Page:One of a thousand.djvu/49

 BALLIET. BANCROFT. 35 the Worcester county conference of Uni- tarian churches. Mr. Ball has taken out a number of patents, chiefly relating to water meters and water-works fixtures. He has been president of the Union Water Meter Com- pany since its incorporation, November 9, 1868. BALLIET, THOMAS M., son of Nathan and Sarah (Minard) Balliet, was bom at Mauch Chunk, Carbon county, Pa., of Huguenot descent, March 1, 1S52. He received his early education at the public schools, and entered Franklin and Marshall College, Lancaster, Pa., where he was graduated in 1S76, with the highest honors of his class. In September, 1S77, he entered the divinity school at Yale College, and continued the study of theol- ogy for two years. Before entering college he taught in ungraded schools for two years, and for one year was teacher of mathematics in an academy at Lehighton, Pennsylvania. Immediately after graduating from col- lege, he was chosen principal of the high school and superintendent of schools in Bellefonte, Pa., which position he held till he entered the divinity school, and two years later, on leaving the divinity school, he was elected teacher of Latin and Creek at the state normal school at Kutztown, Pa. At the end of two years he resigned, to accept the position of county superin- tendent of schools of Carbon county, Pa., devoting considerable time to lecturing upon educational subjects before teachers' conventions throughout the state. At the expiration of his three years' term he declined re-election and went to Chicago, where he taught for a term in the Cook county normal school, conducting teach- ers' institutes in the western states, and lectured at teachers' conventions. In 1885 he was elected superintendent of schools in Reading, Pa., and re-elected in 1887. At the same time he was also elected pro- fessor of logic, psychology, and pedagog- ics, in Haverford College, Philadelphia, but declined the election. In October, 1887, he was elected superintendent of schools in Springfield, and entered upon the duties of the office April 1, 1888. He has also had charge of the department of psychology at the Saratoga summer school since 1885, and of the same department at the Glens Falls, N. Y., and at the Penn- sylvania summer schools for 1888 and '89. Mr. Balliet has obtained a wide reputa- tion through papers he has read before the State teachers' associations of Massachu- setts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Con- necticut, New York and Pennsylvania, and through his lectures before educational conventions in Iowa, Illinois, Pennsylva- nia, Delaware, New Jersey, New York, and all the New England states but Maine. BANCROFT, WILLIAM AMOS, son of Charles and Lydia Emeline (Spaulding) Bancroft, was born in Groton, Middlesex county, April 26, 1855. He attended the public schools and the Lawrence Academy, located in his native town. He became a student for two years at Phillips Academy, Exeter, N. H., and from this institution he was graduated in 1874. In the same year he went to Cam- bridge to live, and entered Harvard Col- lege. From childhood he took an active part in athletic sports, and, while in col- lege, was the captain and stroke oarsman of the famous Harvard University crews of '77, '78 and '79. Graduating from col- lege with his class in 1S7S, he entered the Harvard Law school, and subsequently the law office of district attorney William B. Stevens. He was admitted to the Suf- folk bar in 1881, having previously opened a law office in Boston with his classmate, Edward F. Johnson, now mayor of Woburn. After the practice of the law for several years, in 1885 he entered the street rail- way business as superintendent of the Cam- bridge railroad. This position he held at the time of the strike of the six hundred employees in 1887, and was charged with the duty of re-organizing the service of the road. So energetically did he proceed in hiring new men and in running the cars, that, in fourteen days, all of the twenty- two lines were in full operation. After the consolidation of the various street railways df Boston into the West End Street Rail- way, he was, in 1888, appointed road-mas- ter and given charge of the two hundred and thirty miles of track operated by the company. While practicing law he was a corre- spondent of several Boston and New York papers, and also devoted considerable time, from 1879 to 1S84, to "coaching" the Harvard crews. While a freshman at college, Mr. Ban- croft joined the state militia, in the spring of 1875, as a private in company K (after- wards company B), 5th regiment, and, after filling the positions of corporal and sergeant, was elected second lieutenant in 1877, first lieutenant in 187 8, and captain in 1879. He was elected colonel of the regiment February 7, 1882, and still holds that commission. Under his administra-