USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > The story of the Irish in Boston, together with biographical sketches of representative men and noted women > Part 19
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also commissioned him as Bandmaster-General and Chief Musician of the State of Massachusetts, clothing him with the authority to enlist musicians for military service. He recruited bands for the Department of the Gulf, under command of Major-General Banks, and, upon request of the State authorities, went in charge of those bands to New Orleans. While there, General Banks gave him the position of director of all the musical organizations connected with the department. At New Orleans he was as energetic as ever, and projected the plan of having a chorus of ten thousand school children and five hundred musicians, with infantry and artillery accompaniments, in a grand national concert, to aid in the inauguration of Michael Hahn, the first governor of Louisiana elected under the Union administration, March 4, 1864, just before the close of the war. Notwithstanding the prejudice of the parents, the "Star-Spangled Banner" was sung by ten thousand Southern children, and the success of the affair in every way was made complete. Later he returned to Boston and inaugurated a series of concerts, introducing to the public Madame Legrange, Gazzamuyi, Johannsen, Frederich, Guerrabella, Carlotta, Patti, Adelaide Phillips, Camilla Urso, Teresa Carreno, Brignoli, Stigelli, Carl Formes, and others. In 1868 he was invited to arrange a ball and series of concerts at Crosby's Opera House, Chicago. In 1869 he carried through successfully the great National Peace Jubilee in Boston, at which there was a chorus of ten thousand voices and one thousand musical instruments, the attendance numbering about sixty thousand persons daily. He also engineered with masterly skill the gigantic Music Jubilee of All Nations, 1872, which was partici- pated in by a chorus of twenty thousand voices and two thousand musical instruments. Never before in the world's history had there been such a gathering of musicians, and the attendance was estimated at about one hundred and twenty thousand daily. The executive committee gave Mr. Gilmore $50,000, as a present, at the close of the jubilee. About 1873 he left Boston and took up his residence in New York, where he organized the Twenty-second Regiment Band, which is now considered the best military band in the country.
GOV. THOMAS TALBOT.
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In recent years the band, under the direction of its accomplished band-master, has given concerts in all the principal cities of this country and Europe, and during the summer months of each year render a high order of sea-shore music at Manhattan Beach, New York.
GOV. THOMAS TALBOT.
Thomas Talbot was born in Cambridge, N.Y., Sept. 7, 1818 ; died at Billerica, Mass., Oct. 6, 1885. . His parents were both natives of Ireland, who, shortly after marriage, immigrated to this country. The father was a weaver, and first obtained employment at his trade in Cambridge, N.Y. The family moved about from place to place, and finally located in Northampton, Mass., where the subject of this sketch was sent to work, at the age of thirteen, in the carding-room of a woollen factory in the town. When he had earned money enough he secured what schooling privileges the vicinity allowed, studying fully as faithfully as he had worked. In the meantime, two of his brothers, Charles P. and Edward, had embarked in the business of the manufacture of broadcloths, in Williamsburg, and the family subsequently removed to that place, where Thomas accepted a situation in their mill. Through assiduous attention to his duties, and a marked fidelity to the advancement of the interests of his employers, he rose rapidly in their esteem and confidence, and, . when twenty years of age, was given the overseership of the finishing- room. During the winter terms of 1838 and 1839 young Talbot managed to attend Cunningham Academy, which was the only high- school experience, and the last educational opportunity of the kind, that he was favored with. In the spring of 1839 he went to Pitts- field, where he worked for a short time as a finisher of broadcloths for the Pontoosuc Manufacturing Company. In December of that year his brother Charles removed from Lowell to North Billerica, rented an old grist-mill, and transferred his business of grinding dyestuffs to that place. Shortly after, he invited Thomas to join him, and the brothers associated themselves in business, under
