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 3
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99 | Part 100 | Part 101 | Part 102 | Part 103 | Part 104 | Part 105 | Part 106
In 1869 Mr. Allen went abroad, and spent about two years in studying the school systems of England, Scotland, Ire- land, France, Italy, Austria, and, in par- ticular, what is now included in the German Empire. This he did under the authority of the United States government, having been appointed an agent of the commis- sioner of public education, by Hon. Henry Barnard. The results of his observations of the secondary schools, gymnasia, real- and volks-schulen of Prussia, Saxony, and Nassau are preserved in a valuable report published and distributed by order of the secretary of the interior.
Mr. Allen was married March 30, 1853, to Caroline Swift, daughter of James Nye and Rebecca (Freeman) Bassett, of Nan- tucket ; and of their children, Fanny Bas- sett, Sarah Caroline, and Lucy Ellis are living ; Nathaniel Topliff, their son, died in 1865.
Mr. Allen was a Garrisonian abolitionist, and an officer of the society when in those days it cost something to be identi- fied with men of their belief. He was many times mobbed in their company, and naturally became an early member of the Free Soil party. He is at present a director in the American Peace Society, and president of the Newton Woman's Suffrage Association.
ALLEN, RICHARD BEMAN, son of John and May (Eagan) Allen, was born in Tewks- bury, Middlesex county, January 25, 1851.
He was educated in the common schools of Tewksbury and the Lowell Business College. He began business as clerk in a grocery store ; remained in the business three years, and then learned a trade-
watchmaker and jeweler ; was a member of the firm of Cluin & Allen for three years ; sold out, and became a member of the firm of Allen Brothers.
Mr. Allen was married in Lowell, October 14, 1884, to Annie, daughter of Peter and Bridget Angulin Sheehan. Of this union are three children : Mary, Julia, and Ger- trude Allen.
Mr. Allen is a member of the board of trustees of Ancient Order of Foresters ; Y. M. C. L. A. ; vice-justice Order Iron Hall ; member of the Middlesex Mechanic Association, and of the Democratic city committee ; was member of the Lowell common council 1887 and 1888, and was a member of the House of Representatives in 1889, serving on committee on public charitable institutions.
Mr. Allen, while not desiring publicity, has many times been honored by his fellow citizens by their endorsement at the polls ; and to his quiet but effectual work is due, in a great measure, much of the success of his party in the "Spindle City." He is a firm believer in clear and honorable methods of political work, and has the respect of all classes, regardless of their party affiliations.
ALLEN, STILLMAN BOYD, son of Hor- ace O. and Elizabeth Allen, was born September 8, 1830, at Waterborough, York county, Maine.
He received his education in the acad- emies at North Yarmouth, Kennebunk and Alfred, Maine. In September, 1853, he was admitted to the bar, and practiced law in Maine until May, 1861, when he removed to Boston, and two years later became associated with the Hon. John D. Long, who subsequently retired from the firm upon his election as governor of the State. He is now the senior member of the law firm of Allen, Long & Hemen- way (Governor Long since his retirement from congressional life having resumed his former relations). Mr. Allen has been largely engaged in jury trials, and has the reputation of winning for his clients the largest verdicts against railroads and other corporations ever rendered in this country.
Mr. Allen was married at Kittery, Maine, September 7, 1854, to Harriet S., daughter of Joseph and Mary Seaward. Their children are : Willis Boyd Allen, who was a partner in his father's firm for six years and has since been engaged in liter- ary pursuits, and Marion Boyd Allen.
In 1876-'77 Mr. Allen represented the city of Boston in the House of Represen- tatives, serving the first year upon the
18
ALLEN.
judiciary committee. The following year he was chairman of the committee on probate and chancery. In 1877 he con- ducted an examination, made by the Leg- islature into alleged abuses existing in the state reform school, which resulted in an entire change in the management of that institution.
For three years Mr. Allen was president of the Mercantile Library Association of Boston. He is prominent in Odd Fellow- ship and Masonry. He is still engaged in a most successful practice of the law, where he has attained and earned distinc- tion among the foremost men of the pro- fession in the State.
ALLEN, THOMAS, son of Thomas and Anne C. (Russell) Allen, was born October 19, 1849, at St. Louis, Mo.
He was educated at the high school, Pittsfield, Mass., at the Williston Seminary, Easthampton, and then entered the Wash- ington University, St. Louis, Mo., after which he studied art at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, at Düsseldorf, Germany, where he graduated from the master class in 1878, and afterward studied three years in France.
