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 8
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Mr. Beals had no early educational ad- vantages other than what the common schools of those days offered. When a boy he worked at masonry with his father, for three years. At eighteen years of age he learned shoe-making, and for a few years worked at cutting and making shoes for neighboring manufacturers. His first speculative venture was a trading voyage South, with a cargo of boots and shoes consigned to him, or sold him on
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BEALS.
BEALS.
credit, for the southern market. His ven- ture was successful, and the fact of his being a young, inexperienced man, with- out capital, shows the confidence reposed in his integrity.
Upon his return to Weymouth he began in a small way the manufacture of boots and shoes, and soon connected with this industry a small store of general merchan- dise. Later on he built a factory at Tou- cey's Corners, and continued as manufac- turer and merchant till 1849, when he connected himself with others in a jobbing boot and shoe trade in New Orleans. Some two years later he returned to Wey- mouth, built a large factory, and carried on an extensive business, catering princi- pally to the southern trade. When the war of the rebellion destroyed his trade, he gave up manufacturing. In 1850 Mr. Beals met with misfortune in his business affairs. He at the time obtained a full and free discharge from all liabilities, but he never considered an equitable adjust- ment finally made until in 1885, when, again becoming prosperous, he of his own free will repaid, with interest, the amount left in his hands as working capital by those to whom he was some thirty-five years ago indebted. It is a striking evi- dence of the changes which occur in busi- ness affairs, that among the forty firms to whom he desired to send his check, only one man was found living and doing busi- ness who was in active business at the time of his embarrassment in 1850.
Mr. Beals served as selectman in Wey- mouth 1855 and '56 ; has been a director at different times in two national banks, and has been for several years president of the North Weymouth Improvement Asso- ciation. In 1859 he was a member of the State Legislature, and assisted in the re- vision of the laws of the Commonwealth which were published as "The General Statutes of the Commonwealth of Massa- chusetts." In 1862 he was appointed internal revenue assessor for the second district of Massachusetts, and was after- wards appointed to travel as special agent for the treasury department to instruct internal revenue officers in the discharge of their duties ; serving in these two offices over five years.
In 1888 he presented North Weymouth with a beautiful public park. In 1878 he made a tour through Europe, and while on the trip contributed a series of letters to the " Weymouth Gazette."
He is now senior member of the boot and shoe house of Beals, Torrey & Co. of
Milwaukee and Boston, and is a director in the National Mortgage and Debenture Co. of Boston ; and he also acts under his sixth commission as justice of the peace, having been first appointed in 1850.
Mr. Beals was married July 27, 1837, to Betsey, daughter of Ancil and Eliza Bur- rell of Weymouth. Of this union were five children : Augustus, Elizabeth, Frank, James and Mary S. The first four are now living.
BEALS, JOHN MURRAY, was born in Stoughton, Norfolk county, March 24, 1847. His family removed to Braintree
JOHN M. BEALS.
when he was one year old. He was edu- cated in the public schools of Braintree.
At the time of the outbreak of the war of the rebellion, although he was too young to enlist, yet, filled with the spirit of pat- riotism, he accompanied company C, 4th regiment, as drummer boy, from Braintree to Boston.
At the age of sixteen he entered the wholesale boot and shoe store of Holbrook, Hobart & Porter, in Boston, and afterwards was with Nelson Emmons & Co., with whom he remained until the great fire in that city. Soon after he formed a co-partner- ship with J. Anson Guild, of Brooklyn, and since that time has been engaged in the leather business, with offices in Boston.
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BEARD.
BELCHER.
He was married to Eliza A. Follansbee, in Boston, January 1, 1873, who died August 16, 1888, and had one child, Her- bert N. Beals, who died in its sixth year.
Mr. Beals has sought no public nor polit- ical office, but has been one of the auditors of the town for twelve years, which office he now holds, and is also one of the trus- tees (elected by the town) of the public library. He takes great interest in public affairs, and is strongly identified with everything that pertains to the welfare and prosperity of Braintree, and is considered as one of the leading young men of that vicinity.
BEARD, ALANSON WILDER, son of James and Chloe Bartlett (Wilder) Beard, was born in Ludlow, Windsor county, Vt., August 20, 1825. His parents removed to Stockbridge, in 1835, where he was bred to a farmer's life. His educational train- ing was obtained in the public schools and at home. From seventeen to twenty-one years of age he taught public and private schools.
