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).
[p. 3]
... the grammar school in Dorchester at fifteen years of age, went as a boy into the well-known house of ND Whitney & Co., Boston, to learn the business. ...
[p. 18]
JD and Louisa (Goddard) Whitney of Cambridge, who left him one child: Eleanor Whitney Allen. In,1n Boston, Mr. Allen married Alice, daughter of Hon. ...
[p. 102]
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 ...
[p. 106]
His educational training was acquired in his native town, with the exception of twc» terms in Master Whitney ...
[p. 156]
He was connected with Whitney Opera House for three years, as business manager. ...
[p. 189]
MB Whitney, of Westfield, in the practice of law, having previously studied with him and having spent six months at the Harvard law school. ...
[p. 219]
... (Whitney) Fletcher, was born in Groton (now Ayer), Middlesex county, Feb. i, 1852. His early education was limited to district schools. ...
[p. 245]
... 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. ...
[p. 275]
Eight children have blessed this union : Alice Knowlton, Marion Breed, Helen Whitney, Orianna Phillips, James Randolph, Stanley Breed, Henry Bass, ...
[p. 283]
... 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. ...
[p. 302]
He is president of the Whitney Safety Fire Arms Company ; president of the Northampton board of trade ; director in the Florence Furniture Company ...
[p. 310]
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 ...
[p. 372]
... NICHOLAS WINFIELD SCOTT, son of Nicholas and Deborah (Whitney) Leighton, is a native of Auburn, Androscoggin county, Maine, moved from there at two ...
[p. 393]
Of this union were five children: Mabel S. (deceased), F'rederick Joseph Hallett, George Whitney, Eliza Chamberlain, and (¡race Murray Mansfield. ...
[p. 401]
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 ...
[p. 407]
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., ...
[p. 443]
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. ...
[p. 492]
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 ...
[p. 508]
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 ...
[p. 510]
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 ...
[p. 652]
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
[p. 653]
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
[p. 654]
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
[p. 655]
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.
[p. 665]
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. ...
[p. 672]
WOODWARD, CHARLES F., son of James I1'. and Arvilla (Whitney) Woodward, was born in Wakefield, Middlesex county, November 19, 1852. ...
[p. 677]
C.), Thatcher Magoun (for the town of Medford), Harnas Sears and Professor Whitney (Newton Theological Institution), Rev. Dr. Peabody (for Exeter Academy), ...
[p. 681]
... WHITNEY, HENRY M., WILLIAMS, MOSES. BUCKLAND. CRITTENDEN, GEORGE D. CAMBRIDGE. ...
[p. 693]
KV, Boston. GE MITCHELL, ....... Haverhill. Hoard of Education. MILTON B. WHITNEY Westfield. ...
[p. 699]
JH WHITNEY, . . zd Regiment Infantry. GH BENYON. . . WH OAKES, . . . Captains, . . CHAS. FRENCH, . . ST SINCLAIR, . . . Watertown. . . Boston. . . Boston. ...
Copyright © 2009, Robert L. Ward and the Whitney Research Group
