USA > Massachusetts > One of a thousand, a series of biographical sketches of one thousand representative men resident in the commonwealth of Massachusetts, A.D. 1888-'89; > Part 17
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GEORGE D. CHAMBERLAIN.
ing and honorable place in the trade, and for nearly the entire time, the brothers have resided side by side in the city of Cambridge.
After commencing the wholesale busi- ness, and being unwilling to slaughter on
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Sunday, they arranged a rude cooling-box and were the first to appear in the Boston market with beef with the animal heat removed before shipment. They were among the first stockholders in the Brigh- ton abattoir.
In 1849 Mr. Chamberlain married Mary A., daughter of Timothy and Polly (Flagg) Kendall of Sherborn. Their children are : Sophia Agnes, Lucy Alice (who died April, 1867), Minnie Augusta, and Etta Frances Chamberlain.
Mr. Chamberlain is an active member of the Pilgrim church, and has been a member of its standing committee since its foundation. He has served upon the board of aldermen, and for twelve years was upon the board of overseers of the poor. From 1881 to '86 he represented his city in the lower house of the state Legislature, serving upon many important committees, including those on liquor law, public health, public charitable institutions, railroads, metropolitan police, and was chairman of the committee on banks and banking. He is an ardent Republican, and an advocate of radical temperance measures ; a man of strong convictions, highly esteemed and respected, and a valuable member of society.
CHAMBERLAIN, MELLEN, son of Moses and Mary ( Foster) Chamberlain, was born at Pembroke, Merrimack county, N. H., June 4, 1821. His father, a country mer- . chant, like most of that class in those days, cultivated a small farm, between which and the store, the district school and Pembroke Academy, the son passed the first fifteen years of his life.
His mother, a grand-daughter of Hon. Abiel Foster of Canterbury, for many terms in Congress between 1783 and 1803, was descended through President John Rogers of Harvard College, from Gov- ernor Thomas Dudley.
On the removal of the family to Con- cord, in 1836, Mr. Chamberlain, alternat- ing between teaching, service in his fath- er's store, and the Concord Literary Insti- tute, prepared to enter Dartmouth College in 1840, where he was graduated in 1844 with the class of which Rev. Dr. Alvah Hovey, Hon. Harvey Jewell, Hon. Am- brose A. Ranney, Gov. Charles H. Bell, and Col. John H. George were members.
After teaching several years at Brattle- borough, Vermont, he became a member of the Dane law school, Cambridge, late in 1847, and there remained two years, having received the degree of LL. B. in course.
CHAMBERLAIN.
Mr. Chamberlain opened an office in Boston, January, 1849, and June 6th of the same year married Martha Ann, daugh- ter of Colonel Jesse and Elisabeth (Mer- riam) Putnam of Danvers. He began his married life at Chelsea, where he still resides, having served the town and city in various municipal offices.
*In 1858 and '59 he was a representa- tive from the 13th Suffolk district in the General Court, and a member of the special committee on the revision of the statutes.
For the years 1863 and '64 he was in the state Senate, where, in the latter year,
MELLEN CHAMBERLAIN.
as chairman of the judiciary committee, he took a leading part in the debates.
In July, 1866, he was appointed judge of the municipal court of Boston, and after- wards, chief justice. This office he held until October, 1878, when he entered upon his duties as librarian-in-chief of the Bos- ton public library, which office he still holds.
His taste for literary and historical studies has been cultivated by foreign travel, and he has made valuable collec- tions of manuscripts which illustrate Amer- ican history.
Mr. Chamberlain is a corresponding member of the Royal Society of Northern
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Antiquaries at Copenhagen, Denmark, as well as of several state historical socie- ties. Of the Massachusetts Historical Society he is a resident member, and his contributions of papers to its proceedings have been frequent. In 1885 Mr. Cham- berlain received the degree of doctor of laws from Dartmouth College.
