USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Professional and industrial history of Suffolk County, Massachusetts, Volume II > Part 56
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active. In 1846 he became a member of the Boston Brokers' Board and commenced a banking and brokerage business on State street. Be- ginning with small capital, he prosecuted his business with such good judgment that it rapidly increased and soon became very hierative. For twenty-four years he continued the business without intermission and with extraordinary success. During this long period, covering the most eventful years in the financial history of our country, he was among the best known men in the financial and banking circles of Boston. He enjoyed the highest commercial credit and during the en- tire period of his active business career there was never an obligation he assumed that was not promptly met. He possessed the confidence of the business public to a wonderful degree. This was due not only be- cause of his unquestioned personal integrity, but because of his well known business methods and the careful arrangement of his financial matters. He was a careful, far-sighted operator. While at times his operations were immense, his capital was invested in assets only of the highest character, so that he could in every emergency meet his obligations without inconvenience or sacrifice. He avoided all purely speculative ventures, and his connection with an enterprise was a guarantee that it was based on good business principles. He was self-reliant, and his actions in any business transaction were the result of his own conchi- sions.
In isto Mr. Fiske retired from active business, and with his wife passed three years in Europe. During his residence abroad he traveled extensively and made himself especially familiar with the business interests and financial problems of the old world. After his return home in 1873 he devoted himself to the management of his real estate and various trusts, and a few large transactions in railroad securities, which proved eminently successful. He was among the first of the large property holders in the business center of Boston to inaugurate the erection of the modern palatial office buildings. This occurred in lass, when he began the erection in State street of the well known Fiske Building, which is one of the finest structures in Boston. It is ten stories in height and in richness of interior finish and beauty of architectural effeet is unsurpassed by any building in New England. It was the pioneer structure of its class in this part of the city, and has since been followed by many similar edifices, which now make this see- tion of Boston especially noteworthy.
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Quietly and modestly, with no desire for publicity, Mr. Fiske during the latter years of his life attended to his extensive private business affairs. Up to the very end of his life he had enjoyed remarkably vigorous health, his well preserved faculties of mind and body when past the period usually associated with strength and vigor being often the subject of comment and congratulations. The illness which ter- minated in his death, June 18, 1892, was the result of a severe cold which had confined him to the house only ten days.
It was in his home life that Mr. Fiske's real character best revealed itself. Of naturally retiring disposition, his chief pleasures were found within the domestic circle, surrounded by his family and intimate friends. Here the natural unaffected simplicity and genial nature of the man came to the surface, his happy, sunny disposition making him a charming host, whose home was always open to welcome and enter- tain his friends. His charity found exercise in the most unostentatious way and seldom where publicity would be given to his acts. He was much interested in educational, industrial and benevolent institutions, and to extend this field of usefulness was a cheerful contributor. De- serving young persons, poor but ambitions, strongly appealed to his sympathies, and several could be named to whom he furnished the means to provide for a collegiate education. His charities indeed were well directed and dispensed in directions the public knew little of. He held liberal views on religious matters, but all his life was a firm be- liever in the cardinal doctrines of Christianity, his life being governed by their teachings and precepts. He was reared in the Congregationalist faith, but the latter part of his life he attended Trinity Episcopal Church, where he had been for many years a pew holder. Politically. Mr. Fiske acted with the Republican party, but he was never an intense partisan, nor did he have the least desire for public office. To dis- charge honestly and conscientiously the duties of a private citizen, keenly solicitous for the public good, filled the full meed of his ambi- tion.
Mr. Fiske is survived by his wife, to whom he was married May 24, 1849, in Detroit, Mich., by Rev. George Duffield, D. D. Her maiden name was Charlotte Matilda Morse, daughter of Dr. Elijah Morse, of Mount Vernon, Me., and granddaughter of Dr. Jacob Corey, sen., of Sturbridge, Mass. Her father was for several years a member of the Senate and House of Representatives of Maine.
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JOHN CUMMINGS.
HON. JOHN CUMMINGS was born in Woburn, October 19, 1812. He came of a Scotch family found in Watertown in the early days of the Massachusetts colony. His great-grandfather moved from Andover to Woburn in 1456, and bought the estate on which Mr. Cummings now lives.
