USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > Metropolitan Boston; a modern history; Volume IV > Part 47
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is the Highland Club. Professionally, he is identified with the Massachusetts Funeral Di -. rectors' Association, of which he is vice-presi- dent, and in the work of which he is active.
Walter J. Stokes was married, in 1896, to Ida M. Plummer, who was born in Boston, where her family have long been established. Mrs. Stokes is a member of the Order of the Eastern Star, of which she has been secretary for many years, and she is also a member of the Daughters of Rebekah, in which she has served on the degree staff. Both Mr. and Mrs. Stokes have a host of friends in Roxbury, and both are active in the various organizations with which they are identified.
CHARLES H. PETTIT-While many na- tive sons were complaining that the day of opportunity for the individual had passed, Charles H. Pettit came to Boston and within the brief period of three years made a prom- inent name and place for himself as an auto- mobile distributor-in a field that is acknowl- edged to be among the hardest and most competitive. This shows that the elements of success lie not so much in time or place or matter as in the individual. Charles H. Pet- tit carries in his veins the blood of fine old southern families, the kind that bequeathed to their descendants high ideals of personal char- acter and conduct; and he is a worthy scion of such stock. Mr. Pettit has made good on his own performance and has thus enhanced the luster of an honored family name.
Charles H. Pettit was born in Baltimore, Maryland, July 6, 1895, son of Emmett L. and Mary E. (Henderson) Pettit. For many years the father was a furniture merchant in Baltimore, where he died in September, 1927. Mr. Pettit received his education in public and private schools in his native city. When the United States entered into the World War in 1917, he enlisted as a private. He served
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in a trench mortar unit of the famous Rain- bow (42d) Division. He went overseas in November, 1918, and served seventeen months in France. In 1923 Mr. Pettit came to Boston and entered the employ of the Noyes Buick Company, New England distributors of the Buick automobile. For a time he worked in the car distribution department but was later transferred to the G. M. C. Truck Division of the same company where he served as manager for about two years. In 1926 he joined hands with Robert B. Kayser and organized the Com- monwealth Chevrolet Company, Mr. Kayser becoming president of the corporation and Mr. Pettit, treasurer.
He is a member of the Chevrolet Dealers' Association, the Woodland Golf Club, the Co- hasset Golf Club, the Boston Athletic Associa- tion and the Boston Chamber of Commerce.
On April 12, 1923, Charles H. Pettit married, at DeLand, Florida, Kathereen Noyes, daughter of Harry K. and Hope (Pike) Noyes. Mrs. Pettit's ancestors were also among the oldest of American families. They are the parents of the following children, all born in Newton Center: Emmett Noyes, born May 26, 1924; Mary Edith, born March 23, 1926; and Jo-Ellen, born September 2, 1927. Mr. and Mrs. Pettit are members of Trinity Church, Newton.
MYRON EVERETT PIERCE-During three decades (now 1929) Myron Everett Pierce has practiced the profession of law in Boston, and is today one of the foremost figures in legal spheres of the State. But his interests have been widely diversified. Lawyer of prestige, proven talent and high ideals of justice, ever the champion of right, he is also a patron of the arts, greatly concerned in modern move- ments for the furtherance of artistic pleasure. He is an organizer, and in war time served the country most valuably, as a patriot in the finest sense of the word.
Myron Everett Pierce is a native of Boston. He was born April 8, 1874, son of Myron Everett Pierce, Sr., and Emma P. (Bearse) Pierce. On both paternal and maternal sides he is descended from houses well known in early Colonial times. John Pierce, progenitor of the family in America, came to the colonies from Norwich, England, and took residence in Watertown in 1634. Anthony Pierce, another ancestor, fought at Ticonderoga. The family of Bearse was founded in America at about the same time, the founding member having come from Barnstaple, Devonshire, England. Myron Everett Pierce, Sr., was born at Leom- inster, and died in Boston, 1883. In Boston he was engaged with his father, John Q. A. Pierce, and brother, Charles Q. Pierce, as manufacturer of shoes, the firm name being Pierce & Son. The business was large, and during the years of his control became one of the foremost units in the shoe manufacturing circles of New England. Emma P. (Bearse) Pierce was a native of Cape Cod, born at Hyannis. She died in 1880. Myron Everett Pierce was an only child.
