Suffolk County, Massachusetts - The whole text, 1894 (part 12 of 17)

Mr. Thayer was one of the most munificent benefactors of Harvard University, to which his brother was also a generous giver in the form of scholarships. His direct benefactions to the university exceeded $250,000, exclusive of the sums distributed through channels of his own choosing as pecuniary aid to students in the university and to scholars in preparation for it. In 1865 he performed for the institution what at the time was a most needed service, in providing in accordance with a suggestion by the Rev. Dr. Peabody a place and means for such students as wished to avail themselves of a common hall for boarding in company, and at reasonable rates, after the former arrangements for the purpose had been given up and before the dining room in Memorial Hall was ready for use. To this end he caused to be enlarged consid- erably a building frontini;- on Harvard square and formerly used as a railroad station. As thus reconstructed it was called " Thayer Common Hall." During the same year substantially in service of the University, he generously assumed the whole cost of Professor Agassiz's vigorous and most fruitful visit of exploration and research in South America known as the "Thayer Expedition." This was in the interest of high science and it has proved the basis and instigation of advanced stages already reached, and of infinite progress still inviting its pupils. It is believed that the only hesitancy in facing the known and possible obligations to which Mr. Thayer committed himself in this enterprise, was in his humorous lament to Professor Agassiz as to the enormous amount of alcohol needed to prepare the fishes of which he appeared to emptj' the ocean.

Thayer Hall, erected in 1870, was designed by the donor as a memorial gift commemorative of his father and of his brother, John E. Thayer. It is one of the largest structures on the college grounds, and is used as a dormitory. Another of the admirable provisions made by Mr. Thayer, through his friend Professor Gray, in meeting the ever multiplying needs of the university, was in erecting and furni.shing in 1874 the fire-proof herbarium on the grounds of the Botanic Garden. In 1806 he received the degree of Master of Arts from Harvard College, and in 1868 was elected a Fellow of the Corporation, a very exceptional compliment but once before paid to one not an alumnus. He was a member of the American Academy of Arts and vSciences and Massachusetts Historical Society, and honorary member of the Berlin Geographical Society. He served as president of the corporation of the Massachusetts General Hospital, of which institution he was also a liberal benefactor.

Mr. Thayer was married June 10, IS-IO, to Cornelia, daughter of General Stephen Van Rensselaer, of Albany, N. Y. They had seven children, five of whom are still living, four sons and one daughter. The latter years of Mr. Thayer's life were spent mostly at Lancaster, where he had built a fine home among the elms that shaded the old parsonage where his revered father and mother lived and died. He was tenderly loyal to old acquaintanceships and greatly enjoyed revisiting and renewing the memories of his boyhood days. He was ever a cheerful giver to all philanthropic objects. His liberality was, however, wisely discriminate in its aims and independent in method, while the modest dignity associated with his every act prompted him to shun all public- ity. In personal appearance and in character Mr. Thayer was a man t(j command respect. He was tall and broad shouldered ; dignified in manner, and with a face that was marked both by amiability and decision of character.

James Lovell Little

J.-^MEs LovELi, Lii'TLK, for many _vears one of the most prominent factors in the business life of Boston, was born in Marshfield, Mass., April 4, 1810, and was a son of Captain Luther and Hannah (Lovell) Little. The first ancestor of the family in America was Thomas Little, who came from Devonshire, England, and settled in Plymouth, Mass., in 10:50, and is said to have been a lawyer.- He married m liV.i'o Ann, daughter of Richard Warren, one of the Mayflower pilgrims, and in 1050 removed to East Marshfield, where he built a house still in the posse-ssion of his descendants, and where he died March 13, lOTl. That he was a man of respectable and affluent family is reasonably conjectured from the fact stated in some old papers that he brought with him to Plymouth four bound men servants. The name of his wife's father, Richard Warren, is found in the Mayflower list of passengers in Prince's Chronology, in which his death is thus recorded: " This year (1038) dies Mr. Richard Warren, a useful instrument, and bears a deep share in the difficulties attending the settlement of New Plymouth ;" while the Plymouth Colony Records contain frequent references to him and members of his family. To Thomas and Ann (Warren) Little were born eight children, four sons and four daughters. Thomas, the eldest son, was killed b}^ the Indians at the Rehoboth fight in 1070. The other children in order of birth were Samuel, Ephraim, Isaac, Hannah (married Stephen Tilden), Mercy (married John vSawyer). Ruth and Patience.

Ephraim Little, the third son of the pilgrim, Thomas Little, and the ancestor in direct line of our subject, was born in Marshfield, May IT, 10.50. He married in 1073, Mary, daughter of Samuel Sturtevant, of Plymouth, and had children as follows: Ephraim, born 1073, graduated at Harvard College in 1095, and was ordained pastor of the Plymouth Church in lOiii); Ruth, born in 1075 and died in infancy; David, born in 1081 and settled as a lawyer at Scituate ; John, born 1083; Ruth, born November 31!, lOSO, married November 33, 171(i, John Avery,

Son of Robert and Elizabeth (Lane) Aver}', of Dedham ; Ann and Mary. Ephraim Little, sr. , died November 24, 1717, and his wife Februar}' 10, 1717. Both were buried at vScituate.

John Little, son of Ephraim, and g-reat-,t>-randfather of our subject, was a magistrate, -a large land owner, and had several slaves. He married in 1707 Constant Fobes, of Little Compton, R. L, and was a valuable and highly useful citizen. Of their eight children, Fobes, the eldest, was graduated at Harvard in 1724, became a physician at Little Compton; John removed to Windham; William to Lebanon, Conn. To each of these three sons the father gave a farm: to Fobes one in Little Compton, to John one in Columbia, Conn., and to William one in Lebanon, Conn. To each of his three other sons, Ephraim, Thomas and Lemuel, was given a farm in East Marshfield. Of the two daughters, Anna married a White, and Ruth an Oakman. ]ohn Little died February -20, 17(17, and his wife June 20, 1771.

Lemuel Little, youngest son of John and grandfather of our suliject, was born December 8, 1724, and December 28, 1747, was married to Penelope Ames. He died December 30, 17il8, and his wife August 2(!, 1800. Their children were Lemuel, jr., Olive, George, Luther, James, Mercv, ALary, Persis, William and Jane. Of these (ieorge and Luther distinguished themselves as commanders in the nav}' during the Revolutionary War. A son of the former, Edward P., was a greatly respected and influential citizen of Marshfield during the first half of the present centmy, and also representative in Congress. He left several children among whom is Amos R. Little, a prominent business man of Philadelphia.

Captain Luther Little, son of Lemuel and father of our subject, \vas born April 15, 175G, and lived in the old homestead at East Marshfield. At the age of nineteen, while serving as a naval officer under his more distinguished brother, he received a grape-shot wound in the face during the action between the Protector and the Admiral Duff. He was long disabled, losing his speech for two years, but it eventually was almost entirely recovered. After his recovery he made many voyages as a merchant captain. Captain Little was twice married: first in 1788 to Susanna White, a direct descendant of Peregrine White. The issue of this marriage were two children, Luther, jr., and Susanna. His second wife, to whom he was married January 4, 1798, was Hannah Lovell, a daughter of the distinguished General Solomon Lovell, who was a descendant in the fifth generation from Robert Lovell, who was a member of the company led by Rev. Joseph Hull which was gathered in Somerset, Worcester and Dorchester, England, and came to America in the suinmer of 1035, settling at Wessaguscus (now Weymouth Mass. )

During the French and Indian war General Lovell rendered valuable service, and early entered activch' into the military service of the State of Massachusetts in the Revolutionary War, his commission as colonel of the Second Regiment being dated February 7, 177'(i. On the 24th of June, 1777, he was elected by the Council brigadier-general of the militia of Suffolk county, a position of the highest importance, since it made him subordinate only to the department ofificer appointed by the Continental Congress, the military commander of Boston, and virtually of the Eastern District, which covered nearly the whole of New England, a position that he retained to the close of the war - a period of six years of constant watchfulness and preparation; sufficient proof that his services were eminently satisfactory to the people over whom he was placed, and in whom was vested the power of removal at any time. He was commander of the famous Penobscot expedition, and in every station admirably acquitted himself as a brave and efficient soldier.

The children of Captain Little by his second marriage were Sarah Lovell, William Fobes, Solomon, Hannah, Priscilla, Lydia, James Lovell and Olive. Captain Little died March 22, 1842, living to the advanced age of eighty-six, retaining up to the time of his death remarkable vigor of mind and body. His second wife died May :i, 1826.

