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 80

Author: Rand, John C. (John Clark), b. 1842 ed
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Boston, First national publishing company
Number of Pages: 724


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 80


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Mr. Rumrill was an alderman during the Democratic administration of the city gov- ernment of Springfield under William L. Smith, mayor, and a member of Governor Gaston's staff. He has also filled the offices of president of the Chapin National Bank, president of the Ware River R. R., vice- president of the Springfield City Library, vice-president of the Hampden Savings Bank, director of the Union Pacific R. R., the Ware River R. R., the Pittsfield & North Adams R. R., the Monadnock and the Peterborough & Hillsborough R. R., the New London Northern Railroad, and the Charleston, Cincinnati & Chicago R. R.


In social and philanthropic circles, Mr. Rumrill has held important offices ; has been a director of the Springfield city hos- pital, and the Springfield cemetery, and has been president of the Springfield Club.


In political life he has always been an earnest worker ; and in the fall of 1888 was urged to accept the nomination of the Democratic party as congressman from the district, but declined.


On May 22, 1861, he was married in Springfield, to Anna Cabot, daughter of Hon. Chester W. Chapin. Their children are : Rebecca, Anna C., and Chester Chapin Rumrill.


RUSSELL, DANIEL, son of Daniel and Mary W. Russell, was born in Providence, R. I., on the 16th day of July, 1824, and educated at the public schools of Provi- dence.


The necessity of self-support was early impressed upon him, and at the age of seventeen he began real life in his own behalf as a mechanic. For three years he served an apprenticeship at one branch of carriage manufacturing in his native city, and upon graduating from this school, he labored in the same place and at Mid- dleborough, Mass., as journeyman for four years, at the end of which time (1847), accompanied by a fellow - workman, he moved to Boston and began the business of selling small-wares by sample. Two years later he determined to go to Cali- fornia, but the Hon. Nathan Porter offered


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him employment in Providence, where he remained for two years, returning to Bos- ton in 1852, and entering the employ of Edward Locke & Co., clothiers. Three years later Mr. Russell became connected with the wholesale clothing house of Isaac Fenno & Co., and became a member of the firm in 1861, retiring in 1869 with a com- petency.


In 1852 Mr. Russell went to Melrose to reside, and has ever since been intimately identified with the welfare of the town. He has served three years on the board of selectmen, and is at present commissioner of the water loan sinking fund. He is also president of the Melrose Savings Bank.


DANIEL RUSSELL.


In 1878 he was elected to represent the 6th Middlesex senatorial district, serving as chairman of the committee on insurance, and as a member of the committee on agri- culture. He was re-elected in 1879, and in 1880 was a delegate to the national Republican convention. He is a director in the Malden & Melrose Gas Light Com- pany and the Putnam Woolen Company, and is connected with the Masonic organ- izations of Melrose.


October 21, 1850, Mr. Russell married Mary, daughter of Jonathan and Mary Lynde, of Melrose. Their children are : William Clifton and Daniel Blake Russell.


RUSSELL.


RUSSELL, EDWARD, was born in North Yarmouth, Cumberland county, Maine, in 1820. He was the son of Gen. Edward Russell, a prominent citizen of that town, who during the administrations of govern- ors Lincoln and Huntoon, held the office of secretary of state for the state of Maine. His early education was derived from op- portunities afforded by the academies at North Yarmouth, Gorham and Portland, Maine.


Having given up the idea of a college course, he entered the employ of the well- known house of Hurd, Hutchins & Skin- ner, Boston, West India goods and grocer- ies. While yet a lad, he was promoted to the responsible position of book-keeper in the Charlestown store carried on by the same firm. Following this engagement, he became book-keeper for two years in a bank in Charlestown.


In 1842 Mr. Russell became a partner with David Dow, under the firm name of Dow & Russell, groceries and ship stores, Commercial Street, Boston. This was ter- minated in 1844, when he entered the ser- vice of the Mercantile Agency in Boston, founded two years previously by Hon. Lewis Tappan, of New York. Becoming its chief clerk, he followed up the method and system originally established, adding such improvements as the continuous en- largement of the business required. A change was made in 1853, and the firm name of the Mercantile Agency became Edward Russell & Co., Mr. Russell being the controlling spirit of the concern, as he has ever since been. His success has shown his ability in this direction.


October 8, 1845. Mr. Russell was mar- ried to Mary W. Field, of North Yarmouth, Maine, by whom he had two children : a son and daughter, of whom only the son, Edward Baldwin Russell, survives. He is now his partner in business. His first wife having deceased, Mr. Russell was married in June, 1876, to Gertrude, younger daugh- ter of the late Loring Wheeler, of East- port, Maine.


