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 6
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Having been elected a member of the common council of Cambridge for the year 1882, at the state election of that
WILLIAM A. BANCROFT.
year, Mr. Bancroft was elected a represen- tative to the General Court from the Old Cambridge district, and was returned at the two subsequent elections. During his three years' service in the Legislature he was House chairman of the military com- mittee, and also of the committee on library ; was clerk of the street railway, and the finance committees ; and was a member of the committee on probate and chancery, and of bills in the third reading.
On the 18th of January, 1879, he was married to Mary, daughter of Joseph and Catherine (Perry) Shaw, of Boston. He has three children : Hugh, Guy and Cath- erine Bancroft.
BANKS.
BANKS, NATHANIEL PRENTISS, son of Nathaniel Prentiss and Rebecca ( Green- wood) Banks, was born in Waltham, Mid- dlesex county, January 30, 1816.
After receiving a common school train- ing, when about ten years of age he worked as bobbin boy in a cotton factory of which his father was superintendent. It was in this factory that the first cotton cloth was made that was manufactured in the United States. He subsequently learn- ed the trade of machinist in the machine shop of Kendall & Wallace, Waltham, and with Coolidge, Sibley & Treat, Stony Brook.
His leisure hours were employed in study. He early developed an aptitude for speaking, and was engaged in lecturing while but a youth. He became editor of a local paper, and was concerned in news- paper ventures both in Waltham and Low- ell. He has ever been a diligent student, and his attainments in the modern lan- guages, in history, politics and science have contributed not a little to the marked suc- cess which has characterized his public utter- ances during his long and eventful career.
He was married in Waltham, April II, 1847, to Mary, daughter of Jeduthan and Sarah (Turner) Palmer. Of this union were four children, of whom three are liv- ing-Joseph W., a civil engineer, settled in the west ; Mary Binney, wife of Rev. Paul Sterling, and Maud Banks, who has so suc- cessfully devoted herself to histrionic art. Miss Banks inherited her dramatic tastes from her father, who fifty years ago faced the footlights as an amateur. In 1837 he enacted the part of "Claude Melnotte " with marked acceptance.
Choosing the profession of law, he pur- sued his legal studies in the office of Rob- ert Rantoul, Jr., and was admitted to the bar, but never practiced much in the courts. His first public service was as inspector in the Boston custom house. In 1849 he was elected to the Legislature. He was chosen speaker of the House in 1851 and 1852. In 1853 he was elected to a seat in the state Constitutional Convention, and was made president of that body.
He joined the Native American party, was elected to Congress in 1853 as a coali- tion Democrat, and in the next Congress was re-elected by the American party, and chosen speaker of the National House of Representatives, after an unparalleled and exciting contest, lasting over two months, and resulting in the casting of one hundred and thirty-two ballots ere the dead-lock was broken. As a speaker of the House he has had but few equals.
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BARKER.
BARKER.
Having been elected governor of Massa- chusetts in 1857, he resigned his seat in Congress. He served three years as gover- nor - 1858, '59 and '60. In 1860 he accept- ed the position of president of the Illinois Central Railroad, succeeding Captain (sub- sequently General) George B. McClellan.
When the civil war opened, Governor Banks was commissioned a major-general of volunteers, and assigned to the command of the 5th corps in the army of the Poto- mac. General Banks's corps was ordered to the front August 9, 1862, and immedi- ately participated in active service in the battle of Cedar Mountain, where it held its position against a largely superior force. Later, in the same year, General Banks was placed in command of the defenses of Washington, and subsequently assigned to the command of the expedition to New Orleans, and succeeded General Butler in the command of that department. During his command of the department of the Gulf, he endeavored to re-organize the civil government of Louisiana. The Red River expedition, undertaken in opposition to his remonstrances, proved a disastrous enterprise, but some of the best military critics exculpate General Banks from all blame for the result. He was relieved of his command in May, 1864; resigned his commission, and returned to Massachusetts, and was again elected to Congress from his old district. He was re-elected to the suc- cessive Congresses until 1877, failing only in 1872, when he allied himself to the for- tunes of Horace Greeley, the nominee of the Democratic party for the presidency for that term. In Congress he served a long time as chairman of the committee on foreign relations. Since his retirement from congressional service, he has served as United States marshal, having been appointed by President Arthur, and served until the administration of President Cleve- land.