James Lovell Little, the seventh child of Captain Little and Hannah (Lovell) Little, was born at the old homestead, on the spot first settled bv the common American ancestor, Thomas Little. He received his education in the schools of Marshfield during the winter months, the remainder of the year being spent in agricultural pursuits on the paternal farm. The first eleven years of his life were those of the boy of those times upon the New England farm. He was then apprenticed to a cabinet maker in Weymouth, but the trade was not to his liking, and after seven months' trial he ran awav and returned home, where he remained till November 3, 1825, when he came to Boston to begin a business career in which he was destined to achieve notable success. The journey from Mar.shfield to Boston in those days was something of an undertaking and little appreciated at this advanced period of railroad traveling. It was made by stage and consumed the time from seven in the morning until eight or nine in the evening. Upon his arrival in Boston young Little entered the store of B. I. Leeds, a retail dry goods and notion dealer on Washington street below Boylston street, the position of general utility boy having previously been secured for him by his uncle, W. H. Montague. Here he remained for two years, receiving as compensation $25 per annum and his board, his duties consisting of being on hand at 6 a.m., opening, closing and sweeping the store, making fires, cleaning lamps, and such other similar work he might be called upon to perform. It is evident that he kept his eyes and ears open, for when in December, 1827, he was asked by his cousin, Mr. Montague, of the firm of Montague & Guild, also retail dry goods dealers, to assume the lease and stock of their firm, as they desired to move, he went to Mr. Leeds and told him of the offer. Leeds sought to persuade him from assuming such an undertaking, when in reply he told Mr. Leeds he did not like the way his business was looking and that he thought he would fail. Leeds then said he thought he had better go. vSixty days thereafter Leeds did fail, proving the correctness of young Little's prediction. Little accepted the proffer of Montague & Guild, and thus at the age of seventeen we find the country lad fairly launched in business for himself. He ran the business very successfully and to the satisfaction of all parties concerned till the lease expired, when he began the same business on his own account and continued in it up to 1835. In the autumn of that year, when the firm of George Howe & Co. was organized for the importation of dry goods, he became a member of the firm. Being particularly adapted to the duties of purchasing agent abroad, he was selected by his partners to represent them in that capacity in England, Scotland and France. While thus engaged he formed the acquaintance of the leading manufacturers and bankers in those countries, and derived no small benefit from his association with them in the disastrous panic of 1837.

He remained in Europe until the fall of 183(1, and on his return home severed his connection with the firm of George Howe & Co. , which was then dissolved. He next became a partner in the firm of Eliphalet Baker & Co., also importers of dry goods, and again repaired to Europe in 1837 to represent the new firm in his old capacity. It was then that his previous fiscal and manufacturing acquaintanceship proved to be so advantageous. He was able to obtain large invoices of goods on his own credit, and these, when sold in the United States, netted handsome profits. His connection with Eliphalet Baker & Co. lasted until 1843.

In January of the year named Mr. Little, in conneetion with Paul Alden and William Munroe, jr., formed the firm of Little, Aldcn & Co., and began the business of dry goods importation at Old Julian Hall, corner of Milk and Congress streets, which was remodeled into one of the finest business buildings then in Boston. The importations of the firm were large, the demands for their goods being great even from New York and Philadelphia firms. The firm remained unchanged until the death of Mr. Alden, when the firm name was changed to James L. Little & Co., their business quarters in the mean time, however, having been removed to Federal street. Importations from Europe were made by the firm until l!^5S, when this branch of trade was relinquished. The firm was dissolved in 1883, when Mr. Little retired to private life.

Mr. Little was one of the original incorporators of the Pacific Mills (jf Lawrence, and when they went into operation in 185:) the firm of Little, Alden & Co. became the selling agents of their products. This relation was vested principal]}- in the. senior partner, who by his active efforts had materially ctmtributcd to the inauguration of that great industry. The first product of the Pacific Mills came upon the market after a period of suspension, and similar mills at that time were not doing a profitable business. By the energy, enterprise and good judgment of Mr. Little, however, the Pacific Mills were made to pay a handsome dividend at the close of the first year's business, and it was to him in a great measure that they owed their subsequent prosperity.

In the panic of 1857 the Pacific Mills Company- was compelled to ask for an extension of its obligations. The firm of Little, Alden i^- Co., being endorser to a large amount of this paper, was in consequence obliged to suspend payment for a while; but in three months all its obligations were met with the interest accrued. At that momentous crisis, the courageous determination of Mr. Little to sustain this manufacttiring organization inspired the wavering with confidence, and gave new zeal to many who had been dispirited by the numerous de-' pressing circumstances to which all business, and particularly the new branches of American industrial art, were subjected.

After the death in 1877 of Hon. J. Wiley Edmands, who had been treasurer and purchasing agent of the Pacific Mills, Mr. Little was chosen to that position, which he held until his resignation in 1880. His incumbency of this important trust represented perhaps the most prosperous period in the history of the mills. When Mr. Little re- signed the Paeific Mills were the best equipped, as far as machincr_v was concerned, of any mill in the county. During the last year of his administration there was more new machinery put in than in any previous year in the history of the corporation. Despite this consequent large expenditure, there was paid that year a dividend of twenty-two per cent, out of the earnings, and a considerable addition was made to the surplus fund. During the ten years ending with Mr. Little's administration, over $200,000 a year had been spent in new machinery and in making repairs. To this great corporation he gave most earnest and thoughtful care, and to his mercantile sagacity and rare business judgment in the most critical period of its history, its final success was largely due. These mills now constitute one of the most remarkable and useful industrial organizations in the United States, or even in the world. Associated with Mr. Little in their operations during the earlier years of their existence were some of the foremost business men of New England, prominent amongwhom were Abbott Lawrence, J. Wiley Edmands and others equally well known for their connection with the inauguration of the cotton and woolen mills of New England.

While holding the responsible and onerous position as treasurer of Pacific Mills, Mr. Little continued as the controlling and directing spirit of the firm of James L. Little & Go., the selling agents of that organization. Several years previously a branch house had been establi.shed at New York, and from these two centers an immense business was transacted all over the United States. Mr. Little also was president of the Kearsage Mills at Portsmouth, the Middlesex Corporation, and of the Boston Gas Light Company. He was also a director in the vSecond National Bank, and during the year of absence of President Jas. H. Real, Mr. Little assumed the duties. He was overseer of the poor of Boston, trustee of Mt. Auburn Cemetery, and held various other important positions. In comparatively recent years he acquired valuable real estate in the business center of Boston, to the improvement of which he, aided by his son.-i, devoted much time and attention.

During his active business life, Mr. Little found time to advance the interest of the community at large m various ways. He was one of the first corporators of the Institute of Technolog)', and for years .served as an efficient trustee of this valuable educational institution. By Governor Bullock he was appointed trustee of the Massachusetts General Hospital; held the office acceptably for some years, and took deep interest in the objects and prosperity of that worthy State charity. For many years he was a member of the reorganized board of overseers of the poor. The Agassiz Museum at Cambridge also received his hearty support, while his contributions to private charity and philanthropic objects were constant and liberal.

In politics Mr. Little was originally a Whig, and subsequently an earnest Republican, but he never sought nor desired political preferment, although many times strongly urged to take prominent political offices. A man of his positive characteristics, however, could not be indifferent to the claims of his country, nor neutral in the strife of parties when the contest raged aroimd clearl)? defind and influential issues. Throughout the late civil war his thoughts and energies were tasked to the uttermost in securing recruits for the patriotic armies, in ministering to the wants of soldiers' families, and in encouraging, by voice and example, all who were doubtful and faint-hearted to rouse themselves to the support of the national government, and to give it their warmest sympathies. Indeed, he gave his time, money and talents, without stint, to push the struggle to a victorious close. He was one of eight gentlemen in Boston who in February, 18G3, organized the Union Club, a patriotic organization, similar to the Union League of Philadelphia. This club ran through a prosperous and influential career; lent effective aid to the Union cause, and did much to suppress latent and avowed disafifection to the administration of President Lincoln.

During the latter years of his life, Mr. Little lived at his handsome residence on the comer of Commonwealth avenue in the winter, and at Swampscot in .summer. The latter place he did much to improve, the group of cottages under his ownership being among the most noted on the coast. He had practically retired from business for several years preceding his death, but was confined to his bed only a w-eek previous to the ending of his life, which occurred June 19, 1889, at Swampscot.

In many respects the career oi Mr. Little was remarkable and worthy of emulation. By his own unaided efforts he rose from an humble position to be one of the foremost business men of his time. He was a man of great energy, of incorruptible integrity and of a superior order of business ability. He possessed that rare moral courage which would sanction no resort to subterfuge nor permit him to be diverted from a course his conscience approved, on the ground of simple expediency or policy. What he believed to be right he did, regardless of consequences. Calmness in difficulty, combined with great fertility of expedients, constituted one t)f his chief merits. Like a skillful general he was neither too sang-uine tior yet easily discouraged as to the success of any enterprise. He was always actuated by high motives, and he has left behind him a record worthy to be had in perpetual remembrance.

Mr. Little was married October 18, 1843, to Julia Augusta, daughter of Zebedee Cook, jr., and Caroline (Tuttle) Cook, who died at Swampscot, July 14, 1883. They had eight children, of whom two died in infancy and six are now living, five sons and one daughter.

