Page:One of a thousand.djvu/581

 SOWDON. SOW DON. 5 6 7 publican slate central committee in 1SS7 and '88. He was chosen the official messenger of the Massachusetts delegation to the na- tional Republican convention at Chicago in 1888. For five years he was the assistant-clerk of the House of Representatives, and in 1888 represented the 2d Suffolk district (Charlestown district) in the Senate, where he was a member of the committees on railroads, bills in the third reading, and the library. He has since resumed the practice of law in the city of Boston, where he now resides. Mr. Southworth married Mary Eliza, daughter of William H. and Sarah A. B. Finney, and has one daughter : Constance Southworth. SOWDON, ARTHUR JOHN CLARK, son of John Sowdon, Jr. (deceased in New York, 1836), and Charlotte Harrison (Ca- pen) Sowdon, daughter of Thomas Capen, of Boston, was born in Boston, March 6, His early educational training was re- ceived in the private schools of Stoddard Capen, James H. Wilder, and Daniel B. Tower, under the Park Street church, in the Adams grammar school, the Boston Latin school, and Harvard College, gradu- ating from the latter in the class of 1857. He was also graduated from the Dane law school, Harvard, in the class of 1861. He began business life as a real estate and mortgage broker in the city of Boston, in 1863, and carried on the business until 1872, when he retired from active business. Mr. Sowdon early became a member of the first corps of cadets, Boston. In 1863 he attended his first political convention, Republican, holden in Worcester, and voted for John A. Andrew for governor. In 1867 he was treasurer of the Union Club, Boston, and has since served on its various committees. In 1868 he set on foot the complimentary letter to Senator William Pitt Fessenden, after his famous vote against the impeachment of Andrew John- son. In 1874 he was one of the fifteen chosen at a Faneuil Hall meeting " to resist any inflation of the currency, and to secure a fixed standard of value ; " was a pro- moter of the mass meeting in Faneuil Hall to protest against Ceneral Sheridan's inter- ference with the Legislature of Louisiana ; was chairman of the committee to organize the Bristow movement, giving Massachu setts to his support for the presidency; was chairman of the 4th district congressional committee. In 1879 and '80 he was a memDer of the House of Representatives from ward 10, Boston, serving on the com- mittees on rules and orders, taxation, and library. In 1879 he stumped the State for Governor Long, and delivered an address at Stockbridge on Memorial Day of that year. He took a very active part in the citizens' movement in politics, in favor of Mayors Pierce and Cobb, and was chair- man of the executive committee in 1881, when Mayor Green was chosen. Mr. Sowdon was active in the Republi- can bolt against James G. Blaine, and was vice-chairman of the " Independent " state committee. He is a " tariff reformer," and now acts with the Democratic party ARTHUR J. C SOWDON. in national matters. He believes in radi- cal civil-service reform, and assisted in the preparation of the first public appeal on the subject. He was secretary of the committee to raise money to build Har- vard Memorial Hall and the Boston Mu- seum of Fine Arts. Mr. Sowdon is an Episcopalian ; in 1872 he was a vestryman in St. Paul's church, in Rome, Italy, and helped to select the site for the first Protestant church within the walls of the " Eternal City," with the hearty sanction of Victor Emmanuel and Prince Humbert. He is a vestryman of St. Paul's church, Boston ; president of