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 86
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Mr. Snow was married in Lawrence, November 23, 1853, to Sarah J., daughter of Pardon and Mercy S. Armington. They have one child : Frank Snow.
Mr. Snow has been called to serve in various municipal offices, and in 1876 and '77 was elected to the House of Repre- sentatives. He was elected to the Senate from the Cape senatorial district for the years 1880 and '81, and county com- missioner of Barnstable county in 1887. He was connected with the Barnstable Savings Bank as trustee, and as one of its receivers when it was closed up. He has been one of the directors of the First National Bank of Yarmouth since 1879.
SOHIER, WILLIAM DAVIES, son of Wil- liam and Susan Cabot (Lowell) Sohier (daughter of John Amory Lowell), was born in Boston, October 22, 1858.
He received his early educational train- ing in private schools in Boston and the public schools of Beverly. He studied in the Institute of Technology in the class of 1875, and in the Harvard law school in 1876-'79. He pursued his legal studies also in the office of Henry W. Paine and Robert D. Smith.
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Mr. Sohier is at present in the practice of law in Boston in the office of his uncle, John Lowell, ex-judge of the United States circuit court.
Mr. Sohier was married in Boston, Decem- ber 13, 1880, to Edith F., daughter of Walter B. and Julia E. (White) Alden. She is a lineal descendant of John Alden of colonial fame. Of this union are three children : Eleanor, Alice, and William Davies Sohier.
Mr. Sohier was a member of the com- mittee appointed by the town of Beverly to oppose its attempted division ; served as counsel (without pay) for the first two years of the famous contest in 1886 and '87, and was chosen to represent the town in the lower branch of the Legislature in 1888. He was here again successful in their behalf, and was re-elected to the House in 1889. During this session he performed telling work for his constituents, and by his shrewd and successful labors, defeated the strenuous efforts made to divide the town. In the opinion of those competent to judge, his personal popu- larity among the members was as powerful a factor in the result, as the able plea he made upon the floor of the House.
He is descended from a legal family on both sides ; on the maternal side, a descendant of Judge John Lowell, of the United States district court, appointed by Washington ; and on the paternal side, his father, grandfather and uncles have been prominent members of the bar. He is a nephew of the late Edward D. Sohier.
SOLEY, JOHN CODMAN, son of John J. and Elvira (Degen) Soley, was born in Roxbury, Norfolk county, October 22, 1845.
His early educational training was re- ceived in the grammar schools of his native town. He fitted for college in the Rox- bury Latin school ; entered Harvard Col- lege, and was to have graduated in the class of 1862, but he severed his connection with the college and entered the Naval Acade- my, Newport, R. I., November 19th of the same year.
He visited England, France, Portugal, and Spain in the U. S. sloop-of-war " Mac- edonian," in 1863 ; was graduated June 12, 1866 ; ordered to Sacramento the same year ; was wrecked on the Coromandel coast of India, June 19, 1867, remained in India three months, and returned to the United States in a British troop-ship.
Lieutenant Soley served at the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis as in- structor in ordnance and gunnery, and in command of the infantry battalion until
SOLEY.
July, 1873. He was then ordered to the European fleet and joined the " Wabash," at Corfu, Greece, in August of that year. He was appointed flag-lieutenant to Admi- ral Case, who was in command ; was pres- ent at Carthagena during the fight between the Republican troops and the Commu- nists, and afterwards visited Barcelona and traveled through western France.
In the following winter he returned to the United States, and served in the squad- ron at Key West, as flag-lieutenant to Ad- miral Case, who was then commander-in- chief of the United States forces assembled in anticipation of a war with Spain.
JOHN C. SOLEY.
He was transferred to the " Franklin," returned to Europe in May, 1874, and visited the principal ports in the Mediter- ranean. He was appointed, February, 1875, flag-lieutenant to Admiral Worden, commander-in-chief in European waters.
Lieutenant Soley edited the second edition of "Cooke's Ordnance and Gun- nery," and is the author of an article on " Built-up Guns" in that work ; he wrote another, also, on "Naval Operations on Shore," and has written a paper on the naval brigade in the proceedings of the " Naval Institute."
