USA > Vermont > Men of Vermont : an illustrated biographical history of Vermonters and sons of Vermont > Part 116
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OLDS, EDSON B., was born in Vermont, and a representative in Congress from Ohio, from 1849 to 1855. In 1862 he was for a short time imprisoned in Fort Lafayette for supposed disloyalty, and while there con- fined, he was elected a member of the Assembly of Ohio, having previously served six years in the state Legislature, and has been speaker of the Senate.
OTIS, JOHN GRANT, of Topeka, Kan., was born in Danby, Feb. 10, 1838, took an academic course at Burr Seminary, attended one year at Williams College, and one year at Harvard Law School ; was admitted to the bar of Rutland county in the spring of 1859 ; removed to Kansas in May, same year, and located at Topeka, where he has since re- sided ; took an active part in recruiting the first colored regiment of Kansas in 1862; was a member of infantry company in 2d Regt. of Vols. at the time of Price raid ; was an ardent supporter of Abraham Lincoln ; since the war closed has been a most un- compromising Greenbacker and advocate of a new American monetary system in the inter-
est of the industrial classes ; for over twenty years has been engaged in dairy business near Topeka; has been a member of the Grange for eighteen years ; is also a member of the Farmer's Alliance and Industrial Union ; was state agent for the Grange from 1873 to 1875, and the state lecturer from 1889 to 1891 ; has always supported prohi- bition and equal suffrage ; was elected to the Fifty-second Congress as a People's Party candidate.
OLIN, ABRAHAM B., was born in Shafts- bury in 1812 ; graduated at Williams College in 1835 ; commenced the practice of law at Troy, N. Y., in 1838; was for three years recorder of the city of Troy, and was elected a representative to the Thirty-fifth Congress from New York; re-elected to the Thirty- seventh Congress also. In 1863 he was ap- pointed by President Lincoln a judge of the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia. His father, Gideon Olin, was in Congress from Vermont during the administration of President Jefferson. [See Part I for a sketch of Gideon Olin. ]
PAGE, FRANK WILFRED, of Boston, Mass., son of Lemuel W. and Susan G. (Saunders) Page, was born in East Wilton, N. H., August 24, 1843.
His father being a native of Burlington, he returned with his parents to Burlington when two years of age, after having also lived with them a short time in Boston, Mass. He was educated in the private schools of Burling- ton and at the Union high school or Bur- lington Academy, entering the University of Vermont in 1860, and graduated therefrom in the class of 1864, receiving the degree of A. B. and that of A. M. in 1869. He began the study of medicine during his junior year in college, and after graduation continued the study of medicine in the office and under the tutelage of the late Dr. Samuel White
Thayer. He attended lectures in the medi- cal department of the University, and at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York City, graduating from the former in June, 1866.
He began the practice of his profession in St. Peter, Minn., where he remained one year. Returning in the fall of 1867 he associated himself in partnership with Dr. Olin G. Dyer, of Brandon. For nearly eleven years he continued in the active duties of his profession in Brandon. While a resident of Brandon he became interested in educational and kindred matters, and for several years was chairman of the town school board. Becoming interested in ner- vous and mental diseases, on May 1, 1878, he gave up private practice to accept the
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position of first assistant physician on the medical staff of McLean Asylum for the Insane, at Somerville, Mass. On retirement of the medical officer in charge, June 1, 1879, he became superintendent, a position he relinquished in December to open for the managers, Feb. 1, 1880, the new Adams Nervine Asylum, an institution situated at Jamaica Plains, Mass., and founded by the late Seth Adams, a wealthy sugar refiner, for the benefit of nervous people not insane. He remained in charge as superintendent and resident physician until May 13, 1885, when, after making the institution a great
FRANK WILFRED PAGE.
success, he declined a re-election. The managers in their report for 1855 said of him : "He has had charge of the asylum during the whole period of its active exis- tence, more than five years, and its useful- ness and great success are largely due to his professional skill and his faithfulness, energy and administrative capacity. The managers desire to acknowledge the indebtedness of the institution to him for his valuable ser- vices, and to wish him a prosperous and successful future."
On his retirement from the superintend- ency of the Adams Asylum he was elected one of the board of consulting physicians, a position he still holds. Since May, 1885, he has been engaged in the practice of his specialty, that of nervous and mental dis- eases, in the city of Boston. In 1889 he was elected by the trustees of Danvers Hos-
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pital for the Insane a member of the board of consulting physicians.
