Men of Vermont : an illustrated biographical history of Vermonters and sons of Vermont, Part 111

Author: Ullery, Jacob G., comp; Davenport, Charles H; Huse, Hiram Augustus, 1843-1902; Fuller, Levi Knight, 1841-1896
Publication date: 1894
Publisher: Brattleboro, Vt. : Transcript Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 842

USA > Vermont > Men of Vermont : an illustrated biographical history of Vermonters and sons of Vermont > Part 111

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Mr. Hibbard was married, Sept. 17, 1867, to Josephine, daughter of Hon. Joseph and Sarah (Hurford) Jeffers. She died May 30, 1878, and he married Carrie Jeffers Harned, sister of his first wife. Of the first union there were three sons and one daughter, two of whom are living ; and of the latter union four sons, all living.

HIBBARD, HARRY, was born in Vermont ; graduated at Dartmouth College in 1835; was assistant clerk of the House of Repre- sentatives for New Hampshire in 1839 ; clerk of the same from 1840 to 1843 ; speaker of the House in 1844 and 1845 ; in the state Senate from 1846 to 1849; officiating two years as president ; and was a representative in Congress from New Hampshire from 1849 to 1855.

HIGLEY, EDWIN HALL, of Groton, Mass., son of Rev. Harvey O. and Sarah (Little) Higley, was born in Castleton, Feb. 15, 1843.

He received his preparatory education at Castleton Seminary, and then entered Mid- dlebury College, where he graduated in the class of 1868. For the next four years he studied music and philology in Boston and Cambridge, and from 1882 to 1884 at the Royal Conservatory of Leipsic, in Germany.

Though scarcely emerged from boyhood, he was inspired with the enthusiasm attend- ing the early outbreak of the war for the Union, and in 1861 he enlisted in Co. K, Ist Vt. Cavalry. During his service he was detailed as adjutant and as regimental com- missary and in the latter part of 1863 acted as brigade ordnance officer on the staff of Gen. G. A. Custer. During Kilpatrick's raid he commanded a section of Battery C, 3d U. S. Artillery and had the satisfaction of shelling the rebel capitol. He was wounded and taken prisoner June 29, 1864, after hav- ing participated in most of the cavalry en- gagements of the Army of the Potomac in the campaigns of Pope, second Bull Run, Gettysburg and the Wilderness. Exchanged March 1, 1865, he was commissioned captain of Co. K, and soon after brevet major for gallant and meritorious service during the war.

From 1868 to 1872 Major Higley taught music in Boston, Mass., and then accepted a professorship of German and Greek in Mid- dlebury College, where he remained ten years. After his return from Europe, he was teacher of music and organist in Worcester, Mass. In 1886 he came to Groton School as Greek and German instructor and as choir master and organist, which position he holds up to the present time.

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He married, June 2, 1870, in Middlebury, Jane S., daughter of Oliver and Jane (Shep- ard) Turner. 'They have one daughter : Margaret E.

HOARD, CHARLES B., was born in Springfield June 28, 1805 ; he was a mechanic and for several years in early life a clerk in a private land office at Antwerp, N. Y. He was postmaster under Presidents Jackson and Van Buren ; justice of the peace for sev- eral years ; a member of the Legislature of New York in 1838, and county clerk of Jef- ferson county, N. Y., in 1844, '45 and '46 ; was elected a representative to the Thirty- fifth Congress and was re-elected to the Thirty-sixth Congress.

HOLABIRD, WILLIAM HYMAN, of Oak- land, Cal., son of Oscar F. and Adelia A. (Pierson) Holabird, was born in Shelburne, Sept. 29, 1845.

Mr. Holabird availed himself of the educa- tional advantages afforded by the schools of Shelburne and the academy at Williston, and at the age of fifteen went to Missouri. His first occupation was as a newsboy on the Han- nibal & St. Jo R. R.

At the breaking out of the war he returned to Vermont and enlisted in Co. C, 12th Vt. Vols. and served out his term. He entered the navy as first-class fireman on the U. S. S. Monadnock in September, 1864. In Decem- ber of that year he was promoted to acting assistant paymaster. He was in the great naval engagement at Fort Fisher and resigned from the service in 1865 and went to Indiana. Later he went to Chicago, and was for a time in the employ of Marshall Field & Co., and J. V. Farwell.

Mr. Holabird began his railroad work in 1876, with the Penn. & Grand Rapids & Indiana Co., as general travelling agent. In 18So he went with the Atchison, Topeka & Sante Fe R. R., as special agent and for the past three years has been confidential agent of President Manvel of that system. During his connection with the Atchison system he has performed much important work in rela- tion to the company's lands and the location of new railroad lines.

