USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > Metropolitan Boston; a modern history; Volume IV > Part 37
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His father, Daniel W. Wormwood, born at Hiram, Maine, was a civil engineer until his death in 1913, and one of the builders of the Bangor & Aroostook Railroad. His mother,
who before her marriage was Sarah Pendexter, was also born at Hiram, Maine, and died in 1922.
Daniel W. Wormwood of this generation was born on June 20, 1892, at Cornish, Maine. Coming with his family to Massachusetts as a boy, he attended the public schools and the high school of Chelsea, and in 1909, when he had completed his education, he found employ- ment with the John C. Paige Company, an in- surance firm, and after only a short time with them, became connected with the Employee Liability Insurance Company, where he re- mained for two years as a clerk in the office. At the end of that time he became associated with the Royal Indemnity Insurance Com- pany, in the office of Field and Cowles, and for seven years he worked as a specialty man, handling the details of burglary and glass in- surance. At the conclusion of his term of em- ployment with this company, he had become a special agent, and it was in this capacity that he served for three years in the Boston office of the Travelers Insurance Company. He gave up this position to become associated, as field executive for Eastern Massachusetts, with the Aetna Insurance Company, of Boston, remain- ing with them until 1922, when he became manager of the Phoenix Indemnity Company and of the Norwich Union Indemnity Com- pany, both of which positions he filled until 1926. At that time he severed his connection with the Phoenix Indemnity Company, and has since devoted all his attention to the affairs of the Norwich Union Indemnity Company, with notable success.
Politically, Mr. Wormwood is a member of the Republican party. He is affiliated, fra- ternally, with the Free and Accepted Masons, in which organization he is a member of the Robert Lash Lodge, Cambridge Command- ery, and Aleppo Temple, Ancient Arabic Or- der Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. He is also a member of Woburn Lodge of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, Friendship Lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fel- lows, Charles River Encampment, and a mem-
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ber of the Order of the Eastern Star, of which he is Past Patron. He is a member of the Swampscott Club and the Ionic Club, the In- surance Society of Massachusetts, and the Casualty Underwriters' Association. He and his family attend the Congregational church.
In 1920, Mr. Wormwood married Marguerite Sherry, who was born at Peabody, Massachu- setts. They are the parents of one child, Dan- iel W., Jr.
Mr. Wormwood's hobbies are golf and base- ball, to which he devotes a considerable amount of his spare time. He has played semi-profes- sional baseball with a number of organizations, including the clubs of Cornish and Biddeford, Maine, and Freedom, New Hampshire. He has also been a member of the Portland Baseball Club of the New England League.
JOHN HICKMAN MacALMAN-From horse-drawn carriages to airplanes is a long journey, but there is conclusive evidence of the progressive spirit of John Hickman MacAlman in the fact that he learned the trade of the carriage maker, followed the trend of the times when the automobile came upon the market and safely made the transition, and finally took the last possible step in progress- ive transportation by being the first man to exhibit airplanes in the Boston Auto Show. Mr. MacAlman has been located in Boston since 1886, and as early as 1900 combined the automobile business with the older business of carriage making and selling. Since 1912 he has been selling the Stearns car, now the Stearns-Knight automobile, for which he has for some years been the New England distrib- utor. He is sole owner of this agency, and for many years has been known as one of the lead- ing men of the auto sales business. He is a member of the board of directors of the New England Finance Corporation and also of the
New England Equity Corporation, and his judgment in financial matters is much relied upon by his associates.
