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 48
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catered to the wants of three generations, and numbered among their customers many of the most distinguished men in the coun- try. Mr. Hodgkins has taken many trips abroad in the interests of the business which he has so judiciously and success- fully managed.
He was the first president of the Boston Tailors' Exchange, having been instru- mental in its organization. He was second vice-president of the Merchant Tailors' National Exchange, which was organized in Philadelphia in 1866. He has been in- variably prominent in promoting the inter- ests of his trade, and is looked to as an
WILLIAM E. HODGKINS.
authority in his particular line. In 1874 Caleb G. Beal, whose previous energy and tact had added much to the success of the firm, was admitted as co-partner in the business. Mr. Hodgkins has a son con- nected with him in the house, thus com- pleting a third generation engaged in the same pursuit.
Mr. Hodgkins was married in Cam- bridge, September 7, 1853, to Ann M., daughter of Captain John (U. S. N.) and Eliza (Candler) Bubier of Marblehead. Of this union were five sons and one daugh- ter : William C., Joseph W., Susan C., Ed- ward W., Arthur B. (deceased), and Howard G. Hodgkins. On the maternal side Mr.
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Hodgkins is descended from John Barnes, one of the earliest settlers of Plymouth colony.
HOLBROOK, ELISHA EVERETT, son of Elisha N. and Relief Holbrook, was born in Holbrook (then East Randolph), Norfolk county, April 23, 1835.
After completing the public school course, he finished his school life at Phil- lips Academy, Andover, and entered busi- ness in connection with his father in the manufacture of boots and shoes, being in due time admitted to partnership un- der the firm name of E. N. Holbrook & Son.
The upright private life and successful business career of Mr. E. N. Holbrook formed an essential element in the growth and welfare of his native town for more than half a century. It was largely in consequence of his energy, judgment, and munificence that East Randolph was made a separate town, and, as a voluntary trib- ute from the citizens, it was re-christened Holbrook. No small part of the inheritance of his son is the thorough integrity, relig- ious principle, and unassuming benevo- lence which were the strong characteris- tics of the father.
Mr. Holbrook's life has not been event- ful in a public way, but has been a source of good to the community and to a large circle of devoted friends. He was the first Republican representative to the Gen- eral Court after the incorporation of the town. He is a director of the Randolph National Bank, and an active member of the Winthrop Congregational church.
Mr. Holbrook was married in December, 1865, to Mary Jane, daughter of Rev. Dr. Russell of Holbrook, and has two daugh- ters : J. Louise and Mary S. Holbrook. The death of his wife occurred in 1886. In February, 1889, he married Mrs. Isabel N. Dana of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Mr. Holbrook has spent two years in European travel and several winters in the South, having retired from active manufac- turing business soon after the death of his father, in 1872.
HOLLEY, RICHARD, son of Richard and Patience Holley, was born at Edgar- town, Dukes county, on the island of Martha's Vineyard, January 30, 1829.
His early education was limited, being such as was obtainable by attendance upon the common schools until the age of thir- teen, when he shipped for a whaling voyage and "completed his education "- as appears from the biographical sketches
of members of the General Court of 1875 -" in the North and South Pacific." Hav- ing decided to make whaling his vocation in life, Mr. Holley entered upon the pros- ecution of the work with characteristic energy and perseverance. Two voyages of twenty-two and thirty-two months re- spectively made him a boat-steerer, in which capacity he displayed such pro- ficiency in general seamanship, as well as skill and pluck in the taking of whales, that on the succeeding voyage he was pro- moted at once over the intervening grades to the first officer, and at the early age of twenty-three was given the command of the ship " Washington," of New Bedford, Jonathan Bourne, agent - being, with one exception, the youngest shipmaster from the Vineyard. He then commanded in the order named, ship "Thomas Nye, " Thomas Nye, Jr., agent; bark "Waverley," D. B. Kempton, agent - which was taken from him and burned by the "Shenan- doah " in Behring Strait in 1865 - and the bark "Islander," all of New Bedford, and the last two under the same agency. In all of these voyages he was uniformly suc- cessful, enjoying the unbounded confidence of agents and owners.
Retiring from the whaling service with a competency in 1869, he continued to reside in his native town, enjoying the fruits of his enterprise and industry, and without active employment until 1877, when he became interested in the grocery business, and continues so engaged at the present time.
He married, in Edgartown, 1852, So- phronia S., daughter of S. W. Lewis of that town.