Mr. Russell has long been a life member of the New England Historic Genealogical Society, and resides at Brookline.


RUSSELL, JOHN E., son of John Rus- sell, and a native of Greenfield, Franklin county, was born January 20, 1834.


His mother was a descendant of the Witmers of Lancaster, Pa. He received his early training in private schools, but adopted no profession.


In 1858 Mr. Russell traveled in Central America, and being familiar with the


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Spanish language as well as the country, he was employed by the Panama R. R. and Pacific Mail S. S. Company, in their busi- ness with the Central American govern- ments. He returned to the United States and represented the Pacific Mail S. S. Company in their negotiations with the government of Nicaragua, at Washington in 1863, through the minister from Nicara- gua and Costa Rica. He then joined Ben- jamin Holliday in the Overland Mail, and the steamship lines from San Francisco to Oregon and Mexico.


He retired from business in 1868, and has since devoted himself to country life and to study.


Mr. Russell was elected secretary of the Massachusetts state board of agriculture in 1880, and re-elected for six consecutive years. His labor in this position was unre- mitting and enthusiastic, and, inspired by his zeal, the board of agriculture became a working force in the Commonwealth. His reports were called for from all parts of the civilized world. As a trustee of the Agricultural College, he kept its needs continually before the legislative com- mittees, and the growth in its usefulness and influence is due in no small measure to his labors.


He was elected to Congress from the Ioth district of Massachusetts in 1886. Here he at once made a record for inde- pendent, thorough and conscientious work. As an orator, he always held the attention of the House. As a member, he contrib- uted his full share to the maintenance of that high standard of liberal, progressive and patriotic policy which has ever charac- terized the Massachusetts delegation in Congress.


Mr. Russell was married in Leicester, (where he now resides) March 18, 1856, to Caroline Nelson of that town. He has no children living.


Mr. Russell has traveled extensively, and evidently with his eyes open, in all parts of the world, and has devoted much time to the collection of books and engrav- ings, his private library containing above eight thousand choice volumes.


He is a member of the American Geo- graphical Society, the Century and Reform clubs of New York, and the Somerset and Reform clubs of Boston.


RUSSELL, WILLIAM AUGUSTUS, son of William and Almira (Heath) Russell, was born in Wells River, Orange county, Vt., April 22, 1831. The Russell family is of pure English blood, and allied to a family honored in Anglo-Saxon history.


RUSSELL.


Mr. Russell, while at his home in Frank- lin, N. H., to which town his father had re- moved, attended the public schools and the Franklin Academy, occupying his vaca- tions at work in the paper-mills of Pea- body & Daniels until the age of sixteen. He subsequently attended a private school in Lowell, which completed his early edu- cational training.


In 1848 he commenced work in his father's paper mill, where he remained until 1851. By diligence and foresight he at once established his reputation as a suc- cessful manufacturer. Two years later the father and son formed a co-partnership and moved their works to Lawrence. The senior Mr. Russell's health soon failed, and he was compelled to retire from active business, leaving the entire interests in the hands of his son, who proved equal to the task, and began to meet the growing de- mands of the business by leasing, in 1856, two mills in Belfast, Me. In 1861 he pur- chased a mill in Lawrence of a firm that had failed in business, and later on two other mills fell into his hands, having previously been overtaken by misfortune. Mr. Russell was soon in the front rank of paper manufacturers of the country.


Having found by costly experiments that wood-pulp was the fibre needed for improved machinery and rapid work, he established a wood-pulp mill in Franklin, N. H., in 1869, for the production of this new fibre. He succeeded in this where many had failed, and instituted an entirely new department of industrial art in this country. He began to convert the pro- duct of his pulp-mills into paper by the purchase, in 1879, of the Fisher & Aiken and Daniel mills, Franklin. He also erected one the same year in Bellows Falls, Vt. To carry out his scheme successfully, he was obliged to purchase the entire water- power here, build a new dam and enlarge the canal. Through his enterprise, this small town grew into one of the thrifty towns of the State, ranking third in valua- tion.


Mr. Russell's principal works are here, and in Lawrence. He has also large inter- ests in other mills, at several points in Maine, and St. Anthony Falls, Minn.


Politically, Mr. Russell began life a Whig. At the dissolution of that party he allied himself with the Republican party, and has unwaveringly supported it since. He uniformly declined to accept any pub- lic office until 1867, when he was elected alderman in the city of Lawrence. The following year he was chosen a member of


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the state Legislature. In 1868 he was also chosen a delegate to the national Re- publican convention in Cincinnati.