He first exhibited his work in New York, at the National Academy of Design, in 1877, and has been represented in the National Academy at almost every exhi- bition since then. In 1882, and several times since, he exhibited pictures at the Paris Salon.
He returned to this country in 1882, and in 1884 was made an associate of the National Academy of Design. In 1880 he was elected a member of the Society of American Artists. His specialty is land- scape and animal painting.
After nearly ten years of foreign study, he opened his studio in the Pelham Studio on Boylston Street, Boston ; not finding it sufficiently commodious, however, and meeting with marked success as a painter, he purchased a house on Commonwealth Avenue, in 1883, for a permanent home, and there built a large studio at the top of the house which he now occupies.
Mr. Allen was first married in 1880, in Northampton, to Eleanor G., daughter of Prof. J. D. and Louisa ( Goddard ) Whitney of Cambridge, who left him one child : Eleanor Whitney Allen. In 1884, in Boston, Mr. Allen married Alice, daughter of Hon. Ambrose A. and Maria ( Fletcher) Ranney, of Boston. Their only child is l'homas Allen, Jr.
Mr. Allen is president of the Paint and Clay Club, vice-president of the Boston
ALLEY.
Art Club, patron of the Metropolitan Museum, N. Y., and a member of the permanent committee of the School of Drawing and Painting at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.
He is a great grandson of the Rev. Thomas Allen, the first minister in Pitts- field, who is known as the "fighting parson," and grand nephew of the Rev. William Allen of Northampton, author of "Allen's Biographical Dictionary." His father, who died at Washington, D. C., while representing in Congress the 2d district of Missouri, had a national repu- tation as a scholar and statesman, finan- cier and philanthropist.
ALLEN, WILLIAM, son of William Allen, was born at Brunswick, Cumberland county, Maine, March 31, 1822. He is a grandson of the Rev. Thomas Allen, the " fighting parson " of the noted Berkshire militia, who performed such conspicuous service under General Stark of Revolution- ary fame. His father was a clergyman of Pittsfield, a scholar of eminence, and at one time president of Bowdoin College.
After obtaining his preliminary edu- cation at the public schools, Mr. Allen fitted for college at Phillips Academy, Andover, and at the North Yarmouth Academy, in Maine, and entered Bowdoin College in 1834. After a few months spent at Bowdoin he went to Amherst, where he graduated in 1842. He began the study of law at the Yale law school, continuing it later at Northampton, where he was ad- mitted to the bar in 1845, and where he has since resided.
In 1880 Mr. Allen was made associate justice of the superior court, which high office he now holds, abundantly justifying the judicious selection of Governor Long, to whom he was indebted for the ele- vation.
ALLEY, JOHN B., son of John and Mercy (Buffum) Alley, was born in Lynn, January 7, 1817. He belongs to one of the oldest Essex county families, and is de- scended from Hugh Alley, who, with his brother John, settled in Lynn in 1634.
He received his education in the public schools of his native town, and at the age of fourteen was apprenticed to a shoe manufacturer, and at nineteen received the gift of his time. Soon after the close of his apprenticeship he went to Cincinnati and there purchased a flat-boat, which he loaded with merchandise and carried to New Orleans, and the success of this en- terprise laid the foundation of his fortune.
19
AMES.
AMES.
At the age of twenty-one he returned to Lynn and began the manufacture of shoes. In five years, at the age of twenty-six, he was the owner of one of the largest enter- prises in a city full of active, shrewd men with whom he had entered on a race for wealth. In 1847 he established a house in Boston for the sale of hides and leather. At various times he has been the senior partner in the firm of Alley, Choate & Cummings, the firm of John B. Alley & Co., and later in the firm of Alley Brothers & Place, in which the two sons of Mr. Al- ley and Mr. Place were the partners. In 1886 this last firm was dissolved, and after a business career of forty-eight years Mr. Alley retired.
After his retirement, Mr. Alley went on a European tour, taking the first vacation in a life of seventy years. In his earlier years, before the birth of what was called the Free Soil party in 1848, he was at- tached to the Liberty party, having inher- ited anti-slavery sentiments from his father (a member of the Society of Friends), and this sentiment never abated until, by the proclamation of President Lincoln, the slaves were made free.
