term he introduced the order, which became a law, compelling storekeepers and manu- facturers to provide seats for their female em- ployees when the latter were not engaged in the performance of their duties. In 1889-90 he was a member of the Senate, serving as chairman of the committee on education. For six years he served on the Board of Overseers of the Poor in Boston, and for three years was a member of the

Boston School Committee. In politics he is an active Republican. He was an alternate delegate to the National Republican Convention in 1880, and the same year president of the Garfield Club of East Boston ; and in ISSS he was president of the East Boston Harrison Club. He is a member and a councillor of the Massachusetts Medical So- ciety; member of the Middlesex (political dining) Club, and of the Knights Templar. He has fre- quently given public lectures, four of which, on "The Effects of Alcohol upon the Human Organization," "'The Dangers of the Republic," "The Abuse of the Tongue," and " Rational Medi- cine," received wide attention. Dr. Campbell was married December 20, 1866, to Miss Albina M. C. Anderson, of Boston. They have three children : Frank, Grace, and Blanche Sutherland Campbell.

CARR, SAMUEL, of Boston, banker, was born in Charlestown, November 18, 1848, son of Sam- uel and Louisa (Trowbridge) Carr. His ances- tors on both his father's and mother's side came to this country in its early days of settlement, from England. His education was begun in the public schools of Charlestown, where he entered the High School, and finished at the Newton High School, from which he graduated in 1867, his par- ents having removed to West Newton in 1862. Immediately after graduation he entered the Shoe and Leather National Bank, of which his father was cashier, as corresponding clerk. He con- tinued here as clerk and assistant cashier until IS78, when he became cashier of the National Hide and Leather Bank of Boston, which position he held until 1SS2. Then he was president of the Central National Bank of Boston 1882-83. and in March, 1883, was made confidential secretary of the late Frederick L. Ames, a large capitalist and one of the largest private real estate owners in Boston, with whom he remained until the latter's death in September, 1893, and by whose will he was appointed one of the executors and trustees. The management of this trust is his present occu- pation. His official positions now are president of the United Electric Securities Company of Bos- ton, president of the Mutual District Messenger Company of Boston, vice-president of the Industrial Improvement Company, vice-president of the Cen- tral National Bank, director of the American Loan and Trust Company of Boston, and director of ser- eral of the branch lines of the Union Pacific Rail-

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MEN OF PROGRESS.

way Company. Mr. Carr received a special finan- cial training under his father. While he was cashier of the National Hide and Leather Bank.

SAMUEL CARR.

from 1878 to 1882, his father was still cashier of the Shoe and Leather Bank, and his brother, George E. Carr, was cashier of the Everett Na- tional Bank. Both have since died. Mr. Carr has always been an enthusiastic musical amateur. and was strongly urged by his musical teachers to adopt music as a profession, but decided not to do so. He has played the organ in various churches as a relaxation and delight most of the time since fifteen years of age. For the past eleven years he has been organist and director of music at the Old South Church, Boston, where is one of the largest and finest organs in the country and a fine quartette choir. He is a mem- ber of the Harvard Musical Association, of the Bunker Hill Monument Association, of the Bos- tonian Society; and of the Country Club, Brook- line, the Essex County Club. Manchester, the St. Botolph, Algonquin, and Athletic clubs, Boston. He has, by appointment of the governor, been a State director of the Workingmen's Loan Associa- tion since ISS8 ; and in 1895 he was appointed by Mayor Curtis a trustee of the Boston Public Li- brary. Mr. Carr was married September 10,

1872, to Miss Susan Waters Tarbox, who was born in Framingham, and a daughter of the late Rev. I. N. Tarbox. D.D. They have two chil- dren : Margaret Waters (born May 24, 1876) and Elsie Trowbridge (born March 29, 1881).

CARRIE, WILLIAM ALBERT, of Boston, bank stationer, is a native of Canada, born in Carlisle. Ontario, November IS, 1857, son of Richard and Lambert Montgomery (Anderson) Carrie. He is of Huguenot, Welsh, Scotch, Scotch-Irish. and English ancestry. His father, who moved to the United States in 1858, was a volunteer soldier in the Civil War. He was educated in common and private schools. Being left dependent at an early age. he was obliged to work ; and he began in the store of Field, Leiter, & Co., Chicago. He re- mained there until the great Chicago fire, and after that was in a real estate office until 1877, when he went to Toronto, Canada, and entered a wholesale stationery and publishing establish- ment, there to learn the business. Two years

