USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Professional and industrial history of Suffolk County, Massachusetts, Volume II > Part 58
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In 1832 Mr. Fay married Catherine Sanders, daughter of the Hon. Dudley L. Pickman, of Salem, and resided many years in Boston in the diligent and active practice of his profession. In 1848 he took his family to Europe, and after an extended journey on the continent he took up his residence in England, where he resided for several years on an estate in Shropshire, known as Moor Park, one of the most beautiful and cultivated of those landed properties of England, in which are combined the elegance and luxury of a well appointed home, and the best practical system of agriculture. It was undoubtedly this ex- perience in England which increased Mr. Fay's natural love for rural pursuits and cultivated those tastes which made him an ardent and use- ful promoter of agriculture in his native State, to which he returned in 1853. He had previously purchased a large estate in Essex county, known as Lynn Mineral Spring Hotel, comprising more than five hun- dred acres of diversified land, in which fertile valleys, picturesque and rugged hills, and a beautiful lake were combined. He commenced at once the improvement of this place, now called Lynnmere, by draining the land and covering the hills with immense trees, many of which he planted with his own hands. He imported larches, maples, firs and pines in large quantities, planted acorns constantly in his walks about the estate, and succeeded in converting a rough and a somewhat nnat- tractive landscape into a variegated forest, through which winds an ave- nue of great beauty, bordered by deciduons and evergreen trees dis- tributed with great taste, and constituting a charming combination of variety and luxuriance of foliage. The forest which Mr. Fay planted has now become a profitable woodland. The bare hills which he cov- ered with Scotch larches, the rude stone walls, and the waste pasture, where originally there was only a growth of red cedar and huckleberry
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bushes, through which the approach to the house led, have given way to shade trees of great variety, which now, after forty years, are in magnificent beauty. Huge rocks were drawn out of the soil now ver- dant in lawn, grass-fields and rich erops. The place is one of the most picturesque in New England in natural beauty, and in its present con- dition is a memorial of the taste and genins of the man who developed and added to its attractiveness.
In addition to this extensive forest and ornamental tree culture, Mr. Fay encouraged by precept and practice many of the most important branches of agriculture which belong especially to the practical farmer. While in England he had observed the importance attached to sheep husbandry, for the production of coarse and middle wools, and the sup- ply of mutton as a healthful and economical article of food, at that time not in general use in this country. lle selected from all the heavy and rapid growing breeds in England the Oxford Downs as larger than the South Downs and finer than the Cotswold, and from his large flocks he made for a long time a wide distribution throughout the coun- try. In this branch of stock raising he was considered as authority, and in connection with it he encouraged the growing of root erops, the most improved Swedes and Mangolds, which English flock masters and cattle breeders consider indispensable to their calling.
To the establishment of market-days in Essex county Mr. Fay gave carly and carnest attention, and contributed much instruction on this system of trade, so common in England, through the agricultural press of the country. His attendance at the meeting of farmers was fre- quent. As a trustee of the Massachusetts Society for Promoting Agri- culture, in which body Robert C. Winthrop, George W. Lyman, Chief Justice Bigelow, George Peabody, Charles G. Loring, Stephen Salis- bury, George B. Loring, Leverett Saltonstall and others were his asso- ciates, he did good service, and edited the first issue of the records of the society. As president of the Essex Agricultural Society he called around that association the most eminent patrons of farming known in the country and did much to place it in the position it now ocenpies. Hle had a sincere love of rural life, and although connected from time to time with business enterprises, he never forgot that agriculture is the foundation of all our prosperity and that a knowledge of its economies and a taste for its pursuits add much to one's usefulness and happiness.