He was elected to the 46th Congress from the 7th Massachusetts district ; served on the committee on commerce, and was a member of a sub-committee to investigate the cause for the decline of American commerce. His report showed a thorough knowledge of the subject, and resulted in Massachusetts leading off in a change of the laws in relation to the taxation of prop- erty in ships. He was re-elected to the 47th Congress, serving on the committee of ways and means, a position he was amply qualified to fill. Here he achieved distinction during the discussion of the tariff issues, from the protection standpoint. Yielding to the demands of his constituents, he was again nominated by acclamation and elected to the 48th Congress. In his church connections Mr. Russell is a Con- gregationalist.


He was married in Bradford, February I, 1859, to Elizabeth Haven, daughter of William Hall. Of this union were three children : Mary Frances, Annie Elizabeth, and Grace Dunton Russell (deceased). Mrs. Russell died at St. Paul, Minn., De- cember 18, 1866. June 25, 1872, Mr. Rus- sell married Frances Spofford, sister of his first wife. Their children are : William Augustus, Jr., Elizabeth Haven, and Rich- ard Spofford Russell.


RUSSELL, WILLIAM EUSTIS, son of Charles Theodore and Sarah Elizabeth (Ballister) Russell, was born in Cambridge, Middlesex county, January 6, 1857.


His early education he received in the public and high schools of Cambridge, entering Harvard in 1873 and graduating in 1877. He then entered the law school of the Boston University and was gradu- ated in 1879, summa cum laude, at the head of his class. He won the Lawrence prize for the best essay and delivered the class oration. He was admitted to the Suffolk bar in 1880, when he became a member of the firm of C. T. & T. H. Russell, attor- neys-at-law, in Boston, and now has a very large and important practice as a member of the same firm.


At Cambridge, on the 3d of June, 1885, Mr. Russell was married to Margaret Man- ning, daughter of Joshua A. and Sarah (Hodges) Swan. Their only child is: Wil- liam Eustis Russell, Jr.


From the outset, Mr. Russell's career has been successful. He was a member of the common council of Cambridge in 1882. In 1883 and '84 he was a member of the Cam-


bridge board of aldermen. In 1885, '86, '87, and '88 he was the popular mayor of Cambridge, and in 1888, as the Democratic candidate for governor, stumped the State, making nearly fifty speeches in favor of Cleveland and tariff reform. He also spoke a number of times in other states, and was presiding officer at the conven- tion of Democratic clubs at Baltimore, July 4, 1888. In 1889 he was renominated by the Democratic party as its standard- bearer in the gubernatorial campaign of this year. He has also been president of the alumni of the law school of the Boston University, and president of the Middlesex County Democratic Club, while in 1886 he declined the Democratic nomination for Congress from the 5th district. He has always resided in his native town. He is secretary of his college class of 1877. His religious connections are with the Congre- gational church of Dr. Mckenzie, in Cambridge.


RYDER, WILLIAM HENRY, son of Oliver H. and Harriet R. (Jackson) Ryder, was born in Elyria, Lorain county, Ohio, July 25, 1842.


He was educated at Oberlin College, from which he was graduated in the class of 1866. He pursued his theological stud- ies in the theological seminary at Andover, from which he was graduated in 1869.


Mr. Ryder was first ordained as minis- ter, December 14, 1869, and was called to the pastorate of the Congregational church at Watertown, Wis., the same year. He remained one year, when he was called to the professorship of Greek in Oberlin College, where he remained until 1877. He then accepted the pastorate of the First Congregational church in Ann Arbor, Mich.


In 1887 he was called to the chair of New Testament Exegesis in Andover Theological Seminary, where he still offi- ciates.


Professor Ryder was married in Oberlin, Ohio, June 29, 1870, to Mary E., daughter of Seth A. and Caroline (Billings) Bush- nell, who died November 10, 1878. His second marriage occurred October 12, 1881, at Ann Arbor, Mich., when he was married to Ada, daughter of Charles and Margaret (Henning) Tripp, of that place. He has six children.


In 1864 Professor Ryder enlisted as a pri- vate in the 150th Ohio volunteers, and the same year was commissioned lieutenant in the 5th regiment United States colored troops. He was wounded in the siege of Richmond, October 27, 1864.


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SAFFORD.


SALISBURY.


SAFFORD, NATHANIEL FOSTER, son of Nathaniel Foster and Hannah (Wood- bury) Safford, was born in Salem, Essex county, September 19, 1815.