In politics Mr. Holabird has been an act- ive Republican and while not aspiring to pre- ferment has generally represented his party as delegate to local conventions. He has also been prominent in various temperance organizations and Masonic bodies, including all orders of the Temple.

He married, June 9, 1870, Phebe J .. daugh- ter of Russell and Emeline (James) Dorr, of Middlebury, whose father is a descendant of the Puritans. They have three children : Russell D., Emma A., and Harrison G.

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HOLMES, ELIAS B., was born in Fletch er, May 27, 1807. He commenced life as a teacher, and at the age of twenty emigrated to Munroe county, N. Y., where he studied law and was admitted to practice ; in Con- gress from New York, from 18.15 to 1849.

HOPKINS, CASPAR THOMAS, late of San Francisco, Cal., was the third son of the Right Reverend John II. Hopkins, first bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church in Vermont, and of Melusina Muller, his wife, was born at Allegany Town, Penn., May 18, 1826. His father was a native of Dublin, Ireland, and arrived in the United States at the age of eight years. His mother was born in Germany. Her father, once a wealthy shipping merchant, having been im- poverished by the Napoleonic wars, emi- grated to the United States in 1812, when his daughter was thirteen years old, and settled at Zelienople, Penn. In 1832 the father of the subject of this sketch, having been elected Bishop of Vermont, took up his residence in the beautiful town of Burling- ton, and there his family of thirteen children were educated.

Bishop Hopkins will long be remembered in Vermont for his indomitable energy and industry, his varied talents, his peerless ex- pression of his often peculiar opinions, his unselfish and self-sacrificing devotion to duty, and his powerful will. In no respect were his opinions more peculiar than on the subject of education, and all his children were necessarily deeply impressed by those peculiarities. They were never sent to any public school until the boys were old enough to enter college, but the good bishop opened a school of his own, embarking his entire property and all he could borrow in the erection of the old Vermont Episcopal Insti- tute, which was located just south of the then village of Burlington, and a part only of whose buildings now remain. In this school there were no vacations, no plays, no relax- ation from alternate study, work, and church attendance, except on Saturday afternoon. Severe discipline, and frequent punishment with the rod or black strap were the only inducements to effort-emulation, rewards, and even marks being strictly excluded. The teachers were nearly all theological students, the great object of the school being to train up clergymen for the church. For several years it was well attended, but the hard times of 1838-'39 caused the with- drawal of so many of the pupils that the school closed its doors, and bankruptcy resulted.

Caspar was then fourteen years old and had been fitted to enter college two years previously, besides receiving a good ele- mentary training in music and French. But

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it was now necessary for the boys to go to work. A farm of one hundred acres of rocky land, now known as Rock Point, and the site of the present Vermont Episcopal In- stitute and Bishop Hopkins Hall was bought for the bishop by an old Pennsylvania friend. Here the boys went to work, learning by daily practice, under the constant lash of the severest poverty, all those varied prac- tical lessons which have proved New Eng- land farm life the best of preparations for snecess in after years. Four years of farm- ing, wood chopping, mechanical work, qnar- rying, building, and boating, while the even- ings were devoted to solid reading (no novels being allowed in the house) and Sun- days to church and sacred music, laid broad and deep the foundations of a hard-working, industrious and energetic character. 'The education thus begun was completed by the full four years' course in the University of Ver- mont, during which Caspar supported himself by playing a church organ Sundays, tuning pianos, and lecturing. He was graduated second in the class of 1847, without having cost his father a dollar, and entirely free from debt ; the $500 he expended for board, clothing and college bills during the four years having been earned by himself.

In the month of December, 1848, the California fever broke out, and he was one of the first Vermont boys to catch the in- fection. On New Year's morning, 1849, he left home for New York with $5 in his pocket, and found himself June 10, 1849, in San Francisco without a dollar, ragged, badly afflicted with land scurvy, and $600 in debt. He came by the Mexican route as a member of the United Pacific Gold Co., of which he was elected captain while at the City of Mexico. His first three years in California were marked by the same risks, adventures, sudden changes of fortune, hardships, and romantic but unprofitable experience com- mon to the great majority of the "Argonauts."

In 1850, in connection with Herman Win- chester and H. J. Paine, he organized the famous "Samuel Roberts Expedition," which first explored the Rogue and Umpqua rivers in Southern Oregon. Hopkins' widely pub- lished description of that region caused its first settlement by Americans.

