USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > Metropolitan Boston; a modern history; Volume IV > Part 2
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His service in the World War, while in his own eyes no more than that performed by many others and far less than some, is worthy of spe- cial mention. For he went away in the pink of good health, and he came back via the war hospitals. His service was of a most meri- torious character, and he has shown himself an officer and a gentleman in the fullest sense of that military term. In May, 1916, he went to Canada and enlisted in the Canadian Army in Montreal, being assigned to duty overseas with the 5th Canadian Pioneers, rank of private. His ability was soon manifest, however, and
upon the field of battle he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant, temporary grade. He later applied for and received transfer to the Royal Air Force. He trained and became a pilot, his rank the same; and from that time on he saw active battle service in the air over the Western Front, until he was finally shot down, and, after staying for some time in vari- ous of the war hospitals of England, was in- valided home. His discharge, honorably re- lieving him from all further military service, is dated November 11, 1918.
Wendell Dearborn Howie married, December 24, 1917, at East Carleton, Norfolk, England, Lily Mary Sargent, an English woman. Mr. and Mrs. Howie became the parents of one child, a son: Peter Wendell Howie, who was born September 22, 1918. Mr. Howie and his family maintain their residence at No. 1 Craigie Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts. He is now political editor of the "Boston Herald."
ALLAN FORBES-Of extremely ancient origin, the honorable patronymic Forbes, worthily borne by Allan Forbes, president of the State Street Trust Company, a powerful financial institution of Boston, and prominent- ly identified with other interests of major im- portance in the Bay Street metropolis and else- where, is now, and for generations has been, one of the distinctively American surnames. Forbes is one of those outstanding names in New England life and culture which seems to have been synonymous with the rise of the New World Colonies to the status of the great American Republic.
The surname Forbes was assumed from lands of Forbes in Aberdeen, Scotland, for it is a Scottish name and of Scottish origin. The lands of Forbes were granted by Alexander II, of 1249, to the progenitor of this noble family. John de Forbes, the first of his sur-
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name of whom there is any record, was a per- sonage of rank and distinction during the reign of King William the Lion (1214). Following him is the long line of descendants, of whom William Forbes, of Tullickerne, Scotland, wrote in 1580:
In all ages since our first aryse, we myght compair with neighbors, for greater loyalty and valor for pietie (which we think truely ennobleth a families) ; witnes the many bishops and doctors att home and renownd divines abroad. Like as the root has ever done so the several branches of the house thought their greatest honour to honour God in their generations. As to their loyaltie, it was never stained.
It is of this ancient and noble Scotch house whence comes Allan Forbes of this review. In his autobiography Robert Bennet Forbes con- veys other interesting information concerning his ancestry, and says "the family memoran- da show that we originated from the family called of 'Dauch.' William Forbes of that ilk lived in 1800, was brother of Alexander of Pits- lago; and these were of the family of Newe and Edinglassie, brought down to my ances- tor, John of Strathdon. My great-grandmother on my father's side was Dorothy Collingwood, aunt to the celebrated Lord Collingwood."
Rev. John Forbes, founder of the American line of that name, first appears in American history as rector at St. Augustine, Florida. He was a Scotch clergyman of distinction. He married, February 2, 1767, at Brush Hill, Mil- ton, Massachusetts, Dorothy Murray, daugh- ter of a noted Scotch family. Rev. John Forbes returned to England, where he died September 17, 1793. His children were three: 1. Colonel James Grant Forbes, served under General Andrew Jackson; was once a com- mandant at Staten Island, and was the first marshal or governor of St. Augustine after Florida was ceded to the United States. 2. John Murray Forbes, was graduated from Har- vard College; practiced law in Brookfield, Massachusetts; removed to Boston, where he practiced for two years, and after 1796 lived chiefly abroad. He was consul-general, first at Hamburg, Germany, and later at Copenha-
gen, Denmark. In 1820 he was secretary of legation to Caesar Rodney, United States Min- ister to the Argentine Republic, and at the time of his death, 1831, Mr. Forbes himself was chargé d'affaires at Buenos Aires. 3. Ralph Bennet Forbes, of whom further.