The following are some of the subjects on which Mr. Chamberlain has written, generally, although not always, in a pam- phlet form : "The History of Winnisim- met, Rumney Marsh, and Pullin Point " (1880); "Daniel Webster as an Orator " (1882); " John Adams, the Statesman of the Revolution " (1884); "Samuel Maverick's Palisade House of 1630" (1885); "The Authentication of the Declaration of Inde- pendence " (1885); Notes to " Sewall's Let- ter-Book " (1886); " Address at the Dedi- cation of Wilson Hall (Dartmouth College Library) " (1886); "The History of the People of the United States : A Review of McMaster's History " (1886); " Landscapes in Life and in Poetry " (1886); "Remarks at the Dedication of a Statue of Daniel Webster, at Concord, N. H." (1886); " Ad- dress at the Dedication of the Brooks Library Building at Brattleborough, Vt." (1887); "The Constitutional Relations of the American Colonies to the English Gov- ernment at the Commencement of the Rev- olution" (1887); "The Revolution Im- pending : with a Critical Essay " (1888), and "Josiah Quincy, the Great Mayor " (1889).
CHAMBERLAIN, NATHAN HENRY, son of Artemas White and Lydia Smith (Ellis) Chamberlain, was born in Sandwich, Barn- stable county, December 25, 1830.
He was educated in the public schools of Sandwich and Barnstable, in the Sandwich Academy and at Paul Wing's private school in Sandwich. He was graduated from Harvard in 1853, and immediately entered the Harvard divinity school, from which he was graduated in 1856. He also attended a course of lectures in Heidel- berg University, Germany. He was in- stalled pastor of the Unitarian church in Canton ; going from that place to a church of the same denomination in Baltimore, succeeding Dr. Burnap and Dr. Jared Sparks, afterwards president of Harvard College.
in 1864 he changed his connection, entered the Episcopal communion, and was ordained as rector of an Episcopal church at Birmingham, Conn. He after- ward served parishes in New York City, Milwaukee, and in Somerville and East
CHAMPLIN.
Boston. He has been rector of the church in East Boston (St. John's) for seven years.
Mr. Chamberlain has been twice married -first, February 19, 1855, to Hannah S. Tewksbury, of Boston, who died in 1861, and second to Marietta C., daughter of Simeon and Catharine (Cleveland) Hyde, of New York, April 9, 1870. He has been blessed with three children: Charles F., Henry D. and Ethel C. Chamberlain.
Mr. Chamberlain has lately resigned his pastorate, retiring to Bourne, where he is possessed of estates.
He is the author of "The Autobiogra- phy of an Old New England Farm House," "Samuel Sewall and the World He Lived In," " The Sphinx in Aubrey Parish," etc. He has always cherished an ardent love for literature, and now, after thirty-five years of pastoral service, he proposes to pass the remainder of his days in accord- ance with his plans formed long ago.
CHAMPLIN, ARTHUR B., son of Henry L. and Caroline A. (Tomlinson) Champlin, was born in Chelsea, Suffolk county, Feb- ruary 7, 1858.
ARTHUR B. CHAMPLIN.
He was educated in the public schools of the city. In 1874 he became a correspond- ent of the " Boston Daily Globe." In 1875 he took the management of the "Chelsea
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Record," and continued in charge until March, 1886. In April of the same year he started a new paper, the " Chelsea Ga- zette," which he successfully publishes at the present time.
Mr. Champlin was member of the com- mon council of Chelsea from 1881 to '86 inclusive - the last two years president of the body. He was a member of the Legis- lature 1887 and '88, serving the first year as clerk of the committee on street railways, the second year, clerk of the committee on towns.
Mr. Champlin was mayor of Chelsea in 1889, to which position he was elected by a large majority. He is a member of the order of F. & A. M., an Odd Fellow and Knight of Pythias. He is a member of the Winnisimmet Benevolent Society, of which he was secretary several years, also a mem- ber of many social organizations. He is a man of unquestioned ability and persistent energy. In politics he is a Republican.