In December, 1851, he secured a position in the custom house which he held three years. Through favorable influences and thrifty habits he was enabled at the end of this time to return to New York, with the view of raising capital there to undertake fire and marine insurance in San Francisco. Finding it impossible however to get the necessary money he attempted to secure agencies of American companies to compete with the few English concerns, then doing business in California, which had formed a

Mo Hopkins

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close monopoly. New York companies had not then learned the principles of scattering their business through distant agencies, how- ever, and he returned to accept employment at Sacramento, with a sub agent of an Eng- lish company. After two years of remarkable success he returned to San Francisco and ac- quired a third interest in the insurance firm of MeLean & Fowler, who had represented some old Hartford companies with indifferent success. Mr. Hopkins developed their busi- ness at once to large proportions. Finding a great opportunity to establish a marine in- surance business he withdrew from the firm, and consummated his favorite plan by organ- izing the California Mutual Marine Insurance Co., in February, 1861, with a capital of $200,000, of which he was secretary. Suc- cess came from the start, and in 1864 the re- incorporation as the California Insurance Co., adding fire business to its risks, took place. In 1866 Mr. Hopkins became the president of the company, retaining this business until his retirement from active business life in 1885. He was now in a position where his natural energies and varied education were directly brought to bear not only upon the interests of his company, but on those of Pacific coast underwriting generally.

His good judgment brought large profits to his stockholders, and his persistent refusal of Eastern business doubtless saved an im- mense loss in the conflagrations of Chicago and Boston in 1871, which ruined so many companies. Mr. Hopkins was a moving spirit in the organization, in 1864, of the Board of Marine Underwriters, and wrote the "iron-clad" constitution of the Board of Fire Underwriters.

In 1868 and 1869 he was secretary of the chamber of commerce and worked out its reorganization on the present basis. His efforts were instrumental in securing light- houses and signals on the Pacific coast. He advocated and drafted the law creating the office of insurance commissioner in 1866, and for many years he worked unceasingly to establish the insurance business of the Pacific coast on a firm basis. He promoted the Merchants and Ship Owners Steam Tug Co., which destroyed the towage monopoly. He wrote the pamphlet entitled "Sugges- tions to Masters of Vessels in Distress " which was reprinted by the Australian un- derwriters, and by Lloyds committee in Lon- don. Mr. Hopkins found time for numer- ous tasks in the broader field of general good, and wrote in 1871 a "Manual of American Ideas." He was also the presi- dent of the California Immigrant Union in 1870 and 1871, the precursor of the efficient Immigration Society. He promoted and was president of the Pacific Social Science Association. He was a prominent member

of the famous committee of one hundred which uudertook to curb the power of the Southern Pacific R. R. He was a valued contributor to local periodicals on serious subjects. Throughout his life in California he was an ardent member and worker for the Unitarian Church, and helped to organ- ize and establish the now flourishing church of that denomination in Oakland. He raised $20,000 for this church, and his personal infhience secured also a fine organ for it, which he played gratuitously for five years.

The above is but a faint outline of Mr. Hopkins' labors for public good and far from complete. His disposition was to be useful without other motive than to be a power for good in the community where he lived. He never pointed out evil except for the sake of abating it. On his retirement from business and from San Francisco to Pasadena in July, 1885, both branches of the insurance pro- fession tendered him a handsome acknowl- edgement of his great services, at a com- plimentary luncheon, and presented him with an elegant service of plate. At Pasa- dena he soon recuperated his waning strength and became actively engaged in building operations and the culture of fruits and in town matters. He contributed large numbers of volumes to the Library Asso- ciation, as well as a large amount of money for its building.

Mr. Hopkins married, in 1853, Almira Burnett, daughter of Daniel Burnett, a New York capitalist. Mrs. Hopkins died in 1875, leaving six children. In 1877 Mr. Hopkins married Mrs. Jane E. Taylor, of Glaston- bury, Conn.

He was indebted for his success to his own native abilities, assiduous self culture, indomitable persistence and commendable self-reliance.

He knew how and when to say "No." In early life he made his choice between popularity and usefulness, and armed and equipped with innate honesty and integrity he fought for his principles with good courage. It was this characteristic above all others which made him a marked man in a com- munity where wealth was God-and where the pubilic did not question methods, so long as wealth was attained. Mr. Hopkins died at Pasadena, Cal., Oct. 4, 1893. Mrs. Hopkins, three daughters and a son survive him.

HOPKINS, GEORGE WESLEY, of San Francisco, Cal., son of Enos Daniel and Sally Knight (Titus) Hopkins, was born in Bethel, Oct. 18, 1852.