Ralph Bennet Forbes, son of Rev. John and Dorothy (Murray) Forbes, was born at Brush Hill, Milton, Massachusetts, June 11, 1773, and died there October 5, 1824. Upon leaving school he was in the merchant marine for a few years and visited a number of European ports. He married Margaret Perkins, of Boston, and they were the parents of the following children: Em- ma Perkins, Thomas Tunno, Robert Bennet, of whom further; John Murray, Mary Abbott, and Cornelia.
Captain Robert Bennet Forbes, son of Ralph Bennet and Margaret (Perkins) Forbes, was born at Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, Sep- tember 18, 1804. He was educated at home and in France under a private tutor. With his parents and younger brother he had many har- rowing experiences and narrow escapes while trying to make the return journey to America, only to have their vessels captured or detained by the British. They were finally made pris- oners by a kindhearted knight-commander of a British ship and sent to Spain, where they were released from custody, and then sailed, homeward bound, but again their boat was captured by a Britisher and towed into a Portu- guese port. They escaped by a fishing boat to Lisbon, and after a month's stay there, finally embarked on a ship out of Baltimore, Mary- land, in which, after thirty-six days at sea, they arrived at Newport, Rhode Island, in Au- gust, 1813. Having finished his education at a boarding school at Milton, this State, Captain Robert Bennet Forbes was for a time attached to the exporting and importing house of James and T. H. Perkins in Boston. At the age of thirteen he began his life afloat, making a number of voyages to the Orient in the mer- chant marine or trading service, rising to be third mate, to second mate, to master of his vessel. He became an important trader be-
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tween American, Oriental and South American ports, and amassed a moderate fortune. He carried relief in the United States frigate "Jamestown," partly at his own charge, to the famine-stricken people of Ireland, in 1847. He superintended the building of nine gun- boats for use by the United States Govern- ment in the Civil War. As a shipbuilder of national reputation, conducting his own enter- prise, he constructed or was interested in more than seventy vessels of all classes. Captain Forbes married, in 1834, Rose Greene Smith, who died September 18, 1885, having borne her husband three children: Robert Bennet, Edith, and James Murray, of whom further. Captain Forbes carried as two of his most highly prized possessions a gold medal of the Massa- chusetts Humane Society and the medal of the Liverpool Shipwreck and Humane Society for his gallant conduct, in 1849, when he jumped from the towering bulwarks of the Cunard steamship "Europa," which had run down and sunk the emigrant ship "Charles Bartlett" of Plymouth, Massachusetts, in mid-ocean, to save a woman and child and afterwards a man.
James Murray Forbes, son of Captain Rob- ert Bennet and Rose Greene (Smith) Forbes, was born in Boston, July 17, 1845. He left Harvard College before the graduation of his class, 1866, to go to Hong Kong, China, to enter the old house of Russell & Company, of which his father had been the head. He was, after some years, admitted as a partner and given charge of the business at Canton and afterwards at Hong Kong, and served as vice- consul for Sweden and Norway at Canton. He returned from China at the time of his marriage, in 1871, and for several years rep- resented Russell & Company as agent at Bos- ton. Subsequently, he was elected president of the Chicago, Burlington & Northern Rail- road, and remained in that position for several years, until the road was consolidated with the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy. He was also made vice-president of the Suffolk Savings Bank, and still serves in this position, and was prominent in leading social organizations. He
was the prime mover in the establishment of The Country Club at Brookline, in 1882, which was the first club of its kind in the country, and in which he served as chairman of the board of governors for twelve years. He was a devotee of horseback riding and yachting. He was a director for many years of the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. James Murray Forbes married Alice Francis Bowditch, daughter of Nathaniel I. and Elizabeth (Brown) Bowditch, and they were the parents of three children: Allan, of whom further: Mary Bowditch and Dorothy.
Allan Forbes, son of James Murray and Alice Frances (Bowditch) Forbes, was born in Boston, November 20, 1874. He attended the Nobles' Private School, and for one year before college he visited England, Scotland, France, Switzerland and Italy, tutoring at the same time, and on his return to this country he entered Harvard College, in 1894, and was graduated Bachelor of Arts in the class of 1897.
Mr. Forbes started his business career in the employ of Blodget, Merritt & Company, with whom he continued for one year. He then was made assistant treasurer of the State Street Trust Company, Boston, with which in- stitution he has ever since been identified. Af- ter four years' service in that capacity he was advanced to treasurer, and two years later to vice-president. He was subsequently elected a member of the board of directors, and was elevated to president, in which office he has still been retained.
