USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Professional and industrial history of Suffolk County, Massachusetts, Volume I > Part 73
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Mining Company, with an office in Boston, where he is now active in the perform- ance of the duties of that office. From 1889 to 1893 he was a member of the Metro- politan Park Commission. He married, June 1, 1869, in Milford, N. H., Sarah E., adopted daughter of George and Rheny C. Daniel.
ORLANDO B. POTTER illustrates so well by his career the possibility for a New England youth, without wealth and with limited school privileges, to overcome by persevering effort the obstacles in his way and rise to the highest stations of life, that lie deserves a special notice in this register. He is descended from John Potter, one of the original colonists, who settled at New Haven in 1639, and was one of the signers of the New Haven Covenant. Samuel Potter, the father of Mr. Potter, was born in Hamden, New Haven county, Conn., and reared in Northford in that State, and married in Charlemont, Mass., Sophia, daughter of Samuel Rice, and great- granddaughter of Moses Rice, grantee and first settler of that town, who was killed by the Indians in 1755, and a descendant in the seventh generation from Edmund Rice, who came from Barkhamstead in England and settled in Sudbury, Mass., in 1638. Thus it will be seen that Mr. Potter carries in his veins the blood of the hard- working and enterprising colonists of New England, and that it has reached him in a current unimpaired and untainted by any sluggish tributaries from families enerv- ated by lives of luxury and indolence. In 1819 Samuel Potter removed to Charle- mont, Mass., his entire possessions, aside from a small amount of ready money, consisting of two ox teams and their contents, which he accompanied to his new home. Settling down upon a hillside farm, not yet wholly cleared, looking down upon the valley of Deerfield, he built a house and reared a family of ten children, eight of whom lived to mature years. The same hardships to which his ancestors had been exposed were here experienced, and the same indomitable spirit which they possessed was exhibited by him in overcoming them. Year by year the forest was felled and new acres were added to the cultivated land, and year by year the flocks and herds increased, the products of the farm became more abundant, and the com- forts of the home were constantly contributed to. Upon Orlando, the subject of this sketch, the third child and second son, born in Charlemont, March 10, 1823, his full share of the care and labors of the farm necessarily rested. One hundred miles from Boston, the only market for his products, and with only a wagon road for trans- portation, the father, in his repeated journeys to the city, and during his ab- sence upon public business, left the older sons with the burden of the farm on their hands, and thus the native strength of the boys was enhanced by the spirit of self- reliance which these duties inculcated, and prepared them in the best possible school for the working out of their own careers in life. From the age of ten to that of six- teen, during the absence of the oldest son at school and college, the home responsi- bilities during the absence of the father fell on Orlando alone. Having reached the latter age, he determined if possible to obtain a college education, and with that view during the next two years, while working on the farm in the spring and summer, accumulated something towards future support by teaching school during the autumn and winter. In 1841 he entered Williams College, but in his sophomore year, on account of failing health, he left college, and after a trip to sea he secured a position as teacher in Dennis, on Cape Cod, where he remained in various occupations aside from his regular vocation as a teacher until September, 1845. In the early summer
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of that year, conceiving the wish to study law and enter the Harvard Law School, he engaged to teach a class of young ladies each afternoon, and in order to occupy his whole time, hired a piece of ground, to the cultivation of which he devoted the earlier hours of the day. In the latter part of the summer he closed his class and marketed his products, a part of which, consisting of fifty bushels of potatoes, he was obliged to ship to Provincetown and peddle personally from house to house. With im- proved health and recruited funds he entered the Harvard Law School in September, 1845, and at that institution and in the office of Charles Grandison Thomas, of Bos- ton, he continued the study of law until February 12, 1848, when he was admitted in Boston to the Suffolk bar. While pursuing his law studies he enabled himself to continue them by teaching school two terms of three months each in Dennis and in his own native town, the academy in which he fitted for college. While studying in the office of Mr. Thomas, he was often permitted to try cases in the lower courts, and thus familiarized himself with the first and humblest steps in a professional career. He lived in a small room in Sewall Place, where he boarded himself, and was enabled by the exercise of economy and prudence to open an office in that city free from debt and with a future career dependent wholly on his ability and