|
Page 21
and gather a mass of information not to
be acquired in any other way. His book
remains the best authority, a source of
information constantly consulted, and
a commentary of great interest and literary
charm. ii. Charles Keating, born in Boston,
march 11, 1821, died in Florence, Italy,
February 26, 1896. He served as Untied
States minister to Greece from 1868 to
1872, and received from King George the
decoration of the Order of the Saviour.
In 1867 he edited Rangabe's "Greece,,
Her Progress and Present Position,"
and he was the author of "The Greeks
of to-day," 1873; "Poems,"
1885; and "Personal Recollections
of Notable People," 1895. He married
Mary Fleming, daughter of William Gracie,
of New York, by whom two sons: Fleming,
born December 17, 1858, a member of the
New York bar, who married Edith A. Cozzens,
and has a son, Arthur, and Arthur Lyman,
born September 14, 1861, author of "A
short History of Architecture," and
"A Study of Vignola."
5.
Gustavus, see forward.
(V). Rev. Dr. Joseph Tuckerman, son of
Edward (2) and Elizabeth (Harris)
Tuckerman, was born in the homestead on
Orange street in Boston, Massachusetts,
January 28, 1887, died April 20, 1840.
He became distinguished as a philanthropist,
whose works and reputation survive tot
he present time. He received his early
education at the Boston Latin School,
and at Philip's Academy, Andover, Massachusetts.
He entered Harvard College in 1794, at
the age of seventeen. Among his classmates
were Josiah Salisbury, Stephen Longfellow,
the father of the poet, Joseph Story,
afterwards justice of the supreme court,
who was his roommate and William Ellery
Channing, his life-long friend. His father
having severed his connection with Trinity
Church at the outbreak of the revolution,
because the clergy persisted in reading
the prayers for King George, Joseph was
brought up in the congregational church,
and was ordained a minister of that denomination
in 1801, but in later life, in company
with William E. Channing, he took part
in the Unitarian movement. He received
the honorary degree of S. T. D. from Harvard
College in 1826. The Tuckerman School
in Boston was named for him. The philanthropic
work which gave Dr. Tuckerman a reputation
both in America and also in Europe was
accomplished while acting as minister-at-large
in Boston. In the early years of the nineteenth
century the problem of dealing with poverty
and its attendant evils was new, but constantly
becoming more pressing. Dr. Tuckerman
recognized two aspects of the subject,
the religious and the civic. In the former
he labored with unusual aptitude and enthusiasm,
but by no means alone. It is to the latter
that he made contributions so original
and lasting that his usefulness and his
reputation have endured beyond his own
day. he pointed out the distinction between
pauperism and poverty, and introduced
the principles of modern organized charity.
In the modern philanthropic movement he
was a pioneer, and he based his labors
upon principles which he was among the
earliest to recognize, and of which the
wisdom has been accepted by succeeding
generations.
Concerning this work it was said by Justice
Story: "It entitles him to a prominent
rank among the benefactors of mankind,"
and Dr. William E. Channing voiced the
opinion: "He is to be ranked among
the benefactors of this city and the world."
Such words of praise from Dr. Tuckerman's
contemporaries are borne out by statements
of me in the succeeding generation. "Joseph
Tuckerman," said Dr. Edward Everett
Hale, in 1874,
"has
been revered in Boston for a generation
past as one of its benefactors. To the
system inaugurated by him it may fairly
be said the Boston owes it that in every
revulsion of business, or in any great
calamity, her ordinary institutions of
charitable relief have proved sufficient
for whatever exigency. To those systems
the city of Boston owes it that there
does not exist in her borders any focus
of misery or crime--the dread of the authorities
of government and the shame of the ministers
of religion. Poverty, crime and pauperism
there are in Boston; but for the most
part they may be regarded not as chronic
nor as endemic; but as, to a large extent,
importations from without, or abnormal
and exceptional. This happy condition
maybe fairly said to be in a large measure
the result of the views which Dr. Tuckerman
inculcated, and of the plans which he
suggested."
Seventy-five years after the beginning
of Dr. Tuckerman's work in Boston, the
anniversary was commemorated by a gathering
of clergymen and philanthropists. On this
Page 22
occasion it was said by Rev. Samuel A.
