ACKERMANN, MISS JESSIE A. president of the Woman's
Christian Temperance Union of Australasia, born in Boston, Mass., 4th
July, 1860. As befits a Fourth-of-July child, she has the ring of American
independence. She is a descendant of the Pilgrim Fathers on her mother's
side, and is of German extraction on her father's. Her inherited virtues
and talents have been developed by liberal educational advantages. She was
instructed in law, and spent much time in the study of elocution. She took
a private course of study in theology, while drawing and painting and
instruction in household matters were not neglected She had the advantage
of extensive travel through her native land and spent much time in the
Southern States, immediately after the close of her schooldays. At twelve
years of age she was taken to a Good Templars' Lodge, where she received
her first temperance teaching, and gave her first temperance talk. She
began public work as grand lecturer and organizer for that society in
1881, and continued until, in 1888, the wider scope and higher spiritual
tone of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, with its special
opportunities for work among women, won her heart, and she began to serve
in its ranks. She succeeded amid extraordinary difficulties in organizing
unions at Sitka and Juneau, in Alaska. She also traveled and organized in
British Columbia with success. She gladly responded to the call to go
round the world, and receiving her appointment at the National Convention
held in New York, in October, 1888, she sailed from San Francisco for the
Sandwich Islands on 29th January, 1889. She reached Honolulu on 6th
February, and was cordially welcomed at the residence of the W. C. T. U.
president. The Japanese Consul-General, a cultivated Christian gentleman,
president of a temperance society of 1,400 members, was much interested in
her work and acted as interpreter at the meetings she held among the
Japanese residents, the other foreigners and the native Hawaiians. She
spent some time in the Islands. The history of her mission in New Zealand
and the Australian colonies was recorded in the "Union Signal" by her
letters during 1889. Successful and enthusiastic missions were held in the
North and South Islands of New Zealand and in the Island of Tasmania. She
visited Melbourne on the way for Adelaide. She remained two months in
South Australia, traveled over the greater part of the colony, organized
twenty-four local unions, called a convention in Adelaide, formed a
Colonial Union, and left a membership of 1,126. Workers responded to her
call in every place, and money was forthcoming for all needs. Finding the
work in Victoria well organized under the care of Mrs. Love, of America,
she stayed only a few days, in which she spoke in the crowded meetings of
the Victorian Alliance, which is very influential in Melbourne. Her stay
in New South Wales was very brief, for she found that outside help was not
at that time welcomed in that oldest and most conservative colony,
although a good work was doing by the several local unions. She was most
cordially welcomed to Queensland, but stayed only long enough to attend
their annual convention, as the way to China and Japan seemed open before
her. A sense of duty rather than inclination took Miss Ackermann to China,
but from the time she landed in Hong Kong she was well received
everywhere. As there seemed no opportunity to organize in Hong Kong, she
decided to proceed to Siam, by way of Swatow. Her visit to Bankok was
prolonged through an attack of malarial fever, which greatly reduced her
strength. While in that city, she obtained an audience with His Royal
Highness, Prince Diss, who is at the head of the department of education
in Siam. She was also presented to His Majesty, the King of Siam, who
received her graciously. She returned again to Hong Kong, on the way to
Canton, which she reached by river. The northern ports of China being
closed, Miss Ackermann proceeded to Japan, going to Yokohama. There she
did much work and formed a union. She next visited Tokio. A very
successful mission was held at Numadza, where a union of forty members was
formed. Meetings were held in Nagoya, and also under the auspices of the
temperance society in Kioto, where Miss Ackermann addressed the
Congregational Conference, then in session. There she also spoke in the
theater to six hundred Buddhist students, on " What Christianity has done
for the World." She addressed nine hundred students in the Doshisha
school. Osaka was visited at the invitation of the Young Men's Christian
Association. Returning to Shanghai, she enjoyed the privilege of attending
and making an address before the General Missionary Conference of China.