efforts. He not only began practice in Boston, but opened an office in South Reading, where he established his residence and devoted his evenings to business. The sagacity and determination shown by him in the collection of a large debt from a debtor on Cape Cod for a prominent business firm in Boston, led to a clientage which during the first year of his practice yielded him an income of $3,000. To the collection of this debt he gave his personal attention, and not contenting himself with sending a writ to an officer and awaiting an almost sure defeat, visited the place of business of the debtor, took in the situation, resisted the pretended ownership by another of the property he sought to attach, and secured before leaving for home the payment of the entire debt. He continued to practice in both Boston and South Reading until May, 1853. during which time he had aided his two sisters and younger brother in obtaining an education, and had laid up about ten thousand dollars. While living in South Read ing he boarded with Benjamin B. Wiley, and in October, 1850, he married his daughter, Martha G. Wiley, to whose wisdom, prudence and earnest devotion he attributes his subsequent success as much as to his own efforts. In 1852 he was re- tained by two young men to defend a suit against them for the contract price of a new sewing machine which they had invented. He was led to investigate their machine, and exhibited so much ready mechanical intelligence by his suggestions that they requested him to become associated with them, with an equal interest, in its development and manufacture. The proposition was accepted and he at once embarked all his savings in a manufactory, while he continued to work in his pro fession. In 1853 the rapidly increasing demands of this enterprise led to his removal to New York, while he associated himself with Solomon J. Gordon to take charge of his law business in Boston. The sewing machine enterprise was soon incorporated as a stock company with Mr. Potter as its president, and until 1876, when he retired from active business, except so far as the management of his own large property was concerned, he was constantly engaged in the conduct of the affairs of the company, and directed personally both its extended commercial business and the numerous legal conflicts required in protecting against infringement the patents by which the business was secured. The causes in court were often numbered by hundreds, and
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in not one of them was permanent defeat suffered. In the investment of his increas- ing income Mr. Potter has always had faith in the enhancing value of real estate in the city of New York. In 1886 he completed the structure in Park Row which bears his name, and in 1889 the large building adjacent to Grace Church in Broadway. In 1892 he completed the great structure at the corner of Astor Place and Lafayette Place fronting over four hundred feet upon the street. In 1869 he bought a farm on the Hudson near Sing Sing, containing, with subsequent additions, about seven hundred acres, and here with his flocks and herds he spends his summers, and a portion of one day in each week of the winter. Notwithstanding the multiplicity of business cares which have crowded the life of Mr. Potter, he has been a close observer and student of public affairs. Previous to 1860 a Whig, in that year a supporter of Lincoln, he has since that time been an active advocate of the policy of the Demo- cratic party in opposition to the drift of the Republican party into the advocacy and support of a paternal, centralized government. In the early part of the war, realizing the promise of a prolonged contest and the necessity of abundant means for its prosecution, as well as anxious to break up the old system of banking, under which the currency issued by the State banks passed at a discount beyond the borders of the State where it was issued, he conceived and urged the government to adopt a plan which was practically followed at a later period in the organization of the National Banking System. Salmon P. Chase, the secretary of the treasury, is en- titled to only so much of the credit generally accorded to him as attaches to his ready acceptance of the substance of Mr. Potter's plan, while to Mr. Potter should be given the honor of conceiving and formulating our national banking system. On the 14th
of August, 1861, he addressed a letter to Mr. Chase, proposing as follows: "To allow banks and bankers duly authorized in the loyal States to secure their bills by depositing with a superintendent appointed by the government United States stocks at their par value thus making the stocks of the United States a basis of banking on which alone a national circulation can be secured and that in case the same shall fail to be redeemed by the bank or banker issuing the currency, then on due demand and protest such superintendent shall sell and apply to the redemption of said currency the stocks held to secure the same. This money might properly be designated United States currency. The objects
which will be secured by this plan are: First, the bills thus secured will have in whatever State issued a national circulation and be worth the same in all parts of the
