USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Professional and industrial history of Suffolk County, Massachusetts, Volume II > Part 53
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a conciliatory policy towards the South in the legislation which followed the war, he threw his influence against the harsh and unconstitutional measures by which a portion of the leaders in the party to which he belonged sought to perpetuate their political ascendancy over the States lately in rebellion. He was thus placed in the unpleasant position of being obliged to oppose many of the measures which were favored by President Grant's administration. But it is evident that his course was in accordance with the sentiments of the people of Massachusetts, from the fact that in the elections to the Forty-fourth Congress, which occurred in the autumn of 1814, he was re-elected by a large majority, while in six out of the other ten districts in the State, the regular Re- publican candidates were defeated for the first time since the beginning of the war. Near the close of the second session of the Forty third Congress (February, 1875), the Force Bill, so called, giving the presi- dent extraordinary powers to interfere in the internal affairs of the States, and in his discretion to suspend the privileges of the writ of habeas corpus, was introduced into the House and an attempt made by the administration leaders to force it through without giving suf- ficient opportunity for discussion. The Republicans had control of the House by a large majority, and as a political measure, intended, as many of them avowed, to give their party an advantage in the presi- dential election to occur in the following year, they were substantially unanimous in its support. On the 4th of February Mr. Pierce made a short speech in opposition to the bill, which was highly commended by all the leading newspapers throughout the country.
During the session of the Forty-fourth Congress, Mr. Pierce was at the head of the Republican members of the Committee on Commerec. He made an elaborate report on the subject of relieving vessels engaged in the coasting trade from the unjust and discriminating legislation of some of the States with regard to pilotage fees. He also made speeches on the proposition to amend the Constitution so as to limit the term of office of the president; on reciprocity with Canada, and on counting the electoral vote of Louisiana. On the last named question, Mr. Pierce and Prof. Seelye (the representative from the Tenth Massachusetts District) stood alone among the Republicans in opposing the counting of the vote of Louisiana for either candidate, on the ground of fraud in making up the returns. The London Times published Mr. Pierce's speech at length, and referred to it as a "very able " one.
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Some time previous to the elections of the Forty-fifth Congress, Mr. Pierce announced to the electors of the Third District, through the public press, his determination to retire from public life at the expira- tion of the term for which he then held office. This decision was made after due deliberation, and with the firm resolve of adhering to it. It was with extreme reluctance, therefore, that he consented, in the autumn of 1822, to allow his name to be used as a citizens' candidate for the office of mayor of Boston. The call for his services was signed by twenty-five hundred tax-paying citizens, representing all classes and all parties. The administration then in power was charged with ex- treme partisanship and with being inefficient. The contest which followed was in many respects the most remarkable in the annals of the city. The number of votes cast was largely in excess of those at any other previous election -municipal, State or national -- and resulted in the election of Mr. Pierce by about 2,300 majority.
In his inaugural address Mr. Pierce dwelt at some length upon the powers and purposes of municipal corporations, taking the ground that " they are created and exist for the public advantage, and not for the benefit of their officers or of particular individuals or classes." He also considered some of the schemes which had been devised for improving our local governments, and denied the propriety or expedieney of attempting to raise the standard by a limitation of the suffrage, or by giving up to the State powers which, from time immemorial, have been exercised by the towns and cities. His clear and business-like expo- sition of the true theory upon which local governments were founded and maintained in this country was highly commended by the repre- sentatives of all parties.
Having satisfied himself from a general survey of the field of his labors that the department of the government most in need of reform was that which had charge of the police, he entered upon the work of reorganizing it with that courage and persistency which have never yet failed to achieve their purpose. Against an opposition which was at times factions and violent, he carried through his plan of reorganization by which that important department of the city government was placed beyond the reach of personal and partisan influences, and a more equit- able and intelligent enforcement of the laws seenred. The work for which his services were demanded by the citizens having been satis- factorily accomplished, Mr. Pierce declined a re-election for another term.