John Hickman MaçAlman was born in Kingston, Kent County, New Brunswick, Can- ada, April 12, 1857, son of James MacAlman, a contracting shipbuilder, and of Annie (Gra- ham) MacAlman, who was born in Scotland; and grandson of David MacAlman, who was the third representative from Kent County in the Dominion House, where he served from 1827 to 1842. Mr. MacAlman attended the pub- lic schools of his birthplace until he was fifteen years of age, and then became an apprentice to C. P. Kimball, a carriage maker of Port- land, Maine, with whom he remained three years. He then, as a lad of eighteen years, went to Merrimac, Essex County, Massachu- setts, and entered the employ of J. B. Judkins, a local carriage maker, and there, for a few years, he continued, gaining during this time considerable experience and skill. In 1886 he again changed his place of residence, this time coming to Boston, where he became associ- ated with A. M. Wood, who was one of the first manufacturers of carriage and automobile bodies in Boston. Fourteen years in this con- nection included the period of the beginning of the marvelous transition from horse-drawn car- riages to motor-driven vehicles. The decade be- tween 1890 and 1900 saw the strange-looking, loud-sounding motor vehicles of the period at- tracting crowds of curious onlookers wherever they went; witnessed the common spectacle of the new autos stopped in the road in order that the frightened horse might be led past, even though the quiet and motionless object often seemed to outrage the dignity of the staid ani- mal even more than the auto in motion; and took knowledge of the wonder and fearsome de- light with which timid adventurers found them- selves hurled along the highway at the astound- ing rate of fifteen or twenty miles an hour. Those were the days when goggles, dusters, and veils protected the hardy travelers who dared to try the new method of locomotion, and those were also the days when whole communities
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commented upon the forwardness of those few families who "took the plunge" and purchased one of the new vehicles which probably would serve as a novelty for a time and then go to the junk heap. To those who could read the signs of the times, however, the new motor vehicle spelled opportunity and sounded the knell of many age-old industries. The pro- gressive business men whose occupations were soon to be affected by the new invention began to cast about for the most safe and natural way of making tentative changes, and the younger men dreamed dreams and saw visions of future wealth and present congenial occu- pation. In 1900 Mr. MacAlman did what thou- sands of young men were longing to do. He associated himself with the Locomobile Com- pany, in Boston, a concern which was handling both the old and the new vehicles of transpor- tation. Mr. MacAlman was placed in charge of the carriage department and was entrusted with the work of buying bodies, but this con- nection brought him in touch with the new automobile business, and within two years he was engaged in both departments of the busi- ness, keeping on with some of the carriage work, but selling Locomobiles. The final transition was inevitable, and later he pur- chased the interests of the Columbian Auto Company, and about 1912 he took over the agency for the Stearns car, now the Stearns- Knight motor car. The Columbian was one of the many cars of that rapidly changing period of experiment which died a natural death, but Mr. MacAlman continued with the Stearns Company, and eventually purchased the Stearns-Knight agency from E. B. Stearns and became the New England distributor for that well-known make of motor car. He is the sole owner of the New England agency, and has long been known as one of the leaders in the auto sales business. As has already been stated, Mr. MacAlman is one of the progressive busi- ness men whose vision has not dimmed with the passing of the years, and, like Henry Ford, he has not permitted the success of the motor- drawn vehicle on the solid earth to act as a
penny held in front of his eyes hiding the vista of greater things to come in the near and distant future. As the first man to ex- hibit airplanes in the Boston Auto Show, he clearly expressed his interest in the coming ve- hicle of transportation, even while continuing to promote the sales of the invention with which the greater part of his business life has been identified. If the years are kind, the youthful enthusiasm which has remained a part of Mr. MacAlman's personality and character for seven decades may carry him through still greater transition and make the vehicles of the air a part of his every-day business life.
Along with his successful business interests mentioned above, Mr. MacAlman is also a member of the board of directors of the New England Finance Corporation, and of the New England Equity Corporation. He has been the highly regarded president of the Boston Auto Dealers' Association continuously since 1901, a period of twenty-seven years, and he is identified with numerous clubs and fraternal organizations. He is a member of the famous Ancient and Honorable Artillery of Boston, and in his younger days was a member of the Portland (Maine) Light Infantry. Fraternally, he is identified with John Abbott Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons, of which he is a Past Master; with Orient Council, Royal and Se- lect Masters, of which he is a life-member; Boston Commandery, Knights Templar, of which he is a life-member; and he is a life-mem- ber of all the York Rites of the order; and of Aleppo Temple, Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, of Boston. He is also a member of the Union Golf Club, Boston Ath- letic Association, Winchester Golf Club, Bel- mont Springs Country Club, the Algonquin Club, of Boston, and the Senior Golfers' Asso- ciation of New England. As a member of the Boston Chamber of Commerce he has long been instrumental in advancing the general business interests of the city, and in his nu- merous club and fraternal affiliations he has for many years been a factor in the life of Bos- ton and of Winchester. His religious affilia-
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tion is with the Congregational Church of Win- chester. He has retained his fondness for golf and for out-of-door sports in general, and as he spends the greater part of his winters in Florida, he is able to be out of doors a large part of the time throughout the year. He has a beautiful estate in Winchester, where he and his family are actively interested in the social life of the community.