Though never a seeker for local offices, Captain Holley has always taken an active and intelligent interest in home affairs, generally contributing to the discussion of matters coming before the town for its action, and rendering acceptable service on its committees. Notable among these were the committees appointed to oppose the division of the town in 1879 and '80, of both of which he was a member, resist- ing division in the former year, but favor- ing a settlement when the question again came before the Legislature in 1880. He has also taken a deep interest in the fish- ing industries incident to his island home, always and actively espousing the cause of the resident fishermen against outside aggressive or local monopolies, which he believes prejudicial to the general weal.
He was twice returned to the General Court (in 1875 and '76), where he rendered
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good service on committees and in gen- eral legislation, and to the acceptance of the great body of his constituents at home.
HOLMAN, FRANK EDWARD, son of Asa and Caroline D. (Sawyer) Holman, was born in Clinton, Worcester county, August 8, 1853. His ancestor settled in Bolton, and held prominent social positions in that town.
He received his early training in the public schools of Clinton and Cambridge, but has acquired no meagre fund of prac- tical knowledge from the exercise of his love for general reading.
April, 1870, he entered the employ of H. E. Starbird, hardware dealer, remained as clerk until January 1, 1875, then was admitted as a partner, with firm name of H. E. Starbird & Co. This relationship existed until April, 1884, when the firm was dissolved by the death of Mr. Starbird. From 1884 until the present time the busi- ness has been carried on by Mr. Holman, under the business signature of F. E. Hol- man & Co., he being the sole active and managing partner.
Mr. Holman was married in Shirley, November 24, 1886, to Nellie C., daugh- ter of N. C. and Lucy E. (Hathaway) Munson. Mr. Munson was the contractor who filled up the Back Bay in Boston.
Mr. Holman has been a member of the school board since 1885. He was elected to represent his district (13th Worcester) in the House of Representatives in 1888, and served on the committee on mercantile affairs. He was re-elected in 1889, and assigned to drainage committee. In poli- tics he is a Republican.
Mr. Holman has been for some years chairman of the parish committee of the Unitarian society, and an active member in the work pertaining to it.
He is a director in the Clinton board of trade.
HOLMES, HORACE M., son of Jesse C. and Orinda (Oakes) Holmes, was born in Waterville, Lamoille county, Vt., Novem- ber 2, 1826.
His early education was accomplished in the schools of his native town and at the Bakersfield Academical Institute, Ba- kersfield, Vt. Thereafter, for a short period, he taught school in Illinois and in Pittsfield, Mass .; then studied medicine with the late Drs. H. H. & T. Chills, graduating at the Berkshire Medical Col- lege in November, 1852. Soon after grad- uating he moved to Adams, where he has
since lived and practiced his profession. He is also a partner in the firm of F. E. Mole & Co., druggists, and dealers il. hardware, paints, etc.
On the 11th of October, 1855, Dr. Holmes was married in Pittsfield, to Helen C., daughter of Merrick and Susan (Big- elow) Ross. His wife died December 1I, 1880. Their two children are : Jessie R. and Harry B. Holmes.
Dr. Holmes is a charter member of the Berkshire lodge, F. & A. M., and for two years was its master. Since its organiza- tion, in 1860, he has been a vestryman of St. Mark's Episcopal church, and was for several years chairman of the board of health. In 1878 and '79 he was elected to the Legislature from the towns of Adams and North Adams, and served on the com- mittee on public health. He has never been an aspirant for political honors, much
HORACE M. HOLMES.
preferring to devote his time wholly to his profession ; but in the course of his active and valuable life he has filled various offices in the Berkshire Medical Society, of which he was president in 1881 and '82.
HOLMES, HOWLAND, was born in Halifax, Plymouth county, January 16, 1815. He is a lineal descendant on his mother's side from John Alden, the Pilgrim,
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and on his father's side from John Holmes, who was in Plymouth in 1632.
His education began in the district school in an outer district in the sparsely populated town of Bridgewater, and was continued in Bridgewater Academy, and in Phillips Academy, Exeter, N. H. He took the degree of A. B. in 1843, and his degree of A. M. in 1846 - both from Har- vard University. He spent a year in Eu- rope in attending a course of lectures at L'Ecole de Medicine, in Paris, and in the hospitals of Paris and London. He took his medical degree from Harvard Univer- sity in 1848, and became a member of the Massachusetts Medical Society the same year.
