USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > Metropolitan Boston; a modern history; Volume IV > Part 28
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unteered for duty with the National Guard, Company K, 8th Massachusetts Infantry. In 1917, just before he went into the army for the second time, he was a member of the Malden Common Council, and again in 1920-21 and 1924-25. In 1920-21 he served as its president, and in 1928 as alderman from Ward 5, Malden. Fraternally, Mr. Hyde is active, with member- ship in Mt. Vernon Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons, of Malden, and in Brigadier-General Henry Knox Lodge, Boston; also, Middlesex Lodge No. 17, Independent Order of Odd Fel- lows, of Malden; the American Bar Association; American Legion; New England Chapter, American Guild of Organists; Camp No. 51, Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War, of which he is Past Commander; the Massachu- setts Society, Sons of the American Revolution, in which he is a member of the board of man- agers; and Malden Chapter, Sons of the Revolu- tion, of which he is secretary. Toward charity he deals with large heart, giving liberally, sym- pathetically, of material and spiritual assistance, regardless of race, creed or other narrowing consideration. He is a communicant of the Universalist church.
Mr. Hyde has one son, Louis Gerard-Varet, born in Malden, June 2, 1920. The family resi- dence is at No. 73 Sprague Street.
BERT ELLSWORTH HOLLAND-In the legal profession in Boston, Bert Ellsworth Hol- land has occupied a prominent place for nearly three decades. Like many other professional men in New England, he was engaged in teach- ing for a few years before he began his special training, but his choice was made early, though fulfillment came somewhat later. He has his offices at No. 73 Tremont Street, where he con- ducts a general practice, and he is also special justice of the municipal court of the West Rox- bury District, which office he has filled since
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1922. He received both his Bachelor's and his Master's degrees in law from the law school of Boston University.
Mr. Holland was born in Wilmot, New Hamp- shire, August 18, 1866. His father, Joshua Holland, was a native of Concord, New Hamp- shire, who was engaged in farming throughout his active career, and who died in Penacook, New Hampshire, in 1924, aged eighty-seven years. His mother, Pluma F. (Stearns) Hol- land, was born in Wilmot, New Hampshire, and died there at the age of sixty-seven years, a descendant of Isaac Stearns, who came to this country from England on the good ship "Arbella" in 1630. There were four children, all of whom are still living (1928): Tira S., Bert Ellsworth, of further mention; Nettie M., wife of Marcus R. Grace, of Wilmot, and William S.
Bert E. Holland attended the public schools, as a boy, and then prepared for college in Proc- tor Academy, at Andover, New Hampshire. Later, he was a student for a time in Dartmouth College, at Hanover, New Hampshire, after his graduation from Proctor Academy in 1888, and then was engaged in teaching for four years at Dennis (Massachusetts) High School. Having chosen the field of law for his future career, he entered the law school of Boston University, where he completed his course with graduation in 1899, receiving at that time the degree of Bachelor of Laws. He was admitted to the Massachusetts bar September 15, 1899; since then he has continued in general practice in Boston. He has always practiced under his own name, and along with the many-sided ac- tivities of his professional practice he has con- tinued to be a student. As late as 1913 he received his Master's degree from Boston Uni- versity, his alma mater, and he has never given up the habit of close and careful study. When he undertakes to handle a case, he spares no time, effort, or study, in making himself master of every fact that may be of use, and his wide legal knowledge is generally recognized. Since 1922 he has served as special justice of the municipal court of the West Roxbury District, and he is well and favorably known among his
professional colleagues in Boston and vicinity. He is a member of the Bar Association of the City of Boston, of the Massachusetts Bar As- sociation, and of the American Bar Association. In his political affiliations he is a Republican. Mr. Holland is a thirty-third degree Mason, and a Knight Templar, and his clubs are the Bos- ton City Club, the Dartmouth Club, of Boston; the University Club, and the Eliot Club. He is a member of the Unitarian church.
Bert Ellsworth Holland was married, July 27, 1907, to Helen F. Chapman, of East Den- nis, Massachusetts. They reside at No. 45 Ald- worth Street, Jamaica Plain.
JULIUS MATHEWS- To the popular service of newspaper and syndicate publicity, Julius Mathews has directed the activities of his successful career, his work in advertising and in general newspaper and magazine man- agement, and in a broad journalistic enter- prise, having become national in its scope. He is a son of Adolphus Mathews, a merchant, of Rockland, Maine, and Henrietta (Harris) Mathews.
