Archive:One of a Thousand

John Clark Rand, One of a Thousand: A Series of Biographical Sketches of One Thousand Representative Men Resident in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, A.D. 1888-'89 (Boston, MA: First National Publishing Company, 1890).

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[Charles Follen Adams (1842-?)] received a common school education, and leaving the grammar school in Dorchester at fifteen years of age, went as a boy into the well-known house of N. D. Whitney & Co., Boston, to learn the business. He was afterwards salesman in the same house, then went into business for himself with John D. Clapp, under the firm name of J. D. Clapp & Co.

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ALLEN, THOMAS, son of Thomas and Anne C. (Russell) Allen, was born October 19, 1849, at St, Louis, Mo.

He was educated at the high school, Pittsfield, Mass., at the Williston Seminary, Easthampton, and then entered the Washington University, St. Louis, Mo., after which he studied art at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, at Düsseldorf, Germany, where he graduated from the master class in 1878, and afterward studied three years in France.

He first exhibited his work in New York, at the National Academy of Design, in 1877, and has been represented in the National Academy at almost every exhibition since then. In 1882, and several times since, he exhibited pictures at the Paris Salon.

He returned to this country in 1882, and in 1884 was made an associate of the National Academy of Design. In 1880 he was elected a member of the Society of American-Artists. His specialty is landscape and animal painting.

After nearly ten years of foreign study, he opened his studio in the Pelham Studio on Boylston Street, Boston; not finding it sufficiently commodious, however, and meeting with marked success as a painter, he purchased a house on Commonwealth Avenue, in 1883, for a permanent home, and there built a large studio at the top of the house which he now occupies.

Mr. Allen was first married in 1880, in Northampton, to Eleanor the, daughter of Prof. J. D. and Louisa (Goddard) Whitney of Cambridge, who left him one child: Eleanor Whitney Allen. In 1884, in Boston, Mr. Allen married Alice, daughter of Hon. Ambrose A. and Maria (Fletcher) Ranney, of Boston. Their only child is Thomas Allen, Jr.

Mr. Allen is president of the Paint and Clay Club, vice-president of the Boston Art Club, patron of the Metropolitan Museum, N. Y., and a member of the permanent committee of the School of Drawing and Painting at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.

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CARR, Alonzo AUGUSTUS, was born June 7, 1836, in Hudson, Middlesex county.

His early education was received in the common schools of Fitchburg and Ashby, with the exception of one term in New Ipswich Academy.

While a young man, he taught school in the towns of Gardner and Ashby. He held a clerkship in Beaufort and Charleston, S. C., from 1864 to 1866. In 1866 he, with Henry C. Wilder, bought of R. S. Simonds, in Ashby, a tub and pail manufactory, under the firm name of Carr & Wilder, continuing in business together until 1881. He has since carried on the business alone.

Mr. Carr was married in Ashby, January 12, 1870, to Hattie M., daughter of William and Fanny L. Whitney. This union has been blessed with a family of six children: Blanche L., Bertha G., Helen F., Lawrence Whitney, Arthur W., and Myron A. Carr.

Mr. Carr served as representative to the General Court in 1874 and 1883. He has been selectman, town clerk, and superintendent of schools. He is president of the Soldiers' Memorial Association, and has been a member of the church finance committee, and an officer in the Sabbath-school of the Congregational church, of which he is a member.

Mr. Carr enlisted in the ist Massachusetts cavalry, September 25, 1861, and served three years in North and South Carolina, Florida, and Virginia. He was in Gen. Grant's army at the siege of Petersburg, Va., and was subsequently honorably discharged at the expiration of his term of service.

His father and mother are living, the former aged eighty and the latter seventy-five.

Mrs. Carr's father is still living at the advanced age of ninety-one, and is father of Myron W. Whitney, the celebrated basso of Boston.

The subject of this sketch, with his wife, brother, sister and aged parents, all living quite near each other, may be mentioned as a pleasant family circle, exceptionally beloved in each other's life.

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His educational training was acquired in his native town, with the exception of two terms in Master Whitney's then well-known evening school in Harvard Place, opposite the Old South Church, in the city of Boston.

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[Frederick Augustus Currier (1851-?)] was connected with Whitney Opera House for three years, as business manager.

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[James Robert Dunbar (1847-?)] . . . . In 1874 he formed a partnership with M. B. Whitney, of Westfield, in the practice of law, having previously studied with him and having spent six months at the Harvard law school.

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FLETCHER.

FLETCHER.

2I9

during the summer months being engaged in farming.