Eliot:
"Joseph
Tuckerman was a seed-sower. There was
nothing imitative in his enterprise. It
was not the repetition of something that
had been done a hundred times before.
It was fruitfully original. It had in
it the prophetic element * * * * His work
constitutes an epoch in the history of
human helpfulness. Therefore it enlisted
and still enlists the enthusiastic and
patient devotion of consecrated men and
women. There fore it became the promoter
of numberless similar enterprises in other
fields."
On the same occasion it was said by
Rev. Francis G. Peabody:
"Now,
when did this renaissance of philanthropy,
this age of the social question, begin?
It is, of course, quite impossible to
fix a single moment as the positive starting
point of this new wave of modern interest;
but if we were to select any points from
which to date, one of them would undoubtedly
be the day which we are here celebrating.
Ina most remarkable degree Dr. Tuckerman
anticipated the spirit of the new philanthropy,
and in the founding of this ministry-at-large
fixed one starting point of the modern
movement. He anticipated in the most extraordinary
degree all the principles of modern, scientific
charity. He discussed all the problems
which are now confronting the modern world,
and offered wise and prophetic answers
to them."
In France, Dr. Tuckerman's principles
were adapted by Baron Degerando and his
followers, and in England they resulted
in the Tuckerman institute of Liverpool
and other institutions which still survive.
An account of Dr. Tuckerman's work was
written by Dr. William E. Channing. Dr.
Tuckerman lived at No. 5 Vernon Place,
Boston, Massachusetts, almost directly
behind No. 33 Beacon Street, the home
of his brother, Edward. There are several
portraits of him, of which the principal
ones are that by Gilbert Stuart in possession
of the family, that by Alexander in Memorial
hall, Cambridge, Massachusetts, and that
by butler in the Unitarian Building, Boston.
Rev. Dr. Joseph Tuckerman married (first)
in 1803, Abigail, daughter of Samuel Tuckerman,
sister of Mrs. Edward Tuckerman and a
half-sister of Rev. Francis Parkman, the
father of the celebrated historian, and
of Mrs. Robert Gould Shaw. He married
(second) November 3, 1808, Sarah, daughter
of Samuel Cary, of the Retreat, Chelsea.
The Carys were descended from a younger
branch of the Devonshire family, of which
Lord Hunsdon was the head. William Cary
was mayor of Bristol, England, in 1546,
and his grandson, William, was mayor of
the same city in 1611. The son of William,
named James, emigrated to Massachusetts
in 1639. Dr. Tuckerman's brother-in-law,
Thomas G. Cary, married a daughter of
colonel Thomas H. Perkins, and he was
the father of Mrs. Louis Agassiz, so well
known as the wife of the great scientist
and later as founder and president of
Radcliffe College. By the second marriage
Dr. Joseph Tuckerman had a son, Joseph,
born June 29, 1811, died July 19, 1898;
a second son, Samuel Cary, born in 1815;
died in 1870, who left a son, J. Willard;
a third son, Lucius, see forward.
(VI) Lucius, son of Rev. Dr. Joseph and
Sarah (Cary) Tuckerman, was born in Boston,
Massachusetts, march 19, 1818, died at
Stockbridge, Massachusetts, June 10, 1890.
He was a pioneer in the manufacture of
iron in the Untied States, and together
with his brother, Joseph originated the
metal called Ulster iron, which on account
of its tensile strength filled requirements
since supplied by steel. He lived chiefly
in New York city at No. 22 Washington
Place, and No. 220 Madison Avenue. Later
in life he built a large house on the
corner of Sixteenth and I Streets, Washington,
in what was then the Corcoran Gardens,
where he had a fine collection of pictures,
and with his wife and daughters, Mrs.
James Lowndes and Miss Emily Tuckerman,
exercised a notable hospitality. His country
seat was at Stockbridge, Massachusetts,
where he died. He was vice-president of
the Metropolitan Museum of Art, a life
member of the National Academy of Design,
and for many years a trustee of the Children's
Aid Society. His portrait was painted
by Moscheles and by George B. Butler.