He was educated in the common schools of his native town and the St. Johnsbury Academy. At the age of eighteen he be- came bookkeeper for E. & T. Fairbanks &

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Co., which position he held four years. He then engaged as bookkeeper in the Frst National Bank at St. Johnsbury, remaining there one year. In 1875 he moved to Cali- fornia and for two years was an accountant in the general office of the Southern Pacific R. R. Co. Subsequently mercantile and fire insurance business occupied his attention until 1883, when his health failed and he was compelled to leave San Francisco. Mov- ing to Los Gatos, he engaged in fruit grow- ing, and after two years regained his health. He then returned to San Francisco to take charge of the wholesale produce and com-

GEORGE WESLEY HOPKINS.

mission business of Getz Brothers & Co., occupying this position for two years. He next formed a partnership with Nathan C. Carnall in the real estate business, known as the Carnall-Hopkins Company, a corpora- tion of which Mr. Hopkins was vice-presi- dent. He has been instrumental in effecting some of the most important transfers in both city and country real estate known in the history of California. Early in 1894 Mr. Hopkins withdrew from this firm and has since engaged in the same line of business without partners.

In December, 1878, he conceived the idea of forming a society of the sons of his native state, and with that end in view, inserted notices in the daily papers inviting native Vermonters to meet at the Palace Hotel. This movement resulted in the organization, Jan. 6, 1879, of the " Pacific Coast Associa-

tion, Native Sons of Vermont," which is to-day one of the most flourishing social societies on the Pacific coast. Mr. Hopkins was the first secretary of this association, and held that office until he left the city, on account of illness, in 1883. He is now one of its vice-presidents. Much of the success of this association during its early history was due to the indefatigable exertions and good management of Mr. Hopkins.

October 18, 1877, Mr. Hopkins was mar- ried to Miss Francisea Amelia Schafer, daughter of John F. and Annie M. Schafer. They have had four children : Lillian Vida, Florence Pearl, George Wesley, Jr., and Annie Francisca (deceased).

HORR, ROSWELL G., of East Saginaw, Mich., was born at Waitsfield, Nov. 26, 1830 ; removed with his parents, when four years of age, to Lorain county, O., where he passed his early years ; graduated at Antioch College, the fall after his graduation was elected clerk of the court of common pleas of Lorain county, and was re-elected in 1860 ; at the close of his six years' clerkship he was admitted to the bar, and practiced law two years at Elyria, O .; in the spring of 1866 removed to Southeastern Missouri, where he was engaged in mining for six years ; removed in the spring of 1872 to East Saginaw, Mich., where he now resides : is at present a lumberman and has been engaged in that business a large portion of his time since his residence in Michigan ; was elected to the Forty-sixth Congress as a Republican and received other elections to Congress.

HORTON, VALENTINE B., was born at Windsor, Jan. 29, 1So2; was educated at Partridge's Military Academy, and after that institution was removed to Middletown, Conn., he became a teacher therein. He studied law at Middletown, and was admitted to the bar in 1830, after which he removed to and practiced his profession in Pittsburg. He removed to Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1833, where he followed his profession for two years, and in 1835 removed to Pomeroy, Ohio. He was a member of the Ohio Con- stitutional Convention of 1850, and in 1854 he was elected a representative to the Thirty- fourth Congress, and was re-elected to the Thirty-fifth and Thirty-seventh Congresses. In 1861 he was a member of the peace con- gress held in Washington.

HOSFORD, JEDEDIAH, was born in Vermont, and having removed to New York, was elected a Representative in Congress from that state from 1851 to 1853.

HOUGHTON, HENRY OSCAR, of Cam- bridge, Mass., son of William and Marilla

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( ( lay ) Houghton, was born at Sutton, April 30, 1823.

At the age of thirteen he became an ap prentice in the office of the Burlington Free Press, and laid the foundation of his future career as the head of America's greatest publishing house, the Riverside Press, of Houghton, Mifflin & Co. His brother at this time ( 1836) was in college at Burling- ton, and, listening to his advice, he deter- mined to acquire a thorough education. At the age of nineteen he entered the Univer- sity of Vermont, possessed only of a sub- stantial preparation and dauntless resohi- tion. Graduating after four years, he spent some time in proof-reading and reporting on the Evening Traveler of Boston, before he discovered his life work as a master printer. In 1849 he joined Mr. Bolles in establishing a printing office in Cambridge, Mass. The business was soon removed to the present site of the Riverside Press, on the banks of the Charles river, and from

HENRY OSCAR HOUGHTON.

the first Mr. Houghton was its controlling spirit. The business continued an uninter- rupted career of success, characterized by the publication of works that satisfied artis- tic feeling as well as literary sense, and be- came by various alliances possessed of valu- able plates and the literary accumulations and franchises of a half a century, collected by leading firms. Among these treasures were privileges covering the works of an un- equalled galaxy of the "fixed stars" of American literature.