Mr. Flagg was married in Needham, November 15, 1827, to Eliza, daughter of Benjamin and Sarah (Mrown) Hall. Mrs. Flagg died April 7, 1875, aged seventy-three years. Of this union were three children: Charles Henry (deceased), George H. P. and Charles G. Flagg.

Mr. Flagg has been honored above most of his fellow-citizens, by being called to occupy every important office in the gift of the town — town clerk thirty-eight years, town treasurer twenty-one years, selectman five years, representative to the General Court two years (1834 and 1861), assessor twenty years, and member of the school board twenty-eight years.

It is largely due to the unostentatious lives of such conscientious, reliable citizens that Massachusetts holds her proud lire-eminence in the character and stability of her cherished institutions.

FLETCHER, ASA A., son of Nalmr and Chloe Fletcher, was born in Mendon, Worcester county, June 23, 1823. He attended district schools from ten to thirteen weeks in winter until seventeen years old. This, with six months' high school attendance, closed his school life.

11 is first connection in business was as traveling salesman in the boot and shoe interest. He traveled in Ohio, Indiana, and Michigan, carrying his samples on horseback, as was the custom in those days, depending upon horse-teams to distribute merchandise, and taking in payment the produce of the farm, or the paper money of wild-cat banks, with which the country at that time was flooded. The venture was not a success, owing mainly to the heavy exchange on New York, reaching at times twenty per cent.

Returning home, he found employment in a boot manufactory, where he remained seven years, the last few years as foreman.

Failing health compelled him to change his business. He removed to Uxbridge and engaged in the boarding, hotel, livery stable, and butchering business. After five years of success, he sold out the business and removed to Franklin; engaged in hotel business five years; sold out again,and spent the three following years in Chicago and Toledo, engaged in the straw business. This, also, was a financial success. Selling out his interest, he returned to Franklin, and again took up hotel business, with which he continued to be successfully identified until 1870, when he engaged in

Dean Academy as steward, where he remained twelve years.

He has been selectman, assessor, and overseer of the poor, holding one or more >

ASA A. FLETCHER.

of those offices continuously for sixteen years, and is more or less engaged in town business, which, with the cultivation of a small farm, makes up his present vocation. He is director and vice-president of the Franklin Savings Bank, director of the Franklin Water Company, and a member of F. & A. M., and I. O. O. F.

Mr. Fletcher was married in Manchester, Conn., in October, 1847, to Harriet E., daughter of William and Ede Durkee. Of this union were two children : Austin U. and a daughter, deceased.

FLETCHER, Daniel W., son of Rufus R. and Sarah M. (Whitney) Fletcher, was born in Groton (now Ayer), Middlesex county, Feb. 1, 1852.

His early education was limited to district schools. At the age of thirteen, his father needing the aid of his boy's hands to contribute to the family support, he secured work in R. T. Bartlett's clothing store. He attended school the following winter, and the fall and winter of 1866-'07 at Lawrence Academy, Groton, working in the store nights and mornings, and during vacations.

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In the spring of 1867 Mr. Bartlett took him as apprentice to learn the trade of custom-cutting. He learned his trade in the five years following, and took charge of the business, working until September, 1879, making nearly fourteen years in the same employ.

In the summer of 1879 he bought out the stock of a general clothing and furnishing goods, boot and shoe store in Ayer, in company with E. D. Stone, under the firm name of Fletcher & Stone, where he still continues the business.

In 1874 Mr. Fletcher was married to Emma A. Phelps of Ayer. They have four children: two sons und two daughters.

In 1881 he was made a director of the Townsend National Bank, receiving deposits at Ayer. He helped to organize the First National Bank of Ayer, and on November 1, 1883, was chosen vice-president and one of the directors. In 1885 he helped to organize a savings bank in Ayer, called the North Middlesex Savings Bank, and was chosen trustee and auditor.

Some of the public interests of the town are usually in his hands, and he is treasurer of several private organizations.

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... after carrying on the law business for a time alone, formed a partnership, in October, 1879, with CLB Whitney, under the firm name of Gaston & Whitney. ...

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Eight children have blessed this union : Alice Knowlton, Marion Breed, Helen Whitney, Orianna Phillips, James Randolph, Stanley Breed, Henry Bass, ...

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... a lineal descendant of Roger Conant, who first settled at Salem, in colonial days, and who was the daughter of Levi and Anna (Whitney Mead) Conant. ...

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He is president of the Whitney Safety Fire Arms Company ; president of the Northampton board of trade ; director in the Florence Furniture Company ...

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Of this union were four children : Imogene Willis, Beulah Sinclair, William Edwin and Leona Whitney Hixon. WILLIAM S HIXON. Mr. Hixon served three years in ...