WM. A. CARRIE.

later he was put " on the road " by the house as a commercial traveller. After a while, wearying of hard pioneer work in this line at small pay, he

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MEN OF PROGRESS.

dropped it, and went to New York City, where he entered the employment of Baker, Pratt, & Co., Bond Street, then the largest stationery and book house in that city. In May, 1883, having re- ceived a better offer from J. C. Hall & Co., of Providence, R.I., to travel for that firm among the banks of the Eastern and Middle States, he went to that place. After three years with the Messrs. Hall, having been urged by some of the bank men to engage in business for himself in Boston, he left Providence, and came to Boston, a city which always had a fascination for him because of its historic associations and the kind- ness which he had received from those with whom he had come in contact, and opened an office at No. 84 Devonshire Street. Two years later, need- ing more room, he moved to No. 86 Federal Street. Up to this time the orders taken by him had been placed with printers and binders doing work for the trade. But, as his business grew, this arrange- ment proved unsatisfactory; and in 1889 he leased two floors at No. 46 Oliver Street, and put in a ruling and binding plant, together with a stock of paper for jobbing purposes. Subse- quently a printing plant was added, making it to-day the only establishment of the kind - printing, ruling, perforating, numbering, and binding done under one management -- in Boston, if not in New England. The firm (now William A. Carrie & Co.) has also had for two years the Boston agency of the Globe Company, Cincinnati and New York, letter file cabinets and supplies for saving labor in offices. Mr. Carrie is a Free- mason, senior warden of St. John's Lodge of Boston, the oldest lodge in America; and is a member of the Boston Stationers' Association, the Massachusetts Fish and Game Association, the Master Printers' Club, and the Boston Art Club. In politics he is a Republican. He was married February 20, 1894, to Miss Minnie M. Shaw, of New York City.

CASAS, WILLIAM BELTRAN DE LAS, of Malden and Boston, member of the Suffolk bar, was born in Malden, March 3, 1857. His father, Francisco Beltran de las Casas, born in 1803, near Tarra- gona in Spain, came to this country about 1826, and, after teaching the languages and painting for a time at Williams and Amherst Colleges, passed most of his life in the same profession in Boston. His mother, Elizabeth Carder Pedrick, was born

at Marblehead in IS10, of the marriage of John Pedrick and Elizabeth Fettyplace, both descended from ancestors of the same names, who were among the earliest English settlers of that town. Mr. de las Casas was educated in the Malden public schools and at Harvard College, from which he graduated in the class of 1879. After gradua- tion he was for two years, 1879-81, teacher of mathematics in Trinity School at Tivoli-on-the- Hudson. Then he took up his law studies at the Harvard Law School, from which he graduated in ISS4. After further law reading in the law office of Robert P. Smith at Boston, he was admitted to

W. B. de las CASAS.

the Suffolk bar in 1885, and began practice at once, with office at No. 40 Water Street, Boston, where he has since been established. He has mainly been engaged in the management of trust and other estates, but has also conducted some business negotiations in Spanish countries, in which he has travelled extensively. Having been also drawn into real estate interests, he developed one of the most attractive sections of his native city, and in other ways has taken an active part in its life and prosperity. He was one of the founders and building committee of the Malden Hospital, of which he is yet a trustee. Of Jate years Mr. de las Casas has taken a somewhat

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MEN OF PROGRESS.

prominent part in political affairs, as a result of his strong interest in such matters as civil service, tariff, and consular reform. Since 1882 he has been secretary of the Malden Civil Service Re- form Association, and on the executive and other committees of the State and national leagues. In 1884 he was secretary of the Malden Independent Republican Committee. Later he gave his sup- port to the Democratic party, and in 1890 was a member of the Malden Democratic city committee, and at the same time chairman of the Congressional District committee. The next year he was the Democratic nominee for the Governor's Council. In 1892 he was appointed a member of a State commission, with the Hon. Charles Francis Adams and Philip A. Chase, to report on the advisability of a system of metropolitan parks about Boston, and in 1893 was appointed on the permanent Met- ropolitan Park Commission. The work of this commission has been, aside from the practice of his profession, his most absorbing interest for the past three years. He is a member of several clubs, among which are the Union of Boston, Kernwood of Malden, and Reform of New York. and for years has served in the first Corps of Cadets. He is unmarried.