Julius Mathews was born, October 16, 1858, at Rockland, Maine, and attended the public schools in Lewiston; he also took a course in book- keeping in the evening private school of G. Boardman Smith. For awhile, Mr. Mathews worked in a retail shoe store in Lewiston, and for five years he was traveling salesman for an Auburn, Maine, shoe manufactory, covering New England and the South; and for three years he was in the real estate busi- ness.
Mr. Mathews then took the management of the circulation and premium department of the Potter Publishing Company, of Boston, publish- ers of the "Woman's Home Journal" and the "Yankee Blade"; and he was the syndicator of the poems and the humorous sayings and writings of Sam Walter Foss.
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In 1894, Mr. Mathews established himself in Boston as National representative of news- papers, and he now has offices, as well, in New York, Detroit, and Chicago. In company with William E. Foster he controls and is a very large owner of the plant of the Bidde- ford, Maine, "Journal," a daily and weekly newspaper.
Mr. Mathews' fraternal affiliations are with the lodge of the Knights of Pythias, at Lewis- ton, Maine; and he is also ex-president and trustee of the Mercantile Library Association; member of the Advertising Club, of Boston; Boston City Club; Boston Art Club; Old Col- ony Club; Boston Chamber of Commerce; First Corps of Cadets; Woodland Golf Club; and president of the New England Senior Golfers' Association.
Julius Mathews married, October 20, 1888, at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Nellie E. Drew, daughter of George E. Drew, a jeweler in Lewiston, Maine, and Alice (Davis) Drew.
ROBERT LUCE-President of Luce's Press Clipping Bureau, and a distinguished figure in the public life of the State, Robert Luce has been a resident of Massachusetts for many years. He was born at Auburn, Maine, on December 2, 1862, a son of Enos T. and Phoebe (Learned) Luce, and received his early edu- cation in the public schools of Auburn and Lewiston. His father was a lawyer by profes- sion, a judge in later life, and served as lieu- tenant-colonel in the 23d Maine Infantry dur- ing the period of the Civil War.
When he was still a boy, Robert Luce came to Massachusetts, and in 1877 was graduated from the Somerville High School. There- after he entered Harvard University, taking his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1882, and his Master of Arts degree in 1883. Meanwhile, however, his career in journalism was well
under way, and from 1880 until 1888 he did reporting and editorial work on the "Boston Globe" and other papers. In the latter year he established Luce's Press Clipping Bureau, and has been its executive head since that time.
In politics Mr. Luce is a consistent Repub- lican and as the standard bearer of his party, he has been elected frequently to public office in the State. He was elected to the Massachu- Setts Legislature, and reëlected continuously from 1901 to 1908. During this period, as house chairman on election laws, he was author of the "Luce" laws for primary elections and
direct nominations. In 1912 he was chosen lieutenant-governor of the State, and from 1917 until 1919 he served with distinction as a member of the Massachusetts Constitu- tional Convention. In 1919 he was first elected to the Congress of the United States from the Thirteenth Massachusetts District, and has been a member since that time of the House of Representatives.
Mr. Luce is affiliated, fraternally, with the Free and Accepted Masons, while he also holds membership in several clubs, including the Exchange Club and the Boston City Club, of Boston, and the Cosmos Club, of Washing- ton. He worships in the faith of the Unitarian church. His residence is at No. 91 Summer Street, Waltham, Massachusetts.