In 1857, during the administration of Governor Boutwell, he was one of the exe- cutive council. In 1852 he was in the state Senate, serving as chairman of the committee on railroads. In 1853 he was a member of the Constitutional Convention, and for several years was an active and influential member of the Republican state central committee. In 1858 he was chosen representative to Congress, serving four terms, during two of which he performed the duties of chairman of the committee on post-office and post-roads. His services in Congress covered the whole period of the war. Since his retirement he has been en- gaged with others in large railroad enter- prises in the West and South, and is largely connected with land property in New Mex- ico.
He was married at Lynn, September 15, 184I, to Hannah M., daughter of William and Hannah (Breed) Rhodes. Their chil- dren are : Emma R., Mary F., John. S. and William H. Alley.
AMES, FRANK M., son of Oakes and Eveline (Gilmore) Ames, was born in North Easton, Bristol county, August 14, 1833.
He was educated at Leicester and An- dover academies. Upon leaving school he entered into the employ of the well- known firm of Oliver Ames & Sons, where he remained several years, and became practically acquainted not only with the
mechanical part of manufacturing shovels, but also with the details of an extensive business.
In 1858 he removed to Canton to take control of the business of the Kinsley Iron & Machine Company. At the present time he is one of the chief owners in that corporation. He is also president of the Lamson Consolidated Store Service Com- pany.
He has, in addition to other business, been largely interested in railroads, and was for several years sole trustee and man- ager of the New Orleans, Mobile & Texas Railroad. He also owns and manages a large plantation of about twelve thousand acres, on the Mississippi River, directly opposite the city of New Orleans, where he has each year from thirteen hundred to fifteen hundred acres of land cultivated with sugar-cane, and a large area with rice, while the remaining portion is used for grazing purposes.
He has been active in public life. He was sergeant-major and quartermaster of the 2d battalion infantry, which after- wards became the 4th regiment, of which he was also major. In 1869, and again in 1882, he was elected by his fellow-towns- men of Canton-where he still retains his legal residence-as representative to the General Court, where he served on the committee on railroads. In 1884 he was elected to the Senate, and served on the committee on drainage and on manufac- tures, and was chairman of the special com- mittee on metropolitan police for the city of Boston. In 1884 he was a delegate to the national Republican convention at Chicago.
AMES, OLIVER, son of Oakes and Eveline ( Gilmore ) Ames, was born in Easton, Bristol county, February 4, 1831. He passed the usual public school course of his native town, and prepared for col- lege in the academies at No. Attleborough and Leicester. His college course-a special one - was taken at Brown Univer- sity, Providence, R. I.
He began business life as an employee in the shovel works of Oliver Ames & Sons. He afterwards went on the road as traveling agent for the firm, of which he soon became an active partner.
While engaged in the never-ceasing round of cares that are incident to the carrying on of immense manufacturing establishments, Oliver Ames has always found time in which to serve his fellow- citizens in public matters, whether state, county, municipal or social.
20
AMES.
He has been twelve years a member of the Easton school board ; two years in the state Senate (1880 and 'S1) ; four years lieutenant-governor (1883 to '86), and governor of the Commonwealth three years, 1887, '88, and '89.
Governor Ames has served in the Massa- chusetts volunteer militia as 2d lieuten- ant, adjutant, major and lieutenant-colonel. He has been for many years president and director of various railroad, manufactur- ing and mining corporations and banking institutions. He is actively connected with a number of benevolent societies and has a membership in many social and po- litical clubs.
OLIVER AMES.
Governor Ames was married in Nan- tucket, March 14, 1860, to Anna Coffin, daughter of Obed and Anna W. Ray, and adopted daughter of William Hadwen of Nantucket. Of this union are six chil- dren : William Hadwen, Evelyn, Anna Lee, Susan Evelyn, Lilian and Oakes Ames.
Governor Ames's summer residence is at North Easton. In winter he resides in Boston, dispensing royal hospitality at his palatial residence on Commonwealth Avenue.
Massachusetts is indeed fortunate in the possession of a long, unbroken line of chief magistrates, all conspicuous to a
ANDREW.
greater or less degree for ability, rare exe- cutive management, polite culture, and all, fortunately for her fame, men of unblem- ished personal integrity. Governor Ames has worthily maintained the high prestige enjoyed by his predecessors, and has by his judicious appointments, unfailing ur- banity and faithful attention to the details of his office, proved the wisdom of the great body of his fellow-citizens who have insisted upon his retaining so long the position he has so signally honored, both at home and in other cities where he has been called upon to repre- sent the dignity and character of the Old Bay State.