He began practice in West Cambridge (now Arlington), and moved to Lexington in 1851, where he is now in active success- ful practice. He served several years as vice-president and president of the Mid- dlesex South District Medical Society, and many years as councilor of the parent society, which he represented in 1876 at the annual meeting of the New Hampshire Medical Society, in 1882 at the annual meeting of the State of Maine Medical Association, and in 1884 at the American Medical Association, at Washington, D. C.
He has published several works - among them a paper on " Puerperal Con- vulsions," one on " Imperforate Anus," and another on "Tetanus following Labor," etc.
He was the originator of the society for shading the streets and public places in Lexington, 1853, and one of the first mem- bers of the Lexington Farmers' Club, 1854. He was instrumental in founding two public town libraries - one in Plym- outh county, for which he rendered pecu- niary assistance, the other in Middlesex county, where, at his request, a person of wealth founded a free town library, the name and the form of trusteeship being furnished by him.
He has held a commission of justice of the peace about twenty-five years. He has held the office of town physician sev- eral years, both in West Cambridge and Lexington, and was a trustee of the public library in West Cambridge. He was chairman of the town committee to induce the trustees of the agricultural college to locate it in Lexington. He was one of the general centennial committee for the ob- servance of April 19, 1875, in that place ; chairman of the town committee to induce the trustees of the state normal school to re-locate it there ; chairman of the com-
mittee to resist before the Legislature the efforts of the town of Arlington to take water from Vine Brook.
He was for many years a member of the school committee, both in West Cambridge and Lexington, wrote some of the annual reports, and served on other committees of importance. He is a resident member of the New England Historic Genealogi- cal Society.
HOWLAND HOLMES.
He has lived the quiet life of a country physician, who, penniless and without the aid of wealthy friends, by indomitable perseverance in teaching and studying alternately, secured his credentials for future usefulness and activity.
He married in Albany, N. Y., August 28, 1849, S. Maria W., daughter of William Cotting, of West Cambridge, and has two children.
HOLMES, NATHANIEL, son of Samuel and Mary (Annan) Holmes, was born at Peterborough, Hillsborough county, N. H., July 2, 1814. His ancestors of the names Holmes, Hunter, Moore, Allison, Steele, McFarland, Smith, Harkness and Annan, came from Scotland and the North of Ire- land, and were among the earlier settlers of Peterborough and Londonderry, N. H. He lived with his parents on a farm in Peterborough until seven years of age, and
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then at Springfield, Vt., where his father had a machine shop and cotton factory. Soon after the death of his mother, in 1828, he returned with his father to the farm in Peterborough.
He attended the common schools of those places, and at the age of ten years began the study of Latin with the Rev. Addison Brown, of Peterborough, and con- tinued the same at the academy in Chester, Vt., under the Rev. Uriah Burnap. After pursuing English studies for one term at the academy in New Ipswich, N. H., he was sent, in the summer of 1831, to Phil- lips Academy, Exeter, N. H., to fit for
NATHANIEL HOLMES.
college, entered Harvard College in 1833, and graduated in the class of 1837. He was a member of several college societies, and was elected to the Phi Beta Kappa Society at the end of his junior year.
While continuing his studies, he taught school in winter at Milford, N. H., Billerica and Leominster, Mass., and in Weld's Latin school at Jamaica Plain. In the first year after leaving college he was engaged as a private tutor in the family of the Hon. John N. Steele, near Vienna, on the eastern shore of Maryland, where he began the study of law.
In 1838-'39 he completed his legal studies in the Harvard law school, at
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Cambridge, and in the office of Henry H. Fuller, of Boston. On being admitted to the bar in Boston, in September, 1839, he went directly to St. Louis, Mo., and began practice there in 1840. In the next year he entered into partnership with Thomas B. Hudson, who had been several years in practice, and from 1846 to '53 was in part- nership with his younger brother, Samuel A. Holmes.
In 1846 he was appointed circuit attor- ney for the county of St. Louis, and be- tween 1850 and '55 was a director of the St. Louis Law Library Association, and held for two years the office of counselor of the board of St. Louis public schools, having important litigation concerning lands granted by Congress for the use of schools. Following changes in the direct- ory of the North Missouri Railroad Com- pany, occasioned by the war, he was chosen counselor of that corporation in 1862, and held the place until June, 1865, when he became one of the judges of the supreme court of the state, by the appointment of Gov. Thomas C. Fletcher, under the new constitution. He resigned this office in 1868 to accept the Royall professorship of law in Harvard University, and upon resig- nation thereof, in 1872, he returned to the practice of law at St. Louis.
