Page:One of a thousand.djvu/263

 (ill.M . OILMAN. 249 once served as member of the state Senate (1852). He has always manifested a deep inter- est in educational matters, and since r.86] has been a trustee "i" Amherst College; lias been vice-president of Smith College, Northampton, since its foundation, and was for many years a member of the Massa- chusetts board of education, lie has been identified with all the important movements for the welfare of the town of Westfield — energetic and influential, lie was presi- dent of the Hampden Hank from 1X5810 '82 ; president of the Westfield Insurance Company ; president of the board of trus- tees of the YVestfield Academy Fund ; presi- dent of the Westfield Athenaeum ; director of the American Whip Company ; for many years counsel for the New Haven & Northampton Railroad Company and for the Boston & Albany Railroad. In 1880 he was elected a corporate mem- ber of the American Hoard of Commission- ers for Foreign Missions ; is one of the trus- tees of the Hartford Theological Seminary ; is president of the Hampden Bar Associa- tion. In 1885 he received from Amherst College the honorary degree of LL. D. Mr. Gillett has been called to manage many celebrated cases, and was notably connected with the prosecution of the Northampton bank robbers in 1S77, con- ducting all cross-examinations and making the closing arguments, lie has long been connected with the First church in West- held. Mr. Gillett was married in Westfield, November 1, 1848, to Lucy, daughter of Hon. James anil Lucy (Douglass) Fowler, of Westfield. Of this union were seven children, three of whom survive : Freder- ick H., Arthur I., and Lucy Douglass Gillett. GILMAN, Nicholas Paine, son of Charles and Annette Maria (Dearborn) Gilman, was born December 21, 1S49, in Quincy, Adams county, Illinois, where his father practiced law and was reporter to the supreme court of that state. He received his early educational train- ing in academies in Parsonsfield, Maine, and Effingham, N. H., and entering the Harvard divinity school in [868, was graduated in 1871. In 1872 he was settled over the Unitarian church in Scituate, and in 1875 took charge of the first parish in Bol- ton, remaining until 1878, when he went to Ohio, where he was professor of English literature ami German in Antioch College at Yellow Springs, and preached in the college chapel. Returning to New England, he had charge of the Unitarian churches in Way- land and Sudbury for a couple of years, and after a tour in England, fixed his resi- dence in West Newton, where he has since resided, devoting himself especially to lit- erary pursuits. Having been a contributor for a dozen years to the " Literary World " of Boston, in' became editor of the paper in October, 1888. The "Literary World" is a fort- nightly paper, devoted to the review of current literature, and is the oldest journal of its class in the United States, with a high reputation and a well-established cir- culation. It was founded by S. R. Crocker in 1870, and was purchased in 1877 by the Rev. Edward Abbott and E. II. Hames, chief clerk of the " Congregationalism" Mr. Abbott continuing in editorial charge until 1888. Mr. Gilman has contributed somewhat to the ••Christian Register," and numerous articles from his pen may be found in the " Unitarian Review," of which he was assistant editor from 1.SS5 to '89. These articles are mainly philosophical and theo- logical, with many reviews of new books. But in 1887, having a deep interest in social questions, Mr. Gilman began the preparation of a comprehensive work on •• l'rolit Sharing between Employer and Employee" considered as one remedy lor labor troubles, which was published by Houghton, Mifflin & Co., in March, [889 (460 pp.), with the sub-title "A Study in the Evolution of the Wages System." It soon passed into its third thousand, having been received with great favor by the press of the United States and England, where it was brought out in a copyrighted edi- tion. A German translation is in prepara- tion. English and American economists, with President Francis A. Walker, pro- nounce it a " clear and complete account of all the experiments in profit sharing," in which "the economic principles govern- ing such arrangements between employer and employee are correctly stated, and the practical difficulties besetting the applica- tion of those principles are fairly, temper- ately, and judiciously discussed." United States Labor Commissioner Carroll D. Wright says the work is "a great contribu- tion to economic literature — the very best work on profit sharing that has appeared in the English language, while it is far more complete in its general construction than any that has appeared in any lan- guage." It was also awarded a gold medal at the recent Paris Exposition.