In 1888 he was once more elected to Congress from his old district. General Banks is now over seventy-three years of age-the oldest living ex-governor of Massachusetts. The Commonwealth has a warm place in her heart for her former chief magistrate -for his ability displayed in his long service has been as conspicuous as his integrity has been untarnished.
BARKER, HENRY, son of Asa and Nancy (Jones) Barker, was born in North Chelmsford, Middlesex county, September 16, 18II.
His educational advantages were quite limited, and left him a thirst for knowledge
which it was a pleasure to him to gratify in after years, gradually adding to the stock he had acquired in the too brief at- tendance at a country school.
His father was a practical stone-cutter, as well as contractor, enjoying the confi- dence of Boston capitalists of that day, and the son was called when quite young to render such assistance as was possible in a boy who had just entered his teens. He commenced as a tool sharpener, and fol- lowing through the various gradations of the trade of stone-cutting, at the age of eighteen he had left home and entered the employ of Richards & Munn, in Boston,
HENRY BARKER.
at that time one of the leading firms in the granite business in that city, and also in Quincy, and soon became one of the most expert workmen of the day. He was always foremost in originating and adopt- ing new and improved methods in connec- tion with the business in which he had grown up, persevering in some instances, notwithstanding determined opposition that would have discouraged a man with less faith in his work, and without confidence that truth would in the end prevail. Under such circumstances, he was the first to dis- cover and apply to the manufacture of granite paving-blocks, the shapes and sizes substantially the same as in use at the
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BARKER.
BARKER.
present day, required by the progressive ideas of street construction. He was thus instrumental in retaining for the Massa- chusetts quarries an industry that at one time seemed likely to be diverted to other sections and other materials.
In 1834, having taken the contract to cut the eight columns for the Court House located in Court Square, Boston, he may be said to have entered into permanent business at this time. In 1836 he formed a partnership with Abel Wright, to which were afterwards admitted his two brothers, Charles Barker - subsequently in charge of the branch established in Philadelphia -and George Barker, in charge of the branch at Gloucester (Lanesville), under the firm name of Barker, Wright & Co. Upon the withdrawal of Mr. Wright in 1864, the firm name was changed to H. Barker & Brothers.
During the period from 1866 until his decease he was associated with his three sons, under the firm name of Henry Barker & Sons. This firm was ultimately the successor to all the others with which he was connected, excepting that at Philadel- phia.
Mr. Barker was married in Boston, May 4, 1837, to Elizabeth, daughter of Amos and Lucy (Brigham) Smith. Of this union were three children : Henry F., who died March 2, 1878, in the thirty-ninth year of his age, while serving a term as senator from the Ist Norfolk district ; George A., who represented the towns of Quincy and Weymouth in the Legislature of 1883, and William P. Barker, the last two surviving him. After his marriage, he took up his abode in Quincy, where he continued to reside for the remainder of his life.
He was often called to serve his fellow- citizens in positions of responsibility and trust, having been elected six years a member of the school committee, five years a member of the board of managers of Adanis Academy, a member of the board of trustees of the public library, from its foundation in 1871 to the date of his decease, and representative in the Legis- lature from the town of Quincy for the years 1865 and 1869. He was deeply in- terested in the reforms that were agitating the years of his carly and middle life, taking advanced ground on the side of the anti-slavery and temperance causes, and the leading lecturers on these reforms often shared the hospitality of his roof.
In politics, having cast his first vote for the Whig candidates, of the wisdom of whose protective policy he was fully con-
vinced, he afterwards left this party to join in the Free-Soil movement, and was an earnest advocate of its principles. He be- came a Republican on the organization of that party, to which he was always loyal, and upon whose success he firmly believed the welfare of the nation depended.
Mr. Barker was held high in the esteem of the citizens of Quincy, respected and beloved by all who knew him, and was a recognized friend of his employees and of the poor and afflicted. He died at Quincy, July 11, 1889.
BARKER, JAMES MADISON, son of John V. and Sarah (Apthorp) Barker, was born in Pittsfield, Berkshire county, Octo- ber 23, 1839, where he still resides.
He received his early training in the public schools of Pittsfield, including the high school ; attended private school in Pittsfield, Hinsdale Academy, Hinsdale, and Williston Seminary, Easthampton. He entered Williams College in 1856, and was graduated in the class of 1860.
Choosing the profession of law, he pur- sued his legal studies in the Harvard Law school, 1862 and '63. Admitted to the bar, he became a law partner with Charles N. Emerson, Pittsfield, in 1863. This partnership continued until 1865, when he became associated with Thomas P. Pin- gree, and this relation continued until the appointment of Mr. Barker as associate justice of the superior court of Massachu- setts, which position he still holds.
Mr. Barker was married in Bath, Steuben county, N. Y., September 21, 1864, to Helena, daughter of Levi Carter and Pa- melia Nelson (Woods) Whiting. Of this union were seven children : Olive Pame- lia, Sarah Elizabeth, Helen Whiting (de- ceased), Daisy (deceased), Mary Phillips, John, and Alice Whiting Barker. Mrs. Barker died April 11, 1889.
Judge Barker is trustee of Williams Col- lege and of Clarke Institution for Deaf Mutes. He was a member of the House of Representatives 1872 and '73. In 1874 and '75 he was commissioner to inquire into the expediency of revising and amend- ing the laws of the State relating to taxa- tion and exemption therefrom. He was commissioner to consolidate the public statutes in 1881 and '82.
In 1880 he was a delegate to the national Republican convention at Chicago, Illinois, and there won a reputation for staunch and fearless independence, through his de- termined efforts, with others of the Massa- chusetts delegation, to secure a civil ser- vice plank in the party platform, against
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BARRETT.
ยท BARKER.
the wishes of the spoilsmen. It was in this fight that Mr. Flanaghan of Texas asked in all innocence his since famous question, "What are we here for if not for spoils ?"
As a judge, at nisi prius, he has made an admirable record, and his rulings have had their full share of success upon appeal.
BARKER, WILLIAM, JR., son of Wil- liam and Susannah (Potter) Barker, was born in Dartmouth, Bristol county, De- cember 25, 1820.
Availing himself of the advantages of the public schools, he finished his scho- lastic training at the Friends' Boarding School, Providence, R. I.
From the age of sixteen he was employed for four years as an apprentice in the tan- ning, currying and shoe business ; then worked at the shoe business till the year 1851. That year he was chosen clerk, treas- urer and collector of taxes for the town of Dartmouth. He held these offices for six- teen consecutive years. In 1852 he was ap- pointed justice of the peace and deputy sheriff. The latter office he has held twenty-five years. His occupation at pres- ent is varied: he is employed as auctioneer and appraiser ; engaged in settling estates, or as justice of the peace, and is also inter- ested in farming.
Mr. Barker is a Republican in politics, and was chosen to serve his representative district in the Legislature of 1868, '70 and '71. He was a member of the state Senate in 1882. His residence is North Dartmouth.
Mr. Barker was married in Fairhaven, September 22, 1842, to Mary, daugh- ter of Caleb and Hannah M. N. (Davis) Slade. Of this union is one child, Mary E. Barker, now wife of Captain Alden T. Pot- ter of Dartmouth.
BARNARD, LEWIS, son of Captain Lewis and Bathsheba (Lovell) Barnard was born in Worcester, May 15, 1816. After the usual preliminary education, he passed through the high school in Temple- ton, and the Leicester Academy, and when twenty-three years old began business in Springfield, where he remained till 1842.
In 1847 he returned to Worcester, where he has since remained, being successively connected with H. H. Chamberlain, George Sumner, and Otis E. Putnam, in the dry goods business.
During his residence in Worcester he has been on the board of aldermen for five years, and was in the House of Represen- tatives from 1870 to 1873, acting upon the
railroad committee in 1872, and as chair- man of the insurance committee in 1873. He has been a director in the City Bank since 1855, and was a director in the Bay State Fire Insurance Company during its existence. For five years he was a direc- tor in the Manufacturers' Insurance Com- pany, a trustee of the Mechanics' Savings Bank for eight years, and a director in the Boston, Barre & Gardner R. R. for six years.
During sixty years he has been inti- mately associated with the city of Worces- ter, his only residence away from the city being a short season in Springfield, and two years in Europe, and through the entire period his name has been identified with, and his influence felt in, every progressive movement.
LEWIS BARNARD.
September 2, 1839, Mr. Barnard married Mary A., daughter of Roland and Annie (Clark) Parkhurst. Their children are : John Clark, Mary Flora and Helen Jose- phine Barnard.
BARRETT, LAWRENCE, was born in Boston, April 4, 1838, of Irish parentage, and his earliest connection with the stage was as call-boy in a Pittsburgh theatre. In 1853 he appeared in the "French Spy " at Detroit, Mich., remaining there one year, playing indifferent parts. The
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BARRETT.
BARRETT.
two following years were spent in St. Louis, Chicago, and other western cities. His first appearance in New York was at the Chambers Street Theatre, December, 1856, as "Sir Thomas Clifford " in " The Hunchback." Mr. Barrett accepted the offer of Mr. Burton, and opened at his new Metropolitan Theatre, supporting Charlotte Cushman, Edwin Booth, and other promi- nent actors. In 1858 he joined the com-
LAWRENCE BARRETT.
pany of the Boston Museum as leading man, but for the four following years was seen in New York at the Winter Garden, making steady progress and playing many parts.
At the outbreak of the civil war Mr. Barrett accepted a captaincy in the 28th Massachusetts infantry, where he served with credit until his resignation, August 8, 1863.
After the war he was engaged at the Walnut Street Theatre in Philadelphia, and subsequently at Washington. During this engagement began an acquaintance which ripened into friendship with the martyred President, Mr. Garfield, who at that time was a young congressman from Ohio, with Mr. Lincoln, and other great statesmen of that stirring era.
From Washington he returned to Phila- delphia and subsequently to New York,
where he was engaged by Mr. Booth to play " Othello " to his " Iago." Mr. Barrett then accepted a partnership in the manage- ment of the Varieties Theatre in New Or- leans, playing leading parts and meeting with great success. In 1864 he purchased "Rosedale" from Lester Wallack, and after acting its leading character for a while at New Orleans, made his first tour as a star actor.
In 1867 he visited England, meeting there Charles Dickens, Mr. Fechter, and renewing an old acquaintance with Charles Mathews, and the other principal actors of that day in London. He re-visited England in 1868, '81, and '83, playing in the principal cities, and being most favor- ably received.
In 1868 he went to California and took the active management of the California Theatre, which had been built for him, at a salary of eighteen thousand dollars a year. During the twenty months of his management of this noble theatre, which had cost half a million dollars to build, the success was unprecedented. In 1870 he opened at Niblo's Garden, New York, later playing with Mr. Booth in opposite charac- ters in Booth's Theatre. He produced " Yorick's Love" at the Park Theatre, New York. His most recent successes have been as "Lanciotto" in " Francesca di Rimini," "Rienzi," "Pendragon," "The Blot on the Scutcheon," and " Ganelon."
Mr. Barrett has been essentially a scholar, a man of wide cultivation, an indefatigable student of his art, and resistless in his am- bition. His wonderful industry has gone hand in hand with a large and liberal cul- tivation of his dramatic instinct, and to-day Mr. Barrett stands an honorable and con- spicuous figure among the leaders of his profession.
Mr. Barrett was married September 4, 1859, in Boston, to Mary F., daughter of Philip J. and Mary F. Mayer. They have three daughters : Mary Agnes, now the Baroness von Roder, Anna Gertrude, who married Charles J. Anderson, brother of the celebrated actress, Mary Anderson, and Edith M. Barrett.
BARRETT, ROSWELL, son of Oliver and Lucy (Fairbanks) Barrett, was born in Bolton, Worcester county, December 16, 1819.
He attended only the district schools until he was twenty years of age. He then availed himself of the advantages of a private academy for five months.
He began his life work as teacher in the common schools, continued in the profes-
-
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BARROWS.
BARRETT.
sion for twenty-five years, and is at present engaged in surveying, conveyancing and farming.
Mr. Barrett was married in Baltimore, Md., May 2, 1854, to Sarah J., daughter of Asa and Sally (Bennett) Barrett. They have one child : Ella V. Barrett.
Mr. Barrett has been superintendent in Sabbath-schools twenty-five years ; dea- con in First Congregational church (Uni- tarian) twenty-seven years ; member of school board twenty five years ; justice of the peace twenty-eight years ; parish treas- urer twenty-two years; town treasurer eight years, and selectman and assessor four years.
His residence is Bolton, on the old Bar- rett homestead on "Long Hill," owned and occupied by the Barrett family for the last one hundred and fifty-two years. He is a lineal descendant in the fourth gener- ation from the Concord Barretts, and in the seventh from the Barretts who came here from England.
BARRETT, WILLIAM E., son of Augus- tus and Sarah (Emerson) Barrett, was born in Melrose, Middlesex county, December 29, 1858. After passing through the public schools of his native town, and Claremont, N. H., and the high school of Claremont, he fitted for and entered Dartmouth Col- lege, graduating in 1880. Immediately upon graduation he turned his attention to journalism, and at once accepted his first position, upon the "St. Albans Daily Messenger," St. Albans, Vermont.