Mr. Cummings was largely self-taught, but had for a brief time the advantages of the Warren Academy and the school at South Reading. Entering business, Mr. Cummings engaged in the tanning and curry- ing industry, associating with himself, sooner or later, John B. Alley, Charles Choate, Leonard B. Harrington and Leonard Harrington. In 1868 he became president of the Shawmut National Bank of Boston, which office he now holds. He has served in both houses of the Massa- chusetts Legislature ; was a member of the Centennial Board of Finance, which redeemed from failure and conducted to a triumphant success the Philadelphia Exhibition of 1876, and was also one of the judges of the exhibition. He has served as a director in the Perkins Institution for the Blind, and in the Massachusetts Institution for Feeble-Minded Children.
Mr. Cummings early developed decided scientific tastes, especially in the department of natural history, and made acquirements, which, considering the occupation of his time by business cares and duties, are remarkable. He has always been an enthusiastic agriculturist, with an ardent interest in the application of scientific principles to the cultiva- tion of the soil.
His most intimate public relations in his later life have been with the Boston Society of Natural History, the Agricultural College at Am- herst, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, to all of which he has rendered inestimable services. Of the last named institution he was for seventeen years the treasurer, as well as a member of the executive committee of the corporation from the organization of that committee. To his courageous acceptance of responsibility and his strong financial support the friends of the school largely attribute its rescue from pecuniary embarrassment, and its subsequent remarkable development. By a vote of the corporation in 1889, when he retired from the office of treasurer, Mr. Cummings's name was applied in per- petuity to the laboratories of mining engineering and metallurgy in recognition of his services.
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Mr. Cummings's remarkable disinterestedness in public life, his severe integrity, combined with great kindliness in personal intercourse, his powerful intellectual grasp and strong Scotch-American sense, have made him one of the most useful citizens of his native Commonwealth.
WESTON LEWIS.
WESTON LEWIS, who for many years occupied a prominent position in the commercial, financial and political affairs of Boston, was born April 14, 1834, in Hingham, Mass., where the Lewis family is one of the oldest and most respected.
His educational advantages were rather limited, but comprehensive reading and varied contact with the world more than balanced the deprivations of his youth. Natural ability of a high order, united to untiring industry and unswerving honesty, were the main secrets of his success in life. He began his business career in Boston in 1850 at the age of sixteen, and ten years later, in 1860, founded the dry goods house of Lewis, Brown & Co., with which he retained his connection until 1883, during which period a large and successful business was developed. While actively engrossed with the exacting nature of his business interest he did not, however, neglect the duties every good citizen owes to the community. Early in his business career he took an active part in the management of municipal affairs, and in 1865 was He was re-elected in 1866 elected a member of the Common Council.
and 1864, and during the latter year served as president of the council. His eminent fitness for public service was still further recognized in 1840 by his appointment as inspector of State prisons by Governor Washburn, in which position he very creditably served for three years. In 1850 he was made inspector of State charities. In 1822 he was selected by Mayor Gaston as one of the three commissioners to report on the annexation of Dorchester, Brookline, West Roxbury and Charles- town, and in 1886 was appointed on the State Board of Arbitration by Governor Robinson, serving in this body as chairman until 1889, when he resigned to accept the presidency of the Manufacturers' National Bank. He again took a leading part in the shaping of municipal affairs during 1891 and 1892, being a member of the Board of Aldermen from the Eighth District, and serving on many important committees.
RWorthington
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Ile was pre-eminently publie-spirited, and although a staunch and lifelong Republican-his first presidential vote being cast for John C. Fremont in 1856-he conscientiously and in a thoroughly non-partisan way strove to advance the best interest of the city. His latter services in behalf of municipal matters were given at the sacrifice of personal interest, and the additional strain imposed by the demands of his work for publie causes undoubtedly undermined his health. Earnest in all he did, a man of excellent judgment, considerate and courteous in manner, he made an official respected and esteemed by all. Ile was fearless in all his business relations and equally so in all matters per- taining to the city. " He never hesitated," says an intimate associate in the conduct of city affairs, " to state his views, and he would speak them fully and frankly. He did not hesitate to criticise when he did not agree with associates on the subject matter before them. Ile was never equivocal; we always knew where and how he stood. "
In his business earcer Mr. Lewis was conspicuously successful. He was careful and conservative in methods, but whatever he undertook was carried forward with an energy and judgment that rarely met with defeat. In 1883, on account of ill health, he retired from the firm of Lewis, Brown & Co., and upon his resignation from the Board of Arbitration in 1889, accepted the presidency of the Manufacturers' National Bank. To his management of this financial institution its present high standing can be largely aseribed. Well known in the business community as a man of trained and tried business ability of a high order, and personally popular and implicitly trusted, his connec- tion with the bank commanded for it the fullest confidence, and under his lead it more than doubled its deposits during the four years of his presidency.