Dr. Page was married, in August, 1870, to Annah Amelia, daughter of Dr. Olin G. Dyer, of Brandon. She died in Boston, Sept. 11, 1892.
He is a member of various medical socie- ties, and in polites is naturally a staunch Republican.
PARKER, A. X., of Potsdam, N. Y., was born in Addison county in 1831 ; removed to Potsdam, N. Y., at an early age ; gradu- ated from St. Lawrence Academy ; read law and commenced practice at Potsdam in 1856 ; was a member of the New York Assembly in 1863 ; was postmaster under President Lin- coln ; was state senator in 1867,-'69, and the first elector-at-large upon the Republican ticket in 1876 ; was a member of Congress in 1883. He still practices his profession at Potsdam.
PARKER, GEORGE H., of Watertown, South Dakota, son of Orrin C. and Julia (Dickinson) Parker, was born at Montgom- ery, April 5, 1841.
GEORGE H. PARKER.
He was educated in the common schools and at Black River Academy at Ludlow, and the New Hampton Institute at Fairfax where he studied for the ministry.
Mr. Parker was ordained to the Baptist ministry at Montgomery Center, Jan. 31, 1866. He served as pastor for varying pe-
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Hods of one to five years at Berkshire Center, Pamton, Felchville, Grafton, and North Troy, at the latter place serving two pastorates cov- cung a penod of seven years. During these long terms he did much active and valuable work organizing churches and securing need- ed accommodations and members. At East Franklin and South Jay he organized churches and at the latter place assisted in the erce- tion of a church edifice. In 1886 he settled in Watertown, South Dakota, and served with marked success for three years.
in 1876-7 he was a member of the Legis- lature from the town of Reading, Vi., and served on the committee on state prison. Again from the town of Troy he was elected in 1884, serving on the committee on educa- tion and took an active part in all work. In 1890 he was elected county superintendent of schools, for Codington county, South Da- kota. He was again elected on the Repub- lican ticket in 1892, receiving the largest vote ever cast.
Mr. Parker enlisted at Bakersfield, August 26, 1861, as corporal of Company A, 5th Regt. Vi. Vols., and was with the charge at Lees Mills, in the battle of Williamsburg and the Peninsula campaign ; was severely wound- ed in the Seven Days fight before Richmond at Goldens Farm. He was a prisoner at Belle Isle and released August 3 and dis- charged by reason of his wounds in 1863.
Mr. Parker was twice commander of Bailey Post, G. A. R., North Troy, and of Freeman Thayer Post, Watertown, S. D.
He was married at East Enosburg, Au- gust 14, 1864, to Arvilla E. Davis, daughter of Talmon K. and Emma J. Davis, who died April 23, 1873, leaving three children. He was again married Nov. 14, 1874, at Wethers- field to Minerva E. Mitchell, daughter of James and Dolly Mitchell.
PARKER, ISAAC AUGUSTUS, of Gales- burg, Ill., son of Isaac and Lucia (Wood) Parker, was born in South Woodstock, Dec. 31, 1825.
His early life was spent upon the farm and in acquiring such an education as the dis- trict schools of the time afforded, and at sev- enteen he was a teacher in the common schools in the vicinity of his native place. Fitting for college at the Black River Acad- emy, Hancock (N. H.) Scientific and Literary Institute (in which he taught mathematics at the same time), and the Green Mountain Liberal Institute, he entered Dartmouth College in 1849 and graduated with the class of 1853. Mr. Parker while in college was a member of the Alpha Delta Phi Society and at graduation was elected a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society.
Soon after his graduation he accepted the principalship of the Orleans Liberal Institute
at Glover, which he successfully filled for five years. Hon. W. W. Gront, S. C. Shurtleff, O. 1 .. French, and others, who have attained posi- tions of influence, were students in the institute under his instruction. In 1858 Mr. Parker re- signed his position to accept a larger field of activity and became professor of ancient lan- guages in Lombard University and held this position for ten years, when he was elected Williamson professor of Greek in the same in- stitution and still holds this position. Profes- sor Parker has been for more than thirty-five years connected with Lombard University and is recognized on all sides as one of the leading instructors of the country, always striving to inculcate habits of industry and teaching young people to depend upon their own resources for that success in life which is the aim of every young man.
ISAAC AUGUSTUS PARKER.
Dr. Parker is a member of the board of trustees of the Galesburgh Public Library and was honored with the degree of Doctor of Philosophy from Buchtel College, Akron, O., in 1892.