Ile went to the Naval Academy as gunnery and tactical instructor, where he
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SOUTHARD.
remained till June, 1880. He made a cruise on the coast as executive officer of the " Mayflower," in the summer of 1878, with cadet engineers. In June, 1880, he was ordered as executive of the frigate "Constellation " for a cruise on the coast with cadet midshipmen. He was ordered as executive of the sloop-of-war "Sara- toga," in the fall of 1880, and cruised on the coast till the fall of 1881. He took part in the Yorktown celebration, in com- mand of the artillery battalion of the naval brigade. He refitted at Boston in the winter of 1881-'82, and sailed for Europe in the spring of 1882, visiting the ports of Plymouth, Portsmouth, and Cowes, in England ; Brest, in France ; and Lisbon, in Portugal. From Lisbon, he was ordered to Paris in July, as naval attaché of the legation. He returned to the United States in November, and received leave of absence. He entered business as a stock broker in Boston, which is his present residence. He was placed on the retired list of the navy on account of color-blindness, in February, 1885.
He is a member of the American Associa- tion for the Advancement of Science, and of the Algonquin, St. Botolph, and Naturalist clubs. He is commodore of the Dorches- ter Yacht Club and member of the East- ern, Boston Corinthian, and Corinthian of New York Yacht clubs.
SOUTHARD, LOUIS C., son of Wil- liam L. and Lydia Carver (Dennis) South- ard, was born in Portland, Cumberland county, Me., April 1, 1854.
He was educated in the common schools of Portland, the Boston high school, Maine State College, and Boston University law school.
He studied law under the direction of Hon. W. W. Thomas, Jr. (now United States Minister to Norway and Sweden), and Clarence Hale of Portland, Maine, and was admitted to the bar of the supreme court of Maine in 1877.
Removing to North Easton, Mass., the same year, he was admitted to practice be- fore the courts of this State. He was nominated as representative to the General Court in 1884, but declined the nomina- tion ; being re-nominated, however, in 1886, he accepted, and was elected to rep- resent the three towns of Easton, Mansfield and Raynham, where he met with consid- erable success, serving as a member of the committee on the judiciary.
He was chosen a member of the commit- tee to represent the State of Massachusetts at the centennial convention at Philadel-
phia, Pa., in 1887. He was also in the same ycar a delegate to the national convention of the Republican League in New York City, and assisted in the organization of the Republican Club of Easton, of which he was unanimously chosen president, and in which capacity he has served ever since.
Mr. Southard is of scholarly habits, and his success in his profession has been marked. He has been connected with many important cases that have attracted the attention of the public. In religious belief he is a Unitarian. His father, William L. Southard, was born in Richmond, Maine, in 1820. At one time he carried on an exten- sive business in Portland, and in 1867, when he retired from business, had probably the largest wholesale flour establishment in the state. He was a man of great influence, and an alderman of Portland during the war of the rebellion. He married Lydia Carver, who was born June 1, 1819, daughter of Captain John Dennis, formerly of Taunton, but afterwards of Gardiner, Me., and a lineal descendant of Governor John Carver of Plymouth. On her paternal side she was a descendant of Abraham Dennis, a member of an old and aristocratic English family, who settled in Newport, R. I. He married Sarah Kirby, by whom he had several children, one of whom, Ezekiel, was killed in 1776 off the coast of Maine, in the first naval engagement of the revo- lution. His son, Captain John Dennis, was a captain in the service of the East India Company, but he never gave up his residence in Newport, where he married Elizabeth Dean. Captain John Southard, father of William L., born October 27, 1781, was a direct descendant of John Southworth of Plymouth colony fame. The name Southworth was formerly pronounced "South-ard," for some unexplained reason, and the branch of the family migrating to Maine ultimately changed the orthography to conform more nearly to the pronuncia- tion.
Mr. Southard was married in Easton, June 1, 1881, to Nellie, daughter of Joseph and Lucy A. (Keith) Copeland. They have two children : Louis Keith and Fred- erick Dean Southard.
SOUTHGATE, GEORGE ALONZO, son of Samuel and Charlotte Warren (Fuller) Southgate, was born in Leicester, Worces- ter county, September 23, 1833.
He fitted for college at Leicester Acad- emy, after which he was under the care of a private tutor for two years. He then entered the medical department of Dart- mouth, but was graduated M. D. from the
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SOUTHWORTH.
University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, 1859.
He commenced the practice of medicine in Millbury, in 1859, but removed to Ded- ham in 1863, where he is still engaged in an extensive practice in this and neighbor- ing towns. He is well known as a liberal in professional practice, religion, and politics.
GEORGE A. SOUTHGATE.
Dr. Southgate was married in 1860, in Petersham, to Mary Bigelow, daughter of Rev. Luther and Fidelia (Wells) Willson. Of this union were five children : Dr. Rob- ert Willson, Delia Wells (now Mrs. A. S. Marshall, Concord, N. H.), May Fuller, Walter Bradford, and Helen Louisa South- gate.