Mr. Champlin is unmarried.
CHANDLER, HENRY HORATIO, son of Horatio Nelson and Louisa M. (Gilson) Chandler, was born in Chesterfield, Ches- hire county, N. H., July 25, 1837.
He obtained his early education in the common schools of his native place.
His first connection in business life was made with Mr. Barrett, Charlestown, Mass., in the dry-goods business, under the firm name of Barrett & Chandler. In 1861 he bought Mr. Barrett's interest, and has since carried on the business alone.
Mr. Chandler was married in Charles- town, November 27, 1862, to Sarah A., daughter of Moren and Sarah A. (Aldrich) Knight. Of this union were two children : Luella C. and Henry N. Chandler.
Mr. Chandler is a member of the Henry Price Lodge of Masons, also of the Bunker Hill Lodge of Odd Fellows ; he held the office of treasurer of the latter organiza- tion for five years. He is also a member of the Paul Revere Lodge of the Knights of Honor, and has served as its treasurer since its organization.
He is a member of the ward and city committee, and also of the 6th congres- sional district committee, represented in Congress by Hon. Henry Cabot Lodge. He is treasurer of the board of trustees of Trinity Methodist church, and his resi- dence is Charlestown.
CHANDLER, PELEG WHITMAN, son of Peleg and Esther (Parsons) Chandler, was born in New Gloucester, Cumberland county, Maine, April 12, 1816, and died in
CHANDLER.
Boston, May 28, 1889. Peleg Chandler was a counselor-at-law, a graduate of Brown University, and died in 1848. His father, Peleg Chandler, was a native of Duxbury, being a direct descendant of Edmund Chandler, who emigrated from England to that place in the year 1633. The home in New Gloucester was made just prior to the Declaration of Independ- ence. The grandfather represented the town in the General Court of Massachusetts in 1774. The maternal grandfather of Mr. Chandler was Colonel Isaac Parsons, a native of Gloucester, who moved to Maine in 1761. He was also a member of the General Court, and was an officer in the revolutionary army.
Mr. Chandler fitted for college in the classical department of Bangor Theological Seminary. At the age of eighteen he graduated from Bowdoin College in the class of 1834.
Mr. Chandler studied law in his father's office in Bangor, afterwards at the law school at Cambridge, completing his course with his kinsman, the late Professor The- ophilus Parsons, of Boston. He was admit- ted to the bar in 1837, and established himself in Boston. For half a century he practiced his profession with remarkable success.
In 1836, while yet a student, he be- came associated with the "Boston Daily Advertiser" as a reporter of legal proceed- ings.
In 1838 he established the "Law Re- porter," a monthly law journal, continuing it for about ten years, when he sold it to Stephen H. Phillips, afterwards attorney general of the state. In 1848 Mr. Chand- ler published the first volume of " Ameri- can Criminal Trials," which was followed by another volume in 1844. These volumes, which are now out of print, were written in a way that persons unlearned in law find them very interesting. Mr. Chandler was elected to the common council in the city of Boston in 1843, and was its president in 1844 and '45, when he declined a re-elec- tion. In 1844 he delivered the city oration on the 4th of July, the subject being " The Morals of Freedom."
During the years 1844, '45, '46, '62 and '63, Mr. Chandler was a member of the House of Representatives. In June, 1846, he was chosen to succeed John Pickering as city solicitor, which office he held until his resignation, 1853. During that period he prepared and printed a volume contain- ing the ordinances of the city of Boston, and the digest of the laws relating thereto,
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most of the ordinances being re-drawn by him. After his resignation as city solicitor, he was appointed to revise the city charter and subsequent laws affecting it, and also to carry the same through the General Court. During the year 1849, while a United States commissioner of bankruptcy, he published a work on the national laws concerning bankruptcy. In 1850 he was a member of the executive council, when Emory Washburn was governor.