CAVANAUGH, MICHAEL AMBROSE, of Boston, Taunton, and Manchester, N.H., senior member of the firm of Cavanaugh Brothers, leading dealers in horses in New England, was born in East Taunton. December 9. 1852, son of Thomas and Ellen (Collins) Cavanaugh. He is of Irish blood, his father and mother having both been born in Ireland. His father came to East Taunton when a young man, and went to work in the Iron Works there. In 1864, when Michael was a lad of twelve, the father was taken ill, and obliged to give up work, and so continued until his death in May, 1867. Consequently, the boy was forced to leave school, and contribute his part to the sup- port of the family, which consisted of eight in all. He found a place in the Iron Works, paying the rate of thirty-three and one-third cents a day .- a pretty small sum, but nevertheless a great help; for the only other wage-earner of the family was his elder brother, John, who received but slightly higher pay. He continued at the Iron Works until 1870, when, having concluded that he would like to follow the sea, he left, and shipped in a schooner. One voyage, however, dispelled the

charm ; and upon its finish he returned to his old work, content to remain a landsman. Mean- while he bought a horse and wagon on the in- stalment plan : and, when the team was partly paid for, he started out in the kindling wood business, at the same time trying his hand at trading horses. Soon after he started a modest stage line, which he ran evenings between East Taunton and Taunton. In the autumn of 1875 he bought a hack, and, moving to Taunton, en- gaged in the general hack business at the railway station. Three years later he had a small stable of horses and carriages, and made sales here.

M. A. CAVANAUGH.

Shortly after he moved to Manchester, N. H., and, forming a partnership with his brother, James F., under the firm name of Cavanaugh Brothers, es- tablished a hack, livery, and boarding business in the old City Hotel stables. In ISSI the brothers added an auction mart of horses, carriages, and harnesses, selling regularly Saturdays, Michael A. doing the auctioneering. By 1884 the sales of the mart had so increased that the conduct of this part of the business occupied nearly all their time. Then they sold out the hack and livery department, and devoted themselves exclusively to the sale business. In 1886 they bought out the carriage and harness repository of Ezra W. Kim-

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MEN OF PROGRESS.

ball, and continued it in connection with the horse sale business. In 1889 they opened their first stable in Boston, on Portland Street, taking the third brother, Thomas F., into the firm. By this time their horse business had so increased that they were handling about five thousand horses a year, and its care was absorbing their attention. Consequently, they sold their carriage and harness business to Daniel S. Kimball, the predecessor of the Kimball Carriage Company. Throughout the year 1889 Mr. Cavanaugh rode from Manchester to Boston and return each day, thus travelling one hundred and fourteen miles daily on the cars. The same year the brothers built a new brick stable in Manchester, on Central Street, one hun- dred by forty feet, three stories high ; and here they continue to do an extensive horse sale busi- ness, having private sales daily and regular auc- tion sales each Saturday. In Boston they moved in 1893 from Portland Street to Nos. 103 and 105 Beverly Street, and that year began making a specialty of fine high-bred horses. In Taunton they completed in 1895 one of the finest four-story brick buildings there, containing two large halls and a fine stable, where they are doing an exten- sive hack, livery, and sale business. Michael A. and Thomas F. now attend to the Boston and Taunton stables, and James F. manages the Man- chester stable. Michael A. was always a lover of the race horse, and had driven many valuable ones. He was married September 13, 1888, to Miss Lillian E. Butman, daughter of Oliver J. and Mary Butman, of Manchester. She died in 1889, after giving birth to a boy: Oliver Ray Estelle Cavanaugh. Mr. Cavanaugh moved to Taunton soon after the death of his wife, and kept house with his mother and brother, Thomas F., until the death of his mother, in 1894. He still lives in the same place.

CHICK, ISAAC WILLIAM, of Boston, merchant, is a native of New Hampshire, born in Peter- borough, June 25, 1851, son of John Maxwell and Lucy (Sanderson) Chick. His father was a Baptist minister, having pastorates at Grafton, Mass., and at Groton, Mass. He was educated and fitted for college at Appleton Academy, New Ipswich, N.H., under Professor E. T. Quimby, later professor at Dartmouth College. His class entered college, but he preferred to go at once into business. Accordingly, in the autumn fol- lowing his graduation, in IS6S, he came to

Boston, and, finding employment as a book- keeper in a wool house, kept a set of books there until April, 1869. Then he entered the old and well-known carpet house of John H. Pray, Sons, & Co., and took charge of the ship- ping department ; and from that time to the present he has been connected with this estab- lishment, passing through all the various stages of the retail and wholesale departments, until he worked his way into the firm in 1878. He has had the general management of the buying and selling of the merchandise of the house, doing the foreign as well as the domestic buying, going