Dr. Southgate is a member and chairman of the Dedham board of health.
SOUTHWORTH, ROBERT ALEXAN- DER, son of Alexander and Helen South- worth, was born in Medford, Middlesex county, May 6, 1852.
After obtaining his early education in the public schools of the Charlestown dis- trict, Boston, he entered Harvard College and was graduated therefrom in 1874. Hle then studied law with Hon. Charles Theodore Russell, and was admitted to the Suffolk bar in 1876.
He was appointed clerk of the commit- tee, chosen by the Legislature of 1881, to
revise and publish the General Statutes of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and rendered efficient service in connection with that important work. He was asso- ciated with Messrs. Loring and Russell in the publication of the Massachusetts con- troverted election cases, and in the preface of their report they testify to his services in the following language :
" The editors are also under obligation to Robert A. Southworth, Esq., the efficient assistant-clerk of the House of Represen- tatives, whose access to, and knowledge of, legislative documents and actions have much aided our work. Mr. Southworth collected the material for the publication, examined the journals and records to ascertain the disposition of all the cases, and prepared the tables of cases reported and unreported, and the table of cases cited. He has also greatly assisted the editors in the supervision of the printing of the reports."
ROBERT A. SOUTHWORTH.
He was chosen clerk of the committee appointed to re-district the State into congressional districts in 1882, and pre- pared the plans and statistics on which that re-districting was based.
He was for many years a member of the Republican district, city, and state committees, and was secretary of the Re-
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publican state central committee in 1887 and 'S8.
He was chosen the official messenger of the Massachusetts delegation to the na- tional Republican convention at Chicago in 1888.
For five years he was the assistant-clerk of the House of Representatives, and in 1888 represented the 2d Suffolk district (Charlestown district) in the Senate, where he was a member of the committees on railroads, bills in the third reading, and the library. He has since resumed the practice of law in the city of Boston, where he now resides.
Mr. Southworth married Mary Eliza, daughter of William H. and Sarah A. B. Finney, and has one daughter : Constance Southworth.
SOWDON, ARTHUR JOHN CLARK, son of John Sowdon, Jr. (deceased in New York, 1836), and Charlotte Harrison (Ca- pen) Sowdon, daughter of Thomas Capen, of Boston, was born in Boston, March 6, 1835.
His early educational training was re- ceived in the private schools of Stoddard Capen, James H. Wilder, and Daniel B. Tower, under the Park Street church, in the Adams grammar school, the Boston Latin school, and Harvard College, gradu- ating from the latter in the class of 1857. He was also graduated from the Dane law school, Harvard, in the class of 1861.
He began business life as a real estate and mortgage broker in the city of Boston, in 1863, and carried on the business until 1872, when he retired from active business.
Mr. Sowdon early became a member of the first corps of cadets, Boston. In 1863 he attended his first political convention, Republican, holden in Worcester, and voted for John A. Andrew for governor. In 1867 he was treasurer of the Union Club, Boston, and has since served on its various committees. In 1868 he set on foot the complimentary letter to Senator William Pitt Fessenden, after his famous vote against the impeachment of Andrew John- son. In 1874 he was one of the fifteen chosen at a Faneuil Hall meeting " to resist any inflation of the currency, and to secure a fixed standard of value ; " was a pro- moter of the mass meeting in Faneuil Hall to protest against General Sheridan's inter- ference with the Legislature of Louisiana ; was chairman of the committee to organize the Bristow movement, giving Massachu . setts to his support for the presidency; was chairman of the 4th district congressional committee. In 1879 and '80 he was a
SOWDON.
member of the House of Representatives from ward 10, Boston, serving on the com- mittees on rules and orders, taxation, and library. In 1879 he stumped the State for Governor Long, and delivered an address at Stockbridge on Memorial Day of that year. He took a very active part in the citizens' movement in politics, in favor of Mayors Pierce and Cobb, and was chair- man of the executive committee in 1881, when Mayor Green was chosen.
Mr. Sowdon was active in the Republi- can bolt against James G. Blaine, and was vice-chairman of the " Independent " state committee. He is a "tariff reformer," and now acts with the Democratic party
ARTHUR J. C. SOWDON.
in national matters. He believes in radi- cal civil-service reform, and assisted in the preparation of the first public appeal on the subject. He was secretary of the committee to raise money to build Har- vard Memorial Hall and the Boston Mu- seum of Fine Arts.