To Mr. Chandler much is due for the reclaiming of the so-called "Back Bay" territory, and the act in 1859, providing for the general improvement in that part . of the city, and the establishing of the
PELEG W. CHANDLER.
Public Garden, was drawn by him. This act, which secured to Boston one of the most beautiful city gardens in the world, was submitted to the citizens, and by them accepted by a heavy majority. He was House chairman of the committee on water supply for Boston, and reported and suc- cessfully advocated the passage of the act to provide Boston with pure water. In 1860 Mr. Chandler was presidential elector at the first election of Abraham Lincoln as president.
In 1867 Mr. Chandler published a strik- ing essay on the "Authenticity of the Gos- pels," which afterwards appeared in book
form, and has passed through several edi- tions.
Mr. Chandler received the degree of LL. D. many years ago from Bowdoin Col- lege, and was an active member of its board of trustees. He was one of the oldest members of the Massachusetts His- torical Society, acting as its treasurer sev- eral years, standing at his death third on the list of active membership - Robert C. Winthrop and George E. Ellis preced- ing him. At the request of the society, he prepared a memoir of Governor An- drew, which appears in their proceedings. This memoir was afterwards greatly en- larged,and printed in a separate volume in 1880.
Mr. Chandler's career in law, literature and politics was characterized by marked industry, fearlessness and conscientious devotion to duty, making his work a credit to himself and to the community whose respect and confidence he so long enjoyed.
In 1837 Mr. Chandler married, in Bruns- wick, Me., Martha Ann Bush, daughter of the late Professor Parker Cleveland, of Bowdoin College. Mrs. Chandler died in November, 1881, leaving a daughter and two sons : Ellen Maria, Horace Parker, and Parker Cleveland Chandler.
CHANDLER, SETH, son of Roger and Lydia (Marshall) Chandler, was born in New Ipswich, Hillsborough county, N. H., December 2, 1806. His grandfather, Dea- con James Chandler, was of the earliest settlers of New Ipswich, and was a lineal descendant from Roger Chandler, who took such an important part in the Plymouth Colony and settled in Duxbury.
In early boyhood Mr. Chandler was ap- prenticed to learn the trade of a machinist, at which he worked for a few years, but with a growing determination to enter the Christian ministry. Obtaining his educa- tion by difficult means, and through the aid of a private instructor, he was ordained as an evangelist in 1831, and a little later accepted an invitation to supply the small society in Oxford, Mass., where he remained two years. He then became the pastor of the First Congregational parish in Shirley, where he has passed the remainder of his active ministry. He began work in this parish, June, 1834, and continued his labors there for forty-five years, when age re- quired him to retire. He still resides in Shirley, at the advanced age of eighty-two years.
Mr. Chandler was married on the 16th of August, 1831, to Arvilla, daughter of Jo-
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CHAPIN.
seph and Julia (Adams) Tenney of New Ipswich. His wife died in 1881.
He was a member of the school board in Shirley for forty-two years, and treasurer of the town for seventeen years. He has not only been an active worker in his
SETH CHANDLER.
church and society, but has been the au- thor of several valuable papers on various subjects of popular interest.
CHAPIN, NAHUM, son of Harvey and Matte (Rossa) Chapin, was born in Jamai- ca, Windham county, Vt., July 16, 1820.
His carly education was received in the public schools of Waltham, where his parents settled in 1824. Subsequently he for four years attended Smith's Academy at Waltham. After graduating he became an apprenticed machinist at the Boston Manufacturing Company at Waltham, where he was made overseer four years later, which position he held for three years.