In Watertown public schools Mr. Pierce secured a good elementary training. He went from high school to the Massachusetts In- stitute of Technology, where he studied and practiced civil engineering. Meanwhile his feel- ing for the law as a life's work had strengthened, and though trained for engineering he at this time undertook the study of law in Harvard Law School, from which he took the degree of Bachelor of Laws in 1898, at the age of twenty-four years. Admitted to the Massachu- setts bar, he went into practice without delay, and has continued it to the present. His offices are at No. 6 Beacon Street.
Mr. Pierce makes his residence at No. 6 Bancroft Road, Wellesley Hills. For ten years he served on the Republican City Commission of Boston. For four years he was a mem- ber of the Boston Common Council, of which he was Republican leader for three years. From 1908 to 1909 he was in the Massachu- setts House of Representatives, as mem- ber of the Back Bay and Beacon Hill Dis-
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trict, Old Ward Eleven. In the House he was chairman of the Committee on Federal Relations, and served on the Committee on Cities. His record was fraught with construc- tive works for the benefit of his constituency. For five years he was moderator of the town of Wellesley and is now (1929) chairman of the Town Republican Committee of Wellesley. He is a trustee of the Babson Institute and of the Hatheway Book Shop of Wellesley College. He is a conveyancer for the Franklin Savings Bank, the Wellesley Trust Company, and for the Union Market National Bank of Watertown. He has recently been made general counsel of the Boston, Worcester and New York Street Railway Company, of which company he is also vice-president and secretary.
Mr. Pierce is affiliated, fraternally, with the Free and Accepted Masons and Sigma Alpha Epsilon. He is a member of the Wellesley Club, Wellesley Country Club, the Boston City Club, the Twentieth Century Club, and chairman of the executive committee of the Boston Common Society. His church is the Congregational, of Wellesley Hills.
At one time in the First Troop of Cavalry, Massachusetts State Guard, Mr. Pierce was very active for the country's cause during the period of the World War. He organized a Liberty Loan Committee of New England composed of persons of German ancestry, together with some forty local committees. These he supervised as chairman of an auxiliary committee. He also organized all local groups of Americans of for- eign ancestry for the loans, and had charge of them for a year. It was he who organized the Massachusetts Milk Consumers' Association, which for about five years carried on a campaign for clean milk. He was counsel for the associ- ation. As counsel he organized the American Free Art League, which had as its object the re- moval of the duty on works of art. This or- ganization succeeded in getting on the tariff free list paintings, sculptures and antiquities.
Mr. Pierce married, May 25, 1909, in New York City, Blanche Cochran, native of Mid- dletown, Delaware, daughter of Edwin R. and Ada C. (Beasten) Cochran, both deceased.
Mr. Pierce's chief relaxations are automo- biling, travel and golf. He is a great believer in work for better international relations.
HORACE SANFORD RIDLEY-As first vice-president of the New England Confection- ery Company, Horace Sanford Ridley is well known to the trade in the New England section of the country. He has been identified with the candy manufacturing business throughout his active career, first as an employee for several years, and then as an official in the big corpora- tion which was formed by the merging of three well-established concerns. Mr. Ridley is active in club circles, is still interested in athletics, and has many friends in Boston.
Horace Sanford Ridley was born in San Francisco, California, in 1877, son of Horace S. and Frances (Taylor) Ridley, of Litchfield, New York. He was brought to Boston, Massachu- setts, by his parents in 1880, and received his education in the public schools of Malden. When his school training was completed he found em- ployment as a clerk with Swift and Company, with whom he remained for a period of five years. At the end of that time he, in 1898, be- came associated with Chase and Company, manufacturers of lozenges. Three years later, in 1901, Chase and Company joined the firms of Fobes-Hayward and Company and Wright and Moody in the formation of the New Eng- land Confectionery Company, of which Fred R. Hayward is now president; Horace S. Ridley, first vice-president; Harry C. Achorn, second vice-president ; and J. Karl Mason, treasurer. The ' New England Confectionery Company is known not only throughout New England, but its products are sold throughout the country, wherever high-grade confections are in demand. The name New England Confectionery Com- pany has become a guarantee for quality, and during the twenty-six years which have passed since the merger was made the concern has
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built up an enormous trade. Politically, Mr. Ridley gives his support to the principles and the candidates of the Republican party, and he is known as a public-spirited citizen. He is a member of the National Confectioners' Asso- ciation, serving as vice-president for two years. Fraternally, he is identified with John Abbott Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons, and he is well known in club circles, being a member of Brae Burn Country Club, Eastern Yacht Club, and Corinthian Yacht Club, of Marblehead, Massachusetts, the Algonquin Club, and Boston Athletic Club. Mr. Ridley's business address is No. 254 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, Massachusetts, and he lives at the Copley Plaza Hotel, Boston.