John Hickman MacAlman was married, in Merrimac, Massachusetts, September 25, 1884, to Florence Spofford, who died March 5, 1924, daughter of Charles and Helen (Nichols) Spofford, of Merrimac. Mrs. MacAlman, who is buried at Winchester, Massachusetts, was a leader among her friends and associates in Winchester, where she was greatly loved. She was at one time a Regent of the Daughters of the American Revolution, and president of the Somerville Woman's Club. The MacAlman home is located at No. 42 Everett Avenue, in Winchester, and Mr. MacAlman has his of- fices at No. 96 Massachusetts Avenue, in Bos- ton.
ROY A. HOVEY, Commissioner of Banks, of the State of Massachusetts, long and widely known in the banking circles of the Common- wealth, was born in Stoneham, Massachusetts, February 23, 1888, son of Albert S. and Ella A. (Harris) Hovey. He secured his early ed- ucation in the public schools of Stoneham, graduating from the high school in 1905. He then secured a position with the Wildey Sav- ings Bank, of Boston, remaining with this in- stitution five years. In 1910 he was appointed State Bank Examiner. Through 1919, and during the first quarter of 1920, he was iden- tified with the Federal Reserve Bank of Bos- ton, and in April of the latter year returned to the State House as director of the Division of Trust Companies. In this capacity he
served two years, and took a dominant par in the readjustment of affairs of several trus: companies which the banking department found necessary to close. In 1922 he was appointed deputy commissioner of banks. In June, 1925 he was made Commissioner of Banks for the State of Massachusetts by Governor Fuller This position of honor and responsibility he continues to discharge, having been reappointed in 1928 to serve until 1931.
Interested in fraternal affairs, Mr. Hovey is affiliated with Golden Rule Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons, of Wakefield, and is a mem- ber of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, being Past Noble Grand of Columbian Lodge He is a communicant of the Congregational Church of Wakefield, where he makes his residence, at No. 50 Park Avenue, and is al prominent figure in matters of interest to this community.
Roy A. Hovey married, in 1909, Marah Ban- croft, daughter of Rodney N. and Viola (White) Bancroft; and their children are: Viola M., Albert B., Wendell R., and Al- fred H.
Mr. Hovey's offices are in the State House, Room No. 112.
EDWARD BECKER-Thirteen years ago Edward Becker secured the agency for the Stutz automobile for the Boston and New Eng- land district. Today he is known as "Becker Stutz" of New England, and from his estab- lishment at No. 677 Beacon Street, in Boston, he sends out orders for a very large number of cars of all models. He has his home in Brook- line, and his summer home on Cape Cod, and is very fond of yachting. He is one of the well- known club men of Boston, and is one of the charter members of the University Club of Boston and of the Harvard Club of Boston.
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Edward Becker was born in New York City, in 1884, and is a son of George Becker, who was engaged in the wholesale jewelry business in New York City for many years and who is buried in Woodlawn, New York, and of Anna (Richardson) Becker. His earliest school train- ing was received in the public schools of New York City, and after graduation from the Morris High School there, he prepared for college in Phillips-Exeter Academy, at Exeter, New Hamp- shire, completing his course there with the class of 1904. In the fall of 1904 he matriculated in Harvard College, at Cambridge, Massachusetts, from which he was graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Science in 1908. After gradua- tion he satisfied his longing for adventure and travel by going to Montana, where as manager for a retail coal concern he remained for a period of three years. He then returned to Bos- ton and secured a position as general office as- sistant and stenographer in the employ of the Equitable Life Assurance Company of Boston, but after a time he made a change and be- came salesman for the Cadillac Company, with whom he remained for about two years. This was his introduction to the automobile sales business, and since that time he has continued in this line, but as proprietor of an agency of his own. In 1915 he took over the Stutz auto agency for Boston and for the general New England district, and the building up of a large and prosperous business in this field has been his work since that time. He has a well- equipped establishment at No. 677 Beacon Street, in Boston, and has made his agency one of the best known among Stutz agencies in the East. Known as Stutz Becker of New Eng- land, he has placed Stutz cars in thousands of families, and has become expert in gauging the needs and the buying possibilities of prospective patrons. As a salesman he ranks among the best, and the reward of special ability in this line and careful attention to business has been the substantial one of financial success and multiplied interests. In addition to the care of his own thriving business, Mr. Becker is a member of the board of directors of the Canton (Massachusetts) Trust Company. He is an ac-
tive and interested member of the Boston Auto Dealers' Association, and is a working member of numerous clubs and other organizations, in- cluding the Boston Chamber of Commerce. As a citizen he is always ready to "do his bit," and during the Boston police strike he did traffic duty as a member of the Motor Corps. As a club man he is well known and very popular. He was one of the original members of two of the most prominent clubs in the city, namely, the University Club of Boston and the Harvard Club of Boston and New York, and he is also a member of the Corinthian Yacht Club. In fact, yachting is one of his favorite forms of recreation, that and the game of squash. He is also a member of the Wellesley Country Club, and is active in out-of-door sports on the Cape, where he has his summer home. His religious membership is with the Unitarian Church of Brookline.