Lucius Tuckerman married, in New York
City, April 2, 1844, Elizabeth Wolcott,
born at Sunswick, Astoria, New York, July
8, 1819, died at Stockbridge, Massachusetts,
August 25, 1906, daughter of Colonel George
Gibbs, of Newport, Rhode Island. The mother
of Mrs. Lucius Tuckerman was Laura, daughter
of Oliver Wolcott, secretary of the treasury
under Washington and Adams, and granddaughter
of Oliver Wolcott, signer of the Declaration
of Independence. She was born at Litchfield,
Connecticut, April 10, 1794, died at New
York, December 10, 1870. Colonel George
Gibbs' fa-
Page 23
ther was the head of the firm of Gibbs
& Channing, which at one time had
seventy-five vessels sailing from the
port of Newport for all parts of the world.
Colonel Gibbs inherited wealth and occupied
himself with scientific pursuits, chiefly
mineralogy. For him Gilbert Stuart painted
the "Gibbs portrait" of Washington,
and also the set of the first five presidents.
Children of Mr. and Mrs. Tuckerman: 1.
Alfred, born in New York City, January
15, 1848; graduated Harvard, 1870, PH.
D., Leipzig, 1874; bibliographer; published
in collections of the Smithsonian Institution
"Index to the Literature of the Spectroscope;"
"Index to the literature of Thermo-dynamics;"
"Bibliography of the Chemical Influence
of Light." He married, at New York,
December 10, 1879, Clara L. Fargis, of
New York City; no issue. 2. Walter Cary,
born in New York city, March 29, 1849,
died there April 18, 1894; married, at
Boston, Massachusetts, June 1, 1875, Florence
Hardinge Fenno, of Boston, and left three
sons, Lucius Cary, Walter Rupert and Wolcott.
3. Laura Wolcott, born in new York, August
2, 1850; married, at Washington, D. C.,
April 9, 1891, Colonel James Lowndes,
of South Carolina. 4. Emily, born at New
York, November 6, 1853; residing in Stockbridge,
Massachusetts, and Washington D. C.; unmarried.
5. Bayard, see forward. 6. Paul, see forward.
7. Lucy, born in New York, February 2,
1858, died at New York, May 12, 1904;
married, November 16, 1882, Arthur George
Sedgwick, of New York City, son of Theodore
Sedgwick, and left two daughters, Grace
Ashburner, and Susan Ridley, married Dr.
Arthur W. Swann.
(VII) Bayard, son of Lucius and Elizabeth
Wolcott (Gibbs) Tuckerman, was born in
New York, July 2, 1855. He graduated at
Harvard University in the class of 1878.
He is the author of: "History of
English Prose Fiction," 1882; "Life
of General Lafayette," 1889; "Peter
Stuyvesant,' 1893; "William Jay,
and the Abolition of Slavery," 1893;
"Life of Philip Schuyler, Major General
in the American Revolution," 1903;
and edited the "Dairy of Philip Hone,"
1889. From 1898 to 1907 he was lecturer
on English literature at Princeton University.
He is a trustee of the New York Society
Library and of the Institution for the
Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb, and
president of the Society for Instruction
in First Aid to the Injured. He is a member
of the Century Club, the Sons of the Revolution
and the Society of Colonial Wars. His
summer home is at Ipswich, Massachusetts.
Bayard Tuckerman married, at Ipswich,
Massachusetts, September 26, 1882, Annie
Osgood Smith, born at New York, February
20, 1862, daughter of Rev. Dr. John Cotton
Smith, a distinguished clergyman of New
York, descended from Rev. Henry Smith,
who emigrated in 1636 and was the first
clergyman of Wetherfield, Connecticut,
and from Cotton Mather Smith, the "Parson
Smith" of the New England troops
in the Revolution, whose mother was a
granddaughter of Rev. Richard Mather,
and who son, John cotton, was Governor
of Connecticut, 1813-18. Children: 1.
Elizabeth Wolcott, born at Ipswich, Massachusetts,
July 24, 1883; married, at Ipswich, Massachusetts,
June 10, 1905, William McIntire Elkins,
of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, who was
born at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, September
3, 1882, son of George W. and Stella E.
(McIntire) Elkins. 2. May Appleton, born
at new York City, November 24, 1886; married
at New York City, April 18, 1907, Gustav
Hermann Kinnicutt, of New York City, who
was born at New York, January 23, 1877,
son of Francis Parker Kinnicutt, M. D.,
and Eleanor (Kissel) Kinnicutt. 3. Bayard,
born at Morristown, New Jersey, April
19, 1889. 4. Joan Cotton, born in New
York City, April 24, 1891; married at
Ipswich, Massachusetts, July 22, 1911,
Evans Rogers Dick, born at Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania, December 17, 1888, son of
Evans Rogers and Elizabeth (Tatham) Dick.