He began business life as proprietor of a country store at Pittsfield, Vt., in the spring of 1847 ; sold out his interest in April, 1853 ; removed to Boston and en- tered into the wholesale clothing business in September of the latter year, as sales- man for Whiting, Kehoe & Galloupe. Leaving them, he commenced a business on his own account in the spring of 1856, and continued in wholesale clothing till 1879. He is now interested in the clothing business, with stores in Lowell, Lawrence and other places.
Mr. Beard was married in Wayland, November 27, 1848, to Mary Calista, daughter of Harvey and Sophia (Roberts) Morgan. Of this union were three children : James Wallace (deceased), Amherst Wilder (deceased), and Charles Freeland Beard.
Mr. Beard has been a greater portion of the time since 1847 in public life. He held various town offices in Pittsfield, Vt., from 1847 to 1853 ; was postmaster from 1848 to 1854 : member of Republican state central committee of Massachusetts, 1864, '65, '66, '83 and '84; chairman, 1875 and '76, and again in 1885 ; member of House of Representatives from Brookline in 1870 and '71, and from Boston in 1884 and '85 ; chairman of committee on mercantile affairs, 1870; of prisons, 1871 ; taxation, 1884, and of finance, 1885. He was a member of the finance committee all the years while a member of the House.
Mr. Beard is identified with the law passed in 1881 exempting real estate mort-
gage notes from taxation, having com- menced the agitation in the Legislature of 1871, and followed it up with successive Legislatures.
He was delegate to the national Repub- lican convention in Chicago, in 1868, also in 1888 ; member of the committee on plat- form, and one of the sub-committee to draft the same, in 1888. He was collector of the port of Boston four years, having been appointed in 1878. He was state treasurer of the Commonwealth, 1886, '87 and '88, when he declined the re-nomina- tion to the office.
Mr. Beard has been a staunch Republican since the formation of the party. As a party leader, he is wise in counsel, original in conception, shrewd in management, and fearless in execution of those plans which he believes will result in prosperity to the city, the state and the nation.
BELCHER, ORLANDO F., son of Wil- liam B. and Esther G. (Fuller) Belcher, was born in North Chelsea, Suffolk county, October 15, 1844. His education during
ORLANDO F. BELCHER.
his early years was limited to the common schools of his native place.
He began business life as a manufacturer of boot-heels. His genius took a mechani- cal turu, and he soon became the patentee and manufacturer of the Belcher automatic
BELLAMY.
BENNETT.
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cartridge loader, which in 1886 was sold to the United States Cartridge Com- pany.
For the past twenty years Mr. Belcher has been active in the development of vari- ous real estate interests on the northerly shore of Boston Harbor. Eighteen years ago he purchased the tract of land in Win- throp now known as Cottage Park, and began to improve the same in 1881. Later he bought the famous General William F. Bartlett estate, near by, and the Beacon Villa property. These three properties are said to be the finest in Winthrop, specially adapted for sites intended for sea-shore resorts. These unique watering-places are only twenty-five minutes' ride from the heart of the city, and bid fair to become attractive and permanent residences of great value, it being the intention of Mr. Belcher to solicit and welcome the patronage only of those who would make the resort, in every respect, unexceptionable.
Mr. Belcher was married in Winthrop, October 16, 1883, to Lizzie D., daughter of Nathaniel and Lois L. (Whittier) Lunt.
BELLAMY, EDWARD, was born in Chi- copee Falls, Hampden county, March 26, 1850.
His early education was received in the common and high schools of his native place, but his education proper, that which prepared him for his life work, was obtained by unlimited miscellaneous reading. His only attendance at any academic or colle- giate institution was one term at Union Col- lege, 1867-8. Leaving this institution, he spent a year in Europe. On his return he studied law in the office of Leonard & Wells, Springfield, and was admitted to the Hampen county bar in 1871.
But while he saw fit to enrich his educa- tional store with one of the learned profes- sions, his tastes were foreign to the practice of law. His was pre-eminently the author's vocation. In 1871-'72 Mr. Bellamy was outside editorial contributor to the " New York Evening Post ;" editorial writer on the staff of the " Springfield Daily Union," 1872-'77, and with an associate he founded the " Springfield Daily News " in 1880.
The genius of Mr. Bellamy is best shown, however, in his works of fiction, to which he is now devoting his time. As a writer of novels, and a general magazine contribu- tor, he, has suddenly come to the front, and earned an enviable position in public ap- preciation. His principal works are : "A Nantucket Idyl" (G. P. Putnam's Sons), " Dr. Heidenhoff's Process " (D. Apple- ton & Co.), "Miss Ludington's Sister,"
and "Looking Backward" (Ticknor & Co.).