JosHU.^ Se.\rs, for many years one of the leading merchants of Boston, was born at Yarmouth, Mass., in August, 1791. At the age of seventeen years he came to Boston to seek his fortune, and entered as an apprentice in the counting-room of Charles Hood on Long Wharf. Here he remained until he was twenty-one years of age. About this time, in consequence of the embargo and the war which soon followed, mercantile business was greatly depressed, and Mr. Sears returned to his native town on Cape Cod, where he remained, teaching school, until the close of the war. He then returned to Boston and was employed in the counting-room of George Hallett, where he remained one year. At the end of this time he formed a copartnership with Oliver Hallett, a brother of George Hallett, under the firm name of Sears & Hallett, at No. 10 Long Wharf, which continued for two years, About this time Solomon Burt, of the firm of Burnham & Burt, died, and Mr. Burnham took Mr. Sears in as a special partner, which relationship continued until two years later, when Mr. Burnham retired and Mr. Sears then became sole proprietor of the business, continuing to conduct it alone with conspicuous success until his death, February 7, 1857. He was one of the foremost merchants of Boston during the era when this city was commercially the first of American cities. He possessed great sagacity, which, combined with remarkable business talent, and indomitable perseverance and industry, enabled him to accumulate one of the largest private fortunes of his day. Frederick Freeman in his "Annals of Yarmouth," writing of Mr. Sears's personal characteristics, says: " He was always just in his dealings, painstaking.

fruj^a], temperate, assiduous and far-seeino- Of entire independence of character, he was also a keen and accurate observer of the character of others ; and as a private banker, was also of great service to his neighbors in trade by sustaining their issues. Whilst exact in trade and cautious, he never shrank from a friend in whom he had reason to have confidence. Though not a politician he was ever firm in adherence to Democratic principles 'of the Jackson stamp.' Known to the public only in commercial transactions, few were conversant with his private life and leisure hours; but those who were knew him not only as an original thinker, but a great reader, with a memory remarkably tenacious, enabling him to repeat much that he had read - even whole pages of Homer's Iliad, as translated by Pope. Articles of noticeable ability were often written by him for the papers; and there is little room to doubt that he would have stood high in any profession that he might have chosen. "

Mr. Sears was married in February, 1854, to Miss Phebe Snow, daughter of Deacon Snow of Brewster, Mass., an estimable woman, who died January 1, 1855, after having given birth to a son, Joshua Montgomery Sears, who survives. Mr. Sears was buried in his native town of Yarmouth, for which he always maintained a deep regard. This was manifested repeatedly during his lifetime by generous gifts to the poor and needy of that town, and by a bequest in his will for the establishment at that point of a nautical school.

Theophilus W. Walker

Thf.ophilus W. Walker was a conspicuous representative of the old time Boston merchants, who during, the past half century and more gave character and standing to the business interests, the commerce and the capital of Boston. He was born in South Dan vers, Mass., February 2%, 1813. His father was the Rev. vSamuel Walker, a well known minister of South Danvers, and his mother, Sophia Wheeler of Worcester. From this Puritan stock Mr. Walker inherited the many sterling qualities which were conspicuous in his life and contributed so largely to his business success. His father desired him to enter upon a professional career, but he early evinced such a decided taste for a business life that he was permitted to make his own selection of a pursuit. He began his business career as a clerk in the employ of Charles Brook & Co., at that time one of the leading hardware firms in Dock square. As a boy he exhibited keen business sagacity and those self-reliant traits of character which in later years were so marked in his career. When he was but eighteen years of age, the head of a well known hardware firm committed forgery and fled the city. He was declared a bankrupt, and his stock was offered for sale. Young Walker after looking over the stock was convinced it was worth purchasing. He had, however, no capital, and not being of age his notes would not be taken. In this strait he applied to Deacon John C. Proctor, an intimate friend of his father, and his uncle, Moses Wheeler, and asked them tc.) endorse his notes. The boldness of the request carried the day, and the notes were duly endorsed. The young merchant began his independent business career in the store corner of Exchange street and Dock square. From the first success followed him, and within fifteen months not only was the bankrupt stock jiaid for, but a lucrative business had been established. His brother, Nathaniel, became associated with him at this time as a clerk, and afterwards as partner, the firm name in the early forties being known as Walker & Brother, at which time it ranked among the best hardware firms of Boston. Later on the firni removed to Pearl street, and was better known at that period as the agent of the Essex Glue Company. About this time Mr. Walker became acquainted with a notable ship builder of Belfast, Me., and was induced to embark in navigation. The final issue of this was the barque Sophia Walker, named in honor of his mother. Her first voyage was to Smyrna, in command of Captain Grafton, son of Major Grafton, for many years surveyor of the port of Boston. At the time she was built she was one of the finest specimens of naval architecture afloat, and the fastest sailer. Later she obtained international reputation while in command of Captain Jt)hn Codman. The success of this vessel tempted her owner to embark further in navigation, and from the time when the great tide of emigration to California began, down to the commencement of the late civil war, he was the owner of several of the finest clipper ships which sailed from Boston. With the decline of the shipping interest, which began in the late fifties, Mr. Walker became largely interested in the principal cotton and woolen manufactories of New England, and in this then comparatively new field of activitv his great business abilities found congenial employment. At one time he owned the celebrated mills at North \'assa- boro, the Victoria Mills at Newbiiryport, the Annisquam Mills at Rockport, and the Danvers Bleachery, while he held the controlling interest in the Androscoggin Mills, and was its president for twenty-five years. At the time of his death he was one of the largest, if not the largest, individual owner of textile fabric manufactories in the United States.

Some forty years ago Mr. Walker purchased the Governor Gore estate in Waltham from Rev. J. S. Copley Green, which made him the proprietor of one of the finest estates in Massachusetts, being almost colonial in its style of architecture and in its landscape surroundings. He expended a small fortune in keeping up this estate, and here amid his beautiful surroundings, practically retired from active business, he quietly and serenely passed the latter j'ears of his life. He died April 15, 1890, surviving most of his business contemporaries, few if any now remaining who were active participants in the period when he was an active, positive force in the business life of Boston.

In his early manhood Mr. Walker was a foremost figure in the social life of Boston. Those who remember him at this period recall a man of fine personal appearance, always faultlessly attired, whose polished manners and whose engaging and winning conversational powers made him a conspicuous figure in any group or company. He belonged to the Independent Corps of Cadets, and at the time of his death was one of the oldest members of this famous organization. With the increase of business cares and responsibilities he became more reserved in manner, and was even considered eccentric, but his very idios3mcrasies had a peculiar charm for those who knew him well and those whom he cared to know. He was a great reader, a close observer and a thorough judge of human nature. " Had he followed his father's wishes," says one writer, "and chosen a professional instead of a business career, and bent the energies and resources of his powerful intellect to the study and pursuit of the law or political economy, he would have been an acknowledged leader of men." One who intimately knew Mr. Walker for many years wrote at the time of his death the following triliute to his memory, which is here reproduced as the verdict of one justly entitled to speak of his life and character:

Mr. Walker belonged to that class of old-time Boston merchants which has now nearly passed away. Very few contemporaries in his active business life remain. He was a man of indomitable will and great industry, and these qualities early laid the foundations of his large fortune; and by his strict and honorable dealing with liis felln\v-men he acquired an inrtuenee in the mercantile world whieh will long survive him. After deciding upon the honorable and proper course, he was very persistent in accomplishing the end he had in view. He had one special quality, which few of the present generation except his most intimate friends would be likely to ])erceive or appreciate. He was modest and retiring, almost to a fault. It was in his vmpretentious counting-room in Merchants' Row that many successful business enterprises originated, which owed their inception to his keen business judgment, but for which he never claimed personal credit. He was a faithful and untiring worker for every interest intrusted to him, and he spent Tuesday, the last day of his life, at his desk, doing the day's work with his usual vigor and earnestness. He shirked no responsibility, and he had a direct way of doing a thing, fearless of consequences, if it seemed right to him. Conservative by nature, possibly to the casual observer he might have had a stern aspect and demeanor, but this was only his modest dignity of character, which outwardly covered the true inner man. He had no sympathy for modern shams and deceits, and this perhaps at times gave him an uncompromising air towards manj- of the methods of business dealings of the present day. To do what was honorable and just was his aim, without sounding a trumpet to announce his intention to the world. He has in more than one instance in corporations in which he was interested assumed grave liabilities in order to protect the interests of the smaller stockholders. His genial presence will be missed in business circles.

George Baty Blake

The branch of the Blake family from which the .subject of thi.s sketch descended was first established in New England in the person of William Blake (a near relative of the famous English admiral, Robert Blake), who landed at Nantasket, May 30, 1030, and soon after fixed his residence at Dorchester, Mass., in that part now called Milton.

Our subject, the youngest of nine children of John Welland and Abigail (Jones) Blake, was born at Brattleborough, \'t.. May 10, 1808. His grandfather, Joseph Blake (born February 5, 1739; died July 21, 1818), was a lieutenant in the army at an early age, and saw some service at Crown Point. He inarried for his first wife Deborah, daughter of Samuel Smith, a physician of Sandwich, Mass., her mother, Bethiah Chipman, being reported by tradition to be a direct descendant of John Carver, the first governor of Plymouth Colony. His father, John Welland Blake, a lawyer by profession, was one of the early settlers of Brattleborough, having established his residence there in 1790. He was one of the first postmasters in this place, represented the town in the vState Legislature, and was at one time a large owner of real estate in the vicinity. He married, May i^, 1790, Abigail, daughter of Judge Daniel Jones, of Hinsdale, N. H., and died October 27, 1818. His wife died December 14, 1808, within a few months after George's birth.

