American Biography

Michael Aloysius O’Kane was an educator, born in county Clare, Ireland, July 12, 1849. He was the son of Michael O’Kane and Bridget (Casey) O’Kane. Brought to America by his parents in 1852, he received his education in the public schools of Spencer, Mass. He entered Holy Cross college, Worcester, Mass., in 1865, the year of its incorporation; joined the Society of Jesus, July, 1867, and went to Woodstock college, Md., where he pursued theological and philosophical studies, completing his course in 1876.

O’Kane was professor of classics in Georgetown college, D.C., 1876-82; prefect of studies there, 1882-86, vice-president, 1886-87; rector and master of novices in the Novitiate at Frederick, Md., 1887-89, and president of the College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, 1889-93. He was then transferred to the Missionary Band, and became superior of the band, having his headquarters at St. Francis Xavier, New York city.

Marshall Solomon Snow, educator, was born in Hyannis, Mass., Aug. 17, 1842; son of the Rev. Solomon Pepper Snow and Maria Jane (Pratt) Snow; grandson of John Snow and Abiel (Pepper) Snow and of Seth Pratt and Lydia (Burt) Pratt, and a descendant of Nicholas Snow and Phineas Pratt, both of whom came from England in the Ann in 1623.

M. S. Snow was educated at Phillips Exeter academy and was graduated from Harvard university, A.B., 1865, A.M., 1868. He was sub-master of the high school at Worcester, Mass., 1865-66, and principal of the high school in Nashville, Tenn., 1866-67.

Marshall Solomon Snow was married, July 9, 1867, to Ellen Frances Jewell, daughter of Asa Jewell and Theodate (Page) Jewell of Exeter, N.H. He was professor of Latin and principal of Montgomery Bell academy, University of Nashville, 1867-70; and professor of mathematics in the university, 1867-68. In 1870 he was called to Washington university, St. Louis, Mo., where he was professor of belles lettres, 1870-74; professor of history after 1874, registrar of the college, 1871-77; dean after 1877; and acting chancellor, 1887-91. He was president of the Missouri Historical society, 1894-1900; secretary of the standing committee of the Protestant Episcopal diocese of Missouri, and a member of various societies. He was the author of: City Government of St. Louis in the fifth series of “Johns Hopkins University Studies” (1887).

Lucy Stone, reformer, was born in West Brookfield, Massachusetts on August 13th 1818. She was the daughter of Francis Stone and Hannah (Matthews) Stone, and grand-daughter of Col. Francis Stone and Sarah (Witt) Stone, and of Solomon Matthews and Lydia (Bowman) Matthews. On the paternal line she was a descendant through Francis, Francis, Jonathan, Jonathan, Nathaniel and John, of Gregory Stone, born in Great Bromley, England, who came to America in 1635 or 1636, and settled in Cambridge, where he died in 1672.

Col. Francis Stone, with his father, Jonathan Stone, served in the French and Indian war, and was an officer in the American Revolution, commanding a company of 400 men in Shays’s rebellion, 1787.

Lucy Stone attended the common schools and by self-efforts earned a college education, being graduated in 1847 from the classical department of Oberlin College, Ohio, where she had given especial attention to the study of Greek and Hebrew in order to aid her in an accurate interpretation of the Scriptures as bearing upon the subject of woman suffrage. To that cause she had decided to devote her life. She delivered her first lecture on woman’s rights in Gardner, Massachusetts in 1847, and lectured under the auspices of the Massachusetts Antislavery society in 1848 — publicly advocating her own cause at the same time.

Lucy Stone was married on May 1st 1855, to Henry B. Blackwell, a merchant of Cincinnati, Ohio, and brother of Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell. In her woman’s rights activity Mrs. Blackwell continued to be known by her maiden name.

She settled in New Jersey in 1857 and was a lecturer in the woman suffrage amendment campaigns from 1867 through 1882. Lucy Stone was one of the founders of the American Woman Suffrage association in 1869, its president, 1872, and chairman of its executive committee, 1869-89. She was co-editor of the Woman’s Journal, 1870-72, and its editor-in-chief, 1872-93, her husband and daughter being associated with her. She published a protest against “taxation without representation” (1857), and was actively associated with various woman suffrage movements and organizations. In 1869 she removed to Dorchester, Massachusetts, where her death occurred, October 18th 1893.

Orrin L. Bassett was proprietor of the Chicago Tack Company. He was born in Taunton Massachusetts on April 16th 1824. After leaving school he worked on the home farm, where he learned the trade of wheelwright under his father. He later also learned the trades of carpenter and pattern-maker, which he followed until the year 1848.

In 1848 he joined the California gold rush, and engaged in mining. Returning to Massachusetts after an absence of about two years, he was employed in the George P. Foster & Co. gun factory as a pattern-maker. He was next employed by General Burnside as assistant superintendent in the mould department in a factory at Rhode Island. In 1858 he accepted a position in the Taunton Tack Factory in Taunton Massachusetts, both running and building machines. At the end of the second year he bad constructed and built on a new plan a leather, carpet and tack machine.

That same pattern of tack machine was used by the Chicago Tack Company, of which he was an owner and director, and from which nearly every tack machine built since has copied. He also patented a filter system for coffee or tea. Mr. Bassett continued in that trade with the exception of eleven months (in 1863 and 1864) during which time he served in the Civil War in the 3d Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, Company K. He remained with the Taunton Tack Company eighteen years. In 1877 he removed to Cook County Illinois and established the Chicago Tack Company at 75th and Woodlawn in Grand Crossing.