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... NICHOLAS WINFIELD SCOTT, son of Nicholas and Deborah (Whitney) Leighton, is a native of Auburn, Androscoggin county, Maine, moved from there at two ...

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Of this union were five children: Mabel S. (deceased), F'rederick Joseph Hallett, George Whitney, Eliza Chamberlain, and (¡race Murray Mansfield. ...

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He immediately entered the office of Charles Whitney, the city engineer of Roxbury, and has ever since been connected more or less with that line of study ...

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Mr. Merriam was married in Westminster, June 8, 1841, to Salome, daughter of Asa and Dolly (Whitney) Holden. Of this union were six children : Stilman F., ...

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On the 1 2th of September, 1870, at Lancaster, Mr. Nourse was married to Mary B. (Whitney) Thurston, daughter of John and Mary B. (Holt) Whitney. ...

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Frederick O. Prince was prepared by Abel Whitney for the Boston Latin school, which he entered in 1827, graduating in 1832, receiving the Franklin medal and ...

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RICE, CHARLES J., son of Benjamin and Lucy (Whitney) Rice, was born in New Gloucester, Cumberland county, Maine, July 2, 1832. The common schools gave him ...

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Benjamin and Lucy (Whitney) Rice, was born in the old historic town of Deerfield, Franklin county, March 7, 1826. His collegiate education was acquired at ...

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WHITNEY, GEORGE, son of Amos and Sophia (Harris) Whitney, was born in Royalston, Worcester county, Sept. 21, 1817.

His education was limited to the common school. In 1839 he engaged in the chair business.

In 1860 Mr. Whitney became interested in the manufacture of fancy cassimeres. His business at present embraces both the manufacture of woolen goods and chairs.

In 1840 he was married in Boston, to Eliza S., daughter of David and Elizabeth Simpson. They have one child: George Ellis Whitney.

Mr. Whitney was a member of the executive council under Governors Washburn, Gaston, and Rice, from 1872 to '77.

WHITNEY, Henry Martyn, was born at Winchendon, Worcester county, August 21, 1828. He is the son of Hananiah and Sarah (Beaman) Whitney.

He received his early education in the public schools of Lowell, to which place his parents removed when he was two years old.

His first connection with business life was in the counting-room of the Massachusetts Cotton Mills at Lowell, at fifteen years. He went in to fill a temporary vacancy for two weeks, and remained twenty months, during which he attended evening school.

He then entered the drug store of Carleton & Hovey, agreeing to remain with them five years. Not satisfied with the excellent common school education he had received, he took a course in the languages and mathematics by private instruction.

During his apprenticeship he received several excellent offers of partnership, which he refused, feeling in honor bound to stay the term agreed upon. One of these offers remained open to him, and at the expiration of that time (1849), the firm of Wilson & Whitney was organized at Lawrence in the location he has ever since occupied. In two years he bought out Mr. Wilson, and for several years carried on the business alone.

During his mercantile life he has employed a great many young men, and as he ever maintained and inculcated the same spirit of honor in business that he manifested during his apprenticeship, he has the proud satisfaction of knowing that every living past employee of his is now doing well; and they are noted as honorable business men in almost every state from Maine to Texas. Several of these he admitted in partnership till they found opportunities of

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bettering themselves, and many others he assisted in starting in business.

In 1854 he married Harriet, daughter of George and Clarissa (Morrill) Bagley, of Nashua, N. H. She died in 1876. He subsequently married, in 1879, Mary Wheatland, daughter of Robert E. and Martha (Wheatland) Bemis, of Salem.

He was largely instrumental in securing the adoption of, and carrying into effect, the pharmacy law, and has from its organization been president of the Massachusetts board of registration in pharmacy.

He is one of the trustees of the Essex Savings Hank, and for many years has been warden and treasurer of Grace Episcopal church. He was instrumental in introducing the electric light in Lawrence, and is treasurer of the Edison Electric Light Company of that city, which was the second electric light company organized on that system in the United States.

WHITNEY, Henry Melville, son of James Scolly and Laurinda (Collins) Whitney, was born in Conway, Franklin county, October 22, 1841.

The public schools furnished him with his early educational training, supplemented by one year at Easthampton Seminary.

His first entrance upon a business career was as a clerk in the Conway Bank, where he remained three years. He then went to the Bank of Mutual Redemption, Boston; was afterwards clerk in the navy agent's office for one year (1860), and was then engaged in New York City in the shipping business.

