USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Professional and industrial history of Suffolk County, Massachusetts, Volume II > Part 61
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In March, 18:2, Mr. Blake was ordered to Europe for astronomical duty in connection with the third and final determination of the differ- ence of longitude between Greenwich, Paris, and Cambridge. He was engaged for more than a year in this great work, which was carried on under the general direction of Professor J. E. Hilgard, then assistant in charge of the Coast Survey Office, and later superintendent of the Coast Survey. Mr. Blake made all the European observations, being stationed successively at Brest, France; the Imperial Observatory,
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Paris; and the Royal Observatory, Greenwich. Returning to the United States, he was stationed at Cambridge and Washington for the determination of differences of personal equation.
On April 1, 1813, Mr. Blake was promoted from the rank of sub- assistant to the rank of assistant. Up to this time his promotion in the service had been very rapid, his work meeting with the warmest ap- proval of his superiors, the superintendent of the Coast Survey in a letter to the secretary, in 1811, declaring: " His observations have in- variably borne the severest test in regard to accuracy," while the assist- ant, Charles O. Boutelle, at the close of Mr. Blake's astronomical work in the Shenandoah Valley, wrote under date of October 30, 18:1: " The symmetrical precision of the latitude observation made by you at Maryland Heights, Clark and Bull Run stations has never been ex- celled in the Coast Survey."
In 1844 Mr. Blake was ordered to duty in the preparation for publi- cation of the results of transatlantic longitude work. This work in- volved a rediscussion of the result of the transatlantic longitude deter- minations in 1866 and 1870, as well as an original discussion of the final determination of 1842. Mr. Blake was so engaged for more than two years, and the results of his labors are embodied in Appendix No. 18, United States Coast Survey Report, 1824. The finally accepted values for the difference of longitude between Harvard College Ob- servatory and Greenwich are:
1866
HOURS. MIN. 1 4-4
SEC. 30.99
1870
30.98
1871
30.98
Mean
4
4-4
30.98
The precision of the work will perhaps be more evident to the general reader when it is stated that this result justifies the statement that the distance between London and Boston has been thrice measured, with a resulting difference in the measurement of a little more than ten feet.
Mr. Blake's observations of 1872 gave a new result for the difference of longitude between the Royal Observatory at Greenwich and the Im- perial Observatory at Paris-9 min., 20.92 sec. The previously ac- cepted value was 9 min., 20.63 sec., which left a difference of 0.34 sec., or 111 feet to be accounted for. Subsequent observations by European astronomers have confirmed Mr. Blake's results, and the finally accepted value is 9 min., 20.95 sec.
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BIOGRAPHIES.
In 1847 Mr. Blake represented the Coast Survey at a conference of the commission appointed to fix the boundary line between New York and Pennsylvania. This service was followed by geodetic duty in con- nection with a resurvey of Boston Harbor, under the direction of the Massachusetts Board of Harbor Commissioners. This was the last field work performed by Mr. Blake, whose active career in the Coast Survey elosed with the following correspondence :
WESTON, MASSACHUSETTS, 5 April, 1878.
SIR: Private affairs not permitting me at present to discharge my official duties, 1 respectfully tender my resignation as an assistant in the United States Coast Sur- vey. It is impossible for me to express in official language the regret with which I thus close the twelfth year of my service.
Very respectfully yours, FRANCIS BLAKE, Asst. U. S. Coast Survey.
To the Hos. C. P. PATTERSON, Supt. U. S. Coast Survey, Washington, D. C.
U. S. COAST SURVEY OFFICE, WASHINGTON, April 9, 1878. SIR: 1 regret very greatly to have to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of April 5, tendering your resignation as an assistant of the United States Coast Sur- vey. I accept it with the greatest reluctance, and beg to express thus officially my sense of your high abilities and character-abilities trained to aspire to the highest honors of scientific position, and character to inspire confidence and esteem. So loath am I to sever entirely your official connection with the Survey that I must re- quest you to allow me to retain your name upon the list of "extra observers," under which title Prof. B. Pierce, Prof. Lovering, Dr. Gould, Prof. Winlock and others had their names classed for many years, This will, of course, be merely honorary; but it gives me a " quasi " authority to communicate with you in a semi-official way as exceptional occasion may suggest.