CHARLES M. ROGERS-Direct descend- ant of Thomas Rogers, who came with the Pil- grims on the "Mayflower," Charles M. Rogers was born in Rutland, Massachusetts, February 19, 1864, a son of Charles Carrollton, also of Rutland, and a shoemaker all of his life, and of Susan (Harrington) Rogers, a native of Lunenburg, Massachusetts, both of whom are deceased. Their son was educated in the pub- lic schools of Brookfield and Worcester, Mass- achusetts, after which he obtained a clerkship in the firm of F. A. Kennedy Company, of Cambridge, where he remained for four years. This was followed by work as a traveling audi- tor for a year, when he established himself in- dependently in the business of biscuit baking, maintaining his bakery until 1898, when he sold it to the National Biscuit Company. He at once came to Boston, where he established another bakery, operating it until 1906, when he abandoned it for the insurance business, in which he since has been engaged. His first work in the new occupation was with the Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York, where he continued for two years, then becom- ing associated with the Travelers' Insurance Company and remaining there for eight years.
This was followed by a five-year period with the Connecticut General Life Insurance Com- pany, during four years of which time he held the post of honor for writing more of one kind of insurance for this corporation than any other individual in the country. In 1921 he formed the firm of Rogers & Hatfield, general agents for Metropolitan Boston of the Columbia Na- tional Life Insurance Company, of Boston. Since that beginning this firm has acquired the agen- cies for the following insurance companies : New Hampshire Mutual Liability Company, Berk- shire Mutual Fire Insurance Company, New England Mutual Fire Underwriters, Hampshire Mutual Fire Insurance Company, Merchants and Farmers' Mutual Fire Insurance Company, Phenix Mutual Fire Insurance, with offices at No. 33 Broad Street, Boston. Mr. Rogers is a Republican in politics and attends the Epworth Methodist Church of Cambridge. He served for two years as a member of the City Council of Worcester, succeeding the present Chief Jus- tice of the Massachusetts Supreme Court, Arthur P. Rugg. He is a member of the Cambridge Club, Boston City Club, Boston Accident Un- derwriters' Association, and Boston Board of Fire Underwriters.
Charles M. Rogers married, April 5, 1887, Mary Ellen Pickup, of Worcester, Massachu- setts, and has three children: 1. Robert Em- mons, now professor of English at the Massa- chusetts Institute of Technology. 2. Charles M., Jr. 3. Sidney J., who served in the United States Coast Artillery during the World War, being discharged with a second lieutenant's con- mission.
NELSON P. JAMES-For the past eleven years, Nelson P. James has been the New England distributor for the Miller Rubber Company, and in that capacity has made him- self known to the trade throughout this ter- ritory where his success in business is one
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more factor in the prosperity of New Eng- land commerce. He is the son of Edwin I. and Minnie H. (Pierce) James. His father was for a long time connected with the Union Glass Company, of Somerville, Massachusetts, but is now retired from active business.