In 1866 he became Boston agent, and in 1879 president, of the Metropolitan Steamship Company, Boston, which position he still holds. In 1887 he was elected president of the West End Street Railway Company, the largest street railway in the world, and a corporation controlling all the horse-car lines now running in the city of Boston. He is also president of the Hancock Inspirator Company.

Mr. Whitney was married in Brookline, October 3, 1878, in St. Paul's church, to Margaret Foster, daughter of Joseph F. and Ruth (Bowman) Green. Of this union are four children: Ruth Bowman, Elinor Green, Laura Collins, and James Scolly Whitney.

Mr. Whitney has brought to the presidency of the West End Street Railway, thorough business experience, financial integrity, and inventive genius. Before him and his associates lies the task of solving the problem of rapid transit in the city of Boston. The movements so far made toward bringing order out of chaos have been eminently successful.

WHITNEY, LEVI LINCOLN, son of John and Eliza Ann (Watson) Whitney, was born in Princeton, Worcester county, January 20, 1838.

He attended the common schools of his native town, and subsequently studied in Worcester Academy.

His first connection with business was in Chicago in 1859, as manufacturer of boots and shoes, under the firm name of Thompson, Whitney & Co. They were burned out in the great fire of 1871, when Mr. Whitney came to Millbury and associated himself with Crane & Waters, manufacturers of hosiery, and remained with them until 1885. He is now one of the firm of Whitney & Molt, manufacturers of indigo blue dye. He is also treasurer of the Stonemetz Printers' Machinery Company.

Mr. Whitney was married in Millbury, September 4, 1862, to Annie Rachel, daughter of Hon. Hosea and Laura Ann (Hubbard) Crane. Of this union are three children: Walter Lincoln, Laura Grace, and Maud Eliza Whitney.

Mr. Whitney was chosen a director in the Millbury National Bank in 1876, and has since continued in the position; was

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elected a trustee of the Millbury Savings Bank in 1873; chosen its president in 1888, which position he still holds. He was selectman in 1877, '78, and '79, and again in 1881 and '87, serving as chairman of the board the last three years.

He was a member of the House of Representatives in 1881, serving upon the committee on banks and banking, and of the Senate in 1889, holding the onerous and responsible position of chairman of the committee on towns, performing good service also upon the committee on labor.

He is an active member in the order of F. & A. M., and is a member of the Worcester County Commandery, Knights Templar.

WHITNEY, Milton Burrall, son of Samuel Hart and Marilla Lovisa (Dickinson) Whitney, was born in Granville, Hampden county, October 6, 1825.

He is of the eighth generation in direct descent from Henry Whitney, who emigrated from Herefordshire, England, and settled near Huntington, upon the easterly end of Long Island, about 1649.

He was educated in the public schools; fitted for college in the private school of Rev. Timothy Cooley, of Granville, and was graduated from Williams College in the class of 1849, with the honor of classical oration.

He engaged in teaching for two years after graduating, then studied law with William G. Bates, a leading lawyer in western Massachusetts; was admitted to the bar in 1853, and upon admission, formed a partnership with Mr. Bates, which lasted till 1865. He then practiced alone until 1874, when he associated with himself James R. Dunbar, under the firm name of Whitney & Dunbar, which partnership continued till 1886, when Mr. Dunbar was appointed associate justice of the superior court. Since that time he has been a member of the law firm of Whitney & Brigham.

Mr. Whitney has been repeatedly called to serve his town and state in many positions of honor and trust, and as trustee or director in many local corporations. He has been a trustee in the Westfield Savings Bank continuously since 1857; a director of the First National Bank of Westfield since its incorporation in 1865, and its president since 1881; prior to 1865, he was a director of the old Westfield Bank; has been for years the attorney for the town and many of the leading business firms and corporations; has practiced in all the counties of western Massachusetts; was a member of the state Senate from the western Hampden district, in 1862 and '63. Although the Senate in 1862 contained thirteen lawyers, and he was one of the youngest members, he was made chairman of the committee on public lands, and chairman of the joint special committee on the important subject of the "Concord and Sudbury rivers." He also served on several other standing and special committees.

In 1863 he was a member of the Senate committee on judiciary, and chairman of the joint committee on federal relations, and took an active and leading part in the legislation of that session.

He was presidential elector in 1868, and a delegate to the national Republican convention which nominated President Garfield in 1880. He was appointed a member of the state board of education, in 1881, and was re-appointed in 1889, at the expiration of the term. He has always taken a lively interest in educational matters, and has been found in the ranks of those who have at heart the raising of the standard of good citizenship in the Commonwealth.

Early in life Mr. Whitney was a Whig in politics, and has acted with the Republican party since its formation, but from

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the conservative cast of the man, he has never been an extreme partisan.