Mr. Fay was a man of great determination and wide observation. Ilis natural powers were very great. Highly favored by fortune, he
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never lost sight of the efforts required for the development of human enterprises, and was somewhat impatient of those theories which dis- turbed society and endangered its perpetuity and success. He lived in a time of great transitions, in which, although occupying no official position, he gave strong expression to his views and equal impress to his exertions. Early in the breaking out of the civil war he organized at his own expense a company known as the Fay Guards, which did brave and honorable service in the great conflict. This company was attached to the Thirty-eighth Massachusetts, and was in the following engagements: Port Hudson, May 12 to July 9, 1863; Cane River, La., April, 1864; Mausura Plains, La., May, 1864; Winchester, Va., Sep- tember 19, 1864; Fisher's Hill, Va., September 21, 1861; Cedar Creek, Va., October 19, 1864. Mr. Fay lived to see the glorious and happy termination of his country's trial. He died in Liverpool, July 6, 1865, leaving a widow and four children.
HENRY G. PARKER.
Con. HENRY GROSVENOR PARKER, son of Ebenezer Grosvenor and Rebecca Morton (Davis) Parker, was born in Plymouth, Mass., March 19, 1836. He received his primary education in the public schools of Plym- outh. Later he came to Boston and attended the old Adams School on Mason street, and was afterwards prepared for college at Chauncey Hall School. Although he had strong literary inclinations, he relinquished a collegiate course to enter upon a mercantile carcer. After passing a year in the wholesale house of Blanchard, Converse & Co., he became assistant bookkeeper for the hardware firm of Callender, Rogers & Co., and was engaged in that capacity for three years. He next became bookkeeper for Blodgett, Clark & Brown, and three years later was ap- pointed confidential clerk for Jordan, Marsh & Co., remaining in the latter position for seven years. He was then offered and accepted the treasurership of two mills operated by Francis Skinner & Co. The bankruptcy of this house put an end to this agreement, and it was then that Colonel Parker turned his attention to journalism, with which he had been more or less identified as a contributor since his sixteenth year. ITis first article was written for the old Boston Mail. Still later he became the correspondent of the New York Mirror, and also wrote
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for the Boston Bec, the Boston Post, the Boston Daily Courier, and the Saturday Evening Gazette. When the last named journal was offered for sale in 1820, Colonel Parker purchased it. His success as editor and business manager is well known. He was one of the first, if not the first, journalist in this county to adopt the personal society news. This innovation was not at first received very kindly, more especially by his contemporaries, but he continued until this department, under the cap- tion of "Ont and About," was recognized and sought for. The wis- dom of the move is attested by the fact that many of the journals that were most violent in their reprehensions of Colonel Parker, now follow his example with their own departments for society gossip. The Ga- sette, under Colonel Parker's management, became highly successful, and among the few profitable papers of its class in the country. Col- onel Parker's ability as a journalist was of high order. He believed in an outspoken expression of editorial opinion, without fear or favor, and he made more friends than enemies by this frank and manly course. The result was that the Gasette was looked upon as an authority that could always be relied upon in those matters to which it devoted special attention.
At the Peace Jubilee of 1849 and the World's Peace Jubilee of 1842, Colonel Parker acted as general secretary of the executive committee; and while serving in that capacity, an acquaintance previously existing with Hon. Alexander M. Rice was cemented into a warm friendship. When Mr. Rice was installed Governor of Massachusetts, he selected Colonel Parker as a member of his staff. Colonel Parker held this po- sition during the three years of Governor Rice's administration, and was again appointed by Governor Talbot.
Colonel Parker died May 13, 1892, after a brief illness, leaving a widow, the daughter of the late William Brown, and also survived by his mother, Mrs. George S. Tolman, who resides in Plymouth. In social life Colonel Parker was justly a favorite, and his cheery presence will long be missed at the Algonquin and Suffolk clubs, of which he had long been a member.
The following estimate of Colonel Parker's character was written by one who had long been a close and intimate associate, and best able to judge of the qualities of his mind and heart :
As a man, one of his characteristics was frankness and admiration of frankness in others. He was outspoken in the expression of his opinions, and was tenacious of them, but was always ready to listen to objections, and to adopt them on conviction.