Mr. Sowdon is an Episcopalian ; in 1872 he was a vestryman in St. Paul's church, in Rome, Italy, and helped to select the site for the first Protestant church within the walls of the "Eternal City," with the hearty sanction of Victor Emmanuel and Prince Humbert. He is a vestryman of St. Paul's church, Boston ; president of
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SPAULDING.
the Church Association ; a member of the diocesan board of missions ; one of the trustees of donations, Episcopal Charitable Society (founded 1724), and chairman of the executive committee of the Episcopa- lian Club ; a member of the Union and St. Botolph clubs, Bostonian Society, Bunker Hill Monument Association, Veteran Ca- dets, Longfellow Memorial Association, Latin School Association, New Eng- land Historic Genealogical Society, Mas- sachusetts Reform Club, Tariff Reform League, New York Reform Club, and a life-member of the Young Men's Christian Association, and the Christian Union. He has been three times in Europe, trav- eled much in this country, written often for the press, and delivered frequent ad- dresses. He is unmarried, and his present residence is in Tremont Place, in the city of his birth.
SPAULDING, HENRY GEORGE, son of Reuben and Electa (Goodenough) Spauld- ing, was born in Spencer, Worcester county, May 28, 1837.
In his early home, in Brattleborough, Vt., he enjoyed the advantages of musical culture under his mother's teaching, and of guidance from his father in the study of Latin. When his father suffered reverses in loss of property, though a mere boy, he began his career of self-help by his labors as an organist and a teacher of music. He also began to contribute articles in prose and verse to the newspapers before he was fifteen years of age.
He fitted for college in Northfield Acad- emy (Vt.) and at Phillips Academy, An- dover. He was graduated with the highest honors from Harvard in the famous "sol- dier class" of 1860.
After graduation he was for two years a private tutor in the family of a gentleman residing in Baltimore, Md. In 1862 he entered the service of the United States Sanitary Commission ; was in Maryland after the battle of Antietam, in the hos- pitals of Washington and Alexandria, and with the Union army at Newbern, N. C., and Beaufort, S. C. Here he collected material for an article which appeared in the "Continental Monthly," under the title of " Under the Palmetto."
In the fall of 1863, he entered the theo- logical school of Harvard University, and was graduated in the class of 1866.
In November, 1867, he was married to Lucy Warland, daughter of Sylvanus and Mary (Bell) Plympton, of Cambridge. Of this union are two children living : Henry Plympton and Elizabeth Bell Spaulding.
SPAULDING.
In February, 1868, Mr. Spaulding was ordained pastor of the Unitarian church in Framingham. In 1872 he was in Europe several months, spending much of his time in Italy, in the study of art and archaeology.
He was settled over the Second Unita- rian church in Dorchester from 1873 to '77. During this time Mr. Spaulding delivered at the Lowell Institute in Boston two illus- trated courses of lectures upon "Rome and Roman Life and Art in the First Century." These were highly commended by scholarly critics, and were afterwards repeated in nearly every important educa- tional centre in the eastern states.
In May, 1883, Mr. Spaulding accepted the secretaryship of the Unitarian Sunday- school society, and is still discharging the duties of that position, having his office in Boston and residing in the suburban city of Newton. In later years his pen has been active upon topics of literature, art, music, and theology. He has compiled a valuable liturgy and hymnal for Sunday- schools, and has written Sunday-school manuals upon the "Teachings of Jesus," and the " Hebrew Prophets and Kings."
He is an active member of a large num- ber of religious, literary and musical or- ganizations, including the Sunday-school Union, Vermont Association (of which he is chaplain), the Tuesday Club, St. Botolph Club, the O. K. and the Phi Beta Kappa societies of Harvard College, the Brown- ing Society of Boston, and the Harvard Musical Association.
SPAULDING, WILLIAM CHESTER, son of Chester and Emily (Button) Spaulding, was born in Sheffield, Berkshire county, March 21, 1832.
He obtained his education in the public schools of Sheffield and at Williams Acad- emy, Stockbridge.
In his youth and early manhood he en- gaged in farm work, teaching school, how- ever, one-third of the time from 1849 to '59. During this period he read law with Ensign & Bradford, Sheffield. He was admitted to the bar at Lenox, in June, 1856 ; located for a short time in the village of Mill River, New Marlborough ; spent the winter of 1856 and '57 in Tennes- see ; removed to West Stockbridge in the spring of 1858, and has continued there in the practice of law to the present time.