In 1840 he ventured into the provision business in Charlestown, in which he re- mained for twenty years. In 1860, under the firm name of Richardson & Chapin, he engaged in the distilling business, and in 1877 the firm of Chapin, Trull & Co. was established, and still continues in success- ful operation, with works at Charlestown, and headquarters in Boston. He repre- sented ward 5 in the state Legislature in
the years 1877, '78, and was on the board of assessors in Charlestown and Boston from 1867 to '79, and was one of the commissioners to carry into effect the act of annexation of Charlestown to Boston.
Mr. Chapin is a veteran and pioneer in educational circles, having for twenty-onc consecutive years been in active service upon the school boards in Boston and Charlestown. His wide experience and practical knowledge have proved him an invaluable member of this most important of the city's varied interests, and his con- scientious work has earned him the title of the " fighting member." He was influen- tial in changing the system of furnishing material for the different school depart- ments, and secured the order creating the committee on supplies, which has proved to be of great value financially, and in every way satisfactory. He served upon the common council in Charlestown from 1856 to '60, and was upon the board of aldermen in 1861 and '72.
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NAHUM CHAPIN.
In 1841, at Waltham, Mr. Chapin was married to Lucy, daughter of Zaccheus and Harriet Farwell. They have had four children : George Francis and Lucy E. F. Chapin, both of whom are married, and John Henry, and Nahum Harvey Chapin, both of whom are deceased, the latter be-
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ing married, and dying at thirty-nine years of age.
Mr. Chapin is one of the trustees of the Warren Institution for Savings, a member of the standing committee of the Universalist society, a director in the Bunker Hill National Bank ; he was a director for many years in the Middlesex Horse Rail- road, Boston Consolidated Street Railway and other. corporations, and is one of the most esteemed on the roll of active mem- bership of the old City Guard of Charles- town.
CHASE, CHARLES A., son of Anthony and Lydia (Earle) Chase, was born in Worcester, September 9, 1833.
His foundation educational training was received in the public schools of Worcester, where he fitted for Harvard College. He was graduated in the class of 1855. After his graduation he was seven years on the editorial staff of the " Boston Daily Adver- tiser."
From 1865 to '76 he was treasurer of the county of Worcester, and was register of deeds in 1876. He has been treasurer of Worcester County Institution for Sav- ings since November, 1879.
Mr. Chase was married in Boston, April 29, 1862, to Mary T., daughter of John and Mary (Gorman) Clark. They have two children : M. Alice and Maud E. Chase.
Mr. Chase is councilor of the Ameri- can Antiquarian Society, treasurer of the Washburn Memorial Hospital, director of the Worcester National Bank, and of the Merchants & Farmers Fire Insurance Company.
CHASE, HENRY ADAMS, son of Edwin and Maria (Adams) Chase, was born in Nashua, Hillsborough county, N. H., August 4, 1840. He received his educa- tion in the public schools, the high school of Holyoke, Mass., being his last place of attendance.
In 1861 he engaged in the lumber busi- ness with his father and brother, under the firm name of E. Chase & Sons. The firm dissolved upon the death of the senior partner, since which event Mr. Chase has carried on the business as sole proprietor, but still under the old name.
Mr. Chase was married in Burlington, Vt., June 19, 1866, to Sarah J., daughter of Henry and Elizabeth (Eldredge) Mayo. Of this union are six children : Edwin M., Henry M., Charles A., J. Paul, Laura and Richard W. Chase.
Mr. Chase has served as alderman of Holyoke two years- 1874 and '75 - and
county commissioner six years- 1880 to '87. He was president of the Republican club 1888. He has been secretary and treasurer of Holyoke public library from 1870 to the present time.
His church connections are with the Second Baptist church, Holyoke, of which he has been clerk, and he has served as president of the Y. M. C. A. He has been a resident of Holyoke for forty years.
CHASE, RUFUS DUDLEY, son of Rufus and Miriam (Gore) Chase, was born in Halifax, Windham county, Vt., March 27, 1823.
He attended the public schools ; fitted for college in Wesleyan Academy, Wilbra-
RUFUS D. CHASE.
ham ; entered Dartmouth College 1841, and was graduated in the class of 1845.