(VII) Paul, son of Lucius and Elizabeth
Wolcott (Gibbs) Tuckerman, was born at
New York City, November 17, 1856. He graduated
from Harvard University, 1878. He is a
fellow in perpetuity of the Metropolitan
Museum of Art, a member of the board of
governor of the New York Hospital, trustee
of the New York Institute for the Education
of the Blind, governor and secretary of
the Minturn Hospital for Scarlet Fever
and Diphtheria Patients, member of the
council of the American Geographical Society,
trustee of the New York Society
Page 24
Library, trustee of the Mutual Life Insurance
Company and of the New York Life Insurance
and Trust Company. He is a member of many
clubs, including the Knickerbocker, Union,
Tuxedo and Down Town. He lives at Tuxedo
park, New York. Paul Tuckerman married,
at New York, march 3, 1886, Susan Minturn,
who was born at New York March 3, 1865,
daughter of John W. and Louisa (Aspinwall)
Minturn. Children: 1. Dorothy, born at
New York, November 22, 1888; married,
at Tuxedo park, new York, September 14,
1912, Dr. George Draper, of New York City,
who was born at New York, may 21, 1880,
son of Dr. William H. Draper, and Ruth
(Dana) Draper. 2. Roger, born at New York,
June 10, 1898.
(V) Gustavus, son of Edward (2) and Elizabeth
(Harris) Tuckerman, was born in Boston,
Massachusetts, April 26, 1785, died in
Boston, January 15, 1860. He was a merchant,
and made frequent trips to Europe, on
of the which he married, in Edgbaston
Old church, England, Jane, daughter of
John and Catherine (Bedford) Francis,
of Edgbaston. They loved for many years
in a large house, No. 15 Franklin Place
in Boston, surrounded by a numerous family
of children, of which the following deserve
mention: 1. John Francis, see forward.
2. Gustavus, see forward. 3. Samuel, Born
January 30, 1828, died February 24, 1908;
married Elizabeth, daughter of Judge William
Fitz-Gerald Watson, of Richmond, Virginia.
He lived in Boston and devoted much of
his fife to church music, singing in and
leading his church choir without pecuniary
compensation for over fifty years. Several
children survive him. 4. Stephen Salisbury,
born December 8, 1830, died March 4, 1904;
married Laura Willis Bumsted, September
4, 1855. A marine painter of some distinction.
His best known picture, now in the Corcoran
Gallery in Washington, represents the
frigate "Constitution" escaping
from the British fleet. Most of his work
was done in Holland and England. He left
six children, the eldest of whom, Gustavus
Tuckerman, was graduated at Harvard College
in 1882.
(VI) John Francis, son of Gustavus and
Jane (Francis) Tuckerman, was born in
Boston, Massachusetts, June 13, 1817,
died in Salem, Massachusetts, June 27,
1885. He was graduated from Harvard College
in 1837 and subsequently received the
degree of Master of Arts and Doctor of
Medicine from Harvard. He served for several
years as a surgeon in the United States
navy. He married, June 30, 1847, Lucy,
daughter of Hon. Leverett Saltonstall,
of Salem, Massachusetts. He was an accomplished
musician and composed a number of hymns.
A small volume of his church music has
been published. Children: 1. Leverett
Saltonstall, born April 19, 1848, graduated
from Harvard College, 1868, received degrees
in Master of Arts and Bachelor of Laws
from Harvard; is a member of the Massachusetts
Bar. He married, September 10, 1896, Grace
Richardson, of Boston; no children. 2.
Charles Sanders, born January 31, 1852,
died august 27, 1904; graduated from Harvard
College, 1874; he was vice-president and
treasurer of the Old Colony Trust Company,
of Boston. He married, April 15, 1880,
Ruth, daughter of Daniel F. Appleton,
of New York, and left four children: Muriel,
wife of Charles Galt Fitzgerald, of Baltimore,
Maryland; John Appleton, graduated from
Harvard, 1905, and married Katherine S.