The last was held thirteen years earlier. At that time a woman was called
upon to bring her work before the conference, at which the chairman
vacated the chair, and many left the meeting in sore grief and
indignation. On this occasion, however, all women delegates present,
including missionaries' wives, were made voting members of the conference
with all the privileges of the floor, amid storms of applause. Miss
Ackermann was able to form a National Woman's Christian Temperance Union
for China Successful missions were conducted in Cooktown, Townsville,
Mount Morgan, Rockhampton and Brisbane, and she again went into New South
Wales. The work was very hard. In the first month she traveled
seven-hundred miles, held forty-two meetings, and made more than one
hundred calls in search of leaders for the work. The results were
gratifying, being twenty new unions, a reorganized Colonial Union, and
fifteen Colonial superintendents. The Good Templars were her faithful
friends in that colony, and she spoke in the annual meetings of the Grand
Lodge, where about three-hundred delegates were present. She called a
convention in Melbourne for May, 1891, which was attended by forty-nine
delegates. Miss Ackermann was elected president. A constitution was
adopted providing for a triennial convention, the next to be held in
Sydney in 1894, and Miss Ackermann was elected president of the Woman's
Christian Temperance Union of Australasia for the ensuing term of three
years. Since October, 1888, she has traveled more than forty-thousand
miles, spoken through interpreters in seventeen different languages,
formed more than one-hundred unions, taken five thousand pledges, and
received over four thousand women into the union. The suppression of the
opium traffic and of gambling, and the religious education of the young
are questions to which she is devoting much thought. Since the
Australasian convention she has traveled and organized in Victoria and
South Australia. Miss Ackermann writes modestly of her platform ability,
but she is really a speaker of no mean order. Her audiences are held by
her addresses and fascinated by her lectures.
(American Women, Fifteen Hundred Biographies, Vol 1,
Publ. 1897. Transcribed by Marla Snow.)
ADAMS, MRS. FLORENCE ADELAIDE
FOWLE, dramatic reader and teacher, born in Chelsea Mass., 15th October,
1863. Her maiden name was Fowle. Her father's family, originally from
England, have been for many generations residents of the old Bay State. On
her mother's side she is descended from the Earl of Seafield, who was her
mother's great-grandfather, and from the Ogilvies, Grants, Gordons and
Ichmartins of Scotland, tracing their ancestry back to 13oo. She was
graduated from the Chelsea public school and afterwards attended the
girl's Latin school in Boston. She learned readily, making particularly
rapid progress in the study of the languages. During childhood she gave
promise of great dramatic power. This, combined with her pretty childish
face and happy disposition, won her much attention, while it held out
flattering prospects for the future. She was graduated from the Boston
School of Oratory in 1884, under the late Prof. Robert R. Raymond. In
June, 1888, she was married to George Adams, a direct descendant of the
statesmen and presidents. Her marriage has not interfered with her chosen
line of work. Naturally of a sympathetic disposition, she has devoted much
time and talent to charities. Having had from time to time many pupils to
instruct, she felt the need of a text-book that should set forth the
principles of the Delsarte system in a form easily grasped by the student.
This led to the publication of her book "Gestures and Pantomimic Action"
(Boston, 1891). Mrs. Adams was her own model for the numerous
illustrations used in the volume, and in this, as throughout the work, she
had an invaluable critic in the person of her mother, who is also a
graduate of the Boston School of Oratory. One distinguishing trait of Mrs.
Adams' character is her great love for animals, not confined to a few
pampered pets, but extended to the whole brute creation. Her personal
appearance is pleasing. She is youthful looking and is fond of society in
which she has ever been a general favorite.
(American Women, Fifteen Hundred Biographies, Vol
1, Publ. 1897. Transcribed by Marla Snow.)
ADAMS, Thomas Boylstongraduated at Harvard in 1790, and was
admitted to the Suffolk bar in 1795. He was appointed Chief Justice of the
Norfolk Common Pleas June 28, 1811, and died in 1832.
[Source: History of the judiciary of
Massachusetts: By William Thomas Davis; Publ. 1900; Pgs. 94, 221;
Transcribed and submitted by Andrea Stawski Pack.]
ADEE, David
Graham, lawyer, jurist, author, was born May 31, 1837, in
Chelsea, Mass. He was United States commissioner to the Sandwich islands
in 1883; during the war he was military secretary on staff duty; and
practiced law in New York for ten years. He was the author of the novel
No. 19 State Street, He died in 1901 in Washington, D.C.