country. Second, the fact that in this way banks and bankers could obtain a national circulation for their bills would make United States stocks eagerly sought after by them and their price would be always maintained att or above par though they bore only a low rate of interest. Four per cents. could never fall below par after the system is fairly understood and at work. The adoption of this
plan could not fail to put an end to all financial troubles during the war, and be an increasing benefit and blessing ever after. While it would supply all the means required for the war, it would instantly enable the older and newer portions of the country to increase their trade with each other by supplying to such newer portions an abundant and perfectly safe currency." Only such parts of the letter of Mr. Potter are here quoted as are necessary to show that the National Banking Act passed February 25, 1863, followed without material modification the plan suggested
William Saint-aignan Stearns
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by him August 14, 1861. Mr. Potter was nominated as the Democratie candidate for Congress in the Tenth Congressional District of New York in 1878 and defeated. At the special election in 1881, upon the resignation of Levi P. Morton, he was ten- dered the nomination as representative in the Eleventh Congressional District, but declined. Hon. R. P. Flower was then nominated and chosen, but upon the decli- nation of Mr. Flower to receive a renomination in 1882, Mr. Potter accepted the nomination and was chosen. In 1884 he declined a renomination. In 1886
he was warmly recommended as an independent candidate for mayor, but de- clined and aided in the election of the Democratic candidate, Abram S. Hewitt. Mr. Potter's wife died in February, 1879, and he has since married Mary Kate, daughter of Dr. Jared Linsly, of New York. His son, Frederick Potter, is a member of the New York bar, and assists his father in the care of his property. Mr. Potter has never sought publie office or titles. He has been president of the New York State Agricultural Society during the two years closing January 18, 1893, by unani- mous election, and declined a unanimous nomination for another term. He received the degree of LL.D. from Williams College in 1889. He remains in his ripe maturity the same working man he has been from youth, and exacts from his assistants no closer attention to business or longer hours than from himself. The writer knew Mr. Potter at the beginning of his career in Boston, struggling to get a foothold on the first rung of the professional ladder, and in 1888 saw him for the first time afterwards occupying an office in the eleventh story of "Potter Building," owned by himself, and one of the architectural ornaments of a city in whose welfare he feels a deep interest and pride. Having thus seen him at the outset and crisis of his career, he has felt a natural desire to trace thus roughly his passage from one to the other.
SAMUEL WELLS was born in Durham, N. H., August 15, 1801. His ancestors were early settlers in that State. In 1844 he removed to Portland, Me., and was appointed judge of the Supreme Judicial Court. He was governor of Maine in 1856 and 1857, and after leaving the executive chair removed to Boston, where he was admitted to the Suffolk bar. He associated himself with his son and continued in practice in Boston until his death, July 15, 1868. He married Louisa Ann Appleton, a descend- ant of the Appleton family of Ipswich, Mass.
SAMUEL WELLS, son of the above, was born in Hallowell, Me., September 9, 1836. He was fitted for college in Portland, Me .. and graduated at Harvard in 1857. He was admitted to the Suffolk bar December 18, 1858, and practiced in Boston in part- nership with his father until the death of the latter in 1868. In 1871 he formed a business connection with Edward Bangs which soon became a partnership under the name of Bangs & Wells, which has continued to the present time with the recent ad- dition of the eldest son of each of the original members. In the early part of his professional career he was a general practitioner, but afterwards confined himself to the law relating to corporations and trusts, to the management of which he has given much of his time. He is president of the State Street Exchange, second vice-presi- dent and counsel of the John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Company, one of the trustees of the Boston Real Estate Trust, and a director in several corporations. He has been grand master of Masons in Massachusetts and an officer in several scientific and charitable societies. He is president of the Exchange Club and a member of
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various other clubs and associations. He married, June 11, 1863, Catherine Boott, daughter of Rev. Ezra Stiles Gannett, D. D., of Boston.
JOSEPH THOMAS, son of William and Mercy (Logan) (Bridgham) Thomas, was born in Plymouth, Mass., in 1755, and was admitted to the Suffolk bar. He was an officer in the Revolution and after the war retired to Plymouth, where he continued, un- married, until his death about 1830.
JOHN WALSH graduated at Harvard in 1814, and was an attorney at the Suffolk bar in 1822. He died in 1845.
JOSEPHUS EASTMAN graduated at the Harvard Law School in 1850, and was admitted to the Suffolk bar October 9 in that year.
JAMES PRESCOTT, jr., graduated at Harvard in 1788, and was admitted to the Suf- folk bar. He died in 1829.