February 18, 1856, Mr. Parker was married to Sarah A., daughter of William and Par- thena (Whitmore) Labaree of Hartland. Of this union were two children : Izah T., de- ceased, and William A., a civil engineer in Chicago. Mrs. Parker deceased in June, 1889.
PARKER, MYRON M., of Washington, D. C., was born in Fairfax, in 1843, son of
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Melvin V. and Emeline (Story) Parker ; grandson of Robert and Sophia Cross Parker ; great-grandson of Robert Parker, a private in the Revolutionary army ; grandson of Elija and Cressy Story ; great-grandson of Elija Story of Fairfax, a soldier of the Revolution ; great-grandson of Joseph and Persis Wheeler Cross (Joseph Cross who died in 1850, at the age of 103, served at Lexington and Bunker Hill) ; great-grand- son of John Cressy, a native of Connecticut, who served with the Continental army at Brooklyn, White Plains, Brandywine, Ger- mantown, and Yorktown.
MYRON M. PARKER
Young Parker was preparing for college at the breaking out of the war, when he left school and enlisted in the ist Vt. Cavalry, with which command he served until the close of the war, and his record as a soldier is one of the most brilliant. He located in Washington, and in 1865 he received an ap- pointment in the War Department, where he served several years.
In 1876 he graduated from the law depart- ment of the Columbian University, and has ever since taken a lively interest in that in- stitution, donating annually to the post- graduate class the "Myron M. Parker" prize. In 1879 he was appointed assistant postmaster of the city of Washington. He was secretary of the Washington committee on the ceremonies incident to the laying of the corner stone of the Yorktown monument. He was grand master of Masons in 1884-'85
PARKER.
and officiated as such at the dedication of the Washington monument. He was chair- man of the triennial committee to receive and entertain the Grand Encampment Knights Templar of the United States at its twenty-fourth conclave held in Washington. He is the grand representative of the Grand Lodge of Ireland and the Grand Lodges of Pennsylvania, Virginia and Delaware. He was a member of the executive committee having in charge the inauguration of Presi- dent Garfield, and was vice chairman of the inaugural committee for President Harrison ; he was also chairman of the committee on civic organizations, and was marshal of the fifth division in the inaugural parade. At the second inauguration of President Cleve- land he was a member of the citizens' com- mittee, and was a special aid on the staff of General McMahon, the chief marshal.
Like nearly all Vermonters Mr. Parker is a Republican, and during the second cam- paign of President Harrison was appointed on the advisory committee of the national committee.
He has always been interested in the ad- vancement of Washington and has taken a leading part in all public enterprises, con- tributing largely of his time and means. He was one of the promoters of the proposed constitutional convention in 1889, the World's Columbian Exposition in 1892, and was one of the three selected to present the claims of Washington before the committee of Con- gress. He is secretary of the Washington Memorial Association.
Mr. Parker has been an enthusiastic ex- ponent and believer in the future greatness of Washington, and has been closely identi- fied with her growth. In 1880 he actively engaged in the real estate business, meeting with great success, his annual transactions running into the millions, and in which he has massed a fortune. He has been identi- fied with many of the financial institutions. He is also a director in the Columbia Na- tional Bank, the American Security and Trust Co., the Columbia Fire Insurance Co., the Columbia Title Insurance Co., the Eck- ington and Soldiers Home R. R., the Atlantic Building Co. and the United States Electric Light Co. He was vice-president of the Brightwood R. R., and in charitable insti- tutions is a director in the Washington Hospital for Foundlings, the Training School for Nurses, and the Emergency Hospital. He was one of the organizers of the Wash- ington Board of Trade, and for several years was its president.
In 1876 he married Miss Nellie L. Gris- wold. They have four children, three girls and one boy, and reside on Vermont avenue.
Mr. Parker retains all his old time affec- tion and loyalty to his native state, has
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always fetamed interests there, and pays annual visits to his home in Cambridge, where his mother and only brother and sister reside.
Mr. Parker was appointed by Governor Fuller a delegate at large to the National Ship Canal Convention in 1893.
Mr. Parker was appointed by President Harrison commissioner of the District of Columbia on Feb. 14, 1893, and is at present serving his term of office.
PARMELEE, EDWARD CARROLL, of Denver, Colo., son of Lucius and Ann Wal- lace Parmelee, was born at Waterbury, May 16, 1835.
Mr. Parmelee was educated at the public schools of his native town and at Johnson Academy and during his younger days was a clerk in the village store. Seeking to widen the field of his operations he went West in the spring of 1853 and for the past thirty years has been extensively engaged in mining and in abstract business.