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Although urged on many occasions since then to allow the use of his name as a candidate for important positions, he has felt constrained to decline on account of the increasing demands made upon his time by his great manufacturing interests. He has continued, however, to take an active part in the discussion of the leading political questions of the day, and especially the question of reforming the tariff on imports. Ile has been president of the New England Tariff Reform Leagne for a number of years, and has served on many committees and boards for the furtherance of reforms in the civil service and the ballot, and for the maintenance of a sound currency. In the presidential contest of 188t he found himself unable to support the Republican nominee, and although he did not then, and has not since, become identified with the Democratic party, he has generally given his hearty support to their nominees for the leading offices, and to the reform principles for which they stand. He has visited Europe many times during the past twenty-five years, and has acquired a great fund of interesting infor- mation concerning the people and their political institutions.
It may not be out of place, in a work of this kind, to give some ac- count of the great business which Mr. Pierce has built up and still carries on. The manufacturing establishment of Walter Baker & Co., of which he has for some years been the sole owner, dates back to the period of the American Revolution. It is stated in the history of the town of Dorchester that the chocolate mill erected on the Neponset River, in 1:65, by one John Hannan, an Irish immigrant, who had learned the business of chocolate making in England, was the first mill of that kind established in the British Provinces of North America. It was a very small concern, being connected with a saw mill operated by water-power. On the death of Hannan, in 1780, the plant came into the possession of Dr. James Baker, who was succeeded later by his grandson, Walter Baker, in whose name the business has since been conducted. The establishment, to which extensive additions have been made from time to time during the last fifty years, now comprises five large mills, having a floor space of about 315,000 square feet (over seven acres), equipped with all the latest and most improved machinery for the manufacture of cocoa and chocolate in a variety of forms and by the most improved methods. A large number of workmen are employed, and the total annual output reaches a very high figure.
In a recent work on the industries of Boston it is pointed out as " an extremely interesting fact, and one with scarcely a parallel, perhaps,
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in our industrial annals, that on the very spot where, more than a cent- ury and a quarter ago, the business of chocolate making was first begun in this country, there has grown up one of the largest establish. ments of that kind in the world -- an establishment which competes successfully for prizes in all the great industrial exhibitions in Europe and America, whose influence is felt in the great commercial centers, and whose prosperity promotes the welfare of men who labor under a tropical sun in the cultivation of one of the choicest fruits of the earth."
THOMAS N. HART.
THOMAS NORTON HART, son of Daniel and Margaret (Norton) Hart, was born in North Reading, Mass., January 20, 1829. Ilis ancestors settled in Lynnfield, and his mother's father, Major John Norton of Royalston, fought in the Revolution. Mr. Hart was educated in the schools of his native town, and when a lad of thirteen found employ- ment in the dry goods store of Wheelock, Pratt & Co., of Boston, and two years later in a hat store. Industrious and energetic, he made steady progress, and in course of time became a partner in the firm of Philip A. Locke & Co. In 1860 Mr. Hart assumed control and soon after found- ed the well-known house of Hart, Taylor & Co. A highly successful business was done, and in 18;9 Mr. Hart retired with a competency. Soon after he assumed the presidency of the Mount Vernon National Bank, of which he is still the head.
Mr. Hart is an earnest Republican, and for many years has been an active factor in political life, not only in Boston, but in the State. IIe was a member of the Boston Common Council in 1819, 1880, and 1881, and of the Board of Aldermen in 1882, 1885, and 1886. In [889 he was elected mayor of the city, and such was the favor in which his admin- istration was held that he was renominated and elected for another term in 1890 by 32, 612 votes, being the largest vote ever received by a Republican candidate for mayor. In 1891 Mr. Hart was appointed by President Harrison postmaster of Boston, which position he held until his resignation upon the inauguration of the Democratic administration. His administration of the duties of postmaster received the cordial endorsement of the citizens of Boston irrespective of party lines. A man of excellent business attainments and possessing a high order of
BIOGRAPHIES.
executive ability, he conducted the duties of the office admirably. An ardent supporter of the civil service laws, he loyally applied them dur- ing his term, and at the same time inaugurated many reforms in the conduct of the office which were conducive to a more efficient service. Mr. Hart is identified with a number of societies and organizations; is treasurer of the American Unitarian Association, an officer of the Church of the Unity, and a member of the Algonquin, the Boston Art, and the llull Yacht Clubs. He was married in 1850, in Boston, to Miss Elizabeth Snow, of Bowdoin, Me. They have one child, a daughter (now Mrs. C. W. Ernst). Mr. Hart's city home is on Commonwealth Avenue, and his summer home at Galloupe's Point, Swampscott.