Atterbury, of New York city; Julia Appleton,
married Louis Le Bourgeois Chapin; Leverett
Saltonstall. 3. Mary Saltonstall, married
William P. Parker, of Salem, Massachusetts,
has two sons: Francis Tuckerman Parker,
who graduated from Harvard in 1991, and
William Bradstreet Parker.
(VI) Gustavus (2), son of Gustavus (1),
and Jane (Francis) Tuckerman, was born
in his grandfather's house in Edgbaston,
England, May 15, 1824, died in his house,
No. 50 West Forty-fifth Street, New York,
February 1, 1897. He was educated at the
schools of Mr. A. Bronson Alcott and Mr.
George Ripley and at the Boston Latin
School where he was prepared for Harvard
college, but through a change of plan
went into the office of Messrs. Curtis
& Greenough, Mercahnts, of Boston,
later becoming a junior partner in that
firm. He made two voyages to Sicily and
to India in the interest of the firm,
and traveled extensively on the Continent
and in England. He later formed a firm
with Mr. Thomas Townsend, of Boston, under
the name of Tuckerman, Town-
Page 25
Send & company, in the Calcutta trade,
and the house flag of that firm, which
was flown from their vessels, is to be
found among the "Merchant Flags of
Boston." In this connection he made
further trips to Singapore and Calcutta,
and brought home many interesting objects
of art, which are still preserved in the
family. His portrait in miniature was
painted in Palermo in 1847 by Sacro Frar.
He moved to new York in 1860, and was
a member of the Century Club for over
thirty years.
Gustavus Tuckerman married, in Boston,
June 18, 1851, Emily G., daughter of Thomas
and Hannah Dawes (Eliot) Lamb, of Boston.
Thomas Lamb was a ship owner and merchant,
and later was for thirty-eight years president
of the New England National Bank and for
forty years president of the Suffolk Savings
Bank for Seamen, and others. He was also
for fifty-four years treasurer of the
Boston Marine Society and president of
the Long Wharf Corporation for thirty-four
years. he was a son of Lieutenant Thomas
Lamb, who as a young man served as first
lieutenant in Colonel Henry Jackson's
regiment of the Continental Line. He was
chosen by Washington to carry a message
from Valley Forge to Boston for supplies
for the army, and the silver spurs which
General Washington removed from his own
heels to speed his young aide on his long
horseback journey are still treasured
in the family. A portrait of Thomas Lamb
Jr., by Sully, painted when he was a young
man hangs in the house of his son, Horatio
Appleton Lamb, of Boston, and another,
painted by his daughter, Miss Rose Lamb,
when he was old, at the request of the
Marine Society of Boston, hands in their
hall. The mother of Mrs. Gustavus Tuckerman
was before her marriage Hannah Dawes Eliot,
a sister of the Rev. Dr. William Greenleaf
Eliot, an eminent Unitarian minister,
who founded and was for many years chancellor
of Washington University in St. Louis
and organized the western sanitary commission
in the Civil war. She was a granddaughter
of Hon. Thomas Dawes, for many years a
noted justice of the supreme judicial
court of the commonwealth of Massachusetts,
and also a great-granddaughter of the
Rev. Dr. Andrew Eliot, a fellow of Harvard
College from 1765 until his death in 1778,
and preacher in the North Church, in Boston,
during the Revolution, who, "when
offered the presidency of Harvard College,
refused the appointment, believing it
wrong to relinquish his vocation for any
other, however honorable." Children
of Mr. and Mrs. Tuckerman: 1. Jane Francis,
born in Boston, Massachusetts. 2. Emily
Lamb, born in Boston, Massachusetts. 3.
Eliot, see forward.
(VII) Eliot, son of Gustavus (2) and
Emily G. (Lamb) Tuckerman, was born in
his father's house, No. 50 West Forty-fifth
Street, new York City, march 12, 1872.
He received his education at Harvard University,
being graduated from the college in 1894
and from the Law School in 1897. He is
a member of the New York bar. He is also
a member of the Association of the Bar
of the City of new York and of the University,
Century, Harvard, Down Town, and New York
Yacht Clubs, fleet captain of the Seawanhaka
Corinthian Yacht Club, and a governor
of the Squadron A Club. He is a trustee
of the Morristown School.
BISHOP. While
tradition is persistent in stating that
this Bishop family is descended from the
pioneers of Ipswich of this surname, and
the location of Dr. John Bishop at Bradford,
Massachusetts, in the same county, at
a time when no English settlers were coming
to America, supports this ancient belief,
it has been established beyond reasonable
doubt that Dr. Bishop himself came from
England. There is reason to think he was
the son of John Bishop, a linen draper
of London, whose wife Elizabeth was a
daughter of Rev. Samuel Lee, whose will
was dated in 1692, and who bequested to
his daughters Elizabeth, Ann and Lydia,
certain books of physics, chemistry and
medicine; Rebecca married John Saffin,
and Lydia, John George of Boston, Massachusetts;
his daughter Ann married Henry Wyrly,
of New Bristol, Connecticut. As three
of her sisters were in this country, it
is thought that Elizabeth or her children
followed then thither. It should be stated
that the Medford history is wrong in the
statement that Dr. John was a son of Samuel(1),
Thomas (1) Bishop, for the record
Page 26
of this John, son of Samuel, is given
in the converse genealogy elsewhere.
It is known that Dr. Bishop married Sarah
Bond, and that about 1717 he located in
Bradford, Massachusetts. He practiced
his profession there and at Medford, Massachusetts,
whither he went in 1723. He died in 1739
and his widow Sarah appears to have married,
at Bradford, April 17, 1740, William Hall.
Children of Dr. John and Sarah Bishop:
Sarah, born at Bradford, June 11, 1720,
married there April 26, 1738; Benjamin
Lathe; John, mentioned below.
(II) John (2), son of Dr. John (10 Bishop,
was born at Bradford, April 6, 1722, and
died in Medford, December, 1791, aged
about seventy years. he came to Medford
with his parents in 1723 and lived there
all his life, and until 1723 his descendants
of this surname were living there. His
home was on High Street. he married, at
Medford, December 7, 1752, Abigail, daughter
of Dr. Simon Tufts. She was born at Medford,
September 22, 1728, died August 30, 1810,
of one of the prominent Charleston and
Medford families. Her father, Dr. Simon
Tufts, was graduated from Harvard College
in 1724, and died January 31, 1747, aged
forty-seven years; married, October 28,
1725, Abigail Smith, who died in 1790,
aged ninety years. Abigail Bishop was
related to President John Adams' family.
Children, born at Medford: Abigail, born
October 5, 1753; married, November 12,
1786, Dr. Archelaus Putnam, of Danvers;
and John, mentioned below. Mrs. Bishop
joined President John Adams in a deed
of Charleston land in 1707. Washington
and Adams were both visitors at the Bishop
homestead in Medford.
(III) John (3), son of John (2) bishop,
was born at Medford, November 20, 1755,
and died there February 8, 1833. He was
a prominent merchant and real estate owner
in Boston. He married Lydia Holmes, who
died April, 1807, aged forty-eight years,
daughter of Nathaniel and Rebecca (Goodwill)
Holmes. Her father was a prominent merchant
and real estate owner in Boston. Her sister
married William Fowle. Children, born
at Medford: 1. Lydia, born, 1784, baptized
June 4, 1786. 2. Rebecca Holmes, born
October 20, 1785, died October 26, 1807.
3. John, born August 7, 1878, died September
7, 1830. 4. Nathaniel Holmes, mention
below. 5. Eliza, born January 1, 1791.
6. William, baptized May 19, 1793, died
November 27, 1812.
(IV) Nathaniel Holmes, son of John (3)
Bishop, was born at Medford, Massachusetts,
in 1789 and was baptized there July 19,
1789. He inherited a large estate at Medford
and added to it substantially. He died
at Medford, February 22, 1850. He married,
October 21, 1824, Mary Smith Farrar, daughter
of Dr. Judson Farrar, of Peterboro, New
Hampshire, Mr. Bishop being then of Boston.
The marriage intention was dated September
19, the marriage taking place October
21, 1824. Children, born at Medford: 1.