After graduating, he studied law with Asa Keyes and Royal Tyler, in Brattlebor- ough, Vt., and with Erasmus D. Beach in Springfield ; was admitted to the Franklin bar, March, 1849, and began practice of law in Orange, his present residence, Jan- uary 5, 1850.
Mr. Chase was first married at Bellows Falls, Vt., July 8, 1858, to Catharine O., daughter of John and Abigail (Cook) Put- nam. Of this union were two children : Charles F., now living in Brookline, and Edward E. Chase, who died in infancy.
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His second marriage was with Mrs. So- phronia W. Thompson, in Orange, January 18, 1886. Mrs. Thompson was the daughter of Samuel and Rhoda (Huntress) Carll. They have one child, Fannie S. Chase, now living, and Arria M. Chase, who died while an infant.
Mr. Chase has held various town offices ; has been town clerk for twenty-two years, and now holds the office, and has been successful in his general practice. He is regarded as a useful local counselor and office lawyer, critical in adjustment and preparation of cases, and has the reputa- tion, by his conscientious advice, of saving his clients long, expensive and often use- less litigation.
CHENEY, BENJAMIN PIERCE, was born in Hillsborough, Hillsborough county, N. H., August 12, 1815. His great-grand- father, Deacon Tristram Cheney, was one of the early settlers of Antrim, N. H., hav- ing been born in Dedham, moved to Fram- ingham, from there to Sudbury, and thence to Rindge, N. H., and subsequently to Antrim, where he located his homestead near Cork Bridge on what is known as the Diamond Dodge Place, where a number of children were born unto him. One of these, Elias, grandfather of Benjamin P., married first Miss Blanchard of West Deering, N. H., and subsequently Miss Deborah Win- chester of Hillsborough. Unto him were born nine children, of whom Jesse, the father of Benjamin P., was one. He served four years in the revolutionary war, two years for himself, one for his father, and one for his brother. Jesse mar- ried Miss Alice Steele of Antrim, to whom six children were born : William, who died in infancy, Benjamin Pierce, James, Jesse, Gilman, and John.
Mr. Cheney received his first education in the common schools, which he left at a very early age, the embarrassed circum- stances of his father rendering it necessary for him to exert himself for his own and the family's support. At the age of ten he was employed in his father's black- smith shop, and before he was twelve years of age was employed in a tavern and store in Francistown. Indoor life proved detri- mental to his health, and he purchased his time of his father, and at the age of sixteen drove a stage from Nashua to Exeter, N. II .; at seventeen, from Keene to Nashua, a distance of fifty miles a day, for six con- secutive years.
At twenty-three he was sent to Boston, No. IT Elm Street, to act as agent for the various lines radiating from Nashua and
CHENEY.
the Lowell & Nashua Railroad. At twenty- seven, he with William Walker and Nathan- iel White, started an express from Boston to Montreal, which he continued, most of
BENJAMIN P. CHENEY.
the time under his own name, for nearly thirty-seven years, when it became merged into the American Express Company, he retaining a large interest in the company and remaining an officer until the present day.
During this time Mr. Cheney became interested in the "Overland Mail" to San Francisco, and in Wells, Fargo & Co.'s Ex- press, and as a result he became one of the pioneers in the Northern Pacific and other western railroads.
Mr. Cheney was married June 6, 1865, to Elizabeth S., daughter of Asahel Clapp. Three daughters and two sons are the fruit of this marriage.
On the 17th of June, 1886, he presented to his native state, a bronze statue of Daniel Webster, costing some twelve thou- sand dollars. The statue was placed in the State House park in Concord, N. H. The pedestal is of the finest Concord granite, and was designed by Thomas Ball and exe- cuted by him at Florence, the casting being made at Munich.
Mr. Cheney's residence is Boston, but he spends his summers on his Wellesley farm.
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