[Herringshaw's National Library of American Biography:
Contains Thirty-five Thousand Biographies of the Acknowledged Leaders of
Life and Thought of the United States, by William Herringshaw, 1909 -
Transcribed by Therman Kellar]
AGASSIZ,
Mrs. Elizabeth Cabot, naturalist. She is the daughter of Thomas
Graves Cary, of Boston, Mass. She was married to Professor Louis Agassiz
in 1850. She accompanied her husband on his journey to Brazil in 1865-6
and on the Hassler expedition in 1871-2; of the second she wrote an
account for the "Atlantic Monthly," and was associated with him in many of
his studies and writings. She has published "A First Lesson in Natural
History" (Boston, 1859), and edited "Geological Sketches" (1866). Her
husband died in 1873, and Mrs. Agassiz edited his "Life and
Correspondence" in two volumes (Boston. 18851, a very important work. Mrs.
Agassiz resides in Cambridge, Mass., and has done much to further the
interest of Radcliffe College from its beginning when known as the Harvard
"Annex."
(American Women, Fifteen Hundred Biographies, Vol 1, Publ. 1897.
Transcribed by Marla Snow.)
ALDEN, Miss Emily Gillmore, author and educator, born in Boston, Mass.,
21st January, 1834. In infancy her parents removed to Cambridge, and her
education was pursued in the public schools of that city, and in Mt.
Holyoke Seminary, South Hadley, Mass. Her career has been chiefly that of
a teacher in Castleton, Vt., and in Monticello Seminary, Godfrey, Ill. In
this latter institution she now has charge of the departments of history,
rhetoric, and English literature, and of senior classes for graduation.
Her literary work, stimulated probably by the scope of her teaching and
her experience as an enthusiastic and truly artistic educator, has been
the recreation of her years, and her poems have the delicacy and
spontaneity that belong to genius. Miss Alden comes of Pilgrim ancestry,
being of the eighth generation in lineal descent from the Mayflower. She
is singularly retiring in manner, courts no admiration for her work, and
holds ever her daintiest verses in most modest estimation. She shrinks
from publicity, and her first efforts were offered under a pen-name. An
early critic, detecting an artistic touch in her poetic fancy, insisted
that the mask should be dropped, and since then her poems have reached a
very appreciative circle of readers under her own signature.
(American Women, Fifteen Hundred Biographies, Vol 1, Publ. 1897.
Transcribed by Marla Snow.)
ALLEN, Elisha
H., lawyer, diplomat, congressman, was born Jan. 28, 1804, in New
Salem, Mass. He served in the legislature of Maine in 1836-41 and in 1846;
and in 1838 was speaker. In 1841-43 he was a representative from Maine to
the twenty-seventh congress. In 1847 he removed to Boston; was elected to
the Massachusetts state legislature in 1849; and then was appointed consul
to Honolulu. He afterward became connected with the government of the
Sandwich islands; and in 1856 visited the United States as envoy. In
1857-64 he was chief justice and chancellor of the Sandwich islands; and
was the Hawaiian minister at Washington for a number of years. He died
suddenly while attending the president's reception, Jan. 1, 1883, in
Washington, D.C.
[Herringshaw's National Library of
American Biography: Contains Thirty-five Thousand Biographies of the
Acknowledged Leaders of Life and Thought of the United States, by William
Herringshaw, 1909 - Transcribed by Therman Kellar]
ANDERSON, Edward
AMBASSADORS of the Prince of Peace
are occasionally drafted into the Army, where carnal weapons are the
acknowledged instruments of righteousness and where "the word preached" is
to be that of surrender or death. So it seems to have been with Edward
Anderson. His father, Rufus Anderson, D.D., LL.D., (1796-1880) married
Eliza Hill and their son Edward was born in Boston, November 19, 1833. His
grandfathers were Rufus Anderson and Richard Hill. The Anderson line is
traced back to James, who came from Londonderry, Ireland, to Londonderry,
New Hampshire, in 1719. Rufus, the father of Edward, was a Congregational
clergyman of high repute and for many years was the distinguished
Secretary of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. His
tastes were scholarly and he wrote much upon missionary topics, being the
author of a "History of Missions" in five volumes. The printer's trade
attracted young Edward and he learned it, that he might, through it, get a
better knowledge of practical literary work. There were no special
obstacles or hardships in the path of his education, as he had the
advantages of the Washington and Roxbury Latin Schools, and Phillips
Academy, Andover. He did not have a collegiate opportunity. A godly and
devoted mother exercised a blessed influence upon her son as she strove to
develop in him the noblest likings and ambitions. The parents would see
him a minister of the Gospel and to that end he studied theology with his
father, and in 1858 was ordained into the ministry.