Mary Rebecca, born December 7, 1829; baptized
December 31. 2. John, born May 24, 1826;
baptized in 1831. 3. Lydia, born March
23, 1828, baptized three days later; married,
March 7, 1849, Samuel Howell Jones, of
Philadelphia. 4. Eliza, born august 10,
1833. 5. Nathaniel Holmes, born June 30,
1833, died September 11, 1836. 6. Nathaniel
Holmes, baptized May 6, 1837. 7. Harriette
(or Henrietta) Baker, baptized may 6,
1839. 8. Heber Reginald, baptized May
3, 1840. 9. Maria Josephine, born April
9, 1841.
(V) Heber Reginald, son of Nathaniel
Holmes Bishop, was born at Medford, march
11, 1840, and baptized there May 3, 1840.
He attended the Cummings school at Medford
and the academy at North Yarmouth, Maine.
Early in life he began a commercial career.
In the autumn of 1856 he entered the employ
of Benjamin Burgess & sons, then prominent
merchants in the West India Trade, at
India Wharf, Boston, and in the same year
was sent to Remedios, Cuba, to represent
the house. In March 1881, soon after he
came of age, he established himself in
business in Cuba, exporting sugar and
carrying on the usual banking business
with the planters. He was successful and
prospered until the insurrection broke
out in 1868, after which business was
carried on with great difficulty—labor
was scarce, and the sugar crop was small
for a number of years. In 1876 he finally
left Cuba and never returned.
He became interested in the rapid transit
problem of New York City and was prominent
with Benjamin Brewster and others in
Page 27
organizing the company and building the
street railroad in New York. Naturally
he came to be interested in other railroads
then building in the western states. He
was a director of the St. Paul, Minneapolis
& Omaha Railroad Company; of Chicago,
Rock Island & Pacific Railroad Company,
and the Duluth & Iron Range Railroad
Company, of which he was president. In
1887 he was one of the organizer of the
Minnesota Iron Company, of which he became
president and he was also a director of
the Chandler Iron Company, of the Lackawanna
Iron and Steel Company, and of the new
Lackawanna Steel Company. His interests
were very large in the iron properties
about Duluth. For many years he was a
trustee of the Metropolitan Trust Company
of New York City, and his ability, integrity
and business aptitude won for him the
respect and confidence of his associates.
He was active in various charities, and
for some years was vice-president of the
Presbyterian Hospital of new York. he
was a member of the Metropolitan, Union,
Union League, Century, Grolier, and other
New York clubs, the Restigouche Salmon
Club and the Southside Sportsmen's Club,
and the Civil Service Reform Association,
and a director of the Chamber of Commerce,
the Metropolitan Museum of Natural History
and of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
At one time he was very active in the
organization of the Forty-second Street
Presbyterian Church. He was a life member
of the New York Genealogical and Biographical
Society.
His leisure was spent largely in travel.
In 1870 he made his first visit to the
pacific coast, and he went again in 1880
and in 1890. In 1881 he spent five months
in Europe, and in 1883 and 1885 he traveled
extensively in France, England, Germany,
Austria, Russia, and Spain. His taste
for art developed, and he began as early
as 1880 his collection of jades and continued
to add to it at every opportunity. In
1888-89 he was abroad most of the time
and spent many months in Italy and Turkey.
In 1892 he visited Japan and china and
spent three weeks in Pekin. His reputation
as a connoisseur and collector had preceded
him, and he had special opportunities
to see specimens of jade and to add to
his possessions. In the autumn of 1892
he went to Europe again, and in 1895 he
spent two months in Egypt, and ascended
the Nile to the Second cataract, and paid
visits to the Holy Land, Greece and Turkey.
This was his second visit to Constantinople.
On his way home he visited Sicily, Naples,
Rome, and Paris. In 1883 he built the
house on upper Fifth Avenue, and made
his home there until he died. In 1895
he had constructed in his house a fireproof
room for his jade collection which ad
become larger than any other in the world—larger
even than the famous collection in the
British Museum. Many of the stones were
of great beauty and value, and as a mineralogical
and archaeological collection it was and
is invaluable. In March, 1902, this collection,
valued at half a million dollars, was
presented by Mr. Bishop, tot he metropolitan
Museum of Art, of which he was a trustee
for many years, providing that the collection
should remain in his house until a similar
room had been prepared for it in the Museum.
About the same time he completed a catalogue,
a hundred copies of which were printed
after his death. This work is an authority
on the subject of jade, and the book as
well as the collection is a memorial of
the industry, learning and artistic spirit
of Mr. Bishop.
|
