History of New Bedford, (Bristol County) Massachusetts United States of America

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Biographies:

Charles Taber Congdon, journalist, was born in New Bedford, Mass., April 7, 1821; son of Benjamin Taber and Deborah (Hart) Congdon; and grandson of Caleb and Susannah (Taber) Congden. He attended Brown university, but was not graduated, and entered the employ of his father, the publisher and printer of the New Bedford Courier from June 12, 1827. About 1840, soon after leaving the university, he edited in Providence, R. I., The New Age, a suffrage paper, and afterward became editor of the New Bedford Daily Evening Bulletin and associate editor of the New Bedford Mercury and the New Bedford Shipping List. In 1854 he removed to Boston, where he edited the Atlas, a leading Whig journal, and in 1857, at the invitation of Horace Greeley, he went to New York and until 1882 was a member of the Tribune staff. He was married April 13, 1846, to Charlotte E., daughter of John Baylies of New Bedford. In 1879 Brown university conferred upon him the honorary degree of A.M. He published: Flowers Plucked by a Traveller on the Jonrney of Life (1840); Tribune Essays (1869); Carmen Seculare, a centennial ode (1876); The Last Welcome?Bayard Taylor; J. R. G. Hassard: Poems (1879); Reminiscences of a Journalist: the Record of Fifty Years (1879-80); and Papers on Autobiographers (1881-82). He died in New York city, Jan. 18, 1891.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

Joseph Grinnell, representative, was born in New Bedford, Mass., Nov. 17, 1788; son of Cornelius and Sylvia (Howland) Grinnell. He attended the public schools and became a clerk in his father's business. In 1808 he was appointed deputy collector and surveyor of the port of New Bedford, and in 1810 went into business in New York city with his uncle, under the firm name of Howland & Grinnell. The firm met with disastrous losses during the war of 1812, and in 1815 Mr. Grinnell associated himself with his cousin, Capt. Preserved Fish, under the style of Fish & Grinnell, and in 1826 with his brothers, Moses H. and Henry Grinnell. In 1829 he retired from the firm and visited Europe and on his return devoted himself to the whale fishery in New Bedford, Mass. He was a member of the governor's council, 1839-41. In 1843 Mr. Grinnell was elected as a Whig a representative from Massachusetts in the 27th congress to fill the unexpired term of Barker Burnell, deceased, and was re-elected to the 28th, 29th, 30th and 31st congresses. He was president of the Marine bank, the Wamsutta mills company, and other concerns in New Bedford. He died in New Bedford, Mass., Feb. 7, 1885.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

William Starbuck Macy, painter, was born in New Bedford, Mass., Sept. 11, 1854; son of William Henry and Eliza Jane (Wordell) Macy; grandson of Zacheus and Rebecca (Smith) Macy and of John and Sarah (Stanton) Wordell, and a descendant of Thomas Mary, the first settler of Nantucket. He attended the public and private schools of New Bedford, studied art in the New York Academy of Design, 1870-75; and at Munich under Velten, the Russian painter, 1875. On his return to the United States he opened a studio in New York city and another in New Bedford, Mass. He was married, in April, 1894, to Anne, daughter of William and Jessie Alexander of Santa Barbara, Cal. He was a member of the Lotos club and the Artists' Fund society of New York. He exhibited at the Paris Salon of 1877 and at the Mechanics' Fair, Boston, Mass., in 1878, where he received one of the six "A" medals for his landscape "Meadows near Munich." He also exhibited annually at the National Academy of Design in New York city. Among his more important pictures are: Edge of the Forest (1881); Old Forest in Winter (1884); Winter Sunset (1884); Old Mill (1885); January in Bermuda (1886).

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

George Shattuck Morison, engineer, was born in New Bedford, Mass., Dec. 19, 1842; son of the Rev. John Hopkins and Emily (Rogers) Morison; grandson of Nathaniel and Mary Ann (Hopkins) Morison, and a descendant of John Morison. He was graduated from Harvard, A.B., 1863, A.M., and LL.B., 1868, and was admitted to the bar in New York city in 1868. He was a civil engineer at Kansas City, 1867-71, and in Michigan and Indiana, 1871-73. He was employed in New York city on the Erie railway, 1873-75, and subsequently in general practice, and also had an office in Chicago, where he resided 1887-98. He was chief engineer of the bridge across the Ohio river at Cairo, Ill., and of that across the Mississippi river at Memphis, Tenn. He also constructed four other bridges across the Mississippi and ten across the Missouri. He was a member of the beaird of engineers to determine the greatest practical length of span for the bridge across the Hudson River in 1894; a member of the board of consulting engineers, Department of Docks, New York city, 1895-97; of the board to locate a deep water harbor in southern California, 1896-97, and of the Isthmian Canal commission, 1899-1901. He was president of the American Society of Civil Engineers in 1895, and was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor