England, and many pictures, books, and other mementoes OLIVER AMES, of North Easton, Mass., a life member of this Society since 1883, and a very liberal contributor to its funds, was born in North Easton, Feb. 4, 1831, and died there Oct. 22, 1895. 4 His father was the celebrated financier and congressman, Oakes Ames, born Jan. 10, 1804, who married Eveline O. Gilmore. His grandfather was Oliver, who was the son of John, who was the son of Thomas.1 2 3 Governor Ames was educated in the public schools of his native town, and in the academies at Attleboro', Leicester, and Easton. He served an apprenticeship of five years in his father's manufacturing establishment, mastering the business in its most minute details. After his apprenticeship he entered upon a special course at Brown University. His favorite studies were history, geology, and political economy. In 1863 he became a member of the firm, and for several years superintended the mechanical business of the establishment. At his father's death, in 1873, he became directly connected with various corporations, banks, and other institutions, in which his father had been interested. He paid the indebtedness of his father's estate, amounting to eight millions of dollars, and legacies amounting to a million more. He was concerned in erecting the Oliver Ames Library Building and the Memorial Hall at North Easton, both splendid structures, which he and his relatives presented to the town. In 1880 Mr. Ames was elected a member of the State Senate, and reëlected in 1881. In 1882 he was elected Lieutenant-Governor of Massachusetts, as a Republican, although the candidate for governor on the same ticket was defeated. He was reëlected to the same office in 1883, 1884, and 1885. In 1886 he was elected governor. His rare abilities as a business man were of great service to Massachusetts, and his administration was a very useful one. He was reëlected in 1887. It was Governor Ames who recommended the enlargement of the State House, which is now in progress. He laid the corner-stone of the new building, Dec. 21, 1890. of the last of his public acts. He has been an several years, and has not been much in public life. It was one invalid for Governor Ames was a man of literary taste and culture. Architecture was with him a special study, and he had a fine appreciation of music and painting. He owned a choice collection of paintings and statuary. His house on Commonwealth avenue is a monument of his architectural taste. He was a hospitable man, faithful in his friendships, and generous in his benefactions. He was very popular with the workingmen in his factories. His estate was a very large one. On March 14, 1860, he married Anna C. Ray, of Nantucket. His family consists of two sons and four daughters. By the Rev. E. H. BYINGTON, D.D. EBEN DYER JORDAN, of the firm of Jordan, Marsh, & Co., of Boston, a life member of this Society since 1869, was born in Danville, Me., Oct. 13, 1822, and died in Boston, Nov. 15, 1895. The life of Mr. Jordan was devoted to business, and he has been said to rank next to A. T. Stewart as a successful man in lines of business that were quite similar. He was a poor boy, left an orphan and penniless at the age of four. As soon as he was old enough to work he was hired to labor on a farm in Roxbury, at four dollars a month. At sixteen he was employed in the store of William P. Tenney & Co. for two years, and the third year he earned a salary of $275, a part of which he saved. When he was nineteen, a friend, Mr. Joshua Stetson, set him up in business in a small way, and his sales the first year amounted to $8,000. At the end of four years his sales had amounted to $100,000. He sold his business at the age of twenty-five, and spent the next two years in the prosperous store of James M. Beebe, gaining a knowledge of the methods of a large business establishment. In 1851 the firm of Jordan, Marsh, & Co. was formed, with a capital of $5,000. By industry, enterprise, and skill a large business was built up within the next few years. The crisis of 1857 taxed the firm severely, but it lived and prospered. In 1861 the firm added a retail department to its large wholesale trade. The growth of the retail store has been marvellous, and it now employs nearly three thousand persons in its various departments. Mr. Jordan was a man of public spirit, though not an active politician. In the latter part of his life he made a tour around the world. Some years earlier he made a trip to Europe with twenty-five of the employees of the establishment. They were received by John Bright, by President Grévy, and by many other famous men in different countries as representatives of the enterprise and intelligence of American merchants. Mr. Jordan leaves a widow and two sons and two daughters. By the Rev. E. H. BYINGTON, D.D. WILLIAM JOHN POTTS, of Camden, N.J., was born in Philadelphia, Oct. 14, 1842, and died in Camden, Nov. 18, 1895. He was elected a corresponding member of this Society March 4, 1874. He was the son of Robert Barnhill and Sarah Page (Grew) Potts. His father was a manufacturing chemist, having extensive works in Camden, to which place he removed in 1850. His mother was the daughter of John Grew, of Boston. He was the sixth in descent from David Potts and Alice Croasdale. David Potts was born about the year 1671, in or near Llangurrig, North Wales. He was a Quaker, and was probably of Quaker parentage. He came to Pennsylvania about 1690, and died 1730. John Potts, who was his second son, died in Pennsylvania in 1766. Thomas, the second son of John, was several times a member of the Assembly of New Jersey, was an iron manufacturer, and died in 1777. William Sukens Potts, his son, was an iron merchant, and a Quaker, and died in Philadelphia in 1854. William J. Potts was also the seventh in descent from Capt. John Hughes, a leading man in Pennsylvania in its early years. He was the eighth in descent from Peter Larson Cock, born in Sweden, 1611, died in Kipha, Pennsylvania, 1688. John Grew, his mother's father, was born in Birmingham, England. He was educated in Bedfordshire, England, and was a man of great intelligence. His ancestors were people of intelligence and influence in the Old Country. William John Potts attended school in Camden and in Philadelphia. He attended lectures on chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania, and at the Polytechnic College of Philadelphia. For some years after completing his education he was an analytical chemist in Camden. He went abroad twice, spending several years in foreign countries. He visited England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales, France, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, Italy and Austria, Russia, Sweden and Norway, and Egypt. He has devoted himself for several years to literary pursuits, and especially to historical investigations. He has written frequently for the New-England Historical and Genealogical "Register," and for "Notes and Queries," the "Pennsylvania Magazine of History," and for many other periodicals and newspapers. For the last thirty years he had been making researches concerning the Potts family, both here and abroad, and has collected a mass of valuable materials. He was preparing a dictionary of medical biography. He contributed valuable materials to Dr. Stephenson's History of Medicine in New Jersey. He furnished valuable materials for the Memoirs and Letters of Captain W. Granville Evelyn, of the 4th Regiment of the "King's Own." Mr. Potts gained important information concerning the battle of Lexington, for this volume. The authors of several other books published in England give credit to Mr. Potts for securing very valuable materials for their use from America. He was a member of the American Philosophical Society, the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, the Numismatic and Antiquarian Society of Philadelphia, Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, Sons of the Revolution of Pennsylvania, New Jersey Historical Society, American Folk Lore Society, and the Wisconsin Historical Society. In 1889 he published a brochure on Du Simitiere, artist, antiquary, and naturalist. In 1895 he published a valuable paper on the late Hon. Thomas H. Dudley, United States consul at Liverpool during and after the war of the Rebellion. Mr. Potts was never married. He was a man of remarkable industry and skill in antiquarian research, and he has left many of his plans unfinished, on account of his too early death. He was a genial companion, agreeable in conversation, gentle and patient in enduring the long-continued physical suffering of his last years. In his religious convictions he was an Episcopalian. "The death of such a man," says one of his old neighbors," is a loss to the community which can only be properly estimated after the sad event has occurred." By the Rev. E. H. BYINGTON, D.D. |