He was for several years, and while re- siding at St. Louis, one of the trustees of the St. Louis Medical College. In 1856 he took part in organizing the Academy of Science of St. Louis, and was for twenty- two years its corresponding secretary, and assisted in editing its published transac- tions.' He received the degree of A. M. from Harvard University in 1859. In 1870 he was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, in the section of philosophy and jurisprudence.
Judge Holmes retired from professional business at St. Louis in 1883, and returned to Cambridge, Mass., where he now re- sides. His judicial opinions are contained in vols. xxxvi. to xlii. of the Missouri Reports. A paper on the "Geological and Geographical Distribution of the Human Race" was read before the St. Louis Academy of Science, in 1879, and was pub- lished in vol. iv. of the Transactions.
Between 1874 and '82 he delivered sev- eral lectures and addresses at St. Louis, some of which were printed in public jour- nals. In 1866 he published a book on the "Authorship of Shakespeare," of which a third edition with an appendix was issued in 1875, and a last edition, in two volumes with a supplement, in 1886; and in 1888
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was published his latest work, entitled " Realistic Idealism in Philosophy Itself," in two volumes.
HOLMES, OLIVER WENDELL, was born in Cambridge, Middlesex county, August 29, 1809. He was the son of the Rev. Abiel Holmes, D. D., and Sarah (Wendell) Holmes. His father was a native of Wood- stock, Conn., a graduate of Yale in the class of 1783, and pastor of the First Con- gregational church, Cambridge, 1792 to 1832. His mother was the daughter of the Hon. Oliver Wendell of Boston, a graduate of Harvard, and the son of Hon. Jacob Wendell, an eminent Boston merchant.
Dr. Holmes obtained his preparatory education under the tuition of various instructors, during the year 1824-'5 at Phillips Academy, Andover, and matricu- lated at Harvard, graduating therefrom in the famous class of 1829.
After graduation he devoted a year to the study of law, but not finding it quite congenial to his tastes, abandoned it for that of medicine. In 1833 he visited Europe, previous to which he had chosen the medical profession, and for two years and six months had studied with Dr. James
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES.
Jackson and his associates. While in Europe he attended L' Ecole de Medicine, Paris, and spent between two and three
years in attendance on the hospitals in Europe. In 1835 he returned to Boston, rejoined the medical school of Harvard University, and in 1836 received his degree of M. D. In 1838 he became professor of anatomy and physiology in Dartmouth College, and on the resignation of Dr. John C. Warren, in 1847, was elected his successor to the chair of anatomy in the medical department of Harvard University.
In 1849 he retired from general practice, and although holding his professorship, he devoted himself now more especially to the pursuit of letters. He is still Profes- sor Emeritus, Harvard University. He is professionally distinguished as an accurate anatomist and skillful microscopist and auscultator.
But the widest fame of Oliver Wendell Holmes is as a poet, wit, and man of let- ters. From boyhood the Muse has been his constant attendant, and while the sun of prosperity has wooed him to enjoy, the genius of his life, the love of the beauti- ful, has led him on to accomplish. Many of his most charming effusions have never been embalmed save in the memory of his friends ; but his best known works are " Terpsichore," "Urania," "Astræa," " Autocrat of the Breakfast Table," " Professor at the Breakfast Table," "El- sie Venner," "The Guardian Angel," "Songs of Many Seasons," Memoirs of John L. Motley, Ralph Waldo Emerson, etc.
During the winter Dr. Holmes resides principally in Boston.
He was married June 15, 1840, to Amelia Lee, daughter of Hon. Charles Jackson, of Boston. Of this union were born three children : Oliver Wendell, Jr. (associate justice of the supreme judicial court of Massachusetts), Amelia Jackson (widow of the late Turner Sargent), and Edward Jackson Holmes.
HOLMES, OLIVER WENDELL, Jr., son of Oliver Wendell and Amelia Lee (Jack- son) Holmes, was born in Boston, March 8, 1841.
His early educational training and prep- aration for college was obtained in E. S. Dixwell's private Latin school. He was graduated from Harvard College in the class of 1861.
At the breaking out of the civil war he entered the service of his country, and was commissioned first lieutenant in the 20th Massachusetts volunteer infantry ; was promoted to captain ; wounded in the breast at the battle of Ball's Bluff, Octo- ber 21, 1861; wounded in the neck at
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Antietam, September 17, 1862, and in the foot at second Fredericksburg, May, 1863 ; commissioned lieutenant-colonel, but not mustered, and finally was promoted to brevet-colonel U. S. volunteers.