George, thus left an orphan, was nursed and cared for during his infancy in the family of Major Stephen Greenleaf, a highly respected citizen in the west village of Brattleborough, and in after years he held the memory of this estimable man and his family in grateful remembrance. Subsequently he lived at the homestead until the age of thirteen. His eldest sister, Ann Sophia, who in 1814 married Henry Cabot, son of Hon. George Cabot, of Boston, had charge of the household during George's childhood, until her removal to Boston upon her marriage, and there lived until her death in 1845.

After the death of his father, George was for a few years particularly 'under the charge of his brother, John Rice Blake. These brothers long survived the other children, and were for twenty years partners in the banking business which George undertook about 1850 in Boston, and to which the energies of the remaining years of his life were chiefly given. Although George's father had been at one time a man of considerable wealth for the period, at his death the family was left quite poor, so that when Mr. Dickinson, a dry goods dealer of Boston, offered the boy, then thirteen years of age, a place in his store, the family gladly availed themselves of the offer, and he went to Boston. He lived at first with his sister, Mrs. Cabot, in High street, and for two or three years received from his brother John and this sister fifty dollars a j'ear. which was the only pecuniary help he ever received. He was in Mr. Dickinson's employ a few years, and then secured a place with his brother-in-law, Edward Clarke, of the firm of Edward Clarke & Co., dry goods importers, and before he was twenty-one years of age Mr. Clarke took him into the firm as a partner, and he went at once to England to buy goods. From this time to 1828 he was constantly goin^ to England and the Continent in tlie pursuance of his business, making many acquaintances and some life long friendships. Among others, he thus became acquainted with the late George Peabody, at that time a bu3'er of dry goods for his Baltimore firm, and afterward long resident in London, with whom Mr. Blake continued in warm relations of friendship until Mr. Peabody's death, and for several years their respective firms had extensive business relations.

May 24:, 1833, Mr. Blake married his cousin, Anna Hull, daut^hter of Joshua Blake, of Boston, a prominent and successful merchant doing business with the Mediterranean ports. They were married at her father's house in Winthrop Place, by the Rev. F. W. P. Greenwood, of King's Chapel, at which church Mr. Blake then, and during his whole life, attended service, acting for several years as vestryman, and always taking a deep and lively interest in the church and its several clergymen.

During his earlier visits to England, Mr. Blake made the accjuaintance of Richard Cobden, the distinguished English statesman, then, about 1835, partner in a cotton printing establishment near Manchester where he had built up a prosperous business. Mr. Blake at this time bought goods of Mr. Cobden, and had a great admiration for the qualities which later won him such distinction as a legislator and political economist. Mr. Blake gave full adherence to Mr. Cobden 's free trade views, and was always of the opinion that for any country custom duties were only to be justified by the need of revenue. He recognized, however, for the United .States that reform in this direction, in justice to large vested interests, must be somewhat gradual, but he looked confidently to absolute free trade as the true policy for all nations, and he believed under such a free interchange of commodities the United States would soon become cotton manufacturers for the world.

Mr. Blake had nine children, of whom the first two died in infancy, and the seventh, Henry Jones Blake, died October 11, 1880. He served as a lieutenant in the United States navy during the war of the Rebellion and had an excellent record in the important engagements in which he participated. The youngest son, John Willard Blake, bearing the name of his paternal grandfather, died in 1861, aged nearly fifteen years. Arthur Wellington Blake, the last son, died in March, 1893. Two daughters are the only surviving members of the family.

Mr. Blake, after leaving the firm of Edward Clarke & Co., formed a copartnership for the importation of dry goods with William Almy, under the firm name of Almy, Blake & Co. , and during this time, and subsequently, he continued his frequent passages to Europe, having crossed the Atlantic upwards of eighty times during his life. He next formed a copartnership with the late David Nevins and Edward H. R. Lyman, under the firm name of George B. Blake & Co., also importers of drv goods. About the vear 1846 Mr. Blake's health, which had always been delicate, failing him, he was obliged to retire from active btisiness, and in the spring of 1847 he bought an estate in Brookline, near Boston, where he resided during the remainder of his life, excepting the winters of the last few 3'ears ; these were passed at his home in Boston. During this three or four years' interval in his active business career Mr. Blake became a director in the Boston and Worcester Railroad Company, and took a most active part in the affairs of that corporation. He was one of the very earliest to favor and promote the joining of this railroad with the Western Railroad. The first steps taken by this corporation towards a rail connection with East Boston were chiefly instigated by Mr. Blake at a time when few foresaw the prospective growth of the export trade from the West, which his sagacity enabled him to anticipate. The construction of the Brookline branch of the Boston and Worcester Railroad was largely due to his energy and foresight.

In 1850 Mr. Blake associated himself with Mr. Addison Gilmore, president of the Western (now Boston and Albany) Railroad, and George Cabot Ward, son of Thomas G. Ward, Boston agent of Messrs. Baring Brothers & Company, of London, for the prosecution of a foreign and domestic banking business. The firm name was Gilmore, Blake & Ward. Mr. Gilmore dying very siiddenly shortly after this firm was established, the name was changed to Blake, Ward & Company, and later to Blake, Howe & Company. At this time his brother, John Rice Blake, came from Brattleborough and joined him as a partner, the firm name being later changed to Blake Brothers & Company, the three eldest sons joining as partners about the year 1860.

One of the leading aims of Mr. Blake throughout his business career was to advance in every possible way the commercial interests of Boston. He was largely instrumental in securing and maintaining the regular visits of the Cunard steamers to this port. During the civil war he was always most warmly interested in the preservation of the Union, and actively aided, both with his purse and by personal service, the Sanitary Commission and other organizations for the relief and welfare of the soldiers.

Originally a Whig in politics, and voting for Henry Clay in the presidential election, Mr. Blake early sympathized in the views of Garrison, Sumner and the others who looked upon African slavery in the United States as a barbarism. With many other law abiding citizens of Massachusetts, his sense of justice was shocked by the enforcement of the fug-itive slave law in Boston in returning Anthonj' Burns to servitude. He endeavored to prevent this by offering, through a friend, to buy Burns of his owner, who then refused to sell his property at any price.

When the State of Massachusetts was rapidly forwarding troops for the suppression of the Rebellion, and was incurring a large debt for bounties and other war expenses, the money market had become exceedingly active, S(.) that the vState for providing money on its notes, having a few months to run, paid as high as twelve per cent, per annum. At this time it became necessary for funding its indebtedness that the State should promptly secure some three or four millions of dollars. This was finall)- done by a sale to Mr. Blake's firm, by Governor Andrew and his Council, of three million of dollars of five per cent, sterling bonds, and Mr. Blake was appointed b)- the State authorities agent for the State, with authority to domiciliate the loan with either of several London banking firms, selected by him, foremost among whom were the Messrs. Baring and Rothschild. Mr. Blake went at once to London on this mission, but found the time most unfavorable for such negotiations, the Bank of England having suddenly advanced the rate of interest to ten per cent. He, however, finally succeeded in making arrangements with the Messrs. Baring, through whom the loan was successfully negotiated. Mr. Blake always felt that the deserved high credit of Massachusetts was largely due to the high integrit}- and strong sense of Governor Andrew in insisting upon gold for the payment of both principal and interest of the funded debt of the State throughout the general suspension of specie payments in the United States during the Rebellion.

Possessed of a character of unswerving integrity, Mr. Blake stood as an example of the highest commercial honor, and the many young men whom he educated during his long business career all testify to the warm interest he took in lending a helping hand to those who needed his assistance. Devoted and affectionate in his family, it was perhaps in the home circle that his character appeared to best advantage, and those who were in the habit of meeting him there will ever cherish the pleasant memories of his sprightly humor and friendly interest. Reverent and devout by temperament, he was a regular attendant upon religious services, and although he never identified himself with the church by active membership, his whole life testified to his sincere and earnest belief in the truths of Christianity.

Mr. Rkike died at his residence in Brookline, August 0, IBTo, his death resulting' from an attack of paralysis at his office in Boston two days previous. He was interred in the family burial lot at Mount Auburn Cemetery. His wife died two years before, June 7, 1873, at the Brookline home.

The death of Mr. Blake called forth numerous notices not only from home journals, but from papers in many sections of the country. The following- condensed extract from the Boston Globe of August 7, 1875, will perhaps best serve to illustrate the estimation in which he was held in the community where he was best known and where most of the years of his useful life were passed :

The announcement of the death of George Baty Blake, the senior member of the firm of Blake Brothers & Co. , bankers, will cause wide-spread feeling of sorrow in the business and social circles of Boston. It is not often that we are called upon to record the death of a Boston merchant who has quietly and unostentatiously promotetl the substantial interests of this city in the effective manner that was characteristic of Mr. Blake. . . . George Baty Blake was a strong man, one whose clearly defined individuality and indomitable will would have made his power, nerve, and brain felt in any walk in life which he might have chosen. In both the dry goods trade and the banking business he was very successful, although through nearly his whole life he labored with the disadvantage of a physical infirmity which would have paralyzed the efforts of men with weaker vifill or less active brain.