Mr. Forbes is everywhere recognized as a banker of great business-getting ability, pos- sessing unimpeachable integrity, and a far- sighted and useful citizen of the community. He is closely associated with a number of the leading financial, industrial and philanthropic institutions of Boston and its vicinity. In addition to serving as president of the State Street Trust Company, he is serving the fol- lowing organizations in the offices indicated: American Red Cross, Metropolitan Chapter,
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director; Army and Navy Service Committee, Incorporated, director; Austen Riggs Founda- tion, treasurer; Bankers Electric Protective Association, president and chairman of trus- tees; Boston & Albany Railroad, director; Boston Chamber of Commerce Realty Trust, director; Boston Clearing House, member of committee; Boston Consolidated Gas Company, director; Boston Floating Hospital, trustee; Boston Wharf Company, vice-president and di- rector; Boston Insurance Company, director; Cape Breton Electric Company, Limited, di- rector; Commonwealth Home and Office Trust, trustee; Chester & Becket Railroad Company, director; Conveyancers Title Insurance and Mortgage Company, director; Dedham Nation- al Bank, director; Devonshire Investing Cor- poration, director; English Speaking Union, Boston Branch, treasurer; Franklin Savings Bank City of Boston, trustee; Hotel Somerset Company, director and secretary; Islesboro Inn Company, Dark Harbor, Maine, treasur- er; Jacksonville Traction Company, director; The Marine Museum, Boston, director; Mass- achusetts Historical Society, member Finance Committee; Massachusetts Prison Association, treasurer; Massachusetts Trust Company As- sociation, member Executive Committee; Na- tional Association Owners of R. R. Securities, member Advisory Committee; New England Conservatory of Music, trustee; New England Fuel and Transportation Company, trustee; New England Mutual Life Insurance Company, di- rector; Norfolk Mutual Fire Insurance Com- pany, director and member of Finance Com- mittee; Old Colony Insurance Company, di- rector; Pittsfield & North Adams Railroad Cor- poration, director; Riverbank Improvement Company, director and treasurer; Russell Manu- facturing Company, Middletown, Connecticut, director; Sailors' Snug Harbor, director; Sal- vation Army, member Advisory Board; Uni- ted States Worsted Company, director; Uni- ted States Worsted Sales Corporation, direc- tor; Waltham Watch and Clock Company, director; Ware River Railroad Company, di- rector; Warren Brothers Company, director;
YD Club, trustee. His social organizations are: the Somerset, Tavern, Exchange, Dedham Country and Polo, and The Dedham clubs, and the Harvard Club of New York. For notable war work the French government conferred upon him the Decoration of the Legion of Honor.
Allan Forbes married, June 4, 1913, in New York City, Josephine M. A. Crosby, daughter of Henry A. and Mary L. Crosby. Their mar- riage has been blessed with five children: 1. Phyllis, born February 22, 1915. 2. Robert Bennet, born March 22, 1916. 3. Allan, Jr., born November 14, 1919. 4. J. Murray (2), born April 7, 1922. 5. H. A. Crosby, born June 25, 1925. Mr. Forbes' professional ad- dress is Boston, and he and his family have their residence in the charming suburb of Westwood.
HON. ALVAN TUFTS FULLER-When Hon. Alvan Tufts Fuller stepped down from his high office as Governor of Massachusetts, on January 3, 1929, it was with the supreme satisfaction that he never withdrew a dollar from the State Treasury in compensation for his services rendered as Governor for four years and as Lieutenant-Governor for a like period. This incident is said to be unique in the record of a public official of the old Bay State.
But in many respects Alvan T. Fuller is an unusual man in his day and generation. From those unremote days of early manhood, he has been doing things out of the ordinary; and things that most people would have expected him to perform in the approved or perfunctory way, he has done in the strictly Fuller man- ner. Wholesomely aggressive, independent in thought and action, courageous morally and in every fiber of his being, and honest, these are the elements which have builded the character
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and the career, and have interwoven the pub- lic service of this long-time servant of the peo- ple. Mr. Fuller has been successively-and successfully-a State legislator, a member of Congress, second in executive authority, and finally the occupant of the gubernatorial office on Beacon Hill.