1. W. CHICK.

to Europe once or twice each year, and in this way keeping up the supply of foreign novelties in its lines of carpets and Oriental rug fabrics. His judgment and taste were especially shown in the fine line of designs and coloring introduced by his house, nearly all of which were selected or originated by him. He has devoted all his ener- gies to the interests of the house ; and its busi- ness has grown rapidly, until it is now (with one exception) the largest carpet business, whole- sale and retail, in the country, has a capital of a million dollars, pays cash for all goods pur- chased, and enjoys an annual trade of rising two million dollars. The firm has established

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MEN OF PROGRESS.

an enviable name for reliability, and for furnish- ing the finest assortment of goods at fair prices. In 1887 a large upholstery department was added, which has come to be a prosperous and prominent feature of the business. A little later the firm purchased the furniture and house furnishing establishment of H. R. Plimpton & Co .. which enabled it to make contracts for the entire furnish- ing of hotels, clubs, and residences from its own stock. It thereafter became one of the best known throughout the country ; and its travellers were sent into the Far West and North-west, the Middle and Southern States. It has for a series of years held the contract for furnishing all the carpets for the United States government - from forty to sixty thousand yards per year - against all competition ; and among its many other not- able contracts have been the Massachusetts State House (new part), twenty thousand yards of Wil- ton, the new Suffolk Court-house, Trinity Church, Algonquin Club-house, Parker House, Young's Hotel, Adams House, Copley Square Hotel, the Masonic Temple, all of Boston ; the Fall River Line of Steamers, - " Pilgrim," "Puritan," and " Priscilla," the finest boat in the world ; and the Hotel Cochrane. Washington, D.C., Kimball House, Atlanta, Ga., Grand Union, Saratoga, and many others. After the great fire of 1872, being then burned out, the firm moved up Washington Street, opposite the old Adams House. Many at that time doubted the wisdom of the move " way up town," but time proved that the march of trade was that way. Again, in 1890, having outgrown the old quarters, Mr. Chick, having a firm faith in the sure advancement of good real estate on Wash- ington Street, strongly and successfully advocated the purchase of the large piece of business prop- erty further south, opposite Boylston Street, in the heart of the city. Upon this lot, containing twenty thousand feet of land running through to Harrison Avenue, the firm erected the present six story, fire-proof building, extra well lighted, equipped with automatic sprinklers, automatic fire and burglar alarms, in every way a model struct- ure, especially adapted to the carpet and uphol- stering business. Land and building cost upward of three-quarters of a million dollars. Mr. Chick gave careful attention to all matters connected with the purchase of the real estate, and person- ally followed all the details of plan and building in addition to his many regular duties in connec- tion with the carpet business. The foresight

shown in the purchase of this large piece of real estate, which must by its advance in value in the near future give a handsome profit to the owners, was marked. Trade in Boston is steadily and surely moving south, up Washington Street ; and Boylston Street will soon be the centre of the retail trade. Mr. Chick is a director of numerous manufacturing corporations in various parts of the country : a director of the Phoenix Furniture Com- pany, of Grand Rapids, Mich., where over eight hundred men are employed ; and of the Wisconsin Central Railroad Company. He is a Freemason, member of the De Molay Commandery Knights Templar, of St. Andrews Chapter, and Revere Lodge; is a charter member of the Algonquin Club, and has been a member of the Union Boat Club for many years. In his younger days he was active in all athletic sports, and has not lost his interest in them. Mr. Chick was married October 31, 1877, to Miss Emma M. Converse, daughter of J. W. Converse, of Boston. They have two children : Mabel (born December 7, 1882) and Willie C. Chick (born March 2, 1884). His winter residence is at No. 347 Beacon Street, corner of Fairfield Street, Back Bay. The house, built under his direct supervision, has one of the finest interiors in Boston, all three stories being finished in a great variety of hard woods, and is assessed for one hundred thousand dollars. His summer residence is at Swampscott, the large and comfortable house there having been built by him in 1889. The estate, costing about forty thou- sand dollars, contains two acres of land, and is upon what was formerly the Mudge place. The house is finely furnished, having an abundance of Oriental carpets and rugs, of which Mr. Chick is a great lover as well as a good judge.

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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 96

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