Your resignation is accepted to date from April 15th.
Yours respectfully, C. P. PATTERSON, Supt. Coast Survey. F. BLAKE, Assistant Coast Survey.
During the greater part of Mr. Blake's last two years of service in the Coast Survey, he was at his Weston home engaged in the reduction of his European field-work connected with the determination of the differences of longitude between the astronomical observatories at Greenwich, Paris, Cambridge and Washington. In his leisure moments he had devoted himself to experimental physies, and in so doing had become an enthusiastic amateur mechanic; so that at the time of his resignation he found himself in possession of a well equipped mechan- ical laboratory and a self-acquired ability to perform a variety of me-
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chanical operations. Under these conditions, what had been a pastime naturally became a serious pursuit in life; and within barely a month of the date of his resignation Mr. Blake had begun a series of experi- ments which brought forth the Blake transmitter, as presented to the world through the Bell Telephone Company in November, 1828. Mr. Blake's invention was of peculiar value at the time, as the Bell Tele- phone Company was just beginning litigations with a rival company, which, besides being financially strong, had entered the business field with a transmitting telephone superior to the original form of the Bell instrument. The Blake transmitter was far superior to the infringing instrument, and enabled the Bell Telephone Company to hold its own in the sharp business competition which continued until, by a judicial decision, the company was assured a monopoly of the telephone busi- ness during the life of the Bell patents. There are to-day more than 250,000 Blake transmitters in use in the United States, and probably a larger number in all foreign countries. Since its first invention Mr. Blake has kept up his interest in electrical research, and the records in the patent office show that twenty patents have been granted to him during the last twelve years.
Mr. Blake's life in Weston began June 24, 1843, on which day he was married to Elizabeth L., daughter of Charles T. Hubbard. In the year of his marriage there was the beginning of " Keewaydin, " the beautiful estate in the southeastern part of the town, which has since been his home and the birthplace of his two children -- Agnes, born January 2, 1876; Benjamin Sewall, born February 14, 1877. Mr. Blake has been a director of the American Bell Telephone Company since 1818. He was elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1814; fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1881; member of the National Conference of Electricians, 1884; member of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, 1889, and member of the Corporation of the Massachusetts Institute of Tech- nology, 1889, and member of the Boston Society of Civil Engineers in 1890. He is a fellow of the American Geographical Society; member of the Bostonian Society; member of the Boston Society of the Archa- ological Institute of America, and has for many years been appointed by the Board of Overseers of Harvard College a chairman of the com- mittee to visit the Jefferson Physical Laboratory. He is a member of the most prominent social clubs of Boston, and his active interest in photography has led to his election for many years as vice-president of the Boston Camera Club.
Frank Jones.
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BIOGRAPHIES.
FRANK JONES.
FRANK JONES, one of the prominent figures in the political and busi- ness affairs of New England, was born in Barrington, Strafford county, N. H., September 15, 1832. He was one of a family of seven children, six boys and one girl, of Thomas and Mary Jones. His youth was passed on his father's farm, one of the best in New Hamp- shire, and in the local schools of his native town his education was received. At the age of seventeen he left the farm to begin his busi- ness career, at this time joining an elder brother in Portsmouth, where he had a store on Market street for stoves, hardware, tin and house- hold furnishing goods. His position was that of salesman, and in those days it was the custom to sell goods from farm to farm, and in this young Jones beeame so successful that at the end of four years he had gained sufficient money to buy an interest in his brother's business. Not long thereafter he purchased the entire business and continued to enlarge his trade, until 1861, when he sold out to a younger brother, an employee in the establishment. Prior to this, however, Mr. Jones had embarked in the brewing business, having, in 1858, purchased an interest in the Swindels Brewery, which had been established by John Swindels, an Englishman, in 1854. Shortly after acquiring an interest in this establishment, Mr. Jones became sole owner, and such has been his excellent management of this enterprise, that to-day it is one of the most extensive ale breweries in America. Its growth and development was rapid and permanent. A large malt-house was added in 1863, a new brewery was built in 18;1, and in 18;9 a second and still larger malt-house was built, doubling the capacity of the