The esteem in which Mr. Parmelee is held by his fellow-citizens is shown by the import- ant positions given him at various times. In 1872 he was a member of the Territorial Legislature from Clear ('reek county ; and from 1878 to 1882 he held the office of post- master at Georgetown.
Mr. Parmelee is prominent in Masonic circles, holding the title of Grand Secretary, F. & A. M., from 1866 up to the present, and also of the Royal Arch Masons since 1875. He is also Grand Recorder of the Knights Templar, holding the office since 1876, and has received the 33d degree, Scottish Rite.
PARTRIDGE, GEORGE, of San Fran- cisco, son of Oramel and Lucy (Capron) Partridge, was born in Randolph Centre, August 22, 1829. His father was a native of Norwich, and a relative of Capt. Alden Part- ridge, first superintendent of West Point, and founder of Norwich University. His mother was born in Williamstown.
In his boyhood he learned the trade of his father, a leading manufacturer of furniture and sleighs. His mechanical tastes led him into an adventure, when seventeen years old, which proved a serious episode in his life, and changed his future plans. For diversion he made a printing press, though he had never seen one, and printed a paper called the Autumn Leaf. After three issues he made a larger press, got more type, and launched the Enterprise, with the help of a few boys. The editors were the late Rev. G. V. Max- ham and Prof. Truman H. Safford, then in their teens, the latter then a prodigy in mathematics. This was printed one year, about one thousand circulation. It was suc- ceeded by The Nonpareil, but unable alone
PARTRIDGE.
to carry the undertaking, he arranged its printing in Hartford, Conn., with an edition at both places. It was edited by D. W. Bartlett, since noted in journalism, and W. H. Burleigh. It was a beautiful monthly quarto, its writers eminent in literature, and had a large circulation, but lived only one year, ending 1850. This interesting period of his life is narrated to make a record of the press of Randolph.
GEORGE PARTRIDGE.
During this play with type and papers, which proved very serious work, Mr. Part- ridge fitted for college at the village academy, improving vacations with the profound law- yer and scholar, William Nutting, and in 1850 entered Amherst College, graduating in 1854. He went at once to Alabama as a private tutor. The next year he was professor in Tuskegea Female College, and then principal of Hous- ton (Tex.) Academy, the first graded high school of that city. In 1859 he settled in St. Louis as a lawyer, having qualified mean- time and been admitted to the bar. When the war began, it was his fortune to be ap- pointed by General Fremont as attorney of the first military commissions organized by him for the trial of some two hundred rebel pris- oners. This done he was appointed to sim- ilar duty in the department of the provost marshal general for Missouri, being promoted to assistant. He had special charge of the cases of the prisoners in the famous Gratiot prison. This position he held under Fre-
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mont, Halleck, Schofield, Curtis and Ketch- um, retiring in 1863.
During his residence in the South he wrote letters for the Springfield Republican on Southern life and politics, and also in St. Louis a current history of the war in Mis- souri, in all eight years connected with that paper as correspondent. In 1872 he was nominated by the Republicans of St. Louis for the Legislature.
In 1865 he became interested in the petroleum industry, desiring a more active life, and put down nine wells in Kentucky and Ohio, only one yielding oil and that the heavy grade practically worthless for want of market. At this juncture he visited Ran- dolph, in 1866, and placed a few barrels with mills and notably induced the incredu- lous Vermont Central R. R. to risk ten gal- lons. This was the first petroleum lubricat- ing oil ever used in Vermont. In a few months it became universal. He returned to St. Louis, introduced it there, and also the first high test burning oil, erecting the third refinery west of Cleveland, and built up a large wholesale trade. When, in 1877, the Standard Oil Co. secured nearly all the refineries in the United States he sold his refinery to that company, and soon after retired from the oil business. He then en- gaged in silver mining in Leadville, Col., erected a smelter and became as proficient in mining as he had been in oil. He is now engaged in oil and mining business in San Francisco. He is vice-president of the Pacific Coast Vermont Association.
In 1860 he was married to A. Augusta Thompson, of West Avon, Conn., who became widely known for her Sunday school writings and work. They have four daugh- ters : Jennie, Alice and Grace (twins), the latter now Mrs. Ira C. Hays, and Nellie, all residing in San Francisco.
PEARSONS, DANIEL KIMBALL, of Chicago, Ill., was born in Bradford in 1820. His mother was a descendant of Israel Put- nam.