What he has done for Boston can hardly be summed up in a few words or partic. ularized in any special manner, since one of the leading aims of his life has always been to advance her interests. He was early a director in the Boston and Albanj' Railroad, where his ripe judgment and eminent business qualifications were utilized to advance the interests of the road and of Boston. He was also largely instrumental in securing the regular visits of the European steamers to this port, and in numerous ways used his utmost influence to promote Boston's welfare. During the darkest days of the war Mr. Blake never lost courage, but remained firm in his conviction and hope that the Union would be preserved intact, and he was in those trying times ever self-sacrificing, patriotic and generous in upholding the cause he believed in so thoroughly.

Mr. Blake was a man of the strictest integrity, was upright in all of his dealings with men of all classes, and gentlemen who have dealt with and associated with him more or less for a quarter of a century, or more, speak in the highest terms of his capacity and fidelity to principle, fairness and justness.

Boston has certainly lost in Mr. Blake one of her most positive, self-reliant and enterprising business men - one who achieved where many others failed, and one whose integrity, industry and perseverance may well be copied by the younger men of the city who are coming into the places he and others like him are vacating as the weeks, months, and years pass on.

Samuel Crocker Cobb

Samuel Crocker Coub was a descendant in the fifth generation from Austin (or Augustine) Cobb, who first appears as a resident of Tiiunton, Mass., in 1670, and who received a deed of his farm in that town from John Cobb, his cousin, August lo, 1G79. General David Cobb, the great-grandson of Augustine, was born in Attleborough, Mass., September 14, 1748, and died in Taunton, April 14, 1830. He was a man of varied accomplishments, and played a conspicuous part during and following the period of the Revolutionary War. After graduating from Harvard College in the class of 1706, he studied medicine under Dr. Nathaniel Perkins in Boston, and was practicing his profession in Taunton when called upon to serve with Robert Treat Paine, his brother-in-law, in the Provincial Congress, so called, which held its first meeting in Salem, October 5, 1774. In 1775 he appears as a member of the Committee of Inspection and Correspondence for Taunton. During a part of the year 1770 his name is borne upon the rolls of Col. Thomas Marshall's regiment as " Surgeon." In January, 1777, he was commissioned lieutenant-colonel in the Sixteenth Regiment, and later was assigned to duty on General Washington's sj;aif. He was a gallant and meritorious officer; and at the close of the war his services were rewarded by a grant of land and the brevet rank of brigadier-general. As soon as he was relieved from military service, he was appointed (June 7, 17S4) by Governor Hancock to be special justice of the Court of Common Pleas in Bristol county; and in the following year (January 28, 1785) he was commissioned as one of the standing justices of that court. In December, 1785, he was chosen by the Legislature to be major-general of the Fifth Division of the Massachusetts Militia. It was while holding these positions of judge and general that he won something more than a local reputation, by his firmness in checking the riotous demonstrations against the law courts of the Commonwealth in the autumn of 1786.

General Cobb's subsequent career in the public service has been described elsewhere, and does not call for extended notice 'nere. He was speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives for four years (1789-1792); member of the Third Congress of the United States (December 2, 1793, to March 3, 1795); president of the State Senate four years (1801-1804); member of the Executive Council eight years (1805, 1808, 1812-1817); lieutenant-governor of the Commonwealth,

ISUIJ; chief justice of the Court of Common Pleas for Hancock county, District of Maine, from June 14, 1803, till 1809. He removed from Taunton to Gouldsborough, Me., in 1705, having been appointed agent of the " Bingham Purchase." In 17'.>9 he was appointed agent of the proprietors of Gouldsborough. His own grant of land for military service was in Sullivan, Me. In 1831 he returned to Taunton, where he spent the remainder of his life - a kiiid-hearted but somewhat choleric old gentleman, who did much to promote the educational and religious interests of his townsmen, and made it impleasant for those who did not walk in the path which he appointed He received the honorary degree of A.M. from New Jersey College in 1781!, and from Brown University in 1790; was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, of the Massachusetts Medical Society, and of the Society of the Cincinnati, of which he was vice-president in 1810.

General Cobb married in 1766 Eleanor Bradish, and had six sons and five daughters. The youngest son (born January 14, 1790; died February 37, 1833) was named George Washington ; but after the death of his brother David, who was killed by the Indians on the northwest coast, October 34, 1794, he took the name of David George Washington. He was educated as a lawyer. In 1810 he was chosen to represent the town in the General Court, and in the following year was appointed register of probate for Bristol county. He held that office until his death in 1833. He married Abby, daughter of Hon. Samuel Crocker, of Taimton, and had two sons and two daughters.

The subject of this .sketch, Samuel Crocker Cobb, was the second son, and was born in Taunton, May 33, 183G. Among other private schools which he attended in his early youth was the one kept by Rev. E. M. P. Wells, in South Boston. His stay there was brief and unsatisfactory. He was then sent to the Bristol Academy, in Taunton, of which his grandfather. General Cobb, was the founder in 1793. He was fitted for college there, and expected to enter Harvard College in 1843; but much to his regret then, and indeed throughout his life, he was obliged to give up his studies and begin earning his own living. On September 19, 1843, being then only a little over sixteen years of age, he became a clerk in the service of Messrs. A. & C. Cunningham, foreign shipping merchants, at No. It5 Rowe's Wharf in Boston. On April 37, 1847, he formed a business connection with a former clerkmate, J. Henry Cunningham, under the firm name of Cunningham & Cobb, and took an office in a brick building, then new, opposite the head of Rowe's Wharf, 109 Broad street. Their place of business was subsequently removed to IG Rowe's Wharf. On July 1, 184-8, Charles W. Cunnino-ham, an older brother of Henry, was admitted as partner, and the firm name was changed to Cunning-hams & Cobb.

On November 21, 18-18, he married (at Belfast, Me.) Aurelia L. Beattie, of East Thomaston, Me., third daughter of William and Jane D. Beattie of that town.

The firm of Cunninghams &- Cobb was dissolved in 1850, when the house of A. Cunningham & Sons was formed. Mr. Cobb then made arrangements to go to the East Indies and remain there as the agent of Weld & Baker; but on the eve of sailing he had some difficultv with his principals, and withdrew from their service.

In 1851 he formed a partnership with Mr. Josiah Wheelwright for the pro.secution of a foreign shipping and commission business. The firm occupied the store No. VI Central Wharf. This connection continued till August, 1858, when the firm was by mutual consent dissolved, Mr. Wheelwright retiring from active business.

From 1858 until 1878 Mr. Cobb carried on business alone and in his own name, first on Central Wharf, afterward at No. 3 Merchants' Row, and later in the New England Mutual Life Insurance Building on Milk street.

During the twenty years he was alone in business he was engaged principally in the Sicily trade, and with the Cape de Verde Islands and Northwest Coast of Africa (Senegal and Gambia); but to some extent prosecuted the Brazil trade (Pernambuco and Bahia), and also that of Russia and Malaga.

From 1860 to 1877 Mr. Cobb gave considerable time to the public service, often at the expense of his private interests. He was originally a member of the Whig party, and voted for the candidates of that party as long as it existed in sufficient strength to make nominations. He never felt at home in any other party. After 1860 he generally acted with the Democratic organizations on State and national questions; but on questions of local government he refused to be bound by an}^ party caucus or convention. He was essentially a business man, and held and expressed very decided opinions on the absurdity of bringing national party politics to bear in the determination of questions relating to roadways, sewers, water-supply, and local police. In his public speeches and addresses he lost no opportunity of trying to impress the voters with the fact that in the management of the affairs of municipal corporations the same rules should appl}- as in the management of large business corporations, and that the introduction of party tests which have no relation to local affairs has done much to corrupt the service and bring our system of local government into disrepute.

In ISGd Mr, Cobb was elected a member of the Roxbury Board of Alderman, and served for two years with credit to himself and his constituents. He was then called to Europe on business connected with his shipping interests, which had been seriously affected by the war. On the annexation of Roxbury to Bostim, in 1867, he was elected to the Boston Board of Aldermen. At that time the members of the board were voted for on a general ticket, and it is a striking evidence of the estimation in which he was held by his neighbors, and of the position he then occupied as one of the leading merchants of Boston, that he was chosen by a nearly unanimous vote. The charter under which the city was then ruled provided that the executive powers of the government should be exercised by the Board of Aldermen ; but the Common Council had usurped a large share of the executive functions by having a stronger numerical representation upon joint committees which practically controlled many of the departments. Mr. Cobb was one of the first to see the weakness of the existing system and to urge a greater concentration of power and responsibilit)'. He found that the duties of the aldermanic office demanded the larger part of his time, and that the results of his labor were far from satisfactory. For these reasons he declined a re-election. But in the following year he accepted a position on the Board of Public Institutions, where his firmness of purpose and business ability were brought to bear with practical results which the average citizen could well appreciate. A very determined effort was being made to commit the city to the building and maintenance of a great institution for the insane on a lot of land which the best expert opinion had condemned as unsuitable. Mr. Cobb took the ground that it was the duty of the State to provide such institutions; and that, in any case, the site selected and the plans submitted were defective and ought not to be approved. During his service of about four years and a half on the board he introduced some reforms in the purchase of supplies and in the business management of the institutions which were of lasting value.