plant, In 1st5 Mr. Jones still further added to his brewing interest by the purchase, with others, of the South Boston Brewery of Henry Souther & Co, It was operated as the Bay Street Brewery by the firm of Jones, Cook & Co., of which Mr. Jones was the head until 1889, when it was sold to the Frank Jones Brewing Company, limited. The success which had at- tended Mr. Jones in his business ventures naturally suggested his selection for political preferment, and in 1868 he was chosen mayor of Portsmouth, and was re-elected the following year, In this position he applied the same principles which had contributed to his private busi- ness success ; the expenses of the city were reduced and improvements of decided character and utility were prudently and economically car- ried on. His able management of city affairs to such a degree met the
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approval of the people, that in 1875 he received the Democratic nomina- tion and was elected to Congress, and in 1872 was re-elected to a sec- ond term over the Hon. Gilman Marston, one of the ablest and most popular Republicans in the State. Against his emphatic protest he was made the Democratic candidate for governor in 1880, and although defeated, he received the largest vote which had ever been east for a Democratic candidate. In the railroad development of New Hamp- shire, Mr. Jones has taken a very prominent part, having projected and built more miles of railroad in his native State than any other person. Since its incorporation he has been president of the Dover and Portsmouth Railroad; is a director of the Wolfborough Railroad, of which he was one of the projectors; was for many years a direc- tor of the Eastern Railroad; has been a director of the Maine Cen- tral for twenty years, and has been president of the great Boston and Maine system. The Upper Coos Railroad, over one hundred miles in length (including the Hereford), connecting north with the Quebec Central, making a through line from Boston to Quebee via the Boston and Maine and Maine Central railroads, through the White Mountain Notch, was built by him and his associates in less than one year after the grant of legislative authority Mr. Jones is also the owner of two great hotels, the Rockingham in Portsmouth, and the Wentworth in Newcastle. The former is a structure of his own design, a monument to his taste and enterprise, as its beauty and elegance is the pride of the city. The Wentworth was also planned by him and equipped under his direction.
The enterprise shown by Mr. Jones in his boyhood, says one writer, leaving thie farming town of his birth, entering the seaport city as a stranger, his indomitable will and courage, quickness of perception and rare judgment, have not only made him master of the situation, but enabled him to succeed in a career admired by his acquaintances, and of which he may well be proud. Noted for his liberality, he has never sought to cover up the adversities of childhood, and many a poor fellow has received from his hand material aid and kind assistance.
In his country place he has over one thousand acres of tillage land under a high state of cultivation, stocked with the finest cattle and horses. Maplewood Farm, as it is called, situated about one mile from Portsmouth, on Maplewood avenue, is probably the more productive in its yield than any other in the State. Here Mr. Jones spends most of his time during the summer months, while the Rockingham Hotel is his winter home. The present wise statutory provision, known as the
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BIOGRAPHIES.
" valued " policy law, affecting insurance business in New Hampshire, is largely the result of his persistent efforts. With him it originated, and through his well directed endeavors was passed to enactment. At the time of the passage of this law, fifty-eight foreign insurance com- panies were doing business in the State, Upon the departure of these companies he was among the foremost to organize reliable companies to take the place and business of the old ones that canceled their policies when the law passed. The Granite State Fire Insurance Com- pany, of which he is president, is doing business in nearly every State in the Union, and during 1891 was the third in the list in the volume of New England business, competing with one hundred and forty agency companies occupying this field. Mr. Jones was married Sep- tember 15, 1861, to Martha Sophia Jones, the widow of his brother, Iliram Jones, who died in July, 1859, leaving one child, Emma 1 .. now the wife of Colonel Charles A. Sinclair. Mrs. Jones is noted for her benevolence and hospitality.
CHARLES A. SINCLAIR.
Coxspierors in the field of railroad enterprises in New England has been the career of Hon. Charles A. Sinclair. He is a native of New Hampshire, and for many years has been a prominent factor in the polities of that State. In 1823 he was elected a member of the House of Representatives of New Hampshire, and twelve years later was elected to the State Senate, receiving the compliment of a re-election in 1888 and again in 1890, and is still serving as a member of that body. He was made colonel by Governor Weston, and served on his staff in 1811 and 1872.