Outside of his business relations, which were varied and of magni- tude, Mr. Lewis was a positive factor for good in many directions. No movement of a religious, philanthropie or literary character was in- augurated that did not receive his hearty encouragement or substantial assistance. He was one of the founders of the Unitarian Club and of the Boston Merchants' Association, and by his efforts in their behalf did much to angment the sphere of usefulness of both these organiza- tions He was also for thirteen years an efficient trustee of the Boston Public Library.
Mr. Lewis died in East Pasadena, Cal .. April 6, 1893, whither he had gone for the benefit of his health. He had been in failing health for
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several months, due largely to overwork, but nothing serious was an- ticipated, and it was thought a brief respite from his engrossing cares and responsibilities would restore him to his wonted vigor. His death was therefore unexpected, and the receipt of its intelligence was received with sincere sorrow among his many business and political associates, Tributes to his worth as a citizen, publie official and busi- ness man were many, and by all his death was deplored as a public loss. At the monthly meeting of the Unitarian Club, which was hekl while his body was being borne to the seene of his labors and useful- ness, Secretary William Howell Reed spoke as follows in reference to Mr. Lewis's connection with the club:
Mr. Lewis was the originator, the father of this club. He thought he was building wisely, but he was really building better than he knew.
When we consider the history of this elub, the influence it has attained in this community, the inspiring utterances from this platform on themes so vitally touching the life of the time, and that it has been the pioneer from which all the other relig- ious clubs have taken root as from a parent stem, it seems fitting that as his coffin containing his silent dust is borne across the continent to its last resting place, we should pause for a moment as we speak his name, and in silence honor him by this simple recognition of the inestimable service he has rendered to every good cause which through his foresight has found advocacy here through all these years.
The directors of the Boston Merchants' Association, at a meeting to take suitable notice of his death, put on record the following:
That not since the formation of this organization have we lost one so thoroughly identified with its entire history, activity and usefulness. Reaching its highest official position, he nevertheless was not satisfied in retiring therefrom to discontinue his active interests, but in response to the wishes of the association had continued to serve as a director until the day of his death.
The earnestness and usefulness of Mr. Lewis in this relation is, however, only a part of an exceedingly valuable life which could not be limited in its field of effort. llis services for the State in different publie trusts, for the city in her highest offices and commissions, for various societies-religious, philanthropic, literary and com- mercial-all indicate on the part of our community an appreciation of the qualities of mind which made his services so largely called for.
Those of us who knew him most intimately can hardly realize that we shall not wit- ness and share in the prompt and bright way in which he grappled all questions of publie concern, and we shall remember him as an able, upright, public-spirited citizen, and an exceptionally kind, considerate and genial associate and friend.
At a meeting of the members of the Board of Aldermen of the year 1891 and 1892, the following resolution was unanimously adopted :
That in the decease of our esteemed fellow citizen and associate, Weston Lewis, we take this occasion to express our sorrow and regret that he has been called from
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amongst us. In his career as a member of the Board of Aldermen he was ever guided by the principles of right and justice. During the two years that we were associated with him he was alive to the interest of all the people. Prejudice and partisanship had no place in his makeup, and he retired with a record for independence and high character that has gained for him our lasting respect and remembrance.