EDWARD NORTON LIBBY, M. D .-
During the more than three decades he has engaged in medical practice in Boston, Massa- chusetts, Dr. Edward Norton Libby has made an enviable reputation for himself, not only among his private patients, but also in the fields of public health and medical education. Dr. Libby was born in Limington, Maine, in 1868, the son of George W. and Mary (Cole) Libby. The father joined the "forty-niners" in their cross-continental journey to seek the
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fabled gold of California, but returned to the East and opened a store in Limington which he operated during the rest of his life. His son attended the local public schools in prep- aration for entry into Dartmouth College, where he won his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1892. He stayed on at the same institution studying in the Medical College and was ac- corded the degree of Doctor of Medicine in 1895. The following year he spent in McLean Hospital to acquaint himself with the practical side of mental diseases. Dr. Libby served as medical interne in the Boston City Hospital in 1896-7, then established himself in an office of his own. Since 1904 he has been a member of the medical staff of the Boston City Hospital where he is at present chief of one of the medical services. Dr. Libby commenced his work with medical students in 1908 and later was head of the Medical Department of Tufts College. Here he is able to impart something of his professional skill and humanitarian ideals to the students who are working under him, thus ex- tending the scope of his influence. An active and interested member of the American Medical Association and the Massachusetts Medical Society, Dr. Libby has served as chairman of the Medical Advisory Board of Boston. He is politically Republican and his fraternal affilia- tions are with the Free and Accepted Masons and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. Dr. Libby is a member of the Eliot Club of Jamaica Plain and the Boston Art Club. He is a communicant in the Episcopal church.
At Buffalo, New York, on June 1, 1907, Dr. Libby married Marjorie Hill, daughter of Henry S. and Julianna (Hingston) Hill. They be- came the parents of two children: Mary Louise, born in 1908, and Edward Norton, Jr., born in 1925.
CLINTON W. ELWELL-Upon an educa- tional base which includes a university course, Bos.i-12
Clinton W. Elwell, Boston insurance official, has erected a most substantial business edifice. Operating among a host of experts, trained in their work by long years of practical experi- ence, he has successfully made his way to a leading position. A teacher as well as a student himself, he has been awarded positions of importance in his field, while his fraternal af- filiations have been such as to be recognized by his fellows with membership in bodies of responsibility and honor. Not having reached normal mid-life, the outlook for an unusually bright future for this citizen is unquestioned.
Clinton W. Elwell was born in Newton, New Hampshire, August 16, 1889, a son of Rufus N. Elwell, a native of Detroit, Maine, and Mary (Boswell) Elwell, of Salem, Massa- chusetts. The elder Elwell, who died in 1917, was secretary of the Capital Fire Insurance Company, of Concord, New Hampshire, and had served as Insurance Commissioner of the State of New Hampshire. Clinton W. Elwell was educated in the public schools of his birth- place and was graduated from the high school there. This elementary work was followed by the course at Phillips-Exeter Academy, after which he went to Dartmouth and Harvard Business Administration, from which he was graduated with the class of 1911, with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. In the following year he entered the insurance field, associating himself with Field and Cowles, of Boston, with whom he remained one year, abandoning it to remove to Exeter, New Hampshire, where he worked as special agent for the Commer- cial Union Assurance Company of London for four years. He then returned to Boston, as special agent for this company, continuing as such until 1925, when he accepted the position of general agent for the Eastern Massachu- setts District of the Springfield Fire and Marine Insurance Company. His district also included Rhode Island. He is now connected with The Fireman's Fund Insurance Company, in an official capacity. In politics he is a Re- publican, and in religion a member of the First Congregational Church. He is Past Grand
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Master of Swampscott Lodge, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and a member of the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts. He is chair- man of the Executive Committee of the New England Insurance Exchange, director of the Insurance course of Boston University, a mem- ber of the Bay State Club, Auburndale Club, University Club, Vesper Country Club, Boston Chamber of Commerce, Newton Chamber of Commerce, Insurance Society of Massachusetts, and the Boston Metropolitan Conference. He is athletic and an enthusiastic supporter of golf and football.
Clinton W. Elwell married, in 1914, Frances Kelly, of Haverhill, Massachusetts. There are two children: Elizabeth K., and Mary F.