Mr. Sinclair entered the railroad field in 1881. His first experience was with the Worcester, Nashua and Rochester Railroads, and early in 1884 it was found that he had secured control of that property. He was elected director of that corporation the same year and was subse- quently chosen president. On October 13, 1885, the road was leased to the Boston and Maine Railroad. He has always believed in and ad- vocated the idea of a grand consolidation of the railroad properties of New England that have since been so successfully brought together by leases and consolidations.
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SUFFOLK COUNTY.
Early in 1886 he began purchasing the stock of the Manchester and Lawrence Railroad; secured control, and was elected president at the annual meeting in December. On June 1, 1882, the road was leased to the Boston and Maine Railroad, Mr. Sinclair retaining the presidency, and now holds that office. In 1884 the Eastern Railroad was leased to the Boston and Maine, and repeated and persistent efforts were made to effect a consolidation of these properties. There was more or less friction between the two boards of directors, the matter of improve- ments and improvement bonds being a constant source of differences of opinion. In consequence, no progress in this direction was made until carly in 1889, when Mr. Sinclair, who had been quietly buying the stock, succeeded in purchasing in open market, with others, a con- trol of the stock of the Eastern Railroad, and at the annual meeting of the company in December of that year he was chosen a director. On May 9, 1890, the Eastern consolidated with the Boston and Maine.
Between 1884 and 1888 Mr. Sinclair, in company with others, built the Upper Coos and Hereford Railroads, and later was chosen a director of these roads. On May 1, 1890, both roads were leased to the Maine Central Railroad, a majority of which stock is owned by the Boston and Maine.
On December 11, 1890, Mr. Sinclair was chosen a director of the Boston and Maine Railroad; a week later was elected to the directory of the Maine Central Railroad. After a year's absence Mr. Sinclair again returned to the directory of the Boston and Maine in December, 1892, where his great energy and untiring zeal will be positive factors in its management.
Mr. Sinclair is a well known figure upon " the street," where his keen business knowledge, methodical methods and indefatigable energy have been long recognized and earned for him a position such as inspires trust and confidence. Besides his railroad interests he is interested in many enterprises. He is proprietor of the Quincy House and the Moulton Café in Boston; owns the Portsmouth Times, the leading newspaper of New Hampshire; is largest owner of the Morley Button Machine fac- tory; also largest owner of the Portsmouth Shoe Company, which em- ploys over 1,200 hands; is a director in the Frank Jones Brewing Company, limited, and a director in the Massachusetts National Bank.
Atur Match.
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649
BIOGRAPHIES.
ARTHUR ROTCH.
,
ARTHUR ROTCH, son of Benjamin S. Rotch and Annie Bigelow Law- rence, daughter of Hon. Abbott Lawrence, was born in Boston, May 13, 1850. He was fitted in Boston for Harvard University, which he entered in 1867 and was graduated in the class of 1821. He then studied architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and after a year of office work entered the École des Beaux Arts of Paris. Ile was one of the first Americans at that celebrated school to make a bold bid for honors, and carried off more than any of his contem- poraries. During the six years of his foreign studies he traveled widely, especially studying decorations. While studying the Arabian mosques in Egypt, he collaborated with Monsieur Arthur Rhone, the well known French writer, on his work on Egypt.
On his return to this country, Mr. Rotch began practicing archi- tecture with George T. Tilden, as the firm of Rotch & Tilden. The value of foreign study to young architects and the dreariness of a draughtman's career were deeply impressed on Mr. Roteh's mind during his experience abroad. These impressions found a ready re- sponse in the desire of his father to found some public charity, but the latter's sudden death left the matter unsettled. It became the filial duty of the children to found such a traveling scholarship as had been contemplated. With his brother and three sisters, in 1883 he founded the Roteh Traveling Scholarship, whose provisions annually send a student of architecture to Europe, there to study and travel for two years. Naturally Mr. Roteh has been the active trustee of this prize, and on him has devolved the framing and execution of the rules under which the student is selected. But this is not the only proof Mr. Roteh has given of his appreciation of his foreign studies. Filled with gratitude for the opportunities which the French government gives gratuitously to strangers, Mr. Rotch was one of the first to promote the foundation by American ex-students of the École des Beaux Arts of a Prize of Gratitude, which annually gives a traveling purse to a French student.