For two years he retained his connec- tion with this paper, and in 1882 associated himself with the "Boston Advertiser." For four years he was the Washington cor- respondent of the "Advertiser," making for himself such a favorable reputation, that in 1886, when the paper was without a head, he at once was appointed as its editor and publisher. At present he holds the positions of president of the Advertiser Newspaper Company, and publisher of the " Advertiser " and " Evening Record."
In 1888 Mr. Barrett was chosen repre- sentative to the General Court from the IIth Middlesex district, being re-elected in 1889, when he was made speaker of the House, by a vote of 213 to I scattering.
He is a member of various business cor- porations, and a member of the Masonic bodies of Melrose. He was clerk of the committee to investigate the Southern outrages, while in Washington, where his journalistic training made him of especial value ; and much of the success which attended that work was due to the untir-
ing energy which he exerted, and to the tact which he exhibited in sifting the facts presented, and arriving at the truth.
On the 28th of December, 1887, at Clare- mont, N. H., Mr. Barrett was married to Annie L., daughter of Herbert and Alice (Sulloway) Bailey. A son was born March 10, 1889, William E. Barrett, Jr.
BARROWS, WILLIAM, was born in New Braintree, Worcester county, Septem- ber 19, 1815. He is a descendant in the seventh generation from Pilgrim stock. The original ancestor of the Barrows fam- ily in this country, John Barrowe, came from Yarmouth, England, to Salem, in 1637. His son, Robert Barrowe, built at Plymouth, in 1679, and the house is yet standing. Then followed George Barrow, then Samuel Barrow, Noah Barrows, Wil- liam and William, Jr., the subject of this sketch. A farmer's son, the eighth of ten children, he received the ordinary common school education, interwoven with farm work and rural sports. He fitted for col- lege at Phillips Academy, Andover, and was graduated at Amherst College in 1840. Immediately he became a family tutor on a plantation in Virginia, and, in 1841, opened an English and classical school in St. Louis, Mo. In 1843 he commenced theological studies in the Union Seminary, New York. In 1845 he was ordained to the ministry (Congregational), and installed in Norton. In 1850 he was installed over the church in Grantville, now Wellesley Hills. Thence he removed, in 1856, to become pastor of the Old South church, Reading. In 1869 he was made secretary of the Congregational S. S. Publishing Society, and filled this office until 1873, when he was elected to the secretaryship of the Home Missionary Society.
Since he closed that work, in 1880, he has devoted himself mainly to the educa- tional and religious wants of our frontier, having made in all eleven extensive tours over the border. He is now in his third year as financial agent for Whitman Col- lege, in the State of Washington. Dr. Barrows has lectured extensively on pre- historic history of America, and on the colonial and pioneer history of the United States, and has written much on these sub- jects for various periodicals. His pen has been somewhat active on books in his leis- ure hours. In 1869 he published " Twelve Nights in the Hunters' Camp ;" in 1875, " The Church and her Children ;" in 1882, "Purgatory Doctrinally, Practically and Historically Opened ;" in 1883, " Oregon : the Struggle for Possession;" in 1887,
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BARRUS.
" The Indian's Side of the Indian Ques- tion," and " The United States of Yester- day and of To-morrow."
He was one of the five founders, and for seven years one of the editors, of the "Congregational Review."
He came from following the plough to his course of study, and by his own labor paid all his educational expenses. He has been singularly vigorous, not having lost six Sabbaths from the pulpit from illness dur- ing his entire professional life, nor has he been without full stipulated employment, as pastor or secretary or agent, for one hour from the beginning of his public life. His rare good health he attributes to farm and garden work and frequent field sports. He has camped all the way from New Brunswick to the head-waters of the Col- umbia-his last vacation being eight hun- dred miles in the saddle in the Rocky Mountains. Dr. Barrows agrees devoutly with old Hugh Latimer in his sermon before the Sixth Edward on field sports : " It is a worthy game, a wholesome kind of exercise and much commended in Phisicke."
Dr. Barrows has been twice married. His first wife was Lucia A. Case, of Bland- ford, to whom he was married in June, 1845. His second marriage was with Elizabeth Adams Cate, of Cambridge. Of the latter union were three sons and one daughter.
BARRUS, ALVAN, son of Levi and Almeda (Stearns) Barrus, was born in Go- shen, Hampshire county, October 14, 1831.
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