In a life of many vicissitudes he
performed the ordinary duties of the pastorate in several churches, but
his chief work has been in Army circles. He was Chaplain of the 37th
Illinois Infantry, Colonel 12th Indiana Cavalry, and served through the
Civil War. He was for several years editor and part owner of the
Chautauqua (N.Y.) Democrat; a daily paper.
Colonel Anderson was "persona grata"
in social and fraternal clubs and societies, being, among others, a member
A. F. A.. M., Knights of Pythias; A.O.U. W.; R. A., G. A. R.; M. O. L. L.,
U. S. He has held office in A. F. and A. M.; Commander J. M. Wells Post,
Columbus, Ohio; and Chaplain of many other posts. He was
chaplain-in-chief of the Grand Army of the United States.
He voted as he thought and talked, a
Republican, and swerved not from that political faith. His ministry has
been among the churches of the Congregational denomination principally,
but he has been a servant at large in the Kingdom of God.
He is the author of one volume "Camp
Fire Stories" 1869.
As for amusement, he finds much
satisfaction in the game of golf as any man must whose life has been
vigorously spent under the open sky.
In 1857, July 29, Mr. Anderson
married Harriet F., daughter of Elijah G. and Florinda Shumway. Five
children have been born to them, of which two , William G. and Henry S.
are respectively Professor and Instructor of Physics at Yale University.
His daughter (Mrs. Kate Anderson Wadsworth) was, before her marriage, at
the head of the Department of Physical Culture for Women in the Chicago
University.
His advice to youth who would make
themselves of most value in the world is, to be satisfied with nothing
less than true worth of character, and to love work for its own
sake.
(Source: Biographical History of Massachusetts
Biographies and Autobiographies of the Leading Men in the State by Samuel
Atkins Eliot, M. D.D. 1916
Submitted by Barb Ziegenmeyer)
ANTHONY, SILAS REED, banker and stock
broker, partner in one of the most important banking houses of New
England, member of the New York Stock Exchange, was born in Boston, August
5, 1863. He died there March 10, 1914. He was the oldest of five children
of Nathan Anthony, born February 11, 1832, died June 12, 1881, and Clara
James (Reed) Anthony, born April 16, 1840. His paternal grandparents were
Edmund Anthony, born August 8, 1808, died January 24, 1876, and Ruth
Adeline (Soper) Anthony, and his mother was the daughter of Silas Reed,
born May 29, 1806, died in October, 1886, and Henrietta M. (Rogers)
Reed.
The first of the Anthony family to arrive in America was
John Anthony, a descendant from William Anthony, who was born in Cologne,
Germany, in the latter part of the fifteenth century, and, coming to
London, was chief graver of the mint and seals to King Edward VI and
Queens Mary and Elizabeth. John Anthony emigrated from Hampstead, now a
part of London, in 1634, settling in Portsmouth, Rhode Island. Other
ancestors of S. Reed Anthony included such men of distinction as Myles
Standish, John Alden, Governor Thomas Dudley, Major General Daniel
Dennison, John Rogers, fifth President of Harvard College, Tristram Coffin
and William Reed, of the Winthrop colony in Massachusetts.
Mr. Anthony prepared for college at the Roxbury Latin
School, in which he ever afterwards showed an active and helpful interest,
but upon the death of his father in 1881, he gave up his plans for
college.
In December, 1881, at the age of eighteen, Mr. Anthony
entered the employ of Kidder, Peabody & Co. He remained with this
house more than ten years. Resigning in May, 1892, he formed a partnership
with William A. Tucker, and they established the banking house of Tucker,
Anthony & Company.
Mr. Anthony's tastes and business led him into many social
and other organizations. He was a member of the Union, Algonquin,
Athletic, Exchange, Essex County, New Biding and Country Clubs. He was
interested in the history and progress of New England and the country at
large, and belonged to the Bostonian Society, American Geographical
Society, and Mayflower Society. He was also a member of the Eastern Yacht
Club, New York Yacht Club, and the Boston Yacht Club; his favorite sports
were yachting and driving. He was an Episcopalian, attending Emmanuel
Church, Boston, of which he was one of the wardens. He was a constant
adherent of the Republican party.
Mr. Anthony was married June 1, 1887, to Miss Harriet P.
