176 DITSON. DIXEY. At this time he was the main support of his father and mother. His varied abilities and tenacious attention to business made him indispensable to Colonel Parker, with whom he had resumed work in the old place. Later on he took a single counter in the famous " old corner bookstore." Here was formed the firm of Parker & Ditson, when he was only twenty-one years old. He put his whole force into the business and changed it into a music store. In 1S40 he purchased Colonel Parker's interest, and under the name of Oliver Ditson, without the aid of capital or influential friends, the career of this remarkable publisher may be said to have been fairly and successfully launched. In the meantime he had become an organist, a singer, and an accomplished writer of notes and letters which had a special reputation for their lively tone and brilliancy. He was now a polished gentle- man, the delight of his numerous friends, and everywhere welcomed for his kindly manner. In 1S40 he was married to Catherine, the daughter of Benjamin Delano, a OLIVER DITSON prominent ship owner. She was a lineal descendant of William Bradford, the second governor of the colony of Plymouth. Five children blessed this union : Mrs. Burr Porter, Charles H., James Edward (deceased), Frank Oliver (deceased), and a daughter who died in infancy. The business of this phenomenal pub- lisher went on increasing in volume until he had an annual business of two million dollars. He was a long time the president of the board of music trade, of which he was the founder. No other man in the trade was so widely known or so univer- sally respected. He expended large sums in supporting such artists as gave promise of special distinction. Mr. Ditson was one who rallied to the support of the Peace jubilee and made it a brilliant success. He subscribed and paid twenty-five thousand dollars for the Jubilee of 1872, which gave to music in New England a forward impulse it has never lost. He was a life-long patron of the Handel and Haydn Society, and was never absent from its concerts. He was an able financier; twenty-one years presi- dent of the Continental National Bank of Boston; many years trustee of the Frank- lin Savings Bank, which he originated and managed; also a trustee of the Boston Safe Deposit Company; one of the founders of the Old Men's Home, Boston; an active supporter of the New England Conserva- tory of Music ; trustee of the Mechanic Association ; member of the Boston Me- morial Association, and a director of the Bunker Hill Monument Association. Politically he was a Whig, until the form- ation of the Republican party, after which he acted with that organization. His re- ligious training was with the Baptist denom- ination, but in later years he allied himself with the Unitarians. His whole life was characterized by much breadth in religious matters and liberality toward all denomi- nations. In his long career he had estab- lished a number of branch houses, and placed many a young man of ability where he could win success. Of these are notably conspicuous, the Boston branch house of J. C. Haynes is: Co., the Cincinnati house (John Church); the New York house (Charles H. Ditson); the Philadelphia house ( T. E. Ditson), and the Chicago house of Lyon & Heal'. DIXEY, HENRY E., was born in Bos- ton, January 6, 1859. While extremely young, his natural aptitude for mimicry led his footsteps by instinct to the door of the stage, and as an exponent of children's parts he became the envy of his youthful associates. While still a mere boy, he at- tached himself to the regular stock com- pany of the Howard Athenaeum, and