Few governors of the State that has given us a Bradford, a Brewster, an Endicott, a Green- halge, a Wolcott, a Crane, a Coolidge, have en- tered office faced with a greater array of seem- ingly insuperable obstacles to try one's faith and to test one's mettle than did Alvan Fuller. Prob- lems great and small, complex and simple, lie ready at the door the moment the incoming executive has recovered his breath following the delivery of his inaugural address.
One of the most perplexing, perhaps, of the problems inherited by Governor Fuller was the famous Sacco-Vanzetti case, concerning which feeling seethed to such depth and rose to so great a height that its repercussion was sensed in every quarter of the globe. Follow- ing the conviction of the defendants, and the passing of sentence of death upon them, the decision of the Superior Court was confirmed by the Massachusetts Supreme Court, acting on an appeal from the defense. Then Gov- ernor Fuller was besieged with petitions, both oral and written, to grant them commutation of the death sentence. Seldom has a State ex- ecutive been forced into a more harrowing sit- uation. Threats of physical violence, death even, mingled with the rising clamor of well- intentioned individuals and organizations for the exercise of clemency on the part of the Governor. After days and nights spent in solemn deliberation in which he weighed with extreme care all the evidence that had been adduced, and considered from every angle the merits of the insistent appeals for stay of the death sentence, he announced his final de- cision to be that the defendants had a fair trial and that there was no justifiable reason for giving them a new trial. The defendants, in due time and with proper decorum, suffered the penalty of death by execution. So seriously
and with deep sympathy, had the Governor taken to heart the matter of the appeals and pe- titions from defendants and sympathizers alike, that he became mentally and physically ex- hausted. In order to regain his strength for further performance of his official duties, he sought rest and recreation in Continental Europe. Throughout all these distressing pro- ceedings and at their tragic conclusion, Gov- ernor Fuller was praised by most right-think- ing people for his attitude of fairness, imparti- ality, a proper sense of the humanities and withal a manly heroism.
In the city of Boston, Alvan Tufts Fuller was born, February 27, 1878. His parents were Alvan Bond and Flora A. (Tufts) Fuller. Having received a good common school edu- cation, he entered on a business career, for which he was adapted by inherited traits, a strong commercial instinct and some intensive preliminary training. One of the outstanding gifts possessed by the then future Governor -and none the less conspicuous because he is a former Governor-was a capacity for seizing upon the potentialities of a given project or op- portunity. He was one of the first men in Boston, if not in New England, to visualize the arrival of the motor vehicle age. He organized and be- came the owner of the Packard Motor Car Com- pany in Boston, and into the development and management of this concern he injected all the energy and business acumen at his command. The company and its offerings soon made their successful appeal to the public; in fact, the now numerous and prolific Packard family in Bos- ton and its zone of influence may properly be said to trace its line directly to Mr. Fuller's automobile company. His enterprise prospered to an extent beyond the most sanguine expec- tations of the owner and his associates, and on the basis of the sustained revenue-producing business which the company has ever since en- joyed was the Fuller fortune, in the present instance, builded. For years the head of this widely known Packard Motor Car Company has held a position of importance in the Amer- ican automobile world.
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Some fifteen years ago, Mr. Fuller, at the earnest solicitation of his Republican friends, took a flyer in practical politics. Following his election to the Massachusetts House of Repre- sentatives, and assumption of his seat, he gave proof of legislative calibre, in addition to his already well-known and marked business abil- ity. He rose in the esteem of his colleagues during his term of service in the 1915 Legis- lature and held the confidence of his constitu- ents whose interests on Beacon Hill he handled with care and precision. This first effort in the great and general court served to whet his political appetite, so to speak, and events came on, with the assistance of his supporters, to help appease it.
In 1916, Mr. Fuller was a delegate to the Republican National Convention held in Chi- cago, Illinois, which nominated Hon. Charles Evans Hughes for President. His star was now well in the ascendant, and in 1917 he took his seat in the National House of Representatives as a member from the Ninth Massachusetts District for the sixty-fifth session of Congress. His service there received the cordial indorse- ment of the "folks back home," and he was re- ëlected for the sixty-sixth session, 1919-21. But · affairs were looming on the horizon of Mr. Fuller's political career that induced his resig- nation from Congress before the expiration of his term.