On November 11, 1873, at a meeting of the citizens of Boston, which included prominent members of the two leading political parties, Mr. Cobb was unanimously nominated for the office of mayor. The city ccinimittces (if tlie Democratic and Republican parties alsd ndniinatccl liim at a later day; and on the day of election he received ]<), I'.tl votes, while his only opponent, a Prohibitionist, received 508. Although the local politicians had no liking for him, the popular demand for his reelection in the following year was so strong that the leaders of the two parties felt obliged to nominate him again, and he was chosen for a second term by a nearly unanimous vote. In 1875 the party leaders made a desperate effort to get possession of the office, and with that view succeeded in getting both the Democratic and Republican city committees to unite on another candidate. Mr. Cobb had stated that he should not be a candidate for a third term, but a paper asking him to serve another year received the signatures of some two thousand prominent citizens, and he did not feel at liberty to decline such a call. A spirited contest followed, resulting in the election of Mr. Cobb by a plurality of 2,574 votes. He states in his journal that he did not contribute, nor was he solicited to contribute any money, directly or indirectly, towards the expenses of his election.

At the time Mr. Cobb was placed at the head of the government the popula,tion of the city had reached a point which made a change in the methods of administration almost as imperative as it was when the representative system was substituted for the popular assembly. The annexation of Chariest own. West Roxbur}- and Brighton had nearly doubled the municipal area, and had added about 44,000 inhabitants. The first city charter was drawn on lines as close to the town-meeting system as the representative plan wottld allow. The revision of 1854, necessitated to some extent by the amendments to the State Constitution, tended to weaken what indeed had most need of strengthening - the executive power and responsibility of the chief executive. Hon. Henry L. Pierce, who had preceded Mr. Cobb in the office of mayor, had been so impressed with the inefficiency of the old system that he had recommended the appointment of a commission to revise the charter. The recommendation was adopted by the City Council, and the commission appointed in the latter part of 1873.

The two branches of the City Council were unable to agree either upon the charter recommended by the commission or upon any modification of it ; bat some of its provisions were subsequently incorporated into special laws relating to the city. It was fortunate, perhaps, that the plan of government submitted by the commission was not adopted as a whole. It was too elaborate ; it provided for too many heads of departments, and it undertook to limit and define their duties so closely that there was no room left for discretion, and no inducement to take the initiative in any new work. The need of a strong and responsible execittive was not so generally recognized then as it was at a later day. It was necessary that the inefficiency and wastefulness of the old system should be brought out more clearly before anything like an adequate remedy could be applied. Mr. Cobb and others, who heartily supported the plan as reported, did not regard it as a measure good for all time, but simply as a step - and at that time it was looked upon as a long step - in the direction of separating and defining the powers of government and securing a better S3'stem of accountability. Ten years later Mr. Cobb, as chainnan of a commission appointed by the mayor, recommended a plan which went much further in the direction of strengthening the power of the chief executive and curtailing the powers of the legislative department ; and public opinion had so far changed in the mean time that the leading propositions were adopted without serious opposition, and incorporated into the act under which the city is now governed.

A number of important acts affecting the future welfare of the city were adopted during Mr. Cobb's administr;ition. In his first message to the City Council, January 5, 1874, he said:

I am decidedly in favor of the establishment of several public squares in different sections of the city, to be connected together if practicable, and which shall be easily accessible to the people ; and I believe this to be a suitable time to decide on some definite plan, with a view to proceeding with the work at an early day The first outlay, though distributed over several }'ears, will no doubt be large, but the experience of other cities can be cited to show that, as a business transaction, aside from the sanitary benefits, it would be a financial success.

Upon this recommendation a petition was sent to the General Court, and in the following year an act was passed which authorized the establishment of the present system of public parks.

It was also upon his recommendation that the im]3ortant department of water supply was transferred from the unpaid and inefficient board (composed of members of the City Council and of citizens at large elected by the City Council) to a commission of three persons selected by the mayor and paid for their services.

During the second year of his administration, and largely perhaps through his influence, an act was passed to regulate and limit municipal indebtedness. This enabled him to introduce what he tersely described as "the pay-as-you-gTj policy," - that is, to raise sufficient money by taxation annually to pay all ex]:)enses except those incurred for the enlargement of the water works, for which a separate tax is levied. What he was able to do in that direction gave him more satisfaction as a business man than all the rest of his work in the mayor's office.

At the conclusion of his three years" service he was able to say that the tax levy had been reduced $2,775,098 ; and that the rate of taxation had been reduced from $15.60 on a thousand dollars to $13.70, notwithstanding' the fact that the valuation of real and personal property had been reduced in the mean time by the amount of $49,876,950.

Soon after retiring from the mayor's office, Mr. Cobb went to Europe, where he spent some months in traveling. On his return he was chosen (September 1, 1877) president of the Revere National Bank, to succeed the Hon. Samuel H. Walley, who had recently deceased. Much to the regret of the directors of the bank, he resigned the presidency on March 30, 1878, to accept the position of actuary in the Massachusetts Hospital Life Insurance Coinpan}', formerly held by the Hon. George Tyler Bigelow. Of his services in this office - which is one of much dignity and responsibility, but by no means one of ease in these days of accumulated capital competing for investment - the Board of Control placed on their records, after his death, the following statement :

During the thirteen years that Mr. Cobb was connected with the company he conducted its affairs with ability, prudence and skill ; with conscientious fideht)'- to the duties of his responsible position, and entire devotion to the administration of the trust confided to him. His high manly character, his sagacity and public spirit, his genial temper, generous disposition, and courteous bearing, united to win the love and esteem of all who were associated with him, while throughout the community he was recognized and honored as a loyal, far-seeing, influential, and useful citizen.

Mr. Cobb well illustrated the .saying that it is the busy man who finds time for everything. His intimate and peculiar knowledge of commercial affairs and of the financial standing of his business contemporaries led to a constant demand for his services in positions of public and private trust, and on boards of arbitration selected b}^ the courts or by the parties in interest. He gave much time, and often to the injury of his health, in aid of the various charitable, religious and educational institutions to which he belonged. He had a keen sense of his responsibility in every position in which he happened to be placed. The

Maysachusftts .Society of the Cincinnati, of which at the time of his death he was president, placed on record the statement that " his services to the society as an officer for more than twenty-five years, and as a member of its standing- committee since 18(il, is a history of constant and disinterested devotion. . None took a higher pride in its membership than he; none watched more constantly over the maintenance of its traditions and usages; none guarded it more jealously against any tendencies toward the destruction of ancient and useful landmarks."

Mr. Cobb was for some years an active and influential member of the Board of Directors of the Institute of Technology. He was also one of the directors of the Old Colony Railroad Company, a trustee of the Ba)' State Trust Compan}'', and of the Forest Hills Cemetery; chairman of the commission to select a site and build the Danvcrs Hospital for the Insane, and treasurer of the vSociety for Propagating the Gospel among the Indians.

He was often called upon to speak in public as the representative of the city or of some organization of which he was a member, and although without either special training or natural aptitude for such sei"vice, he acquitted himself well. ( )n occasions for which he was able to make some preparation beforehand, the matter and form of his addresses were excellent. His address of welcome to the city's guests at the one hundredth anniversary of the battle of Bunker Hill (June 1(J, 1875), his oration on the centennial anniversary of the Massachusetts Society of the Cincinnati (July 4, 1883), and his speech at the bancpiet of the General Society of the Cincinnati in Baltimore (May, 1890) contain matter of historical value.

During the greater part of his business life Mr. Cobb lived on Highland street in Roxbury, having for his next-door neighbor Rev. George Putnam, D.D., of whose church he was long one of the most active and valued members. In 1878 he removed to Boylston street in Boston, and subsequently became a member of the First Church, Berkeley street.

Until middle life he was a man of more than ordinarily strong and vigorous constitution. In 1870 he had a serious illness, growing out of his arduous services in the Board of Aldermen in addition to his large private business. He never fully recovered his former vigor, although outwardly he showed no signs of impaired health until the spring of 1890. He was then suffering intense pain from an internal disease, but continued to perform his usual amount of work until the peremptory orders of his physician obliged him to desist. The nature and extent of his illness were not fully known until near the end. After many weeks of suffering, which he bore with admirable courage, "sustained and soothed by an unfaltering trust," he passed away peacefully and apparently without pain on February 18, 1891. He was buried at Forest Hills Cemetery.

Mr. Cobb's character was not one that calls for elaborate analysis. He was a thoroughly healthy-minded man, to whom life was sweet. He possessed a singularly frank and open nature, and was candid and direct in motive and purpose. He had a good knowledge of character and somid business instincts. His mental and ph3'sical courage were equal to any emergency; and his promptness in action, and contempt for anything like trifling or a want of resolution, showed that he had inherited the prominent traits which history and tradition had assigned to his paternal grandfather.

At a yery early age he began to keep a diar}', in which he noted, at first in the briefest form, his own doings from day to day. Later he introduced some comments on those with whom he came in contact, and on the principal events of the times. He also kept in addition, during the latter years of his life, a journal, in which he gave biographical notices of his contemporaries and some account of the affairs in which he took part or in which he felt a special interest. The value of the work is somewhat impaired by the form in which it was put, and by the difficulty of separating the statements made on the writer's personal knowledge from those copied from the newspapers of the day. It has, however, considerable historical value, and is well worth preservation as a work of reference.

