Page:One of a thousand.djvu/670

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

6~,6 Will 1 ITER. WHITTIER are with the is a working 1839 to '45, when his first connection in business was made by entering the whole- sale dry-goods business as a " boy " for Charles Arnold & Co , Boston. In 1852 he took the position of clerk in the Boston office of Brown Brothers & Co., New York bankers. In 1N70 he became the treasurer and agent of the Boston & Hingham Steamboat Company; was state senator from the 2d Plymouth district in [880 and '81, and in 1885 was appointed chairman of the state board of gas com- missioners. He was afterwards appointed a commissioner of savings banks for the Commonwealth, which position he still holds. Mr. Whiton was married in Hingham, December 13, 1870, to Helen, daughter of David and Adeline (Sprague) Thomas. Of this union were three children : Chauncey Gilbert, David Thomas, and Herbert Starkes Whiton. His church connections First parish, of which he member. He was chairman of the board of audi- tors for the town of Hingham while the board existed, [876 to '82, and at the last annual meeting was again elected to that position. He is clerk, treasurer, and direct- or of the Hingham Water Company, and was treasurer of the Hingham Agricul- tural and Horticultural Society for eight years. Mr. YVhiton's grandfather served in the war of the revolution under Gen. Stark, and named one of his twin sons " Starkes," in mark of the esteem in which he held his commander, the other twin son being the father of the subject of this sketch. WHITTIER, CHAW.1-2S, son of John Brodhead and Lucy (Graham) Whittier, was born November 26, t82C), in Vienna, Kennebec county, Me. His paternal an- cestor, Thomas Whittier, came to this country from England in 1638, at the age of sixteen, in the ship " Confidence." Mr. Whittier's early education was drawn from the public schools of Ro.xbury, principally the Washington grammar school, which he entered when it was dedi- 1 ated in 1X4 1 . In 1846, when seventeen years of age, he apprenticed himself for three years to the firm of Chubbuck &; Campbell, machin- ists, Roxbury, the lineal successor of which is the Whittier Machine Company. Dur- ing his apprenticeship he attended for two years, the drawing school of the Lowell Institute. On the completion of his ap- prenticeship, he remained with the firm as a journeyman, and went throughout New England and elsewhere, erecting steam en- gines and machinery. In 1859 he was made superintendent and admitted as a partner to the firm, then changed to Camp- bell, Whittier & Co. (Mr. Chubbuck retir- ing). Mr. Whittier is now president of the well-known Whittier Machine Company, which was incorporated in 1874 as the suc- cessor to this large and important industry. The main works, partly in Roxbury, partly in South Boston, comprise very large and unusually fine plants in the line of foundry and machine work, especially adapted to the manufacture of passenger and freight elevators, the successful development of which is very greatly due to the Whittier Machine Company, who have introduced many improvements increasing the safety, speed, and the comfort realized in the use of elevators. CHARLES WHITTIER. Mr. Whittier is one of Boston's most prominent businessmen, lie has been for many years an active member of the Mas- sachusetts Charitable Mechanic Associa- tion ; is an executive officer of the Rox- bury Charitable Society ; has been for over thirty-five years a member of the First Universalist society of Roxbury, and for many years a member of the board of trustees of Tufts College.