At a meeting of the Building Trades Council, held shortly after the death of Mr. Lewis, the following action was taken :
W'hereas, By the death of Hon. Weston Lewis, the Commonwealth of Massachu- setts and the city of Boston have suffered the loss of a publie-spirited citizen distin- guished by brilliant service in many capacities, beloved and respected for his warm sympathies and other traits of character, and,
Whereas, It is fitting that the Building Trades Council of Boston, representing labor, commemorate those services which he rendered to working people in the in- terest of the whole community, therefore,
Resolved, That we place upon the record our keen sense of loss which the labor clement has sustained. One of the original members of a commission which had no example in the history of industrial legislation, he contributed to place State arbitra- tion on the highest plane of good government. Although a representative of capital. his manly friendship for the wage earners always prompted just measures, and as alderman he advocated every project that was calculated to promote the good and welfare of the working people. They have lost a valuable friend.
In words equally eulogistic the public press of Boston referred to the death of this well-known and universally respected citizen who had figured prominently in many phases of the life of his community and time. In all positions, either public or private, he acquitted himself with the greatest ability and the strictest integrity. " He has left to his two sons," says one writer, "the priceless legacy of an honest and able merchant and banker, a faithful public servant, a genial character which won troops of friends, and a career without blemish, which bene- fited his fellowmen."
Mr. Lewis is survived by two sons, Weston K. and Frederick H. Lewis. His wife, Martha J. Lewis, daughter of Ezekiel Kendall, of Boston, to whom he was married July 18, 1855, died September 13. 1892.
SAMUEL STILLMAN PIERCE.
SAMCHI STILLMAN PIERCE, founder of the widely known house of S. S. Pierce & Co., was born March 27, 1807, and was a direet descendant of Robert Pierce, who came to New England carly in the seventeenth
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century in the John and Mary. In 1831 he became associated with Eldad Worcester in the grocery business, under the firm name of Wor- cester & Pierce. They began with limited resources in a little store on the corner of Tremont and Court streets, but seemingly from the first their modest venture was successful, and in a few years they were con ducting one of the most profitable mercantile enterprises of that period in Boston. Ten years after the formation of the firm Mr. Worcester retired, and Mr. Pieree continued it alone until April 1, 1844, when Charles L. Eaton, who had been for many years a clerk in the estab- lishment, was admitted as a partner, and the name of the firm was changed to S. S. Pierce & Co. One year later Wallace 1. Pierce, a son of the founder, was taken into the firm.
Mr. Pierce died October 12, 1880. For some years prior to his death he had been an invalid, and personally had had little to do with the active management of the business. He was a man of unflinching honesty and sterling integrity of character; gentle, unassuming and modest in manner, but beneath his quiet exterior was resolute deter- mination, fixed opinions and purposes, which no simple question of ex- pediency or policy could in the slightest degree change or modify. The rugged honesty of the man manifested in every action was the key note of his success. He was married in February, 1836, to Miss Ellen Maria Wallis, who at the advanced age of eighty-one years still survives her husband. They had nine children, of whom two sons and three daughters are living.
Upon the completion of the sixtieth year of the existence of the firm of S. S. Pierce & Co., the following account of its rise and progress appeared in the Boston Ercuing Transcript. It contains so much of an interesting historical nature that no excuse is necessary for its insertion here:
To one with antiquarian tastes, there are few things more interesting and instruct- ive than the records of the carly transactions of a long-established business house. They tell of people long since dead,-what they wore, what they ate, the bills they paid, and the bills they left unpaid. In a city like Boston, where changes in busi- ness are of frequent occurrence, the founders of the houses are generally soon for- gotten, and the books telling of their first sales go to the paper-mills, to make day- books and journals for the generations that follow them. This has not been the fate, however, of the ledgers of Samuel S. Pierce. the founder of the house of S. S. Pierce & Co, whose principal store is on the very spot from which sixty years ago were trundled in a wheelbarrow the groceries that supplied the opulent citizens of the re- gion in the vicinity of the corner of Tremont and Court streets, where the little store then stood.
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The yellow leaves of the little ledger, neat and prim as the old beaux of that day, inform the curious that the first recorded sale was made on October 21, 1831, to the firm of O. & R. Goss. 'And it was on this date that the copartnership was formed between Eldad Worcester and Samuel S. Pierce, under the firm name of Worcester &. Pierce.