EUGENE NOBLE FOSS, former Con- gressman from Massachusetts and Governor of that State for three terms, a leader in fi- nance, industry and commerce, is a manufac- turer employing approximately 5,000 operatives in his various enterprises which include iron, steel and textiles. He is a staunch and loyal supporter of New England industry with firm faith in this section as a manufacturing cen- ter. Mr. Foss has diligently and conscientious- ly devoted his efforts during his long and ac- tive career to the interests of the commercial and political welfare of the district in which his family has resided for seven generations and contributed so substantially to the growth and progress of its early existence. A leader in the business enterprises, he has been like- wise a leader of the civic interests of Bos- ton, Massachusetts, sponsoring the influences designed for the advancement and prosper- ity of his fellows, who have recognized these qualities and have elected him to various offices of community significance. Conferring upon him the greatest confidence and ad-
miration, they selected him for the highest office in the State within their gift, and for three terms, Mr. Foss served as Governor of the State of Massachusetts, supervising and guiding the administration with inestimable ef- ficiency and to the satisfaction of his host of friends and associates. The first progenitor of the family in America was John Foss, who came to this country from England in an English war vessel. When the ship was an- chored in Boston Harbor, he jumped overboard and swam ashore. Records show that he was given a grant of land at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, in 1657. The descent is traced through his son William, born in 1673, and through his son Josiah, who became one of the proprietors of Cornish, New Hampshire, in 1762. His son, Josiah, born in 1771, was one of the first settlers of Derby, Vermont, and his son Samuel was born April 20, 1799, and died November 2, 1878. George Edmund Foss, a son of Samuel Foss, was born at Derby, Vermont, June 1, 1830. He was a prominent member of his community in the various phases of human endeavor, holding several offices of political importance. He married in Vermont, February 21, 1856, Marcia Cordelia Noble, born January 8, 1835, in Franklin, Vermont, and who like her husband traces her ancestry to the early days of Colonial history, through a dis- tinguished descent. Mark Noble, the son of Thomas Noble, the immigrant progenitor of the family in America and member of a fam- ily whose name is of great antiquity in Eng- land, appearing as early as 1199, during the reign of Richard I, was a farmer and surveyor in Westfield. His son John was one of the first settlers of Southwick, and his son, Cap- tain Eli Noble, was a veteran of the French and Indian Wars. The descent is traced through his son Robert, and his son, Sylves- ter Campbell, who married Nancy Chaplin and who were the parents of a large family among whom was Marcia Cordelia, as above. Mr. and Mrs. Foss had two sons: 1. Eugene Noble, of whom further. 2. George Edmund, Jr., born in Vermont, July 2, 1863, and a distinguished
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sawyer of Chicago, Illinois. From 1895 until 1915 he was a member of Congress and for a period of twelve years was chairman of the House Committee on Naval Affairs. He was the youngest member of Congress of equal length of service and likewise the youngest chairman of a great committee. He married Georgia Louise Fritz of Chicago in 1893, and they are the parents of: 1. Katherine, born September 25, 1896. 2. Marcia (twin), born November 4, 1901. 3. Constance (twin), born November 4, 1901.
Eugene Noble Foss, a son of George Ed- mund, Sr., and Marcia Cordelia (Noble) Foss, was born at West Berkshire, Vermont, Sep- tember 24, 1858. When he was ten years of age, his family removed to St. Albans, Ver- mont, where he attended the local public and high schools. He went to the University of Vermont for two years, at the end of which time, he decided to follow a business career, leaving college to accept a position as sales- mnan for a patented device for drying lumber, produced by the company of which his father was then manager. Subsequently he received his degree of Bachelor of Arts from his alma mater in 1901, and in 1912 the institution con- ferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Laws. Rising with rapid gradation in the business world, at the age of twenty-one, Mr. Foss went West to introduce the device among the lum- ber mills in that section. At the same time, he represented B. F. Sturtevant of Boston, a manufacturer of mill machinery, and proved so able and successful in this work, that he was induced by the former to connect himself with the firm, and shortly thereafter was made manager of the company. Upon the death of Mr. Sturtevant in 1890, Mr. Foss became pres- dent of the concern which had at that time been incorporated as the B. F. Sturtevant Com- any. Under his skillful and efficient super- vision and guidance the organization has grown o vast proportions and enjoys a commanding position in the trade of New England, and is recognized as one of the most extensive iron works in the section. The business has branch-
es in London, Berlin, St. Petersburg (Len- ingrad), Paris and St. Johannesburg in South Africa, while the trade of the concern in- cludes Japan, China and the remotest parts of the earth. In 1901, the old plant was destroyed by fire, and as a result thereof a model plant was erected at Hyde Park, which is one of the finest and most completely equipped in the country. At that time, it had been generally thought that Mr. Foss would remove to some new locality, possibly nearer to the source of materials, and upon being questioned, his re- ply was unequivocal and firm: "Many of our employees have been with us for years; their names are scattered all through Boston; their families and friends are here, their children are here. I will not uproot our whole organi- zation and try to transplant it unless I am forced to do so. As a loyal son of New Eng- land, I would rather exert myself to improve conditions than desert New England, and I will ask the people to stand by me." Among the several other enterprises in which he was formerly associated in executive positions are, president and member of the board of direc- tors of the Becker Machine Company, presi- dent of the Mead-Morrison Manufacturing Company of Cambridge, Massachusetts, pres- ident of the Burgess Mills, one of the largest cotton plants of Pawtucket, Rhode Island, and president of the Maverick Cotton Mills of East Boston. He was likewise a former president and member of the board of directors of the Bridgewater Water Company; former member of the directorates of the Manhattan Elevated Railway Company; the Brooklyn Heights Rail- road Company; Brooklyn Rapid Transit Com- pany; Chicago Junction Railways and the Hyde Park, National Bank. He was also a former member of the executive committee and mem- ber of the board of trustees of the Massachu- setts Electric Companies.
