6 3 6 WATERMAN. WEBB. has, from the beginning, been a success. He has a rare power of stimulating his classes to earnest and sustained effort in the pursuit of any study that interests him. This power, when at his best, he no doubt exerts unconsciously, but in accord- ance with his theory of mental training — that the faculties of the mind are deter- mined to their most improving exercise by the desire for knowledge, and that the ideal teacher is one who has for his chief qualifications an inextinguishable thirst for knowledge and the power of exciting a like thirst in the mind of the pupil. Mr. Waterhouse has, from time to time, contributed papers on various topics to literary and educational societies. WATERMAN, ANDREW J., son of Wil- liam and Sarah (Bucklin) Waterman, was born in North Adams, Berkshire county, June 23, [825, and was reared on a farm in Williamstown. The public schools, Williams Academy, Williamstown, and Greylock Institute, South Williamstown, furnished him with his early educational training. He held several town offices in Williamstown, and in June, 1X51, after several years' service as clerk in a store, he commenced the study of law in the office of Keyes Dan- forth, and completed his legal studies in the office of Hon. Daniel N. Dewey, in Williamstown, and was admitted to the bar of Berkshire county, March iS, 1S54. He began practice in Williamstown in partnership with Mr. Danforth ; in Febru- ary, 1X55, was appointed to the office of register of probate, which he held till 1858 when he was elected register of pro- bate and insolvency, and held that office till April, 1881, when he resigned. In November, 1880, he was appointed district attorney for the western criminal district, comprising Berkshire and Hampden coun- ties, to fill the vacancy caused by the resig- nation of Hon. N. A. Leonard. He was elected to the same office in [880, '83 and '86, resigning October r, [887, to accept the oilier oi attorney-general of Massa- chusetts, to which he was elected in No- vember, 1.S.S7, for the ensuing political year. The following year he was again elected, and still retains the office. In 1S55 he changed his residence to Lenox, then the shire town of Berkshire county, where he remained until February, 1872, when he removed to Pittsfield to dis- charge the duties of his office and to prac- tice law, — Pittsfield having become the shire town of the county. He still resides in the latter town. Mr. Waterman was a delegate to the national Republican convention at Balti- more in 1864, which nominated Abraham Lincoln for a second election, and was alternate delegate to the national Republi- can convention in Chicago, in 1880. He has never been a candidate for election to either branch of the Legislature, having always been constitutionally ineligible by holding the above offices. Mr. Waterman was married in Fast Bos- ton, January 7, 1.S58, to Ellen Douglas, daughter of Hon. Henry H. and Nancy (Comstock) Cooke. They have no chil- dren. Mr. Waterman was reared politically in the Democratic faith, but left the party before attaining his majority ; cast his first vote for Stephen C. Phillips, for governor ; joined and acted with the Free Soil party, and later on, the Republican party, of which he has ever been a staunch member. He has held many offices of trust, and has dispensed a generous charity in an un- ostentatious way. In religious sentiment he is a liberal. WHBB, EDWIN B., son of Ebenezer and Sophia (Lancaster) Webb, was born in New Castle, Lincoln county, Maine, 1820. The district schools furnished his early educational training until he entered Lin coin Academy, New Castle, and prepared for Bowdoin College. He graduated al Bowdoin College in [846, and then spent something over a year in teaching in an academy. Meantime the choice of a pro- fession — a choice between the bar and the pulpit — was determined, and in the autumn of 1X47 he entered the Bangor Theological Seminary, enjoying for three years the instruction of Professors Shepard, Pond, and Smith, He was called to the pastorate before graduation, but he insisted on a further course of study, at Princeton, N. |., and there spent several months under the dis- tinguished professors Hodge and Alexan- der. Returning from Princeton, he com- menced his pastoral work in Augusta, Maine, where he spent ten happy and suc- cessful years as the minister of an appre- ciative church and people. In 1S60 he settled with the Sliawinul Congregational church, Boston, and remained with this church as pastor for twenty-five years. With the name of Dr. Webb the best for- tunes, and the almost uninterrupted pros- perity of the Shawmut church are rightly associated.