Weeks, daughter of Andrew G. and Harriet Pitts (Pierce) Weeks,
granddaughter of Ezra and Hannah (Prince) Weeks, and of Charles and
Harriet (Pitts) Pierce, and a descendant from Elder William Brewster who
came to America on the Mayflower and Colonel Daniel Pierce, of
Newburyport. Mr. and Mrs. Anthony's three children are: Andrew Weeks, Ruth
and Reed Pierce.
Trained in business methods, and accustomed to weigh
consequences before embarking upon any undertakings, an experience like
Mr. Anthony's is especially instructive to those who would give heed to
its lessons. These are the principles, habits and maxims that his career
suggested to him as most helpful in achieving the highest and most
satisfactory results in life: "Moral responsibility, steadiness of purpose
and firm resolution. Be fair and honest in dealing with others. Live and
let live."
Mr. Anthony wrote the above words for the readers of this
work, and his own life shows that it was modeled along these lines. He
said that the relative strength of influence of home, of school, of
contact with men in active life, of private study, of early companionship,
all in the order named were potent factors upon his own success in life.
Among the many tributes to the memory of Mr. Anthony, the
Transcript said:
S. Reed Anthony, the Boston banker, who died on
Tuesday, was a successful man as measured by the usual standards, but the
true record of his success is written not in ledgers, but in the hearts of
those who were privileged to know him. It is so written because as boy and
man he failed in no relationship and in no duty. By many lines of descent
he was a Puritan, bat in him the granite character of his Puritan
ancestors had been refined to a character of transparent quartz through
which all men might read, though its surface none might scratch; but it
was a quartz warm and glowing like that which marks Emerson's grave in
Sleepy Hollow Cemetery.
"To die at fifty years with one's larger plans still
unfulfilled and leaving all that makes life good behind may seem to some
the irony of Fortune, but to live for fifty years and earn honor from
one's associates, devotion from one's friends, love and life-long
remembrance from one's family is surely to achieve success. This is why so
many men and women are to-day proud to have known S. Reed Anthony and
happy in remembering him as 'That friend of mine who lives in God.'
Speaking of Mr. Anthony, Mr. Henry M. Rogers said, "A good
man has finished his work here. In the ripeness of a rich manhood, and
with seemingly years of service still before him, he has been taken from
us and the mystery of unexpected, death remains to perplex us. To those
who mourn him must be a faith that in the Providence of God there are no
accidents and that he is needed elsewhere. His memory will long endure for
he was entrenched in many hearts. He inherited integrity as a birthright.
He was loving and gentle and kind. His monument was made daily. In every
relation growing out of his manifold duties and responsibilities, he was
simple and direct, with firm convictions, presented with sobriety of
judgment, patience and firmness. He was reserved rather than demonstrative
and in face and bearing could never be mistaken for less than a gentleman.
He was pure in his life, loving in his household, generous to a degree,
and a citizen, patriotic, wise and self restrained.
"He never mistook assertion for performance of duty and
was instinctively able to separate wheat from chaff in life. He cared most
for the essentials of living for truth, for manhood, for service. Many men
will pass before our eyes whose names are praised and sounded to the echo,
but in the scales that will finally measure character, it is believed that
Reed Anthony will be found among those designated by the Master as good
and faithful servants. Had he lived for an hundred years what more could
he have or we ask!"
Source: Biographical History of Massachusetts Biographies and
Autobiographies of the Leading Men in the State
by Samuel Atkins Eliot,
M. D.D. 1916
Submitted by Barb Ziegenmeyer
AUSTIN, James Trecothick, son of Jonathan
Loring and Hannah (Ivers) Austin, was born in Boston January 10, 1784, and
graduated at Harvard in 1802. He studied law with William Sullivan and was
admitted to the Suffolk bar in July, 1805. In 1807 he was appointed
Attorney for the State in Suffolk County and in 1809 Town Advocate. In
1816 he was appointed by Madison to manage the business under the 41st
article of the treaty of Ghent and in 1825-26 and 1831 he was a member of
the Senate. He was appointed Attorney General in 1832 and served until
that office was abolished in 1843. In 1831 he delivered the Phi Beta
oration at Harvard and in 1835 received the degree of LL. D. from his alma
mater. He married, October 2, 1806, Catharine, daughter of Elbridge Gerry,
and died in Boston, May 8, 1870.
[Source: History of the Judiciary of Massachusetts: By William
Thomas Davis; Publ. 1900; Transcribe for Genealogy Trails by Andrea
Stawski Pack.]
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