LUCIEN GALE, son of Stephen Gale, was born in Meredith, N. H., May 25, 1818, and studied law with Stephen Carr Lyford, of Meredith, and was admitted to the Suffolk bar July 23, 1846. He practiced some years in Boston, and afterwards in New York and Chicago, finally returning to New Hampshire and practicing in Laconia, where he died in 1878. He married, February 1, 1853, Elizabeth, daughter of Alex- ander Scammell Chadbourne, of Farmingdale, Me. He graduated at Dartmouth in 1844.
THOMAS MCCRATE BABSON, son of John and Sarah Babson, was born in Wiscasset, Me., May 28, 1847. He was educated in the public schools, in the Highland Military School at Worcester, and in the Chauncy Hall School at Boston. On leaving school he was occupied for a time in the store of Danforth, Scudder & Company, of Boston, but having formed a plan to study law entered as a student the office of Ingalls & Smith, of Wiscasset. He continued his studies at the Harvard Law School, where he graduated in 1868 with the degree of LL. B. He was admitted to the Suffolk bar October 14, 1868, and began practice in Boston associated with Edwin A. Alger, with whom he remained about six months. In the spring of 1871 he went to St. Louis, where he remained until November, 1872, when he resumed practice in Boston. From 1873 to 1879 he was a teacher in the Evening High School, only leaving that position when his professional engagements demanded the use of all his available time. He was a representative from Ward 16 of Boston in 1876, and in April, 1879, was appointed fourth assistant city solicitor during the administration of that office by John P. Healy. In 1881 he was appointed second assistant, and in 1885 first assist- ant under Edward P. Nettleton. In 1888 he was appointed eity solicitor by Mayor O'Brien in the last week of his administration, but was not confirmed. In May, 1891, while acting as first assistant city solicitor he was appointed by Mayor Matthews cor- poration counsel, and still holds that position. The duties of that office are constant and responsible ones, and their performance by Mr. Babson has been eminently satisfactory. Since he entered the office he has made a compilation of ordinances and statutes affecting the city of Boston. He married in Boston, June 30, 1891, Helen, daughter of Joseph L. Stevens, of Gloucester.
JOEL PRENTISS BISHOP, the son of a farmer, was born in a small log house in the woods in Volney, N. Y., March 10, 1814. His father moved while he was an infant to Paris, N. Y., where in his boyhood he worked on his father's farm and attended
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school three or four months in the year. At the age of sixteen he taught school and sought in various ways to obtain means sufficient for a professional education. At the age of twenty-one, baffled by feeble health and insufficient pecuniary require- ments, he was ready to abandon the career which he had fondly hoped to pursue. On the 19th of July, 1835, he published in the Literary Emporium of New Haven some lines descriptive of the blasting of his hopes in which the following words are found :
" Though thus I bid adieu to Learning, where She sits in public places, or bows or waves Her plumes from off her star-clad height to meet The gaze of millions, still I may invite Sometimes her presence in a humble garb, To cheer me in my lone obscure retreat."
But fate was more generous to him than he hoped. He drifted in some way to Bos- ton and entered as a student in a law office there in 1842, and in fourteen months was admitted to the Suffolk bar April 9, 1844. After pursuing a general practice several years he so far devoted himself to the preparation of works in various branches of law that he abandoned practice and followed the hand of fate which had led him thus far in his career. He published in 1856 "Commentaries on the Law of Marriage and Divorce;" in 1858, "Criminal Law;" in 1863, " Thoughts for the Times;" in 1864, " Secession and Slavery;" in 1866, "Commentaries on Criminal Procedure ;" and in 1868, " First Book of the Law." Thus the infant born in the log cabin in the Vol- ney woods, and the young man giving up in despair all hope of a career, became at last one of the most distinguished and successful workers in the literature of law. He is now living in Cambridge and at the age of seventy-nine engaged in preparing works for the press.