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By nature he was tender and amiable, and those who did not know him intimately were not aware of the sweetness and kindness that lay behind a manner that on the surface was apparently aggressive; nor of the ease with which his gentle emotions were touched. Though mainly known to the community as a business man, he had fine literary tastes, was an earnest reader, and took great delight in the company of men and women of culture. His love of music was intense, and his taste in what was refined in art was marked. To his friends he was devoted heart and soul, and his loy- alty to them was as enthusiastic as it was sincere. As a host he was generous in his hospitality, and experienced genuine pleasure in contributing to the happiness of those to whom his heart went out.
ADDISON MACULLAR.
ADDISON MACULLAR, founder of the clothing house of Macullar, Par- ker & Company, was born in Barre, Mass .. December 19, 1822, and died in Worcester, Mass., March 11, 1893. He was a son of Horace N. and Jane (Kelly) Macullar. His first regular employment was in the printing office of the Barre Gasette. Later on he went to Worcester, Mass., where he began his mercantile career in 1842 at the age of twenty years. In March, 1849, he commenced business on his own ac- count under the firm name of A. Macullar & Co. In February, 1852, he and George B. Williams established a house in Boston under the firm name of Macullar, Williams & Co., for the manufacture of cloth- ing for the wholesale trade. In 1860 Charles W. Parker was admitted as partner, when the firm name was changed to Macullar. Williams & Parker, and in 1849 to Macullar, Parker & Company, continuing as such until the present time. Mr. Parker, who for many years has had the actual management of the business, became associated with Mr. Macullar as a fellow clerk in Worcester in 1846, and when the latter opened a store in Worcester, accompanied him, acting as store boy, salesman and book-keeper, in fact was the only employee. Their re- lationship from the days of their association as clerks in Worcester to the time of Mr. Macullar's death was particularly intimate and distin- guished for cordial and mutual feelings of regard.
The firm of Macullar, Parker & Company has long occupied a forc- most position in its special line in New England, and has been a leader rather than a follower in what has grown to be the principal industry of Boston. Its history from the standpoint of financial success has been highly creditable, while the agreeable and harmonious relations
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which have ever characterized the intercourse of the individual men- ber of the house, have been particularly noteworthy. From the incep- tion of the business to the present time-a period of forty-three years -there have been probably as few changes in the firm as in any in Boston covering the same period of time. During the latter years of his life MMr. Macullar personally had little to do with the detail man- agement of the business, but his name and personality remained as positive factors in its operations. His long mercantile career was not only singularly successful, but marked, perhaps, with fewer unpleasant features than fall to the lot of most business men. He was a man of genial nature, agreeable address, and by the frankness and generosity of his disposition strongly attached to himself those with whom he was brought into close contact, while the sterling integrity of his character commanded the respect of all who ever knew him.
Mr. Macullar was married in 1850 to Martha M. Reed, of Chiehester, N. H., who survives her husband. They had two children, Charles and Frank R. Macullar, the latter of whom is now living in Worcester, and the junior member of the firm of Macullar & Son.
ROLAND WORTHINGTON.
ROLAND WORTHINGTON is one of the veteran figures of New England, and, indeed, of American journalism. He was born in Agawam, Mass., September 22, 1817, and in the seventy-sixth year of his age is still in the full vigor of a well preserved manhood.
Ilis father was a sturdy, intelligent farmer, who took a lively interest in public affairs, and filled several of the town offices.
Mr. Worthington received his education in the district schools of his native place, and after the manner of the farmers' sons of his boyhood days, graduated into the sterner school of work at the early age of twelve. From that time until he reached his twentieth year he was employed in various capacities, supporting and educating himself as he went along. In March, 1837, he went to Boston, and found employ- ment in the counting-room of the Daily Advertiser. For six years he had the valuable experience of association with the business depart- ment of that paper, which, with Nathan Hale as its editor, was indis- putably the leading daily of New England, both in point of enterprise
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and influence. So close had been Mr. Worthington's application to business that, in 1843, his health was seriously impaired, and, under advice, he sought its restoration by a trip abroad. He crossed the At- lantic, and made a journey up the Mediterranean, touching at various points, and enlarging his knowledge of Europe by actual observation. Returning to this country he then passed a winter at the South, where he acquired a practical insight into the political and social conditions of that section, which proved valuable to him as the great questions which culminated in the civil war developed themselves.