Mr. Spaulding was married in New Marlborough, October 7, 1856, to Sarah L., daughter of Jamies B. and Sarah H. (Smith) Alger. Of this union were five children, only two of whom are living : Emily B. and Frank A. Spaulding.
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SPEARE.
Mr. Spaulding was a member of the Sheffield school board one year, of the West Stockbridge school board nineteen years ; assessor three years; town clerk fifteen years ; town treasurer fifteen years; has held a commission as justice of the peace since June, 1856, and as trial justice since March, 1861 ; was enrolling officer of the town during the war of the rebellion; postmaster for twenty-three years and eleven months, to April 20, 1886; has been treasurer of the Miners' Savings Bank since its organization in 1872 ; a director of the Housatonic National Bank three years ; and clerk of the Congregational society three years. He wrote the history of West Stockbridge, in 1885, and in November, 1888, was elected county com- missioner of Berkshire county for three years.
Mr. Spaulding traces his ancestry back seven generations to Edward "Spolden," in England.
SPEARE, ALDEN, son of Sceva and Jane (Merril) Speare, was born in Chelsea, Orange county, Vt., October 26, 1825.
After a common school education, he prepared for college at Newbury Seminary, Vt., but at the death of his father he was obliged to relinquish his cherished purpose of obtaining a college education.
Turning his attention into the channels of a commercial career, he obtained em- ployment as clerk in the dry-goods store of L. Stetson, Jr., Boston. In 1848 he be- came salesman in a wholesale dry-goods establishment in Boston. He worked as salesman for different houses until 1851, when he went into business with other gentlemen, under the name of Speare, Burke & Co., oils and starch. Mr. Speare is now a special partner in the firm of Alden Speare's Sons & Co., Boston. His residence is Newton.
Mr. Speare was married March 1, 1849, to Caroline M., daughter of Lewis and Sarah M. Robinson. Of this union were the following children : Sarah Jane, Her- bert Alden, Emma Caroline, Ella Maria, Lewis Robinson, and Edwin Ray Speare - the first three deceased.
Mr. Speare served on the Boston school board nine years. He was mayor of New- ton in 1876 and '77. He was several years director, and in 1857 the president, of the Y. M. C. A., Boston ; has been a member of the board of managers of the Foreign and Home Missionary societies of the Methodist Episcopal church since 1872; trustee and vice-president of the Boston University.
SPRAGUE.
He was in 1875, '82, '86, '87, and '88 president of the Boston Wesleyan Associa- tion, owners of the Wesleyan Building, Bromfield Street, Boston, and publishers of " Zion's Herald." He has been president of the Boston Chamber of Commerce ; president of the Arkansas Valley Town & Land Company, which owns some one hundred and fifty towns in Kansas and Colorado ; is a director of the Connecti- cut & Passumpsic River Railroad Company of Vermont, of the Mexican Central Rail- road, and of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa FĂ© (since 1870), and of twenty-two other roads in Kansas, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and California, that are connected with, or operated by, the Atchi- son, Topeka & Santa Fe R. R. Company. He is a trustee of the Boston Penny Sav- ings Bank, a director in the Commercial National Bank of Boston, and of the Hamilton Woolen Company, Boston.
The life of Mr. Speare has been one of uninterrupted activity, of hard, untiring labor, as the schedule of his tasks and the history of his successes will bear witness. He has been an important factor, not only in the business world, but in all the activi- ties of life incident to the career of one who lives not to himself alone.
SPRAGUE, AUGUSTUS BROWN REED, son of Lee and Lucia (Snow) Sprague, was born in Ware, Hampshire county, March 7, 1827. His ancestors on both sides were of Puritan stock ; his maternal grandmother, Alice Alden, was a lineal descendant in the sixth generation from John Alden of the " Mayflower."
He obtained his education in public and private schools ; was employed as a clerk in a dry-goods house in 1842, in Worcester, and engaged in mercantile business for himself from 1846 to '61.
In 1859 and '60 he was a member of the common council, and of the board of alder- men in 1871 ; city marshal in 1867, and resigned to accept the office of collector of internal revenue for the 8th Massachusetts district, which office he held from March 4, 1867, to July 1, 1872. He was appointed sheriff for the county of Worcester, July 5, 1871, and has been elected for six suc- cessive terms of three years each. He is still holding the office to the full accept- ance of the county.
General Sprague was an officer in the Massachusetts volunteer militia previous to the civil war, and on the 17th day of April, 1861, he was elected captain of the Worcester City Guards, company A, 3d battalion rifles, and left for the seat of war,
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