He fitted for college at the Latin gram- mar school in Salem; entered Dartmouth College, and graduated in 1835. He studied law with Hon. Asahel Huntington, of Salem, and commenced practice in Dorchester and Milton Village, where he has since resided.


For over thirty years his office has been in Boston, where he has continued the pursuit of his profession, now extending in all over a period of nearly fifty years. In the early years of professional life he


NATHANIEL F. SAFFORD.


acted as a magistrate, and as master in chancery, exercising also jurisdiction under the operation of insolvent laws. He was a representative to the General Court from the town of Dorchester in 1850 and '51. In 1853 he succeeded Hon. Samuel P. Loud, as one of the board of county commissioners for the county . of Norfolk, at the time when Roxbury, West Roxbury and Dorchester formed part of that county. Mr. Safford served as chair- man of the board fifteen years, while


living in Dorchester, and an additional term of six years while residing in Milton.


Mr. Safford has been instrumental in the entire extinguishment of corporate fran- chises in turnpikes and toll-bridges, and the establishment of free bridges and roads within those town limits ; the location and relocation of highways, the remodeling of court-houses and prisons, and fire-proof apartments for records ; also the location of railroad-crossings, and such local move- ments having for their object the welfare of that section of the county of Norfolk.


February 10, 1845, at Milton, he married Josephine Eugenia, daughter of Joseph (a descendant of George Morton, who arrived at Plymouth in 1623) and Mary (Wheeler) Morton. They have one child : Nathaniel Morton Safford.


SALISBURY, STEPHEN, son of Stephen and Rebekah Scott (Dean) Salisbury, was born in Worcester, March 31, 1835.


His education was begun at the private infant school of Mrs. Levi Heywood. At the age of six years he passed the winter of 1841-'42 with his parents in Savannah, Ga. In 1842 he attended the private school of Mrs. Jonathan Wood, and for a short time in 1844 was a pupil at Miss Bradford's private school, Boston.


Passing through the grammar and high schools of Worcester, he entered Harvard College in 1852, and was graduated in the class of 1856. He then went to Europe and became a student in the Friederich William University, Berlin. In 1857 he attended lectures for some months at L'Ecole de Droit, Paris, and during the summer and autumn, traveled extensively in Greece and Asia Minor. He resumed his studies in Berlin the next winter ; in the spring he re-visited Paris, whence in May he set out with his father's family upon a tour for several months in Italy, England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales,


Mr. Salisbury returned to Worcester in December, 1858, studied book-keeping for a time, and then entered the office of Dewey & Williams as a law student. A year later he entered the Harvard law school, and after two years' study received the degree of 1.L. B., and was admitted to the bar in Worcester, October, 1861.


The next winter he spent in Yucatan, studying, during his stay of six months, many of the Maya Indian ruins and monu- ments. He again visited Yucatan in 1885, extending his journey to other parts of


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SALISBURY.


Mexico and to Cuba. In 1888 he re-visited Europe and traveled in Spain, Belgium, Holland, and France. Most of the chief cities of Spain were visited in this jour- ney, which extended into Portugal. Mr. Salisbury's travels have been sources of historic gleaning, the results of which have been given to American societies of histor- ical investigation.


STEPHEN SALISBURY.


Mr. Salisbury was a member of the com- mon council of Worcester in 1863, and its president in 1866 ; president of the Worces- ter County Horticultural Society in 1882 ; trustee of the Massachusetts school for the feeble-minded from 1870 to '82 ; commis- sioner of Hope Cemetery and secretary of the board from 1869 to '84 ; commissioner of public grounds from 1869 to '84; director of the Worcester Natural History Society from 1867 to '84; director of the Music Hall Association and its treasurer for ten years from 1869, and its president in 1886 ; trustee of the city hospital from 1871 to '89, and its secretary for seventeen years ; director of the Worcester, Nashua & Roch- ester R. R. Co., and of the Boston, Barre & Gardner R. R. Co. at the time of their absorption by the Boston & Maine and the Fitchburg R. R. Co.'s, respectively ; trustee of the Rural Cemetery Corporation in 1884; trustee of Clark University since


1887 ; director of the Worcester National Bank in 1865, and its president since 1884 ; a member of the board of invest- ment of the Worcester County Institution for Savings in 1877, and its president since 1882 ; director of the State Mutual Life Assurance Company since 1863 ; trustee of Leicester Academy since 1869 ; trustee of the Memorial Hospital since 1879, and its secretary for ten years ; member of the American Antiquarian Society since 1863 ; a member of the council since 1874, and its president since 1887 ; member of the Sociedad Mexicana de Geografia y Estadis- tica since 1879 ; member of the Conserva- torio Yucateco since 1879, of the Massachu- setts Historical Society since 1880, and of the American Geographical Society since 1887 ; trustee of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology since 1887 ; council of the American Archaeological Society since 1880 ; commissioner of the sinking funds of the city of Worcester since 1888, and trustee of the Worcester Polytechnic Insti- tute since 1884.