In June, 1845, having returned to Boston with fully renewed health. Mr. Worthington took charge of the Daily Evening Traveller, and its history and his own have ever since been one and inseparable.
The American Traveller was launched on January 1, 1825, Royal L. Porter being its first editor. Later, the Stage Register, a journal which had for its principal feature several columns of stage line advertise- ments, was incorporated with the American Traveller. With the issue of the new Daily Evening Traveller, the first number of which appeared on April 1, 1845, the American Traveller became its semi-weekly issue, and the Stage Register was transformed into the Weekly Traveller. This programme of publication is maintained to the present time, the Boston Evening Traveller (daily), the American Traveller (semi-weekly), and the Weekly Traveller, all being regularly issued in large and steadily-growing editions from the well-known Traveller Building, on the corner of State and Congress streets, facing the Old State House- in many respects the most striking newspaper site in the city. The first number of the Daily Evening Traveller was a four-page sheet, about fourteen by twenty, bearing the imprint of Upton, Ladd and Com- pany as the publishers; but that firm very soon afterwards relinquished all connection with it. Its originators and first editors were Rev. George Punchard and Deacon Ferdinand Andrews. They projected it as a strictly Orthodox paper, devoted to the zealous advocacy of the temperance cause. Rev. Mr. Punchard was popularly spoken of as " the bishop of the Orthodox churches of New Hampshire," in which State he had been preaching with marked ability and power. Mr. Andrews, his associate, was a deacon of the Pine Street Church. To- gether they set the moral and social standards of the Traveller high, and though they have both long since since ceased their connection with it and passed to their rest, the paper to this day is conspicuous for the respect with which it treats all religious and moral movements, its constant
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and vigorous advocacy of the temperance reform, and its careful ex- clusion of all matter that would give offence in the family circle. In this way it steadily enjoyed, and still retains, the enviable distinction of being one of the cleanest newspapers in the country, and this, with its enterprise in the legitimate news field and the high order of literary work constantly displayed in its editorial columns, have seenred it a warm welcome in thousands of the best homes of Boston, Massachusetts, and far and wide throughout New England. The credit of laying the basis of its permanent success as a vigorous, wide-awake, robust, daily jour- nal belongs unquestionably to Mr. Worthington. He brought with him, from his experience on the Advertiser, a large fund of practical wis- com as a publisher, and a natural endowment of creative and originat- ive faculty besides, which, from the date of his connection with the Traveller until he disposed of the paper, was the dominating factor in its development.
Mr. Worthington's name is identified with some notable steps in the progress of journalism. The newspaper life of Boston, at the time he first entered it, was a very stately and slow-going affair. All the dailies of the Hub, save the Mail and Times, were six-penny sheets, and news- boys were not permitted to cry any of them for sale on the streets. Their very rigid ideas of what dignity required confined them to circu- lations acquired " by subscription only." In August, 1848, Daniel Webster was announced to address a meeting of his neighbors at Marshfield on the political issues of the hour. General Taylor had been for some time nominated for the presidency, but the "God-like Daniel " had played the part of Achilles, "sulking in his tent." There was intense interest on the part of the people of the State, and of the whole country to hear what he would say when he broke silence. Mr. Worthington saw his opportunity in connection with this event, and engaged Dr. James W. Stone, a well known and expert stenog- rapher of that time, to go to Marshfield and report Mr. Webster's ad- dress in full. To make sure the enterprise should not misearry, the young publisher drove Dr. Stone himself to the scene of operations, secured the great expounder's personal co-operation in perfecting the verbatim report of his speech, and then drove the doctor with his notes back to Boston. Other reporters were there for the older dailies, but Mr. Worthington's push distanced them all, and early next morning a Traveller extra was on the streets of Boston, and had an immense sale. Large editions were rapidly called for, and the newsboys of Boston