Nelson P. James was born at South Boston, Massachusetts, November 30, 1888. He was educated in the public schools of Boston and finished his school work in the Boston Eng- lish High School. He then started to work for Brown and Adams wholesale wool mer- chants, of Boston, Massachusetts, and earned the interesting wage of four dollars a week. He progressed, however, and got a place with Winch Brothers, shoe dealers, at an increased pay-nine dollars a week. Continuing to progress, he went, next, with the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company with whom he worked for nine years, first as clerk and later as city salesman. He resigned from the lat- ter office in September, 1917, to become as- sociated with William T. Brown as agents for the Miller Rubber Company. This busi- ness which was located at No. 48 Gloucester Street, was removed to No. 863 Boylston Street in 1919, and was carried on successful- ly by these two associates until Mr. Brown's death in July of 1923. Mr. James purchased Mr. Brown's interest and became proprietor of his own business as New England distribu- tor for the Miller Rubber Company. On March 1, 1929, the Miller Rubber Company moved into its new home at No. 161 Brook- line Avenue. The building is a three-story fireproof brick structure, the company oc- cupying approximately 20,000 square feet of space. The outstanding feature of this build- ing is the high-grade super service station located on the street floor, with a wide drive- in in front, where are located four gas pumps. On the main floor is found the service depart- ment where it is possible to serve as many as ten trucks at the same time. This new station is the type of place the large com- mercial and national accounts have been wait- ing for, a place where they can drive in and receive auto and tire service of every descrip-
tion. The Miller Tire has held a high place in the tire industry for many years and the proof of the product's worth is illustrated in the fact that the volume of business under the able management of Mr. James has in- creased from $73,000 in 1918 to $1,225,000 in 1928. He is eminently successful in his line which he thoroughly understands and is particularly well-fitted to further the promo- tion of his business in this territory. On January 1, 1928, Mr. James together with Edward F. Sullivan, established the firm, National Brake Service, Incorporated, of New England, located at No. 922 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, exclusive distributors for New England for Bendix brakes, and equipment on practically seventy-five per cent of the better- known automobiles manufactured today. In addition to this contract, the National Brake Service, Incorporated, operates one-stop automotive service station doing all kinds of brake work, wheel alignment, oiling, greasing, and operating the new fourteen-minute con- veyer system of car washing, this being the only station of its kind in New England. In July, 1928, Mr. James associated with E. D. Manley and C. J. Gormley, organized the Re- finoroil Sales Company, located at No. 161 Brookline Avenue, which handles the sole dis- tribution of the "Refineroil," a machine manu- factured under license granted by the General Electric Company, for the reclamation of crank case oil. This is also a new industry in Metropolitan Boston. Besides the above- mentioned business interests, Mr. James is identified with others in the cities of Hartford, Worcester, Boston and Fall River.
Mr. James is fraternally affiliated with Wash- ington Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons, of Roxbury, Massachusetts; Mount Vernon Chap- ter, Royal Arch Masons of Roxbury; Joseph Warren Commandery, Knights Templar, of Roxbury; Scottish Rite bodies; and Aleppo Temple, Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine of Boston. Socially he is a member of the University Club of Boston, and the Woodlawn Golf Club. He makes his home in West Newton, Massachusetts, where he
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& member of the Congregational church. Od February 3, 1915, at Dorchester, Massa- Nelson P. James married Freda M. Philips daughter of Fred G. and Annie M. Phares Mr. and Mrs. James were the parents of two children: Nelson P., Jr., born in Dorchester, Massachusetts, May 4, 1916; and Stanley, born October 10, 1917. Mrs. james passed away December 25, 1923.
G KENNETH COONSE, M. D .- A wenn in the practice of orthopedic surgery, Kenneth Coonse has established offices at 5: EL Commonwealth Avenue, Boston. Dr. Counse is a member of many hospital and in- --: moral staffs, and in his independent work Les ici uo a prosperous practice to which he desites most of his time and attention.
Dr Coonse was born in Seattle, Washington, in November 25. 1897, a son of Harry Coonse, v"" was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, and engages in the insurance and investment busi- tess, and cf Minnie Frances (Sinclair) Coonse, who was born in Yakima, Washington, and is woy deceased.
G. Kenneth Coonse attended the public who's of his birthplace and Yakima High Scioni and later entered Leland Stanford Uuversity from which he was graduated in 123 with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. Coming East, be entered Harvard Medical Schnel and was graduated from that institution un t- with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. Fir seventeen months, he acted as interne " Re Rokem Brigham Hospital in Boston. invi ime twenty months he was assistant in mrgary in the Boston City Hospital. for six mcils of this time, assistant resident sur- moon. He specialized for eight months in rede surgery at the Boston Children's E.sgual and for another period of eight conais was engaged in similar work at the Massachusetts General Hospital. In 1928 he
began practice as an orthopedic surgeon, win- ning almost immediate success. Dr. Coonse is a member of the orthopedic staff of the Massachusetts General Hospital, and of the New England Peabody Home for Crippled Children. He is also a member of the frac- ture service staff of Massachusetts General Hospital, a member of the staff of Boston In- dustrial School for Crippled Children, and a member of the orthopedic staff of Newton Hospital.