Mr. Salisbury has aided the growth and prosperity of Worcester in various ways, by the erection of buildings for the pur- pose of business and residence, and by generous contributions to public charitable and scientific institutions ; he has given to the city a park of eighteen acres, known as Institute Park.


SALTONSTALL, LEVERETT, son of Leverett and Mary Elizabeth (Sanders) Saltonstall, was born in Salem, Essex county, March 16, 1825.


Having been prepared for college ma- triculation in the Salem Latin school, he. entered Harvard, and was graduated therefrom in the class of 1844.


Choosing the profession of law, he con- tinued his legal studies in the law school of Harvard University, and was graduated A. M. and LL. B. in 1847. He was admitted to the Suffolk bar, where he continued in active practice until 1862, when he retired, and devoted himself to agriculture, and the interests of various trusts.


He is at present collector of customs, port of Boston, to which office he was appointed by President Cleveland, December 1, 1885.


Mr. Saltonstall is a gentleman of liberal culture, and has been repeatedly called to serve in positions of honor and trust - positions demanding much time and con- scientious labor, remunerative chiefly in the consciousness of having performed beneficial work.


He was a member of the board of over- seers of Harvard College from 1876 to '88,


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SALTONSTALL.


and elected again in 1889 for another term. He is a member of the Massachusetts His- torical Society, New England Historic Genealogical Society, and the Bostonian Society. He is a member of the board


LEVERETT SALTONSTALL.


of trustees of the Massachusetts Society for Promoting Agriculture, and numerous other societies of kindred nature. He is also president of the Unitarian Club. In 1854 he was appointed on the staff of Gov- ernor Emory Washburn, with the rank of lieutenant-colonel. In 1876 he was com- missioner from Massachusetts to the cen- tennial exposition at Philadelphia.


Mr. Saltonstall was married in Salem, October 19, 1854, to Rose S., daughter of John Clarke and Harriet (Rose) Lee. Of this union were six children : Leverett Saltonstall, Jr. (deceased 1863), Richard Middlecott, Rose Lee (Mrs. Dr. George West), Philip Leverett, Mary E. (Mrs. Louis Agassiz Shaw) and Endicott Pea- body Saltonstall. His residence is Chest- nut Hill, Newton.


It is given to a very few, if any, to trace an unbroken genealogical line so far back as the family of Mr. Saltonstall. He is in direct descent from Thomas De Salton- stall of the West Riding of Yorkshire, England, who lived in the fourteenth cen- tury. Through Muriel (Sedley) Gurdon,


SANDERSON.


wife of Richard Saltonstall (1610), son of Sir Richard Saltonstall (1586), and Grace Kaye, wife of Sir Richard, the descent is had from the oldest families in England and Scotland. The first ancestor in this country was Sir Richard, of Huntwick, knight, lord of the manor of Ledsham, near Leeds, England, who began the set- tlement of Watertown in 1630, and was original patentee of Connecticut. His son Richard came to New England in 1630, and settled in Ipswich, 1635. Mr. Salton- stall's grandfather was Nathaniel Salton- stall, an eminent physician and patriot of Haverhill. Nathaniel's son Leverett (Har- vard, 1802), the father of Mr. Salton- stall, was eminent as an advocate ; speaker of the House of Representatives, president of the state Senate, member of Congress, A. A. S. and S. H. S., LL. D., Harvard University, and a member of the board of overseers.


SANDERSON, GEORGE WEBSTER, son of Ira and Asenath (Hatch) Sanderson, was born in Littleton, Middlesex county, October 6, 1830.


GEORGE W. SANDERSON.


He obtained his early education in the public and private schools of his native town.


He began business as a farmer in 1848, and was appointed clerk of the ist district court of northern Middlesex county, June


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4, 1874, in which dual business he is still occupied.


Mr. Sanderson was married in Littleton, November 27, 1851, to Charlotte Elizabeth, daughter of Edmund and Louisa (Fletcher) Tuttle. Of this union were six children : Elizabeth Webster (Mrs. Charles F. Flagg), Mary Louisa (Mrs. Josiah P. Thatcher), George Augustus, Charlotte Tuttle, Fannie Adams, and Gertrude Fletcher Sanderson.




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