PRENTISS CUMMINGS, son of Whitney and Mary Hart (Prentiss) Cummings, was born in Sumner, Me., September 10, 1840, and graduated at Harvard in 1864. After leaving college he held the position of Latin tutor at Harvard from 1866 to 1870, at the same time studying law at the Harvard Law School, from which he graduated in 1869 with the degree of LL. B. He continued his studies in Boston in the office of Nicholas St. John Green, at that tinie instructor in the Harvard Law School and also lecturer on philosophy and political economy in the college, and was admitted to the Middlesex bar at Cambridge in 1871. He established himself in Boston and soon gathered about himself a numerous and confiding clientage. He has been a mem- ber of the Boston City Council from Ward 10 three years, a member of the Massa- chusetts House of Representatives two years, and assistant United States attorney seven years. He was the president of the Cambridge Street Railroad during the three years before it was consolidated with the West-End Railroad, and the last four years has been the counsel of the latter road. The many obstacles to be overcome in the organization and maintenance of this company, the legislation required for its proper development, and the many suits in which so large a corporation has been engaged, have demanded of him his most faithful and unremitting efforts. No man is better fitted for the position, and he shares largely with Mr. Whitney, its presi- dent, the honor and credit of rendering their road an important stepping stone to what it is hoped may soon be realized-a permanent solution of the vexed question of rapid transit for Boston and its suburbs. The chapter on Street Railways in one of the other two volumes of this work will describe more fully the service rendered by
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Mr. Cummings in the establishment of these indispensable means of transit in and about the metropolis. He married, February 25, 1880, Annie D. Snow at Buckfield, Me., and has his residence in Brookline.
ISAAC MCCLELLAN, jr., was born in Portland in 1810 and graduated at Bowdoin College in 1826. He was admitted to the Suffolk bar in January, 1830, and practiced law in Boston for a time. He afterwards retired to Greenport, L. I., and engaged in agriculture. In the year of his admission to the bar he published a collection of poems, and at various times afterwards published other collections.
MORTON BARROWS graduated at Harvard in 1880 and studied law in the office of Harrison, Hines & Miller, of Indianapolis, Ind., and at the Boston University Law School, from which he received the degree of LL. B. in 1883. He was admitted to the Suffolk bar in 1883, and is now practicing law in St. Paul.
FRANK OLIVER CARPENTER graduated at Harvard in 1880, and after leaving college took charge of the Attawaugan Grammar School in Killingly, Conn. In April, 1881, he was appointed sub-master of the High School in Lexington, Mass., and soon after master. He finally studied law and was admitted to the Suffolk bar in February, 1887. He married Flora Edith, daughter of Reuben H. and Lydia P. Wiltse, of Corunna, Mich., at Boston, April 2, 1889.
CHAUNCEY SMITH, son of Ithamar and Ruth (Barnard) Smith, was born in Waits- field, Vt., January 11, 1819. He was educated at the public schools in Waitsfield, at the Gouverneur Wesleyan Seminary in Gouverneur, N. Y., at the University of Burlington, Vt., and in Boston. He was admitted to the Suffolk bar January 1, 1849, and is engaged in practice in Boston relating chiefly to telephone and other patent cases. He married Caroline E. Marshall, at Cambridge, December 10, 1856, and has his residence in Cambridge.
HENRY WALTON SWIFT, son of William C. N. and Eliza N. (Perry) Swift, was born in New Bedford, Mass., December 17, 1849. He fitted for college at Phillips Exeter Academy and graduated at Harvard in 1871. He studied law in New Bedford in the office of William W. Crapo and George Marston, and at the Harvard Law School, from which he graduated with the degree of LL. B. in 1874. He was admitted to the Suffolk bar June 20, 1874, and established himself in Boston, associated with Russell Gray. He became largely connected with corporation business and has acted in Boston for the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fé Railroad. Like his father, a prominent Democrat in Bristol county, he has been active in the ranks of the Democracy, and has recently served as chairman of the finance committee of the Democratic State Committee. In 1882 he was a member of the Massachusetts House of Represent- atives from Boston, and previous to that time, in 1879 and 1880, he was a member of the Boston Common Council from Ward 9. He was one of the compilers of the Massachusetts Digest published in 1881. In January, 1892, John E. Sanford, of Taunton, chairman of the Board of Harbor and Land Commissioners, was appointed chairman of the Railroad Commissioners, and Mr. Swift was appointed to take Mr. Sanford's place, and the legal knowledge, good sense and capacity for work which he has shown during a year's performance of the duties of the office, have proved that his appointment was not misplaced. His residence is in Boston.
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