By this time the entire State of Massachu- setts had become the field in which Alvan T. Fuller was further to display his political prowess. Beacon Hill and Washington had added to his powers as a legislator of com- manding ability. Now it appeared that he was destined to enter the executive branch of the Commonwealth. In the fall of 1920, following an informative and stirring campaign, Mr. Fuller was elected Lieutenant-Governor, hav- ing been the running-mate of Governor Chan- ning H. Cox. Mr. Fuller took office January 1, 1921, and almost at once began to impress his virile personality and to exercise a strong influence through his conduct of the affairs that came to his hand. His discharge of the
duties of membership in the Executive Council was of such a character as to elicit favorable comments from his colleagues, particularly those of his political faith, while members of the opposition could but confess their respect and admiration for his profound knowledge of govermental matters and his ability to readily grasp the import of business presented for the council's consideration. In his advisory ca- pacity he was a tower of strength to the ex- ecutive body. His occupancy of the Lieutenant- Governorship continued without interruption until the close of the year 1924.
As the successor of His Excellency Channing H. Cox, Mr. Fuller was elected Governor in the fall of 1924, and took office on January 1, 1925, serving two years, and then was chosen his own successor for the term of 1927-28; and during those four years as the supreme magistrate of the State he brought to his high office a dignity and an ability, coupled with those characteristic qualities that have been touched upon herein, which enabled him to achieve a record for constructive administra- tion and executive advance not surpassed by any of his predecessors. The entire State and its lawmaking bodies on Beacon Hill knew without a scintilla of doubt that Alvan Fuller was Governor. He exercised the prerogatives of the office, but did not abuse them; and it was said of him that he was ever conscious of the fact that he was the servant of the people, not their ruler. Many forward movements were initiated and assisted during the Fuller régime, all of which have been construed as contrib- uting to the economic and civic progress of the Commonwealth. The financial structure of the State government was never stronger, per- haps, than during Governor Fuller's terms of office. Finance is one of his principal hobbies, and he often rode his favorite mount in a con- spicuously won, though often hard-fought, race, with conservation of the State's funds as the goal achieved. In many other ways, too numerous to be given their merited mention in the space alloted in this all too brief an appreciation of a crowded and colorful career,
F
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did Governor Fuller manifest his worth to his people.
The sincerity of Governor Fuller's public service was one of the salient features of his official career. A contemporary, who knew the Governor intimately, had the following to say of him when His Excellency left the chair which he had filled for four years under the Gilded Dome:
The recent passing of Alvan T. Fuller as Governor of the Commonwealth reveals not only that he never accepted a penny of the total salary of $56,000 due him for his four years as Lieutenant-Governor and four years as Governor, but that his sense of the proprieties was so keenly developed that he would not even permit a member of his family to benefit from an automobile transaction within the State.
It has been generally known that Governor Fuller had declined to accept compensation for his public service on Beacon Hill-to the extent of what amounts to a fortune to the average man. It was only recently, however, that the details of the automobile transac- tion were uncovered, and they reveal a trait of char- acter too seldom found in men occupying or aspiring to high public office.
Several years ago, during the first term of Governor Fuller, the State acquired a number of Dodge auto- mobiles without the Governor's knowledge. It was not until some time later that the Governor discov- ercd the transaction. When the cars were purchased, it was not even known to the officials that anyone connected with the Governor would profit by the sales. Under date of August 5, 1925, however, the following letter was received by the Treasurer and Receiver- General of the Commonwealth:
"Dear Sir:
I am enclosing herewith my check for $1640. the gross profit received by a member of my family who happens to own certain stock in the Henshaw Motor Company, from the pur- chase of nine Dodge sedans, three Dodge coupes and six Dodge touring cars by the Commonwealth.
I am sending this check because I do not wish any member of my family to profit by transactions with the Commonwealth.
Very truly yours, ALVAN T. FULLER."
George B. Willard, then first deputy treas- urer, replied to the Governor's letter at once. He acknowledged receipt of the check, as a reimburse- ment to the State, and said the $1640 would be "added to the conscience fund of the Commonwealth."
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