Edward Becker was married, in Boston, Mass- achusetts, in 1912, to Alice M. Locke, of Mel- rose, Massachusetts, daughter of Mrs. Fannie M. Locke, and they have two children: Brooks, and Barbara. Mr. and Mrs. Becker have their home at No. 1514 Beacon Street, in Brookline, Massachusetts.
JAMES R. PHILBROOK-With a life of varied activities and not unmixed with adven- ture, James R. Philbrook, district manager for the Ajax Rubber Company, with headquarters at Boston, Massachusetts, has a list of friends scattered from one side of this country to the other and by his genial disposition and kindly manner continues to make them. He is the son of Crosby O. and Annie A. (Crowley) Phil- brook. His father was born in Brownfield, Maine, where he served as an apprentice in the carpenter trade until he became a master car- penter and followed that line through many years. Coming to Boston in 1880, he increased
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his line until he became a contractor and is now a construction engineer for the Union Pacific Railroad in San Francisco, California, having left Boston in 1903.
James R. Philbrook was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on August 4, 1888. He was educated in the public schools of Boston and after finishing in the English High School of Boston, he attended the Phillips-Exeter Acad- emy at Exeter, New Hampshire, where he got his letter in baseball and graduated in the class of 1908. His first business was with Henry W. Savage, a prominent realtor of Boston, and as clerk Mr. Philbrook was in his office for two years. He then enlisted in the United States Marine Corps, where he remained until 1911, then went with the Diamond Rubber Company as adjuster in the Boston branch, where he continued until 1913. From 1913 to 1915 he was with the Michelin Tire Company as sales- man in the State of Vermont. From 1915 to 1916, he was with the United States Tire Com- pany as salesman in the State of New Hamp- shire. In 1916, he enlisted in the United States Army and went to the Mexican border during the uprisings there. He served during that period as a private in the Eighth Massachusetts Infantry, Company M. He again enlisted in 1917 in the Regular Army and was attached to the Thirty-ninth Infantry of the Fourth Division and came up through the ranks from private to second lieutenant in 1918. He sailed for over- seas duty in the autumn of 1917 and served in the defensive at Chateau-Thierry, Aisne and Marne, and in the offensive battles of St. Mihiel, Meuse-Argonne, and was also in the Army of Occupation. He returned to this country in September, 1919, and was released from active duty in September, 1919. He now holds a com- mission as first lieutenant in the United States Reserve Corps. After the World War, Mr. Philbrook returned to the employment of the United States Tire Company, traveling the State of New Hampshire until 1920, when he went with the Kelly-Springfield Tire Company as traveling salesman in Eastern Massachusetts, where he remained from 1920 to 1928. In that year he became New England district manager
for the Ajax Rubber Company, which position he now holds as has been stated. Mr. Philbrook is a member of Somerville Lodge, Free and Ac- cepted Masons, the Quincy Lodge, No. 943, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks; Vet- erans of Foreign Wars, Dilby Post of Somer- ville; Reserve Officers Association; the Army and Navy Club of Boston, and the Episcopal church.
At Somerville, Massachusetts, on December 18, 1920, James R. Philbrook married Rose M. Anderson, daughter of A. Anderson. Mr. and Mrs. Philbrook make their home at No. 10 Alton Road, Quincy, Massachusetts, near the city of Boston.