For many years he has been a conspicuous figure in the political life of Boston, and a great admirer of the Hon. James G. Blaine, whose doctrine of international reciprocity Mr. Foss ardently advocated in New England.
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His original political persuasion was with the Republican party and he was actively influ- ential in expanding the principles of civic wel- fare sponsored by his party. He was chair- man of the Republican Committee of Ward No. 23 of Boston, member of the Republican Committee of the city and of the Republican Congressional Committee of the Eleventh Dis- trict. He was also at one time a member of the board of directors of the Home Market Club of Boston, a prominent and active organi- zation of Republicans and Protectionists. In 1902, in no way seeking political honors, Mr. Foss was candidate for Congress from his dis- trict on a platform of reciprocity with Canada for free iron, coal and hides, but was defeated by his Democratic opponent since his consti- tuency were not yet ready to accept such broad reforms. Again in 1904, he was defeated by a narrow margin for Congress on the same plat- form, and in 1906 after a vigorous and stren- uous campaign for the office of lieutenant-gov- ernor, he showed marked increase of strength and support but not enough for victory. Per- sistent and determined in his contest for the modification of the tariff, he continued his up- hill fight within the party and to the people by his addresses and articles on business and eco- nomic conditions of which problems he was a shrewd student, and also by the example he set of loyalty to New England and its in- dustry, for it would have meant comparative- ly easy personal prosperity for him to estab- lish his factories in other States, but that was not his ultimate aim. In 1910, Mr. Foss was elected to Congress to fill the unexpired term of William C. Lovering, and at the close of this session was elected governor of the State of Massachusetts, being returned to office for two further terms until 1913. During this time he introduced his measures for the conserva- tion and improvement of New England indus- tries and won the appreciation and understand- ing of his voters. In addition to his com- mercial and political interests, Mr. Foss has maintained lively activity in educational, re- ligious and social circles and enjoys promi-
nence in those affairs. There are few names better known to the voters of the United States than that of Eugene Noble Foss. Not only the stature of the man as attested by the great na- tional movements in which he has been the central figure, but the essentially dramatic qualities of his victories have appealed both to the intelligence and to the imagination of the people. For some years before the second administration of President McKin- ley, Mr. Foss, the business man as a stu- dent of economic conditions, in the midst of personal business concerns of world-wide ex- tent, could not escape the conviction that new, broader and more humane policies must re- place the narrow, antiquated and short-sighted schemes of retaliation and progress backward which had become the order of the day, and in the late nineties he became the advocate and chief spokesman for the great policy of In- ternational Reciprocity which President Gar- field was broad enough to accept from Thomas Jefferson, and James G. Blaine had been bril- liant enough to impose upon an earlier gen- eration of Republican statesmen.
The immediate occasion of the entrance of Mr. Foss within the political arena was the re- fusal of the Republican machine in Massachu- setts to make its stand upon the tariff policy of President Mckinley as advocated by him at Buffalo on the day of his martyrdom, Sep- tember 6, 1901. As a penalty for loyalty to a great party principle, Mr. Foss was in 1902 defeated at the polls, as the standard bearer nominated in a bitter fight at the primaries, by the efforts of the Republican machine in be- half of his opponent for election to Congress. But the defeated candidate kept the faith and persisted in his advocacy of International Reci- procity as the outstanding issue. Mr. Foss brought this issue forward on every occasion and made a tour of Europe where he was re- ceived officially, as the American advocate of a world system of commercial reciprocity.
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