ANDREW, JOHN FORRESTER, the son of Hon. John A. Andrew, the illustrious "War Governor" of Massachusetts, was born in Hingham, Plymouth county, No- vember 26, 1850.
His earlier studies were pursued in the Boston public schools. His college life was passed at Harvard, graduating in 1872, and again from the law school in 1875. He was admitted to the Suffolk county bar the same year, and has since practiced law in Boston.
Mr. Andrew is noted for his active work in all benevolent institutions, holding the offices of president of the Massachusetts Infant Asylum, president of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, president of the Home for Aged Colored Women, and trustee of the Asylum for Feeble-minded Youth. He is an active member of the New England Historic Genealogical Society.
He has been repeatedly called to legis- lative work, having been elected to the lower branch of the Legislature in 1880, 1881 and 1882, serving on the judiciary and other committees ; member of the committee on the revision of the stat- utes in 1882. He was elected to the State Senate in 1884 by the Republican party ; and in 1885 was re-elected to the same office by the Democrats, where he served on the judiciary committee, and committee on strect railways.
He was delegate to the national Repub- lican convention of 1884; but in the heated political campaign of the same year he went on the stump in support of the Democratic ticket, and was president of the Young Men's Independent Club of the city of Boston. In 1886 he was Democratic candidate for governor of Massachusetts, receiving 112,883 votes, his opponent having 122,346. He was for three years commissioner of parks for the
21
ANGELL.
ANGELL.
city of Boston, having been first appointed in 1885.
In 1889 Mr. Andrew was elected to Congress from the 3d Massachusetts dis- trict, on the Democratic ticket. The vote stood John F. Andrew, Democrat, 16,338 ; Alanson W. Beard, Republican, 14,780 ; Henry W. Shugg, Prohibitionist, 283.
Mr. Andrew was married in Boston, October 11, 1883, to Harriet, daughter of
JOHN F. ANDREW.
Nathaniel and Cornelia (Van Rensselaer) Thayer. Their , children are : Cornelia Thayer and Elizabeth Andrew.
ANGELL, GEORGE THORNDIKE, son of Rev. George and Rebekah Angell, was born at Southbridge, Worcester county, June 5, 1823.
His early education was received in various schools of Massachusetts, Vermont and New Hampshire. He entered Brown University in 1842, removing to Dart- mouth College 1843, graduating in 1846.
After graduating he taught school in Boston, and at the same time studied law with Hon. Richard Fletcher, judge of the Massachusetts supreme court. Subse- quently he studied in the offices of Hon. Charles G. Loring, Boston, and at Harvard University law school. He was admitted to the Boston bar in 1851, and formed a partnership with Hon. Samuel E. Sewall,
Boston, which lasted thirteen years, at the end of which time he became senior part- ner of the firm of Angell & Jennison, Boston, continuing in this relation several years.
In 1864, two years before the founding in America of any society for the preven- tion of cruelty to animals, he gave by will a large portion of his property to be used after his death in carrying humane educa- tion into schools and Sunday-schools.
In 1868, with the aid of others, he founded the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, the second incorporated society of its kind in America. He drew its act of incorpor- ation and constitution and the state laws under which it acts, and was elected its first president, which office he has held for over twenty years. In the same year he started and edited "Our Dumb Animals," the first paper of its kind in the world, and printed two hundred thousand copies of its first number.
In 1869 he visited England, induced the Royal Society there to start a paper similar to his own, and with the aid of the Baroness Burdett-Coutts, to establish the Ladies' Humane Educational Committee, of which she is president, and which has done a vast educational work in Great Britain. He also visited the continental societies, and was the only American rep- resentative at the World's Congress in Zurich, Switzerland, 1869.
In the fall of 1870 he went to Chicago, and spent nearly six months founding the Illinois Humane Society. Since 1870 he has devoted to this work most of his time, and much money, giving addresses before , legislatures, universities, colleges, schools, conventions of teachers and clergy, union meetings of churches, etc., and personally helping establish humane societies as far south as New Orleans, and as far west as Dakota.
In 1874 he was elected a director of the American Social Science Association, and from that time to 1881 gave much atten- tion to the labor question, and the growth and prevention of crime - particularly crimes against public health in the sale of poisonous and adulterated foods and other articles. He succeeded in 1881 in obtain- ing a congressional report on this subject, embodying a vast amount of evidence he had gathered, and caused over a hundred thousand copies of it to be distributed in this country and Europe.