Mr. Holmes, on returning from the war, having chosen the profession of law, pur- sued his studies at the Harvard law school, then with Robert M. Morse, Jr., and later with G. O. Shattuck, Boston, and was ad- mitted to the bar in 1866.
He edited the twelfth edition of " Kent's Commentaries," since recognized as the standard edition of that famous work, also the "American Law Review" for three years. He then went into active practice with Shattuck & Munroe, the firm name being Shattuck, Holmes & Munroe.
He gave at the Lowell Institute a course of lectures upon the common law, which were subsequently published in book form, and it was this work that placed him at once in the front rank of profound legal thinkers, giving him not only a national, but a world-wide reputation ; and it was this, undoubtedly, which led to his selection as professor in the Harvard law school in 1882, and in December of the same year to his appointment as associate justice of the supreme judicial court, which honorable position he still holds.
In 1886 Yale conferred upon him the degree of LL. D.
Judge Holmes was married in Boston, June 17, 1872, to Fanny Bowditch (Dix- well). They have no children.
HOMANS, JOHN, son of John and Caroline (Walker) Homans, was born in Boston, November 26, 1836.
He fitted for college in the Boston Latin school, entered Harvard College, and was graduated in the class of 1858. Choosing the profession of medicine and surgery, he entered the Harvard medical school in 1858, from which he was graduated M. D). in the class of 1862. Dr. Homans comes from old revolutionary stock, his grand- father, Dr. John Homans, having been a surgeon at Bunker Hill and during the revolutionary war.
In 1862 he was appointed assistant-sur- geon, U. S. army (regulars), holding a commission till 1865. He was on General Banks's staff in the department of the Gulf, and in charge of St. James Hospital in New Orleans ; was afterwards medical inspector of the middle military division, on the staff of Major-General Sheridan, in 1864 and '65. He was also assistant-sur- geon in the United States navy in 1861 and a portion of 1862, before he entered
the army. He is surgeon upon the regular staff of the Massachusetts General Hos- pital, and a general surgeon in very active practice; consulting surgeon to the Carney Hospital, and the Children's Hospital ; is member of the Military Historical Society of Massachusetts, the Boston Society for Medical Improvement, the American Acad- emy of Arts and Sciences, and numerous other societies connected with his profes- sion.
JOHN HOMANS.
Dr. Homans is Harvard University lec- turer on the diagnosis and treatment of ovarian tumors, and is one of the leading ovariotomists in the country, and although a visiting surgeon of one of our largest metropolitan hospitals, it is especially dur- ing the last sixteen years that his name has been connected with the practice of abdominal surgery. Up to the present time he has opened the abdominal cavity for the removal of ovarian or other tumors, or for other diseases and injuries, about seven hundred times.
Dr. Homans was married in Boston, De- cember 4, 1872, to Helen Amory, daughter of William and Catherine Callender (Amory) Perkins. Of this union were six children : Robert, Katherine Amory, John Alden, Marion Jackson, Helen and William Perkins Homans.
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HOOKER, HENRY, son of William and Octavia (Hale) Hooker, was born in West- field, Hampden county, June 27, 1820.
He attended the district school until ten years of age, then four years in the West- field Academy, of which Rev. Emerson Davis was principal.
At the age of fifteen years he was inden- tured until his majority to the Phoenix Bank of Hartford, Conn. He was in the employ of that bank twelve years, serving through the various grades of clerkship. In August, 1847, he received the appoint- ment of cashier of the Mahaiwe Bank of Great Barrington, which office he held till August, 1851, when he resigned it to ac- cept a similar position in the Westfield bank. In 1864 this bank was merged with the First National Bank, to the cashiership of which he succeeded, which position he still holds. He is now, and has been since its organization, the treasurer of the Bay State Beneficiary Association.
Mr. Hooker was married in Greenfield, October 10, 1844, to Sarah, daughter of Richardson and Sybilla (Hale) Hall. Of this union are two children : Charles Hall Hooker (now with Kidder, Peabody & Co., Boston), and Lucy Ashman Hooker (now Mrs. John Cotton Eastman, New Haven, Conn.).
Mr. Hooker has been treasurer of the Second Congregational church of West- field for many years. He is a representa- tive bank cashier, devoting his life to the theory and practice of banking, having served a long series of years to the accept- ance of the public, and always secure in the confidence of bank officers and asso- ciates. He is a lineal descendant of Rev. Thomas Hooker, of Hartford, Conn.
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