The modest beginning evidently did not deter the best people of the city and the Commonwealth from giving it their patronage, for conspicuous on the pages of the book are the names of William Ellery Channing, John P. Thorndike, Otis Norcross & Co, Gardner Green, Nathaniel Hooper, Walter Frost, John Snowden, jr., Samuel Langmaid, Dr. John C. Ware, Dr. Walter Channing, brother of the celebrated divine, Daniel Dennie, Thomas Goddard, Patrick T. Jackson, Charles Lyman, Thomas II. Perkins, Moody Merrill, Dr. John Jeffries, and many others whose names are as familiar to the people of Boston to-day as they were half a century ago. An- other name appears on the book, but not in so creditable a manner as those men- tioned above, for, while the entries show that these gentlemen paid their bills promptly, there is a little financial transaction on the part of the United States Court, involving the purchase of thirty cents' worth of goods, which still remains unsettled.
The bill was contracted on March 25, 1833, and, with compound interest, would to- day amount to-let the man with the horse-shoe problem work it out! A peculiar and primitive feature of this ledger is the omission of the first names of many of the customers, which indicates a most delightfully close association between Mr. Pierce and them. It is easy to imagine Smith, Brown, and Robinson strolling into the store in the evening from their comfortable homes at the West End to indulge in a bit of political discussion, and suddenly remembering as the hour for closing ar- rived the commissions of their thoughtful wives for tea, coffee and sugar. While there may have been many of the same name in the town, it would have seemed to the genial storekeeper an unnecessary use of time and ink to write out in full on his account books the names of his friends and next-door neighbors, so all their com- mercial transactions were indicated by the names by which they were most famil- iarly known.
One of the early patrons of the firm was George W. Vinton, the noted restaurant keeper, who opened an account on December 14, 1831. Peter Brigham, another famous caterer, made his first recorded purchase on June 8, 1833, and the celebrated founder of the Parker House the same year observed Washington's birthday by be- coming a patron of the store,-a patronage that lasted as long as he lived, and was continued by his successors. James Parker, a wealthy, eccentric gentleman, who, on his deathbed gave orders that his pet horse should be shot, that he might be sure it would not fall into unkind hands, inaugurated an account with the firm on March 4, 1833, and on November 25 of that year appears the name of Samuel Adams, but not the historic Sam who had died thirty years before. John Wilson, whose great print- ing-office is still one of the features of Cambridge, opened an account on No- vember 27, 1831, and Nathan Hale, the founder of the Advertiser, on May 12, 1832. On December 24 of the same year the famous Dr. Francis Parkman became a cus- tomer of the firm. Mr. Pierce was a member of the fire companies of those days, so it is not surprising to find recorded on his ledger sales to Adventure No. 1 and En- gine Company No. 18. The Eye and Ear Infirmary was also another public institu-
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tion that made its purchases at the little store on the corner of Tremont and Court streets during the first years of its existence.
With such a list of customers rapidly increasing in numbers, it was inevitable that the wheelbarrow must be discarded for a more commodious vehicle for the delivery of goods, and a handcart was introduced. As trade was pushed beyond the West End not only were better facilities for carrying trade demanded, but more rapid transit had to be introduced. And this led to the use, for the first time in the grocery business of Boston, of a horse and wagon for this purpose. To-day the same firm has in constant use in the delivery department fifty-nine horses and wagons, to say nothing of the use it makes of eity expresses carrying for it goods at its own expense. But this is but one item of its business. The firm of S. S. Pierce & Co. to-day sends its goods not only into every State in the Union, but across the sea as far as St. Petersburg and the west coast of Africa. Even back as far as the time when this country was engaged in breaking up the slave trade on the African coast the officers of the cruisers depended on this house to supply them with luxuries not included in the rations of the government, and there is a story told that at one time, when the extras gave out and "hardtack" and "salt horse" were for days the unpalatable food of these fastidious epicures, the arrival of a consignment of goods from the Bos- ton grocers was made the occasion of the most hilarious antics. Before the edibles and drinkables could be carried to quarters, the boxes were unceremoniously broken open on "Afrie's burning sands," and bottles of champagne bearing the familiar brand were hugged lovingly by blue-coated arms. During the Rebellion supplies were sent to the naval vessels wherever they could be reached.
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