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cried it lustily all day long. The speech was that ever memorable one in which Webster described Taylor's nomination, in the now historic phrase, as one "not fit to be made " From the Traveller's report it was sent specially to the New York Herald, and from that time on till the organizing of the Press Association, the Traveller was the New York Herald's Boston correspondent. Still the prejudice of the older publishers against the crying of the newspapers by boys on the streets remained ; and Mr. Worthington's innovation was regarded unfavora- bly, even by some of his own business associates. He was obliged to seek a personal interview with the president of the Eastern Railroad in order to obtain a permit for a boy to go upon the ferry-boat in the afternoon to sell his evening paper. He persisted in the innovation, however, and by another energetic stroke made it a permanent feature of the newspaper business. When the news of the French Revolution of 1848 and the dethronement of Louis Philippe arrived in New York, it was sent by telegraph to the Boston reading-room. The telegraph office, by a curious blunder, sent a copy of the dispatch to the three Boston evening papers. Mr. Worthington saw instantly the importance of the news, though its value seems to have escaped immediate observ- ation in the offices of his rivals. He ran off Traveller Extras as quickly as the press facilities would allow, and his press-room was kept at the high pressure point of activity until late in the evening, satisfy- ing the demand for this startling piece of foreign intelligence. The newsboys' eries of " Traveller Extras," " Revolution in France," " Fall of Louis Philippe," "Traveller Extra," were heard on every great thor- oughfare, and from that moment the day of newspaper sales by "sub- seription only " was gone by. The dispatch which the Traveller thus used to such advantage is said to have been the first sent over the tel- egraph wires from New York that was ever published in Boston.
Another feature of newspaper offices, which is now stereotyped by general use, but the initiation of which in Boston belongs also to Mr. Worthington, is the staring placards or bulletins giving the brief heads of the latest news of the day. In passing it may be said that the Traveller's present daily-painted bulletins, in blue and red, are com- monly remarked upon as at once the clearest and most ornamental exhibited in front of any newspaper office in the city, and at any time of the day, when stirring news is coming over the wires, a large crowd is sure to be found flocking to them.
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The Traveller's first publication office was at No. 47 Court street. In April, 1852, its home was removed to the Old State House, and later it was established on its present advantageous and commanding site in the large and convenient Traveller Building, which is now the property of Mr. Worthington.
Mr. Worthington was one of the earliest of the Free Soilers of Mas- sachusetts and is remembered by all the survivors of " the men of 'IS" as a staunch and steadfast member of the little band of men who at that early date foresaw and welcomed the conflict with the slave power, and who were in fact the advance guard of the great Republican party, which was twelve years later to take the destiny of the nation into its keeping. When the Republican party was organized, Mr. Worthing- ton, in common with his brother Free-Soilers, at once joined it, and carried his paper with him, though this last step cost him a conflict of opinion with Editor Andrews, who was strongly disposed to follow the lead of Daniel Webster's famous speech of the 4th of March, 1852. It was wholly due to Mr. Worthington's inflexible attachment to the Free- Soil idea that Mr. Andrews's views were overruled, and the Traveller held true to the policy which has ever since made it one of the most fearless and ablest exponents of the Republican creed. At Mr. Worth- ington's instance the brilliant Manton Marble, who later became nationally distinguished as the editor of the New York World, then took the managing editorship of the Traveller. Young Marble was then only in his twenty-second year, but he filled the position with signal ability until Samuel Bowles, who became famous later as the founder of the Springfield Republican, joined the paper in 1854. Mr. Marble and Mr. Bowles could not work in the harness together, and the former left for a broader field of labor in New York. Mr. Bowles became the managing editor of the Traveller on the 13th of April, 1857, and threw up the position on the 10th of August following. llis connection with the paper was brief and brilliant, but, for Mr. Worth- ington, very costly and all but fatal. Mr. Bowles entered upon the project of uniting the Atlas, the Bee and the Chronicle with the Evening Traveller and founding upon the consolidation a great quarto, modeled after the New York Tribune, to be supported by the highest literary talent, and to be first class in every respect. Mr. Bowles failed utterly, and, soured by his failure, he left his post and started for Springfield without giving any notice to his colleagues, leaving Mr. Worthington in the lurch to struggle out of the quagmire of debt into which his
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