Mr. Bellamy was married at Chicopee Falls, May 30, 1881, to Emma A. Sander- son, and has two children.
BENNETT, JAMES W., son of Nathaniel G. and Sallie L. Bennett, was born at Newmarket, Rockingham county, N. H., March 21, 1833.
He obtained a country school education in the towns of Stratton and Epping, N. H. Afterwards hc attended Franklin grammar school, Lowell.
After working a short time for other firms, he, in August, 1848, went into the
JAMES W. BENNETT.
employ of Abraham Matthews, a carpenter in the city of Lowell. He next went into business as partner with Mr. Matthews, April 4, 1858, staying with him till August 12, 1858; then went into business alone, at his present location, as contractor and builder, and continued there until May, 1881, when the firm of J. W. Bennett & Co. was formed, by the addition of George A. Bennett, his brother, and Fred W. Bennett, his son. The present business of the firm is contracting and building, and agents for the materials of the New England Felt Roofing Company, for Lowell and vicinity.
Mr. Bennett's first marriage was in March, 1857. His second marriage, March, 1874,
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BENNETT.
was with Josephine A., daughter of John S. and Sylvia E. Bassett. Their children are Fred W. and Ethel F. Bennett.
BENNETT, JOSEPH, son of William and Charlotte Bennett, was born Bridgton, Cumberland county, Maine, May 26, 1840.
He received his early education at the district school in Sweden, Maine, and pre- pared for college at the Bridgton Academy
JOSEPH BENNETT.
and the Boston Latin school. He entered Bowdoin College with the class of 1864, withdrawing in junior year, and subse- quently receiving from the college the degree of A. B., out of course.
After studying law in the office of Asa Cottrell, in Boston, he was admitted to the Massachusetts bar in 1866, circuit court bar in 1868, and to the United States supreme court in 1882. He has practiced law in Boston since 1866, and is special justice of the Brighton district municipal court.
Mr. Bennett was married April 26, 1866, at Boston, to Elizabeth R., daughter of John and Mary ( Harding) Lafavour. They have three children: Joseph 1., Frederick S. and Mary E. Bennett.
In 1879 Mr. Bennett was elected a mem- ber of the House of Representatives. In 1881-'82 he was a member of the State
BENT.
Senate, being made chairman of the com- mittees on taxation, election laws, and division of the State into congressional dis- tricts. He also served upon committees on probate and chancery, and judiciary. Mr. Bennett has been a member of the Boston school board, and for several years a member of the school committee of Brigh- ton, one of the trustees of the Holton lib- rary, and trial justice in Middlesex county at the time of the annexation of Brighton to Boston.
BENT, GEORGE C., was born in Lud- low, Windsor county, Vermont, July 17, 1848. His childhood was principally spent in the neighboring town of Cavendish, as a farmer's son. He early showed remark- able fondness for study, but how to ac- quire the means to fulfill his youthful ambition for a liberal education was the problem that confronted him.
Having passed the public schools, at the age of eighteen he began teaching in the common schools of his state. He was eminently successful. By teaching, and performing whatever of manual labor came to hand during vacations, he man- aged to attend an academy six months in each year until he had fitted himself for college. This academic education he re- ceived from Black River Academy, Lud- low, Green Mountain Institute, Woodstock, Vermont, and Dean Academy, Franklin, Mass. He graduated from the last named with the class of 1871.
He was at once elected president of the Dean Alumni Association, and two years later delivered the commencement day ora- tion at this institution. He was admitted to Tufts College, but having received an offer to take charge of the high school at Machias, Me., he accepted, and thus lost the opportunity of a college training. He remained in charge of the Machias high school four years, a full measure of suc- cess attending his efforts. In 1875 he resigned this position, and came to Boston, where he entered upon the study of law, with Heman W. Chaplin. He was ad- mitted to the Suffolk bar, 1876. He then moved to Cambridge and opened law offices both in Boston and Cambridge, where he has continued in practice.
Mr. Bent has always been prominently identified with the Republican party. He has repeatedly served the city of Cam- bridge as chairman of the ward and city conummittee, and as member of the com- mon council 1880-'83. He served in the General Court for three years, 1884-'5-'6, representing ward two, Cambridge, with
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BICKNELL.
no loss of reputation as a faithful public official -always serving on important com- mittees.
He is a prominent society man, being a member of Amicable Lodge F. & A. M., St. Andrew's R. A. Chapter, Boston Coun- cil Royal and Select Masters, Royal Ar- canum, American Legion of Honor, Ancient Order United Workmen, Order of United Friends, Cambridge Benevolent Associa- tion, and Mass. Tribe of Improved Order of Red Men.