CHARLES W. GALLOUPE.
CHARLES WILLIAM GALLOUPE, the son of Isaac and Annis ( Allen) Galloupe, was born in Beverly, Mass., on the 5th of September, 1825, and married, April 13. 1848, Sarah Augusta Kittredge, eldest daughter of Dr. Ingalls and Augusta Kittredge, a descendant of Roger Conant. Ile is a direct descendant of the first settlers of Massachusetts Bay upon his father's and mother's side, and, what can now rarely be said. in his line of descent no intermarriages have taken place with other than the descendants of the original Puritan emigrants.
His paternal ancestor was John Gallop, for whom the Island in Bos- ton Harbor was named, who came over (with his four children: John, Samuel, Nathaniel and Joan) in the ship Mary and John, which arrived at Natascott (now Hull), the 30th of May, 1630.
Ilis maternal ancestor was William Allen, who was born in Man- chester, England, in 1602, and came over with Roger Conant about 1622; he accompanied Conant to Cape Ann in 1625, afterwards to Salem in the fall of 1626, where he remained until in 1610, when he, in com- pany with others from Salem, obtained leave to found a town at " Jef- fries Creek," which they named Manchester, in honor of the place from which he came.
John Gallop is one of the famous characters of our early colonial history. He was the descendant of John Gallop, who "came out of the North in 1465," and settled in County Dorset, England, where his descendants still reside upon the estate (Strode), which is now, and has been, owned and occupied by the family for more than four centuries.
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Arriving before Winthrop, John Gallop settled for the time being at Natascott upon Gallop's Ilill (still known by that name), and remained with the Dorchester Colony, occupying temporarily the island until the arrival of the new governor, whom he accompanied to Boston, where he settled permanently. He built a house upon the " Sea baneke," now North street, and in 1636 it was "ordered that John Gallop shall remove his payles at his yard ende within fourteen days for the preserving of the way upon the Sea Bancke, " and, at the same date, "a layne to go up from the water side, by John Gallop's, a pole breadth unto the next great cross street ;" ( Hanover street ) was laid ont, and is now called Richmond street. The whole point from the "creek" (now Blackstone street) to the Chelsea Ferry, was called " Gallop's Point." The location of his house is numbered 34 upon the map in the Book of Possessions, Boston Records, from 1634 to 1660.
Hle constructed and commanded one of the earliest built vessels on record, which, in 1632, was chartered by Governor Winthrop. Gallop being in command, to " pursne and capture the notorious Pirate, Dixey Bill. "
In 1633 he brought into the harbor the ship Griffin, of which Win- throp, in his diary, says: "Sept. 4, 1633. The Griffin, a ship of 300 tons, arrived (having been eight weeks from the Downs), this ship was brought in by John Gallop a new way by Lovell's Island, at low water, now called Griffin's Gap. She brought about two hundred passengers." Gallop's wife was undoubtedly upon the ship, and, for his skillful man- agement of this, one of the largest vessels that had crossed the ocean, he obtained the reputation of a pilot, but he was a pilot no farther than sailing of his own vessels in and out of the harbor.
In 1636 he had an encounter with the Indians in Narragansett Bay. which Fenimore Cooper, in his " Naval History of the United States," calls " the first naval battle fought in America." An account of the fight, written for the Rev. Increase Mather in 16:1. is exceedingly interesting.
Charles W. Elliott, in his New England History, says, "there are few instances in bush or border warfare equal to it: fourteen men were opposed to two, and twelve of the fourteen were destroyed. "
lle joined the church in 1633, took the freeman's oath in 1634, and died December, 1619; his will, as well as that of Crestabel, his wife, are among the earliest on record.