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the style of C. P. Talbot & Co. The business was a success from the start, and in 1851 the firm was enabled to purchase the water-power of the Middlesex Canal Company of that town. This investment proving to be a very advantageous one, the brothers increased their business in 1857 by the erection of a new mill for the manufacture of woollen flannels. In 1848 Mr. Talbot was united in marriage to Miss Mary Rogers, of Billerica, who died three years later. He remained a widower until 1855, when he formed a second union, with Miss Isabella W. Hayden. Mr. Talbot first entered public life when thirty-three years old, and from that time he was often called upon to fill positions of honor and trust, until he became the chief executive of the Commonwealth of Mas- sachusetts. At the fall election in 1851 he was chosen to represent the Billerica district in the Legislature, and in 1852 he was elected as a member of the convention to revise the constitution of the State, in both of which positions he made an excellent record. In 1864 Mr. Talbot was elected a member of the Executive Council. For five consecutive years he held that honorable position in association with Governors Andrew, Bullock, and Claflin. There he enjoyed the most abundant opportunities for acquainting himself with all the affairs of the State, and in those years proved himself to be one of the best of councillors. In 1872 he received the Republican nomi- nation for Lieutenant-Governor, the ticket being headed by Hon. William B. Washburn. The ticket came off victorious, and Mr. Talbot was reelected the following year. During the session of the Legislature of 1874 Governor Washburn was chosen to fill the vacancy in the Senate of the United States caused by the death of Mr. Sumner, and from the Ist of May in that year until Governor Gaston was inaugurated, Lieutenant-Governor Talbot was the acting-gov- ernor of the State. Soon after he assumed the duties of the guber- natorial office, the ten-hour law was presented to him for approval, and he readily gave his signature to the act, which has since been the law of the State. For the next three years he devoted himself principally to his manufacturing business. In 1878 Mr. Talbot was nominated by the Republicans of the State as their candidate for
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Governor, and in a bitter political contest defeated his opponent, Gen. Benjamin F. Butler, the Democratic candidate. The record of Governor Talbot's administration was a brilliant one, and in every public act he showed himself in favor of economy and retrenchment, and in strong opposition to all unnecessary expenditure of public money. He also approved the bill to extend to public charitable and reformatory institutions the provisions of an act of 1875, which provided the inmates liberty of worship according to the dictates of their conscience. After rendering efficient service to the State as governor during 1879, Mr. Talbot retired to private life, and con- tinued his usefulness in the community as mill-owner and em- ployer.
THE MILMORES.
Joseph Milmore, sculptor, was born in Sligo, Ireland, Oct. 22, 1842, and died in Geneva, Switzerland, Jan. 10, 1886. His residence in Boston dates back to the time of his infancy, and he was a pupil at the Brimmer and Quincy Grammar schools. During his boyhood he was apprenticed to a cabinet-maker. He disliked the occupation, and afterwards became a marble-cutter, and developed an admirable taste for architectural work. He and his brother Martin associated themselves, and together they executed the " Sphinx," now in Mount Auburn Cemetery, and designed and executed the statuary on Hor- ticultural Hall building in Boston. A large number of soldiers' monuments were done by these talented brothers, and they stand in many places throughout the country, including the one on Boston Common, which cost $80,000, and is the most noteworthy of all.
Martin Milmore, sculptor, was born in Sligo, Ireland, Sept. 14, 1844, and died in Boston Highlands, Mass., July 21, 1883. He came from Ireland to Boston in 1851, and was taught lessons in wood-carving, when quite young, by his elder brother, Joseph. Martin graduated from the Latin School in 1860, and afterwards entered the studio of Thomas Ball. Many years later he established himself in his own studio in Boston. He cut a statuette, entitled "Devotion," for the Sanitary Fair in 1863, and
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received the contract from the city for the Soldiers and Sailors' Monument on the Common. He then sailed for Rome, where he spent some time in study, completing designs for parts of the monu- ment while there. It was unveiled in 1877. Mr. Milmore led a very busy life while in Rome, modelling the busts of Pope Pius IX., Wendell Phillips, Charles Sumner, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and other eminent men. He designed the soldiers' monument at Charlestown, and also the one at Forest Hills Cemetery. His works include busts of Longfellow, Theodore Parker, and George Ticknor, in the Public Library, and the large ideal figures, " Ceres," " Flora," and " Pomona," in granite, on Horticultural Hall. His bust of Charles Sumner, which was presented to George William Curtis by the State of Massa- chusetts, after the delivery of the latter's eulogy before the Legislature in 1878, has been placed by Mr. Curtis in the Metropolitan Museum.