Osborn Howes

Mr. Osi:orn Howks is one of the few living representatives of a class of men who during several generations gave to Boston the greater part of its prominence as a hii-siness center. From a period antedating the Revolution down to the outbreak of the war of the Rebellion, Boston was essentially a ccimmercial city, and those of her merchants whose reputation extended beyond her borders, were in most instances en- gaged in the shipping business. This interest has of later years fallen to such meagre proportions that it is hard to realize that it was during the greater part of the business life of the subject of this sketch the most important factor in the mercantile affairs of this city.

Mr. Howes was born the 2(ith of September, ISOO, in the town of Dennis, on Cape Cod, where the first American progenitor of the family had settled in 1G39. The latter, Mr. Thomas Howes, was a cadet member of a family that owned an estate at Besthrope, Norfolk county, England, where it had established itself in 1457, being at that time a migrating brancli of a Berkshire family, descended from John de Huse, a Norman knight, who received from William the Conqueror in 106G the gift of a manor in the count)' of Berks.

Mr. Thomas Howes left England in lOIJT with his wife and two sons (another son was born on the passage over) at the time when the religious persecutions, instituted by Archbishop Laud and approved by Charles I, were driving so many of the Puritans out of England. From the published papers of Governor Winthrop it appears that one of his intimate correspondents was a member of the Howes family, and it is not improbable that this led to the choice by Mr. Thomas Howes of the colony of Massachusetts Bay as a place of settlement.

The partial destruction by fire in 1G74 of the early colonial records of the family makes it impossible to say why it was that Mr. Thomas Howes left the settlement at Salem, where he landed; but in 1G3D, with Mr. Anthony Thacher and Mr. John Crow, afterwards Crowell, he settled, under a grant from the Plymouth Colony, on Cape Cod, giving to the newly formed town the name of Yarmouth, from the town of the same name in his native county in England, a name afterwards changed, so far as the eastern section of the town is concerned, to Dennis.

This first American ancestor of the subject of this sketch was, like his descendant, a vigorous, sturdy individual. His standing in the colony is indicated by the prefix Mr. that appears with his name wherever written, which was the only colonial title of distinction, and which was reserved for tho.se possessed of rank through birth or education. In this detached section of the country Mr. Thomas Howes brought up a family in conformity with their surroundings, for although his descendants took part in King Philip's war - one of them acting as captain in that colonial campaign - their tastes turned naturally toward the sea, which almost surrounded them, and through succeeding generations they appear to have been hardy and venturesome seamen.

The father of Mr. Osborn Howes, Capt. Elisha Howes, was an experienced seaman, for many j'ears sailing from the port of Boston as commander of vessels trading with Europe, Soiith America and the West Indies, and visiting his Cape Cod home only at intervals between his long voyages. During the war of 1812 he was three times taken prisoner by the English, on one occasion recapturing the vessel and taking the English prize crew as prisoners to Portland. The wish to have his family located so that he could visit them more conveniently led hiin, in October. 1818, to move them to a home in Dedham, where the subject of this sketch spent the remainder of hisschool daj^s, which were, however, chiefly confined to the winter months of the year.

In 1823 the latter went into the employ as clerk of David and Rufus Ellis, who had a store, a cotton factory, a rolling-mill and a nail factory at Newton Upper Falls. The business carried on at this establishment was largely illustrative of the times. When the quarterly settlements were made with the men employed in the mills and the factory it was commonlv found that quite one-third of their entire earnings had been paid by charges for liquor which they had purchased at the store, and yet, at that time, these men were nearly all native-born citizens.

After a stay of about two years at Newton Upper Falls, Mr. Howes received a letter from his father, written at Konigsburg, Prussia, saying that the business of purchasing a cargo for his vessel would detain him there over one trip, and that if his son cared to come out there in the brig, on her return voyage, he could do so. This was the first of a large number of voj-ages made by the latter. On his return from this trip he went into the office, in Boston, of Messrs. Edmimd Baylies and Thomas B. Curtis, merchants, engaged in exporting and importing goods to and from the ports on the Baltic Sea, from Copenhagen to St. Petersburg. In less than twelve months' time, and when twenty years of age, he was sent by them up the Baltic as supercargo, on the brig Ciplicr, Captain Winter (father of William Winter, the poet) commanding, to sell a cargo of cofiiee, rice, sugar, cotton, indigo and cigars. Having sold this and other cargoes sent out on other vessels at Copenhagen and Konigsburg, and having purchased return cargoes, he came back for instructions, after an absence of fifteen months, in the fall of 1827.

It was known that in all probability a high protective tariff would be enacted by Congress early in the following year, and his employers, Messrs. Baylies & Curtis, wished him to hurry back to Prussia and pur- chase carj^'oes of woul, hemp, horse hair, etc., before the proposed customs laws went into effect. For this reason he set sail on January 1, 1828, from New York on one of the line of London packet ships, arrived off Dover in twenty da^'s, and from there via London, Hamburgand Berlin, hurried on to Konig-sburg-. Having sold the cargoes of the vessels that were consigned to him by his Boston principals, and having purchased cargoes to reload them, he received orders to return home. The so-called ' ' Tariff of Abominations, " that of 1828, had been enacted, and was framed with the avowed purpose of making its pro-, visions obnoxious to New England; it placed extraordinary taxes upon importations from the Baltic, thus interdicting Boston trade with the countries bordering on that sea. The business which Mr. Howes had been working to build up, had therefore to be abandoned.

An indication is given of the uncertainties attendant iipon sea-g-oing at that period by the statement, that while it had taken him but one month and three da}^s to g'o from New York to Konigsburg on his outward passage, on his return, sailing from Konigsburg the last of October, it was five months before he arrived in Boston, and even then the trip of the vessel he was on was among the shortest made b}^ the considerable fleet of American vessels that left the Baltic at about the same time.

After a short stay on shore he went as supercargo on the brig }Icl>c to Gibraltar, and on returning from there was requested by the owners of the vessel to take charge of her as captain as well as supercargo. This was a serious responsibility to impose upon a young man of twentythree, who, although he had made several voyages across the ocean, had never served as sailor or ship's officer. But as during his four trips to Europe he had studied navigation, and had acquainted himself with the practical work of sailing a ship, he found less difficulty than he had anticipated in meeting the requirements of this new position.

This voyage to Brazil was the first of a series of voyages which he made, voyages which kept him almost constantly at sea, and which took him several times to Western Asia, to South America, the West Indies and Europe. On these trips he was often obliged not only to navigate the vessel when at sea, but when in port to sell her cargo and use his judgment in purchasing a cargo to load her with for her return voyage.

eiybtccn years of aye, who, having shown eonsiderable talent, had been yiven the money needed to pa}' his passage to Europe. The voyage ended at Antwerp, and when, a week after arriving, the brig was about to leave port for England, young Brown came on board and begged to be taken back, saying that he was homesick, had spent all of the money that he had, and that if left in that foreign country he should die of starvation. Mr. Howes pointed out to him the weakness and folly of such a surrender and gave him the money needed to get to Paris and to support himself for a short time. It was more than twent)- years before the two men met again, but the subject of this sketch has in his possession a painting, a gift of the artist, in remembrance of an event which was the turning point in the life of the latter.

Arriving in Boston from Cadiz in February of 183G, Mr. Howes concluded that he had had enough of sea life, and from that time forward never went on a sea voyage e.Kcept as a passenger.

In the month of June of that year he started, in company with the late Joseph Nickerson, of Boston, on an enterprise which was then as formidable as any sea voyage. This was a trip through the West, made to consider the advisabilit)- of purchasing westei^n land. The journey from Boston to Philadelphia was made partly by rail and partly by steamer. From Philadelphia for some seventy miles westward the route was by railroad, then a transfer was made to canal boat, which carried the travelers up to the foot of the Alleghany Mountains. The ascent of these was made on an inclined railway, up which the cars were drawn by a stationary engine at the top; there stages were taken up to the point of descent, where another inclined railway was taken, and then by canal boat to Pittsburg. The time required from Philadelphia to this point was four days, with two days more to reach Cincinnati bv steamer down the Ohio River.

Cincinnati then had a population of about ten thousand. From there the travelers went by steamboat to Louisville, St. Louis and Alton, then up the Illinois River to Peoria, and from thence across the prairie in a wagon to Chicago over a gountry where there was not the least sign of a road, and where it was necessary to ford streams and watercourses. Chicago had at that time, if the statements of its citizens were to be trusted, about 2,500 inhabitants, but after a careful enumeration these visitors came to the conclusion that 1,000 was a fair estimate of their number. The site of the city was low and sandy, the place had been flooded by recent rains, the land was held at what seemed extravagant prices, and Mr. Howes and liis companion, Mr. Nickerson - who afterwards proved himself to be one of the shrewdest investors - congratulated themselves that they had made arrangements to buy real estate at such a promising place as Alton, and had not waited to invest their money in land in and around Chicago.