6.20 Gallonles
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Mr. Galloupe was born at a period when the full effect of the Puri- tanical education of the early settlers was still uncontaminated by out- side influences, and the every-day life of the people was the same as that of their ancestors who lived two hundred years before them. Marrying and intermarrying only among themselves, the community was simply an ever-enlarging family, through which, down succeeding generations, was transmitted the religious belief and the Puritan habits, manners and enstoms of all who had gone before. Rising with the sun, and devoting themselves to their daily tasks during the whole of the week, without recreation or the thought of light enjoyment and trivial pleasures, when Saturday night came, it was the beginning of a restful Sunday, which was given up to the worship of God, without a thought of the burden of cares and anxieties which they had borne dur- ing the week. At G o'clock on Saturday night, the children left their simple plays and sturdily studied the lessons for the Sabbath-school until the ringing of the 9 o'clock bell, which sent them to their beds, to be awakened at carty dawn for their weekly baths and the donning of the " Sunday clothes " in preparation for the proper observance of the Holy Day. At an early hour, the frugal breakfast of brownbread and beans was taken from the brick oven where it had been placed the day before (no cooking being permitted on Sunday), and, after a blessing had been asked, and each had partaken of the meal, the table was cleared, and the family, gathering again around it, joined unitedly in the reading of Scripture and a lengthy prayer, all standing, as kneeling savored too much of the Episcopal form of worship.
After morning prayers, the family filed in solemn procession to the "meeting-house," to listen to the singing and praying and a sermon from an hour to an hour and a half in duration, which constituted the services of the morning. After a cold dinner (the continuation of the breakfast), the same routine was repeated in the afternoon, with an additional hour and a half for Sunday-school.
In the evening, the reading of religious books was permitted; and every one awoke on Monday morning, commencing the new week with a feeling of relief that the Sunday was over, with all its obligations fulfilled.
The " district " or public school afforded the principal means of edu- cation, and, at the age of fourteen, the school-boy was called upon to bear his share of the burden of life, by apprenticeship until twenty-one
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years of age for the learning of a trade, or whatever better means might be presented for gaining a livelihood.
This was not only the boyhood life of Mr. Galloupe, but that of other boys of his age.
Beverly, in 1825, was built almost entirely upon one street, then called the Main Road (afterwards Cabot street), and contained about two thousand inhabitants. As Salem at that time was in a full success and monopoly of its India business, the better class of the Beverly people, almost without exception, were either captains of vessels in the India trade or their connections or descendants. In the summer season almost all of the male population not connected with the India mer- cantile business in Salem were engaged in the fishing business, and obtained their livelihood by spending their summers in fishing for cod on the banks of Newfoundland.
Having passed through the different stages of education afforded boys of his position, that is, having attended the preliminary or "mis- tress" school, the "district" or "master's" school and a course at the "academy," the education of Mr. Galloupe was considered as finished, and he was supposed to be amply fitted for the battle of life, which he commenced at the age of fifteen, by entering the "dry-goods " store of Here he
Mr. Elbridge Fisk, on Cabot street, in Beverly, as a clerk. remained about two years, but finding his native town too limited a field for any one desirous of making his way in the world, after procur- ing letters of recommendation from the "minister " and the " select- men " of the town, he left Beverly, and obtaining a situation in Boston as a salesman with Messrs. Carney & Sleeper (then at No. 40 Ann, now North street, opposite Merchants' Row), he commenced his independ- ent and self-relying life.
Boston, at that early date, was so unlike our present city, that a de- scription of it from one whose continued experience covered an in- broken period of fifty years of active life in its midst, is well worthy of being preserved.
The Boston of half a century ago (1843) was an entirely different city in area (its greatest length from north to south was two and three quar- ters miles; width, east to west, one and one-eighth miles), manners and customs, as well as population (it contains 102,000 inhabitants), from the city of to-day.