He was educated in the common schools and at sixteen years of age began his career as a school teacher, which he continued five years. With the funds saved he took a medical course at Woodstock, Vt., and he practiced medicine in Chicopee, Mass., until 1853. In 1857 he went to Illinois and engaged in farming, but removed to Chicago and engaged in real estate business and soon acquired a reputation as a financier.
He was elected alderman of the first ward in Chicago. While in this capacity through pledges on behalf of the city and himself he secured a large loan at the East, much needed by the city, which was in a deplor-
PEARSONS.
able financial condition, and thus restored the credit of Chicago.
Dr. Pearsons is one of the shrewdest busi- ness men in that city and a man of great benevolence as well, devoting the same at- tention to his benevolence as to his business ; in all he has given over $1,000,000. His first great gifts to educational institutions were in recognition of the Christian ministry of the primitive New England stamp, the founders of academies and colleges, and the leaders of elevated public opinion. His career of giving began in 1887 when he gave the McCormick Theological Seminary $50,000 to establish a permanent fund in aid of
DANIEL KIMBALL PEARSONS.
young men studying for the ministry. To the Presbyterian Hospital he donated $60,- 000, besides superintending the construction of the building. He gave $100,000 to Lake Forest and $100,000 to Beloit College, and at an expense of $25,000, built Chapin Hall, afterwards giving the college $100,000 as a single gift. He has since erected Pearsons' Science Hall for the same institution at a cost of over $60,000. Taking into account the rise in value of real estate donated by him to Beloit, his benefactions may be esti- mated at $200,000. Dr. Pearsons gave Knox College $50,000, and at last com- mencement offered a like amount on con- dition that the directors should raise $200,- ooo in two years. In the spring of 1892 Dr. Pearsons became interested in the life and labors of the late Dr. Ward of Yankton Col-
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lege, South Dakota, and offered the trustees of that college $50,000 with which to con- struct a hall to bear the name of Dr. Ward, on a condition which they easily fulfilled ; a similar offer of $50,000 was made to Colo- rado College, and still another of $50,00o to Drury College.
Dr. Pearsons has been an extensive trav- eler within his own and in foreign lands. He has visited Europe three times and but recently returned from Egypt.
Dr. Pearsons is a director of the Chicago City Railway Co., the American Exchange National Bank and other financial institu- tions of Chicago. His favorite investments have been in real property. He purchased large tracts of timber lands in Michigan which yielded immense profits. Dr. Pear- sons is the original founder of the society Sons of Vermont in Chicago. He was the fourth president of the society, always a prom- inent advocate and influential adviser in mat- ters of interest to Vermonters and the Vermont society. A quotation or two from Dr. Pear- sons' speech, at the fourteenth annual ban- quet of the society, might serve as an illustra- tion of what his experience has been : "The successful men of the country are not those whose cradles were rocked by hired nurses, and who never knew an ungratified wish as children ; they are those who as boys did chores for their keep, and were glad to get the job; laid stone wall, ploughed rough fields and fought their way through school and college poorly clad, fed and housed." Speaking of some of the successful men of Vermont, Dr. Pearsons said : "They went from the hills and from the meadows of Ver- mont with muscles toughened, not by the use of the oar, but that of axe and plow, and with wits sharpened by the privations of their boyhood." In closing, Dr. Pearsons made the following characteristic remarks : "Grit makes the man, the want of it the chump ; the men who win lay hold, hang on and hump."
Dr. Pearsons was married in 1847 to Miss Marietta Chapin, of Massachusetts, a woman of the true New England type, who enters heartily into her husband's method of benev- olent work. She presides with womanly grace over his elegant and happy home in Hinsdale, one of Chicago's beautiful suburbs.
PERRY, AARON F., was born at Leicester, Jan. 1, 1815 ; received a common school and academic education ; studied law at the Yale Law School ; practiced at Columbus, and af- terwards at Cincinnati ; was a member of the state House of Representatives of Ohio in 1847 and 1848 ; and was elected a represen- tative from Ohio in the Forty-second Con- gress as a Republican.
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PERRY, DANIEL, of Maysville, Mo., was born in Wardsboro, Nov. 8, 1839, the son of James T. and Amy ( Willis) Perry.
Daniel was reared on the farm of his par- ents, and attended the district schools, se- curing a good education when a boy. He afterward attended the Westminster Acad- emy and Powers Institute at Bernardston, Mass., and later the Albany Law School at Albany N. Y., graduating in 1868.
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