In 1882, with another gentleman, he founded " The Parent American Band of
22
ANGELL.
Mercy," of which he has since been presi- dent, and from which have been formed nearly seven thousand branches in the United States, Canada, and elsewhere, numbering about half a million mem- bers.
In the winter of 1885-'86, during sixty- one days, he addressed the large public schools of Boston on kindness to animals. Millions of copies of his various writings have been distributed in this country, Great Britain, and elsewhere, and trans- lated into other European languages. The paper "Our Dumb Animals," which he still edits, goes monthly to from five to
GEORGE T. ANGELL.
twelve thousand editors in this country and British America, and to humane societies over the world. In 1889 he founded " The American Humane Educa- tion Society," the first society of its kind in the world, and procured from the Massachusetts Legislature an act of incorporation, giving it power to holdl half a million dollars free from taxation. ʼTo this society he gave property valued at several thousand dollars, and was elected its first president. Mr. Angell, though not a rich man, has invariably refused all pecuniary compensation.
He was married at Lynn, November 7, 1872, to Mrs. Eliza A. Martin, daughter
ASPINWALL.
of Warren and Lucy A. Mattoon of North- field. They have no children.
ARNOLD, WILLIAM F., son of Alfred and Bethiah ( Alden ) Arnold, was born in Enfield, Hampshire county, September 20, 1815.
He drew his education from the public schools, and one year's attendance at a select school. He began his business career by engaging in mercantile pursuits in Williamsburg in 1834, remaining until 1836. He then removed to Enfield, 1837, and from Enfield to Northampton, 1839, where he carried on the same business un- til 1881. He is at present city auditor of Northampton.
Mr. Arnold was married in Williams- burg, May 8, 1839, to Florella, daughter of Jonathan and Betsey (Warren) Warner. Of this union are three children : Jonathan Warner, Mary Gertrude and Charlotte Al- den Arnold.
Mr. Arnold has held commissions in the militia as adjutant, lieutenant and captain ; and justice of the peace, clerk of the town of Northampton seventeen years, member of the Legislature from the Ist Hamp- shire district, 1858, 1859, 1868, 1870, 1871, and 1872 ; a member of the school board six years. In 1859 he was a member of the committee selected by the House of Representatives for revising the public statutes of the Commonwealth.
ASPINWALL, WILLIAM, was born in London, England, February 16, 1819. He was the only son of Col. Thomas Aspin- wall, who was United States Consul at London from 1815 to 1853, when he was removed by President Pierce to make room for his political supporter, George N. Sand- ers, afterwards a noted secessionist. His grandfather was Dr. William Aspinwall, of Brookline, a noted patriot who took a part with the Brookline minute men in attack- ing the British troops on their retreat from Concord, April 19, 1775.
Mr. Aspinwall is a direct descendant of Peter Aspinwall of Toxteth Park, near Liverpool, England, who came to America in 1630, settled in Dorchester, but removed to Muddy River (Brookline) in 1650, and built in 1660 the old house which still stands on Aspinwall Avenue, opposite St. Paul's Church.
Mr. Aspinwall was educated in a private boarding-school at Hammersmith, near London, till he was fourteen years of age. He then came to America with his father and family. He entered Harvard College in August, 1834, and was graduated in
23
ASPINWALL.
1838. He studied law two years at Cam- bridge under Professors Joseph Story and Simon Greenleaf, and received the degree of LL. B. in 1840. He studied one year in the office of Franklin Dexter and George W. Phillips, and was admitted to the bar in 1841. From that time to the present he has been engaged in his profession.
In January, 1848, Mr. Aspinwall married Arixene Southgate, third daughter of Richard King Porter of Portland, Maine, a nephew of Rufus King, United States senator from Massachusetts, afterwards from New York, and minister to the Court of St. James. He has three children
WM. ASPINWALL.
living : a daughter, now the wife of Dr. W. B. Trull, and two sons, Thomas and William Henry Aspinwall, both doing busi- ness in Boston.
Since 1847 Mr. Aspinwall has been a legal resident of Brookline. He has always taken an active part in the affairs of the town, as well as in state and national pol- itics. Beginning his political life as a Whig, he became in 1852 a member of the Whig state central committee, and in 1855 and 1856 was its chairman.
Mr. Aspinwall has been repeatedly called by his town to fill the various municipal offices. He was town clerk from 1850 to 1852. He represented the town in the
ATKINSON.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.