Among Milmore's other public works are his statue of " Amer- ica," at Fitchburg; his statue of Gen. Sylvanus Thayer, at West Point; and the "Weeping Lion," at Waterville, Me. His last work was a bust of Daniel Webster, which had been ordered by New Hampshire for the State House at Concord.
HON. WILLIAM PARSONS.
He was one of the best representatives of the Irish race that has crossed the Atlantic to the Western World. By his scholarship, vigor of thought, and chastity of expression, he had everywhere attracted and captivated the intellectual classes, and with them was the accepted favorite of the platform. At the same time his elo- quence and genial humor made him a source of universal attraction. Everywhere he lectured he was recalled, without a single excep- tion. He had the most brilliant record ever achieved in this country by any transatlantic literary orator. He was engaged every night throughout the lecture season in the different large cities of this country, when not bent on European travel.
He was the only European lecturer who had held his American audiences for a consecutive number of years. For nearly twenty
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years he had regularly come to America, and his rare eloquence was welcomed by large audiences in all our cities. He was a lecturer of the first order, an orator who ranked with the greatest names of the lyceum, - eloquent, graceful, learned, witty, and im- pressive, - an Irishman proud of his country and devoted to her cause.
Mr. Parsons be- longed to the ancient Protestant house of Par- sons, Earls of Rosse, and was closely related to the well- known constructor of the great telescope, the late Earl of Rosse, president of the British Association, whose name may be associated with those of Franklin, Arago, Humboldt, and the great luminaries of the philo- sophic fields of science. He was born at Clontarf, near Dublin, in 1823, and received his education at Millian Pardon the Academy of Edin- burgh under Dr. Wil- liams, the famous Hom- eric scholar, the friend and associate of Sydney Smith, founder of " The Edinburgh Review." He graduated at the University of Edin- burgh, under Professor Wilson, the "Christopher North" of "Black- wood," and the erudite Pillans ; subsequently entering Lincoln's Inn, London, to prepare for the bar. He was then engaged on one of the leading metropolitan newspapers, and on many occasions con- tributed papers of eminent ability to the magazine literature of the day.
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Following the natural bent of his tastes and talents, he devoted himself to the lecture platform of Great Britain and Ireland, where he at once achieved a signal success, and became, perhaps, the most popular public lecturer in the United Kingdom. Meanwhile, the national movement taking place for an extension of the franchise, eventuating in Mr. Disraeli's bill for household suffrage, Mr. Parsons entered the political arena, where he became a stanch supporter of the people's rights, and one of the most powerful advocates of the reform. Here he attracted the attention of the leading men of the popular cause, and of its chief inspirer, John Bright, who was so struck by the peculiar force and vivacity of his style as to emphati- cally declare that Mr. Parsons' oratory electrified his hearers. The Reform League considered him as by far their most effective speaker, and always placed him where they anticipated the strongest oppo- sition to their views. As an evidence of the appreciation in which he was held, he was earnestly solicited to put himself in nomination as a candidate for a seat in the British Parliament, to represent one of the Yorkshire boroughs. At Bradford, England, he was held the champion of the workmen, who frequently testified their gratitude for his advocacy of their cause.
There was a novel power and freshness in his style, eminently his own, which rendered it captivating to his hearers; the treatment of his subject, whether literary or political, was picturesque and lucid. He had a keen sense of humor and a poetic fancy, and, above all an earnest sincerity pervaded the varied graces of an accomplished, speaker. Illustration and anecdote were poured forth with consum- mate skill, throwing light and shade upon the topic under consideration. In the description of natural scenery he was graphic in the extreme. In the close and analytical delineation of character Mr. Parsons exhibited rare power, and portrayed his principal figures in a manner life-like and vivid.
When but recently arrived, a stranger in this country, he had ready acceptance at once yielded to him from the American press, vying with the eulogies of the press of their transatlantic brethren.
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The New York "Herald," in its report of his debut in the Cooper Institute, said : -
He spoke without notes or manuscript, and with a vigor, fluency, and beauty of language that evoked repeated rounds of applause, such as is rarely heard in the Cooper Institute. His peroration might very well answer for a classic model of scholastic declamation.