LEROY W. JERAULD-Twenty years of intensive study of the manufacture of rubber commodities brought their reward to Leroy W. Jerauld, who, through steady promotion as his knowledge of the business grew, has at- tained the important post of branch manager of the United States Rubber Company at No. 614 Memorial Drive, Cambridge, Massachusetts. In order to prepare himself for the work he had selected he engaged as a workman in rub- ber tire making and learned thoroughly that end of the business. He became an expert and his knowledge was quickly acknowledged by his superiors, with promotion to more important positions. This gave him an opportunity to study men and the activities that surrounded the marketing of the products which he had helped to create, a valuable feature and one of which he availed himself in full measure. He is a man of attractive manner, sincere in his work, honest to the limit, industrious and progressive, possessed of the conviction that the good citizen is he who works for the benefit of the community and exercises his privileges with fairness and honor.
Mr. Jerauld was born in Harwich, Massachu-
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setts, on Cape Cod, December 29, 1889, a son of Wilbert H. and Phoebe L. (Baker) Jerauld, and was educated in the public and high schools there. His father was a follower of the sea from his ninth year, when he was a cabin boy, later becoming one of the best known of the old type of Cape Cod fishermen, who owned his own boat and sailed and fished until his death. Leroy went to work when he was seventeen years of age, his first occupation being with the B. F. Goodrich Rubber Company, of Bos- ton, where he remained for a portion of one year, then going to Akron, Ohio, where he went to work in the plant of the Diamond Rub- ber Company. It was in this last occupation that he gained his knowledge of tire making and where his work came to the favorable at- tention of the officials, who sent him to Bos- ton as claim adjuster for the corporation, where he remained until 1910, when he re- signed, to accept a position with the Continental company, which later was absorbed in the con- solidation of interests that became the United States Rubber Company in 1911. His first location in Boston was at No. 660 Boylston Street, in quarters shared with the Hartford Rubber Company, which was changed in 1914, when the United States company was in its infancy, to No. 560 Commonwealth Avenue, where Mr. Jerauld was engaged as salesman. He continued there in that capacity until 1919, when he was transferred to Hartford, Con- necticut, as branch manager. Two years later he was promoted to the position of branch manager at the Cambridge office, where he is at present located in the new building of the company on Memorial Drive, where an aver- age of seventy employees are engaged. In his leisure moments he is fondest of outdoor recrea- tion and prefers shooting, with a good dog and jolly companions.
Leroy W. Jerauld married, in Provincetown, Massachusetts, in June, 1910, Flora E. Walcott, daughter of Homer and Lucretia (Perkins) Walcott, of Pittsfield, Massachusetts. Their children are: 1. Alfred, born March 6, 1912. 2. Wilbert H., born July 12, 1914. 3. Edwin K., born November 6, 1918.
GEORGE W. SYLVESTER-As senior partner of the firm of Sylvester and Carson, George W. Sylvester has brought to the busi- ness many years of valuable experience as a machinist and man of practical business affairs in this vicinity, which has given him an under- standing of the needs of customers and enables him to hold the confidence of his trade with the encouragement of a constantly growing business. He is the son of W. L. and Elizabeth (Wise) Sylvester. His father was born at Scituate, Massachusetts, and his mother at Weymouth, Massachusetts, and they made their home in the latter place for many years until W. L. Sylvester became identified with the firm of Sylvester and Carson at Quincy, Mas- sachusetts. He was for many years proprietor of a general machine shop, and manufacturer of bicycles at Weymouth, Massachusetts, until 1900.
George W. Sylvester was born in North Weymouth, Massachusetts, June 18, 1882, and educated in the grammar and high school of his native town. He learned the machinist trade under his father, who was a skilled machinist. After serving with his father for three years, he went with the M. and M. Motorcycle Man- ufacturing Company of Brockton, Massachu- setts, as machinist, and was there for one year. He then accepted a position as machinist for H. H. Buffum, of Abington, Massachusetts, and remained there for four years. The next three years he spent as tool maker for the Fore River Ship Yards, at Quincy, Massachusetts, and in 1915 he made a connection with Walter K. Carson and formed the partnership of Syl- vester and Carson, dealers in automobiles. This firm handles the Hudson and the Essex cars and are distributors for Quincy, Weymouth, Braintree and Holbrook, Massachusetts. The business has been eminently successful and is increasing with each season. Mr. Sylvester is a member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, of Quincy, and his hobby is hunting and horseback riding.
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