The firm of Rotch & Tilden has constructed many public and private buildings in Boston and throughout the country. Among them are the Art Museum and Art School of Wellesley College, gymnasium at Bow- doin, gymnasium, dormitory and library at Exeter, public libraries at Bridgewater, Eastport and Groton, churches of the Messiah and of the Holy Spirit, Boston, while their town halls, high schools and commer-
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SUFFOLK COUNTY.
cial buildings are scattered through many States. This firm was the first to revive the Colonial style for modern buildings, a style which so fully answers the requirements of modern life that it was immediately introduced throughout the length and breadth of the land. Mr. Rotch was the first to advocate the use of rough cast, which has since come into use and which led to the adoption of staff as the material of the Chicago Fair buildings.
Mr. Rotch was supervising architect of the Suffolk County Court House, and the conception of the grand central hall was entirely due to him. He is chairman of the Department of Architecture and one of the corporation of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a trustee of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and of the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary. He is a member of the Somerset, St. Botolph, Tavern and Art Clubs of Boston, and of clubs in several other cities. He was married in 1892 to Lisette De Wolf Colt.
As a painter in water colors Mr. Rotch is well known, having ex- hibited for a number of years in the Paris Salon, the Academy in London, as well as annually in the chief exhibitions in New York, Philadelphia and Boston, and was well represented in the Art Depart- ment at the World's Fair, Chicago. He is of a literary as well as artistic turn of mind. During his studies abroad he was a regular cor- respondent of the American Architect and an occasional correspondent of several daily papers, notably the London Daily News, for which he wrote up the situation in Turkey and Bulgaria after the Russian in- vasion. His professional work leaves him scant leisure, but he eon- tributes still occasionally criticisms and reviews of current art matters. For two years after he settled in Boston he delivered lectures on Deco- rative Art at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
FREDERICK H. PRINCE.
FREDERICK HENRY PRINCE is of an illustrious family, which as long ago as 1584 was prominent in England, living at that time in Shrews- bury, upon their estate known as "Abbey Foregate," John Prince being then rector of East Sheffield. In 1633 his son, Elder John Prince, came to this country and settled in Hull, Mass. His grandson, Thomas Prince, graduated from Harvard College in 1201, and in 1:16
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BIOGRAPHIES.
was ordained co-pastor with Dr. Sewell of the Old South Church in Boston. Mr. Prince's great-grandfather, James Prince, well known in his day and generation as a prominent merchant, was appointed by President Jefferson as naval officer of the Port of Boston, and after- wards as United States marshal for the District of Massachusetts. Mr. Prince is the son of Frederick Octavius and Ilelen (Henry) Prince, and was born in Winchester, Mass., November 30, 1860. His father is a distinguished ex-mayor of Boston, and for many years was secretary of the National Democratic Committee. Mr. Prince received his early education in public schools, and entered Harvard College in 1878, but left in 1880 to go into business. In 1885 he established the banking house of F. H. Prince & Co., and its carcer has been one of uninter- rupted prosperity. Mr. Prince has been interested in some of the heaviest financial undertakings in this country, among them the pur- chase from the Thayers, Vanderbilts and others, of the Union Stock Yard and Transit Company of Chicago, which he sold to a London syndicate for $23,000,000; the company is now known as the Chicago Junction Railways and Union Stock Yards Company. Mr. Prince is a director of the Chicago Junction Railways and Union Stock Yards Company, and interested in the direction and management of several corporations and railroads. He is a member of all the leading clubs in Boston and New York. In 1884 he married Abby Kinsley Norman, a daughter of George 11. Norman, of Newport, R. I., and has two chil- dren, Frederick and Norman.
COL. AUSTIN CLARKE WELLINGTON.
COL. AUSTIN CLARKE WELLINGTON was born in the historic town of Lexington, Middlesex county, Mass., July 12, 1840. His military in- stinet and love of martial characteristics were a family inheritance. He was a direct descendant of the men who on Lexington Common offered their lives to found this nation, and he proved worthy of his heroic ancestry. His great-grandfather. Capt. Timothy Wellington, with his brother Benjamin, participated in the battle of Lexington, Benjamin being the first prisoner of the Revolution captured by the king's troops on that eventful morning, but he escaped, and later rejoined his com- pany.
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