He brought to this country the most cordial commendations from distinguished Englishmen and leading British journals. His great popularity in the New England States is well known ; in Boston he lectured eighty times, and wherever he spoke in the West and Middle States, as well as in the East, he was invited to return the following season ; and he was repeatedly recalled in the same course.
Mr. Parsons died in the city of Boston. The deceased passed away on the evening of Jan. 1, 1888, aged 65 years. Throughout the United States the name of " Hon. William Parsons, of Ireland," as he was usually announced, was mourned.
In his last illness, which was brief, confining him only a few days, he asked for the services of a Catholic priest, saying, "My mother was a Catholic, and I want to die in her religion." He was attended by a good priest, who was also his old friend, Rev. Denis O'Callaghan, of St. Augustine's Church, South Boston, whom he wished to hear his confession; and before his death he received from his hand the sacraments of the Church.
PATRICK DONAHOE.
Patrick Donahoe, the founder of the "Pilot " and the Nestor of Catholic journalism in New England, was born in Munnery, Parish of Kilmore, County Cavan, Ireland, March 17, 1814. He came to this country in 1825, and located in Boston. After a few years' schooling here, while still in his teens he entered the printing-office of the "Columbian Sentinel," where he acquired the art of type- setting and other branches of the business. The prejudice was very great against Irish Catholics in those days, and amounted to almost
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an exclusion from the social circle. There were but few Catholics in Boston at that time, and only one little church to accommodate the Catholics for miles around. In no way discouraged by the prevail- ing proscription, however, the youth fought his way until he reached manhood, all the time having in view the establishment of a paper to defend his religion and race; and the opportunity finally arrived.
"The Jesuit," a paper established by Bishop Fenwick, of Boston, was about to be discontinued, and Mr. Donahoe, with Mr. Devereaux, secured the paper, and changed the name to the "Literary and Catholic Sentinel." This paper did not prove successful, however, and was subsequently abandoned. Repulsed, but not defeated, Messrs. Donahoe and Devereaux, in a few years later, again began the publication of another Catholic paper, the Boston " Pilot," which, under his management, reached a popularity probably not surpassed by any Catholic or Irish paper on the continent. At the breaking out of the Civil War Mr. Donahoe took an active part in the organization of the Irish troops for the defence of the Union. He was treasurer of the funds for equipping and preparing the gallant old Irish Ninth Massachusetts Regiment, com- manded by Col. Thomas Cass, for service, and on the day of their departure presented the regiment with ten bags of gold, each con- taining one hundred gold dollars, - one gold dollar for each man. .
He also assisted in the formation of the Faugh-a-Ballagh, Twenty-eighth Massachusetts Regiment, and aided the boys at Camp Cameron, Cambridge, during the early period of the war. His paper, the " Pilot," also took a leading part in encouraging and sustaining the Federal cause.
Mr. Donahoe accumulated a large fortune, notwithstanding he gave away large sums to various charitable purposes; to one institution alone, in Boston, he gave not far from ten thousand dollars. In 1872, St. John's Church, on Moore street, this city, was offered for sale, the congregation having purchased another on Hanover street. He saw the great need of a school in that section of the city, and purchased the building, and made it over to the Rt. Rev. Bishop Williams. On this estate he paid some six or
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seven thousand dollars, interest on the original purchase, $20,000. His intention was to pay the purchase-money, and he probably would have done so were it not for the great fire and other financial disas- ters. There is now a flourishing school in the building, of some nine or ten hundred children (girls), under the charge of the good Sisters of Notre Dame. Scarcely a church in New England that did not receive of his bounty. The poor priest from Ireland experienced his charity and hospitality. The American College at Rome, Mill Hill College, England, for the education of priests for the colored race, and other foreign institutions, partook of his charity.
The great fire in Boston, in November, 1872, destroyed his splendid granite block, which cost to erect $150,000. His book stock, stereotype plates, etc., to the value of $100,000, were destroyed. Mr. Donahoe had a fine catalogue of Catholic works, and books relating to Ireland. All were swept away in a few hours. The building was one of the finest in the city. This was a terrible blow. The work of a lifetime swept away by the fire fiend! A few weeks after the great fire, Mr. Donahoe was burnt out a second time; his bookstore on Washington street was de- stroyed in May, 1873.