After a week's stay in this latter place, the travelers, in company with others, chartered a schooner of some sixty tons, which took them across the lake to vSt. Joseph, Mich. From this point the route lay over a corduroy road to Kalamazoo, the distance, fifty miles, the means of conveyance, a long open wagon, and the time required, about thirtysix hours. From there to Detroit the roads were better, but the journey occupied four days. From Detroit a steamer was taken through Lake Erie to Buffalo, from thence canal boat to Utica, there steam railroad to Albany, then stage to Worcester, and finall)' railroad to Boston. The time required to make this trip was two and a half months, and the conditions surrounding it were almost as wearisome and perilous to health as those which now obtain in making a trip across Central Asia.

On returning to Boston in the fall of 183U, Mr. Howes entered into the ship-chandlery business with Captain Willis Howes, an uncle of his. This business relation lasted for some three years, after which he formed, in 1839, the firm of Howes & Crowell, taking his wife's brother as a partner, the last-named partnership lasting thirty-four years, or until the former retired from active business life.

The new firm carried on the shipping business, and also dealt in corn and flour, which was purchased in the Southern markets. At first its shipping ventures were modest enterprises, as indeed were most of those at that time, when a ship of 400 tons burden was considered a large vessel; but Mr. Howes was quick to perceive the change which the discovery of gold in, and the acquisition by the United States of, California was destined to cause in the shipping business of the country, and the benefit that American commercial interests were to derive from the low tariff of 1846.

The firm of which he was the head had established favorable financial connections on Cape Cod, and could, if they had wished more money, have obtained it from Boston capitalists, who soon came to recognize the good judgment shown by it in the conduct of its business.

The firm beg'an buildinj^- ships for its own use in ]8-t5, and the following is a list of the vessels which during the next twenty-five years it either built or bought :

The tonnage of these ranged all the wa)* from 300 or 400 for the first three or four, to 2,000 for those last on the list. Mr. Howes has a thorough knowledge of ship construction, and the vessels that his firm constructed were built from the keel upwards under his immediate supervision. For a number of years the firm had constantly from twelve to fifteen ships imder its control, at the time as large if not a larger number than any other Boston firm, and its house signal - a white flag with a red star in the center - could be seen at the foremast of its ships, not only in the harbors of New York, Boston and San Francisco, but in the docks of Liverpool and London, and lying at anchor at Calcutta, Hong Kong, Melbourne and Callao.

The period from 1845 to ISGl was the high water mark of the American merchant marine; the American merchants were constantly improving the size, model and speed of their ships, American merchant tonnage was constantly increasing, American sailors were showing an

' The bark Kilby was the vessel which was so fortunate as to discover, while on a voyage from New Orleans to New York, the disabled steamship San Francisco. Quite a part of the cotton with which the Kilby was laden was thrown overboard to make room for the passengers and crew of the ill-fated vessel. Quite a number of these were transferred, when darkness coming on the work of the boats was suspended to await the morning, but during the night the steamer went down with the several hundred persons who were left on board of her.

2 The double topsail, a device now in general use on square-rigged sailing vessels all over the world, was first applied to the ship Revere, Messrs. Howes & Crowell giving to the inventor, Capt. Frederick Howes, who was then the captain of the vessel, an opportunity to in this way prove the value of his invention. The use of double topsails has permitted of the carrying of smaller crews, and has also been the means of saving from destruction the lives of a large number of sailors.

unrivaled aptitude for their business, and American .ship merchants a willingness to make the most of their opportunities. In this industrial development, which if it had not been arrested by the war and its results, would long before this have made of the United States the mistress of the ocean, Mr. Howes took a prominent part. The house of which he was the chief partner was one of the leading shipping firms of Boston, and with its associates in business gave the city a worldwide reputation for wealth, sagacity and enterprise - a reputation that has since been lost because evidences of these qualities are not now seen, as they once were, in every seaport in the world. That the success of the American merchant marine depends upon the cheapness of the ships, and the ability of those in charge of them, was and still is his firm conviction. While in active bu.siness he was always annoyed at any attempt at interference on the part of Congress. "If Congress would only give us free ships and let us alone," he was accustomed to say, " we should ask favors of no one."

During the war of the Rebellion, the vessels which he controlled, unlike those of some of his associates in business, were continued in their voyages under the American flag, and although frequently sailing within the range of the depredations of the Confederate privateers, were all fortunate in escaping capture. But the insurance against war risks, and the disadvantages in procuring charters, which American vessels then labored under when compared with foreign craft, led to the sale to foreigners of a number of the ships controlled by his firm, so that when the war closed its shipping business had been reduced to narrow dimensions.

In this respect its position did not differ from that of other Boston ship merchants. The Welds, the Bakers, the Nickersons, the Forbeses and others had also reduced the tonnage that the)' owned or controlled till it neared the vanishing point, and it was with all a question of whether they should, with the changed conditions brought about by peace, enter again upon the work of redeveloping the shipping bu.siness, or should turn their attention to other lines of industry. A number of the leading Boston ship merchants chose the latter of these alternatives; they invested the money received from the sale of their vessels in western railroad enterprises, and in this way, by a definite abandonment of the sea, laid the foundation of enormoits fortunes whicli were built up during the two subsequent decades.

Mr. Howes could not bring himself to make this change, particularly as the members of his firm were solicitous that the shipping business should be continued. Arrangements were therefore made at Medford and elsewhere to build new vessels to take the place of those that had been lost, condemned or sold, and realizing that steamships were soon to take the place of sailing craft, his firm became one of the chief subscribers to the stock, and the business managers of a company formed t<j build and run steamships between Boston and Liverpool.

The American Steamship Company, as it was called, had a brief and unfortunate experience. A number of mistakes were made, not the least of which was in beginning operations before a sufficient amount of capital had been subscribed, and in using wood instead of iron for the hulls of the steamers. Two steamships were built, the Ontario and Eric ; the former made several voyages across the Atlantic, and then the insufficiency of the financial re.sources of the companv becoming apparent, it was necessary to su.spend operations, and after wearisome delay the steamers were sold at a mere fraction of their first cost.

The experience of the firm in the efforts made to resuscitate the sailing merchant marine in the United States was more prolonged, but hardly more satisfactory. New ships were built or purchased and sent upon the accustomed deep sea vo)'ages ; but under the system of war taxes the cost of construction and of home repairs was so great that the vessels could not successfullj' compete with the iron ships that were then conning out in great numbers from the ship-j'ards on the Clyde and the Tyne. Realizing that unless he could obtain the right - which was impossible - to purchase iron ships built in Great Britain, it was useless to continue in the shipping business, since it was certain to eventuate in failure, Mr. Howes, after largely reducing his resouixes by his ineffectual efforts to restore the American flag to its old-time position upon the high sea, definitely retired from active business life in the spring of 1874, and passed the next year with a part of his family in Europe.

Since taking this step he has led a quiet and uneventful life. For a time he continued his connection with the commercial world by serving as director of three Boston insurance companies, the China, the India and the New England, and teinporarily took the position of president of the latter. He is still a director, the oldest one, of the Second National Bank and of the Simpson Dry Dock Company, and is also an cxpresident and the oldest living member of the Boston Marine Society.

His recognized practical good sense and impartiality led during the the years of his business life to his selection as referee in a number of mercantile controversies, involving the payment of large amounts of money.

Mr. Howes's public services have been confined to one year's term (1859) in the Boston Common Council, and to several j-ears' membership on the Board of Trustees of the iState School Ships. He has been interested as contributor in a number of charitable enterprises, and during the war of the Rebellion was a large subscriber to the funds raised in aid of the soldiers.

Horatio Harris

Horatio H.vrris, son of Joseph Harris, was born in Boston, February 12, 1821. He was educated in the public schools, and early m life, leaving the English High wSchool, he entered the commission house of Thomas W. vSears cK: Co. His natural activity and aptitude for business made him at once valuable to his employers, who admitted him a member of the firm when he attained his majority, though he was without capital. In 1847 the well-known firm of Horatio Harris & Co. was established, which continued until his death.

Mr. Harris was largely interested in the Oxnard and Continental vSugar Refineries, and in connection with his commission business was agent for the buying and selling of the products of these refineries.

His success in life was achieved by a manly, straightforward course, and his competition admitted no devious methods. As a merchant he belonged to that class who believed in the commercial importance of Boston, and who were ready at all times by act and deed to prove such belief. With an intuitive sagacit}^ for business, followed by an almost unchecked career of business success, he never made himself conspicuous, and would never accept a public office. He was a man of sterling integrity, with a frank and honest manner. He was a lover of nature, and also a natural musician, possessed of a quick ear and ready touch, and a devoted admirer of the best music.

By the will of the late Jushua Sears, Mr. Harris was appointed one of the three trustees of the large property, which has become famous as the Sears estate, and through his taste and exertions were built the first oriiaiiicntal business buildings in Boston, which during his life were successively erected by the Sears estate.

In 1857 Mr. Harris completed his elegant mansion at the corner of Walnut avenue and Townsend street, Roxbury, where he lived until his death, February ii!), 1870. This house, built at great expense, was one of the finest residences in the city of Boston at that time. It was surrounded by nearly thirty acres of grounds, beautifully laid out with walks and drives, which were always open for the enjoyment of the public.