Mr. Bent was married in 1875 to Mat- tie A., daughter of Rev. N. C. Hodgdon.
BICKNELL, ALBION HARRIS, son of Nehemiah B. and Louisa (Drew) Bicknell, was born in Turner, Androscoggin county, Maine, March 18, 1837.
His early education was received at the public schools, and, as soon as circumstan- ces would permit, he devoted himself to the profession of an artist with all the zeal which had been gathering through years of earnest desire, and with a success which very soon demonstrated his choice to have been almost a necessity of nature.
On the 20th of July, 1875, he was mar- ried, in Somerville, to Margaret Elizabeth, daughter of Oliver W. and Sarah (Simp- son) Peabody. At present he resides in Malden.
When only twenty years of age, Mr. Bicknell was well established in Boston as a portrait painter, but desire for studying art in foreign countries induced him to go abroad, and in 1861 he crossed the Atlantic, and entered the studio of Thomas Couture and L'Ecole des Beaux-Arts, where he remained an earnest student for two years, and afterwards spent two years in visiting art centres of Europe, and in the pursuance of his studies. In 1864 he returned to America and again opened a studio in Boston.
Among the many well-known portraits which he has painted may be mentioned those of Horace Mann, Henry Wilson, Anson Burlingame, Chief Justice Isaac F.
BICKNELL.
Mr. Bicknell is also well known as a landscape painter, etcher, and worker in black and white. In 1882 a special exhibi- tion of his works was given in the rooms of the Society of Artists, London, and the well deserved honorary degree of A. M. was conferred upon him in 1884 by the Colby University.
BICKNELL, THOMAS WILLIAMS, son of Allen and Harriet Byron (Kinnicutt) Bicknell, was born in Barrington, Bristol county, R. I., September 6, 1834.
Mr. Bicknell's education was obtained in the public schools of his native State until he was sixteen years of age. In 1850 he entered Thetford Academy, Vt., then under the principalship of Hiram Orcutt, LL. D., and was graduated from this insti- tution, with the Greek oration, in the class of 1853. He entered Amherst College the same year, but at the close of his first year went West, teaching one year in Illinois, and returning East, taught a high school in Rehoboth, for two years. In 1857 Mr. Bicknell entered the sophomore class of Brown University, and was graduated with the degree of A. M., in 1860, under the presidency of Rev. Dr. Barnas Sears.
In 1859 Mr. Bicknell was elected from his native town to the Rhode Island Legis- lature, and served in that body during his senior year in Brown University. In 1860 he was elected principal of the high school, Bristol, R. I., occupying that position five years, and afterwards holding the position of principal of Arnold Street grammar school, Providence, four years.
In 1869 he was appointed commissioner of the public schools of Rhode Island, and held the office until 1875. His power was immediately felt in the state, and sweep- ing reforms without revolution, a rapid ad- vance in public sentiment, favoring liberal legislation and increased appropriations, were the immediate results of his adminis- tration.
In 1875 Mr. Bicknell founded and be- came the editor of the " Journal of Educa- published the " Primary Teacher," " Good Times," and the bi-monthly international magazine, " Education." All these educa- tional works are having to-day a most successful mission in their peculiar field. The bureau of education, now in charge of Dr. Hiram Orcutt, was established by Mr. Bicknell in 1876.
· Redfield, Lot M. Morrill, the latter for the , tion," and with this he established and treasury department at Washington, and a duplicate of the same for the state capitol of Maine, where also may be seen his full length portrait of Abraham Lincoln. "Lin- coln at Gettysburg " and "The Battle of Lexington " are, perhaps, among the best known of Mr. Bicknell's historical pictures -the former containing twenty-two life- size portraits in full length. Through the He has been president of the American Institute of Instruction, National Council of Education, National Teachers' Associa- tion, Rhode Island Sunday-school Union, generosity of the Hon. E. S. Converse this painting is now the property of the Malden public library.
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BIDWELL.
Boston Sunday-school Superintendents' Union, Massachusetts Sunday-school As- sociation, New England Sunday-school Union, International Sunday-school Union, Bicknell Family Association, Interstate Commission on Education, Chautauqua Teachers' Reading Union, and the New England Publishing Company.
He was a member of the General Court of 1889, chairman of House committee on education, serving as a member also of the committee on woman suffrage.
Mr. Bicknell was married in Rehoboth, September 5, 1860, to Amelia Davie, daughter of Christopher and Chloe (Car- penter) Blanding. Of this union was one child : Martha E. Bicknell. His residence is Boston, where he is engaged in import- ant financial interests.