During the period of the World War, Dr. Coonse served as second lieutenant in the Central Machine Gun Officers' Corps. Polit- ically he is a member of the Republican party, and he is also a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon, and Nu Sigma Nu fraternities. He is a junior member of the American College of Surgeons, and a member of the Massa- chusetts Medical Society and American Medi- cal Association. He is a member of the Bos- ton Orthopedic Club. In his leisure time he finds recreation in modeling, and in golf.
In 1924, G. Kenneth Coonse married Hilda Shepard, who was born in Brookline, Massa- chusetts, and of this marriage there are two children: G. Kenneth, and Atherton Sin- clair.
WILLIAM BLANCHARD-In the busi- ness of selling automobiles, William Blanch- ard is an expert. He goes further than that. however. He is also in directing, in- structing, and inspiring other salesmen, and because of this last-named special ability he has for the last thirteen years been New Eng- land manager for the sale of the beautiful and expensive Cunningham automobile, manu- factured by the James Cunningham Sons Com- pany, of Rochester, New York. He has his beautifully and completely equipped sales and show rooms at No. 1117 Commonwealth Avenue, in Boston, and through his efforts.
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during the course of each year, a surprisingly large number of persons in Boston, and throughout New England, become owners of the luxurious Cunningham car. Mr. Blanch- ard is well known in Boston and also in West Newton, where he makes his home.
William Blanchard was born in Holyoke, Massachusetts, October 6, 1876, son of John, a farmer of Holyoke, who died and is buried there, and of Rose (Tardy) Blanchard, also a native of Holyoke. After attending the public schools of his birthplace, Mr. Blanch- ard secured his first "job" as clerk in the clothing store of the Senior Brothers, of Hol- yoke. Being a young man of steadiness of purpose and of earnest application to the work in hand, he remained in this connection for a period of five years, and then sought a more active occupation as conductor in the employ of the Holyoke Street Railway Company. Seven or eight years in this connection convinced him that he might better himself by again making a change, and he came to Boston, in 1900, and secured a job as brakeman and baggagemaster in the employ of the Boston & Albany Railroad Company, with whom he remained until about 1910. In that year became a salesman for the Lenox Motor Company of Hyde Park, a concern which is not now (1928) in existence, and after a time he was made sales manager for the company. Five years in this position gave him valuable ex- perience, and in 1915 he began work in his present position as New England manager for the sale of the Cunningham automobile, which is manufactured by the James Cummingham Sons Company, of Rochester, New York. This is an expensive and luxurious car, and Mr. Blanchard has been the means of introducing its excellent qualities to a host of new patrons each year. As a manager of large numbers of sales- men, he has long ago demonstrated his ability, and a very large number of agents trained and inspired by him bear witness to his success in this field. As has been stated, Mr. Blanchard has his sales and show rooms at No. 1117 Commonwealth Avenue, in Boston, where he takes care of a very large and steadily
growing business for the New England dis- trict.
During the Spanish-American War in 1898, Mr. Blanchard served as a member of Com- pany D, 2nd Massachusetts Infantry, and he is one of the many successful business men of this country who, though not in public of- fice, serve the community, State, and nation as private citizens who steadily do all in their power for the promotion of the general wel- fare. He is a member of the Massachusetts Automobile Dealers' Association, and is de- voted to golf, holding membership in the Woodlawn Golf Club.
William Blanchard was married, in Boston. Massachusetts, in 1916, to Helen Troy, of Boston, daughter of William Troy. They have one daughter, Nancy Jane Blanchard, who was born in Boston, Massachusetts, April 6, 1927. The family home is located at No. 295 Waltham Street, in West Newton, Massa- chusetts.
FRANK M. BELL-When Frank M. Bell. Boston manager of the Mason Tire and Rub- ber Company of New York, began his business career it was in the lowly position of messenger in a bank. That he possessed ability above the ordinary has been illustrated by his promotion through several grades to teller in the institu- tion, yet a financial life did not appeal to him and he undertook, after a term of several years with the bank, the manufacturing business. His star had not yet appeared above the horizon of his commercial vision, but it rose in the closing days of his third year in independent business, when he became associated with the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company, for which he worked as a salesman for several years. He is one of the very popular business men of Boston, with a high reputation and a host of friends.
He was born in City Island, New York, a suburb of the metropolis, October 23, 1887, a
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