He had the rugged experience in early life of one who worked on the farm in summer and taught school winters in order to secure the necessary funds to pay for educational advantages.

Ever since he has been a member of the state board of education he has been chairman of the visitors of the state normal school at Westfield, and of the board of visitors of institutions for the education of deaf mutes, and of the blind who receive aid from the Commonwealth.

But while Mr. Whitney has given much time to uninterrupted and honorable educational work, it is his thirty-six years' legal practice that has earned for him the position of one of the leading lawyers in western Massachusetts.

WHITNEY, Samuel Brenton, son of Samuel and Amelia (Hyde) Whitney, was born in Woodstock, Windsor county, Vt., June 4, 1842.

His early education was obtained in the public schools. He afterward attended the Vermont Episcopal Institute, Burlington ; studied music first with local teachers, afterwards with Carl Wels in New York, and later still with Professor John K. Paine, of Harvard University, taking lessons on the organ, pianoforte, composition and instrumentation.

Mr. Whitney has been organist and director of music of Christ church, Montpelier, Vt.; St. Peter's, Albany, N. Y.; St. Paul's church, Burlington, Vt.; is at present, and has been for the past eighteen years, organist of the Church of the Advent, Boston, the choir of which church has become quite celebrated under his direction. He has frequently been engaged as conductor of choir festival associations in Massachusetts and Vermont; is first vice-president and one of the organ examiners of the American College of Musicians; has written church music quite extensively, also piano and miscellaneous music. He has been conductor of many choral societies in and around Boston, and has the reputation of being very successful in training and developing boys' voices.

Mr. Whitney was for a time a teacher of the organ in the New England Conservatory of Music. He also established in this institution for the first time a church-music class, in which not only were the vocal pupils taught how to properly interpret sacred music, but the organ pupils as well, were instructed as to the management of the organ in church service.

Among Mr. Whitney's compositions are a trio for pianoforte and strings, many solos and arrangements for both pianoforte and organ, as well as several church services, Te Deums, and miscellaneous anthems, songs, both sacred and secular.

WHITNEY, WILBUR F., son of John and Eliza (Cushing) Whitney, was born in Westminster, Worcester county, December 9, 1839.

He was educated at the common and high schools of his native town, at the Wesleyan Academy in Wilbraham, and passed the freshman year at Dartmouth College.

He began business as a chair manufacturer, in 1865, with a capital of three hundred dollars, and has continued throughout his life in the same business, at the present time manufacturing four hundred thousand chairs a year, at a wholesale value of three hundred and twenty thousand dollars. The factory is situated at South Ashburnham, where two hundred hands are employed, and two hundred and fifty prisoners are constantly occupied in the same business.

On the l7th of July, 1866, Mr. Whitney married Emeline S., daughter of Dexter and Sarah (Mower) Jewell, of Jaffrey, N. H. Their children are: Oscar J., born January 22, 1871, Celena M., Luella C., Ethel E.,and Edith L. Whitney. Their son, Oscar, died January 2, 1886.

Mr. Whitney was elected a member of the House of Representatives in 1875. He is a director in the Ashburnham National Bank, trustee of the Cushing Academy, and member of the committee on education. In religious associations he has always been an active and earnest Methodist.

His present residence is at Ashburnham, where he holds an enviable reputation as a man who has always been successful in business. Politically he has been a strong adherent of the Greenback party, and is a vigorous and enthusiastic Prohibitionist.

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He has one child : Mary Whitney Winslow, born November 14, 1873. WINSOR, JUSTIN, son of Nathaniel and Ann TH Winsor, was born in Boston, January 2, 18.41. ...

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WOODWARD, CHARLES F., son of James I1'. and Arvilla (Whitney) Woodward, was born in Wakefield, Middlesex county, November 19, 1852. ...

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C.), Thatcher Magoun (for the town of Medford), Harnas Sears and Professor Whitney (Newton Theological Institution), Rev. Dr. Peabody (for Exeter Academy), ...

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... WHITNEY, HENRY M., WILLIAMS, MOSES. BUCKLAND. CRITTENDEN, GEORGE D. CAMBRIDGE. ...

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KV, Boston. GE MITCHELL, ....... Haverhill. Hoard of Education. MILTON B. WHITNEY Westfield. ...

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JH WHITNEY, . . zd Regiment Infantry. GH BENYON. . . WH OAKES, . . . Captains, . . CHAS. FRENCH, . . ST SINCLAIR, . . . Watertown. . . Boston. . . Boston. ...

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Copyright © 2009, Robert L. Ward and the Whitney Research Group