Nothing daunted, Mr. Donahoe commenced to erect a suitable place for his business, and built a large and commodious structure on Boylston street, which he occupied in seven or eight months after the great November fire.
The severe financial losses which he incurred, however, were so extended that he was compelled to fail in business shortly afterwards. In addition to his large newspaper and publishing business, he had previously opened a private bank, where he took money on deposit. At the time of his failure he was indebted to depositors to the amount of $73,000. His Grace Archbishop Williams came to the rescue, and purchased a three-fourths interest in the " Pilot."
He placed it under the editorial and business management of John Boyle O'Reilly, and from that time forward yearly instalments from the earnings of the paper were paid to the depositors, until 1883, when the full principal was returned. The business adversity
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which Mr. Patrick Donahoe was subjected to was due to many un- fortunate causes.
He was in the habit of assisting his friends by indorsing their paper, to enable them to carry on their business, and in this way he lost about $250,000. In the great Boston fire he lost over $350,000. To these may be added the losses of two other fires, which took away all his surplus capital. He had still the means to pay every dollar he owed; but when the panic came, and the friends who had lent him money to carry on his business were forced to call in their assets, he was compelled to go under. The " Pilot" office and book- store, that cost, with fixtures, nearly $140,000, sold for $105,000, and the journal (worth $100,000), the machinery of which cost over $38,000, sold for $28,000. And so it was with his residence, and other property which he had mortgaged after the fires to enable him to carry on his business, - they shrunk in value so that they did not realize what they were mortgaged for.
Mr. Donahoe was twice married, first on Nov. 23, 1836, and four children were the result of this union, one of whom survives. His second marriage occurred April 17, 1853; he has since be- come the father of three sons and one daughter, all of whom are living.
He has filled many positions of trust. He was one of the Board of Directors for Public Institutions for nine years, President of the Emigrant Savings Bank, President of the Home for Desti- tute Catholic Children, etc. The latter institution is partly indebted ยท to him for the splendid building now situated on Harrison avenue, East Concord, and Stoughton streets.
He is at present engaged in the passenger and foreign exchange business, in which he has been interested for upwards of forty years. This was the only branch of his business that he was able to save from the wreck of his vast enterprises.
He also publishes "Donahoe's Magazine," which has attained a very large circulation, and is increasing in favor with the Irish people at home and abroad.
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THOMAS D'ARCY McGEE.
A poet, orator, and statesman of brilliant mind was Thomas D'Arcy McGee. He was born at Carlingford, County Louth, Ire- land, April 13, 1825. When very young he was left an orphan, and was cared for by his relatives in Ireland. After he had received a limited course of study in the ordinary day-schools of Wexford, he came to the United States, with his sister, in his seventeenth year. When he arrived here, in June, 1842, the agitation of the Repeal Movement was exciting the pa- triotism of his countrymen in America, and although but a mere boy in years he exerted much influence in behalf of the cause.
The Fourth of July came, and it brought to his poetic mind the grandeur of free America. On that day he was present at an assemblage of his countrymen. THOMAS D'ARCY McGEE. He was called to the front; and his speech fairly carried the house by storm. His brilliant words and impassioned eloquence earned for him the title of "the boy orator."
A few days later he was offered a position on the Boston "Pilot," and in less than two years he became its editor-in-chief, being then but nineteen years of age. The Native-Americanism movement then ran rampant, and our young editor's powerful pen and eloquent tongue attacked the un-American and unmanly insult, and every part of New England echoed with his scathing denunciations. In the Repeal agitation, McGee was actively interested, his editorials on the Irish question were masterly specimens of a gifted mind. In the old
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country his people were attracted and encouraged by them, and Daniel O'Connell paid him a public tribute of praise.
He left Boston during the agitation to fill the editor's chair of the Dublin "Freeman," one of the ablest papers in Ireland, be- ing then only twenty-two years of age. The policy of the paper was tame, much unsuited to the mind of McGee, who transferred his duties to the "Irish Nation," the organ of the Young Ireland party, where he met a staff of brilliant editors, and every man a star, -- Davis, Duffy, Devin, Mitchell, and Reilly. What a galaxy! Per- haps no other paper ever had such a talented corps of brilliant men attached to it as the "Nation" of McGee's day.
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