Business was conducted in a quiet and dignified manner, and the hustling method of to-day was not only unknown, but undreamed of.
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Merchants were in their counting rooms as carly or earlier than nine o'clock, occupying themselves busily until two, when, dining at their own houses, they returned in the afternoon to see that the business of the day was properly completed, and spent their evenings in social entertainments; but little ostentation was displayed and comparatively few private carriages were kept.
The system of "drumming " for business, which prevails so exten- sively throughout our country at present, was unknown and unthought of. Buyers from a distance (the West and South) came regularly to market twice (spring and fall) in each year, and purchased, after per- sonal examination, what merchandise they required, while buyers nearer home (New England) came to town as they needed goods, per- haps once a week or oftener, and selected their goods themselves. The ordinary term of credit for those who purchased for the retail trade was six months, with a discount of four per cent. off for cash in thirty days, and for those who " jobbed " (or sold at wholesale), eight months, and often a special inducement of twelve months with interest at six per cent. after eight months, was conceded.
Central and Kilby streets (extending to Milk street) were the head- quarters of the dry goods jobbing trade, and the principal dry goods commission business was done in Milk street, below Atkinson (Con- gress) street.
The upper part of Milk street, with Morton Place (now Arch street) and Sewall Place, was occupied principally by dwelling houses. At the corner of Devonshire and Milk streets was a fine old colonial man- sion, which had found its fate in becoming a hotel or tavern, called the "Stackpole House," which was famous for its soups and Welsh rare- bit. It is said that Julian, for whom the famous soup was named, was once the cook or "chef " of the house.
In Devonshire street, directly opposite the front entrance of the post- office, was the extensive blacksmithing establishment of " Dea. Saf- ford," and the neighborhood resounded with the ringing of the sturdy blows upon the anvil.
Opposite Devonshire street, leading from Milk street to Franklin street, was a passageway called Theatre alley, some five or six feet in width, well known to all good citizens as containing " Mother Dun- lap's" store, whose famous snuff was in the pockets of many of her merchant neighbors.
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Under the administration of Mayor Rice, Theatre alley was obliter- ated by the extension of Devonshire street.
Opposite Theatre alley, upon the other side of Franklin street, ad- joining the Catholic cathedral, was an opening, protected by stone posts, so arranged as to admit of the passage of individuals, but not carriages, into Winthrop and Otis Places, both of which, leading from Summer street, connected with, and were entered from the passage- way from Franklin street. It was an exceedingly genteel neighbor- hood, and the Winthrops, Hunnewells, Daniel Webster, Rufus Choate, Edward Everett and other distinguished citizens dwelt in either one of the two places, or their immediate vicinity.
At the junction (or connection) of the two places, opposite the open- ing for foot passengers, was the stately granite mansion of " Madame " Blake, with areas upon the sides and front, and entered through an im- posing columned portal, guarded by two life-size statues of lions in metal.
Franklin street, from Hawley street to Theatre alley, formed a cres- cent, in the center of which was a well kept lawn, surrounded by an ornamental iron fence, and the brick houses (painted white) were set back far enough from the sidewalk to form a very pretty lawn or flower garden in front of each. These areas were protected by iron fences similar to that around the center, and the houses were entered through iron arches of ornamental design. It was one of the most picturesque streets in Boston, and was the home of the Perkinses, Wigglesworths and other prominent families. John Simmons, by erecting two granite warehouses upon lots near Areh street, purchased by him at auction, wrecked the street for residential purposes, and brought it into a new life as a business street.
The wholesale clothing business was done in Ann street, and that portion from Union street to North Square, as well as a part of Black- stone street, was filled with both wholesale and retail stores.
Fulton street and a portion of Blackstone street was filled with leather stores, and Merchants' Row, next to Ann street, contained many whole- sale and retail boot and shoe stores. The crockeryware business was largely done in South Market street and the southern end of Merchants' Row. The principal wholesale liquor firms were located at the foot of State street, while the upper part, then as now, was filled with mer- chants' offices, insurance offices and financial institutions. The " Mer- chants Exchange," a fine granite building, occupied the site of the
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