A record of the publications of the River- side Press will show a greater proportion of the works which make up the best literature of America, than can be found in the publi- cations of other publishers.

" Do it well or not at all," has long been the motto of Mr. Houghton, and that senti- ment is built into the very corner stone of the Riverside Press. It is hard to exaggerate the influence for good which this establish- ment has exerted upon the world of letters and consequently upon the world of men. A high purpose, followed through a series of years, does not fail to accomplish high re- sults.

Mr. Honghton's social life, from the fact that by necessity he is thrown into con- fidential relations with many of the bright- est men and women of the era, is most charming.

He was president of the Boston Vermont Association for eight years.

Mr. Houghton was married, Sept. 12, 1854. His children are : Henry Oscar, Jr., Elizabeth Honis, Alberta Manning, and Justine Frances.

HOWARD, CHARLES WEBB, was born in Cabot, Jan. 23, 1831. His father, The- ron Howard, was a lawyer of good repute and for some time district attorney. His mother was Calista Webster.

Mr. Howard had the usual experience of a New England boy of that period, who be- longed to an intelligent, well-to-do family, good opportunities at school, high school and academy, with genial care and sym- pathy at home. His early inclination to af- fairs and business was manifest. Before he was of age he had a more than common ex- perience of clerkship, partnership and man- agement, and in 1852 he was in Galveston, Texas, for the repair of broken health, hav- ing given up business. Health restored, the spirit of enterprise awakened, California offered a brilliant field. On the 22d of January, 1853, he sailed from New Orleans for San Francisco via Grey-Town, the San Juan River and San Juan, Nicaragua. On the western coast he was washed ashore from a burning ship, in which catastrophe more than two hundred lives were lost. After tedious delays and hardships he ar- rived in San Francisco on the Ist of April, 1853.

Circumstances brought him into intimate relations with the late Oscar L. Shafter, a native of Vermont, and judge of the Supreme Court of California. He married Judge Shafter's eldest daughter, Emma, in 1862.

The Shafters (the Judge and his brother, James McM. Shafter) owned the Point Reyes ranch, a domain of about 70,000 acres, in Marin county, Cal. Mr. Howard's rela-

Chatseth Howard

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tions with Judge Shatter quickened his mind and kindled his ambition, and in 1865 he re- tired hom trade and became part owner and manager of the ranch. fis administration of that property involved many interests public and private, from leasing lands to the building of railroads. It was a field for or- ganizing and executive ability. During this period Mr. Howard traveled in Europe. On his return in 1874, he was associated with the purchase and management of the Spring Valley water works, which supplies the city of San Francisco. Upon the transfer of this property to the new owners in January, 1874, he was elected president of the corporation and has held that office continuously since. The administration ofits affairs and property, valued at $25,000,000, requires accurate knowledge, a faculty for general oversight, careful deliberation, quick decision, patience, firmness and courtesy. Mr. Howard, by natural endowment and experience, unites these qualities in an unusual degree.

More than is common among men of busi- ness, he retains that flexibility and teachable- ness, that can receive suggestions, modify opinions and carry acquired knowledge and experience into new circumstances without that rigidity of mind that in so many men becomes a conceit of knowing and cannot be taught.

The public and private relations of the corporation of which he is president are con- tinuously increasing, affording a school of wisdom, discretion and honor, and a theatre for their display. In the first Mr. Howard has been an apt learner, and upon the last a successful actor.

Mr. Howard was united in marriage, Jan- uary, 1862, to Emma, daughter of Judge Oscar L. and Sarah R. Shafter. Their children are : Oscar Shafter, Theron, Maud, Charles Webb, Jr., Frederick Paxson, and Harold Shafter.

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Men of Vermont : an illustrated biographical history of Vermonters and sons of Vermont, Part 111

Author: Ullery, Jacob G., comp; Davenport, Charles H; Huse, Hiram Augustus, 1843-1902; Fuller, Levi Knight, 1841-1896 Publication date: 1894 Publisher: Brattleboro, Vt. : Transcript Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 842

Author: Ullery, Jacob G., comp; Davenport, Charles H; Huse, Hiram Augustus, 1843-1902; Fuller, Levi Knight, 1841-1896
Publication date: 1894
Publisher: Brattleboro, Vt. : Transcript Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 842