Mr. Bicknell has been actively identified with the Republican party since its forma- tion in 1856. He has been engaged in educational work in all its departments as a teacher, school officer, editor, writer and lecturer, since 1854, and has advocated and been a leader in most of the advanced educational movements of the day.
In church and Sunday-school work he has been equally prominent and influential, taking advanced grounds in the liberal Congregational movements of the last ten years. His advocacy of temperance, woman suffrage, and other reforms has been vigorous, intelligent and sincere.
BIDWELL, MARSHALL S., son of Bar- nabas and Betsey (Curtis) Bidwell, was born August 24, 1824, at South Tyringham, now Monterey, Berkshire county.
After a common school education he continued his studies at the Lenox Academy, and began mercantile life in 1846, since which time his attention has been divided between farming and various mercantile pursuits.
On the 23d of November, 1845, at Mon- tercy, Mr. Bidwell was married to Anna A., daughter of Samuel and Amelia (Bigelow) Tibballs, who died November 4, 1856. Their children were : Hattie A., Amelia A., and Sarah Louisa Bidwell. On the 5th of January, 1858, Mr. Bidwell was again mar- ried to Sophia P., daughter of John D. and Luna S. (Welch) Bidwell. Their children are : William S., and Orlando C. Bidwell. The last four are still living, Hattie A. dying in 1866, aged twenty years.
For many years Mr. Bidwell has held various town offices in his native place, Monterey, where he still resides, and is at present chairman of the board of selectmen. He also represented his district in the Gen-
BIGELOW.
eral Court in the year 1881, and has been an ardent laborer with the Y. M. C. A., and an earnest supporter of religious and phil- anthropic institutions.
He is a descendant of the Rev. Adonijah Bidwell, first pastor of the church at Mon- terey. He is the heaviest tax-payer in his town, his property being largely invested in real estate.
BIGELOW, HENRY JACOB, son of the late Jacob Bigelow, M. D., of Boston, and Mary (Scollay) Bigelow, was born in Bos- ton, March 11, 1818.
He received his early training at the Boston Latin school, and having completed his preparatory course, entered Harvard College, from which he graduated with the class of 1837. Under his father's direction he began the study of medicine, attending also the regular medical course at Harvard University. At the expiration of three years, his health becoming injured by close application to study, he visited Europe, but returned in 1841 to receive the degree of M. D. He went back to Europe after receiving his diploma, and remained three years, spending the greater part of the time in Paris. He visited other important centres of medical instruction on the con- tinent and in Great Britain, and made a trip to the East.
Returning to Boston in 1844, he was appointed the following year a teacher in surgery in the Tremont Street medical school, succeeding to the vacancy caused by the resignation of Dr. Reynolds. This position he held until the school was united with the medical school of Harvard Uni- versity. In 1846 he was appointed sur- geon to the Massachusetts General Hos- pital, and after forty years of service, resigned his position in 1886. In 1849 he was appointed professor of surgery and clinical surgery in Harvard University, filling the chairs for nearly twenty years without an assistant, and remained as pro- fessor of surgery until 1884.
Dr. Bigelow's attainments in medical science have won for him membership in many leading American and European societies. As a writer, Professor Bigelow's influence has been far-reaching and effec- tive. He made the original announcement of the discovery of modern anæsthesia, in 1846, and was always an advocate of the claims of Dr. Morton, deciding the ques- tion "What constitutes Dr. Morton's dis- covery ?" by a reference to scientific precedent.
Dr. Bigelow was the author of various mechanical appliances which have been
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BIGELOW.
adopted by the medical profession and by various leading hospitals ; among which are a lithotrite and evacuator, an operating chair and an autopsy table.
The following are among the best known of Dr. Bigelow's publications, and mostly relate to novelties :- " Manual of Orthope- dic Surgery " (1845) ; " Fragments of Med- ical Science and Art" (1846) ; " Insensi- bility during Surgical Operations pro- duced by Inhalation " (Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, 1846) ; "On a New Physical Sign, a Clicking in the Throat " (Ibid. 1847) ; " Anæsthetic Agents, their modes of Exhibition and Physiological Effects" (Trans. Am. Med. Ass., 1848); " Etherization. A Compendium of its History, Surgical Use, Dangers and Dis- covery " (1848) ; "On the Employment of a New Agent in the Treatment of Stricture of the Urethra " (B. M. & S. J., 1849) ; "Dr. Harlow's Case of Crowbar Injury to the Head " (Phila. Med. Jour.,
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