Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 9.djvu/239

 Colonel Albert A. Pope.

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���COLONEL ALBERT A. POPE.

BY JOHX y. McCLINTOCK.

��In the minds of Americans the name of Colonel Albert A. Pope is insepara- bly connected with the introduction and manufacture in this country of bicycles and tricycles. Outside of a large circle of personal friends, however, his career, already crowned with brilliant success, his manly attributes and his splendid character are unknown. He won his rank on the field of battle ; he is one of the heroes of the Union army ; facts entitling him to honor and recogni- tion aside from his remarkable business prosperity. Energy, sagacity, executive ability and tenacity are among his per- sonal characteristics, contributing to his good fortune. Good sense, and not good luck, has been the cause of his victory in the strife for fame and riches.

Albert A. Pope was born in Boston May 20, 1843. ^^ sprang from good stock. His father, Charles Pope, of Boston, still vigorous at the age of sev- enty-two years, has been an active and stirring business man. His grandfather, Frederick Pope, Jr., of Dorchester, was one of the most enterprising merchants and builders of that town at the open- ing of this century, and had the sagacity

��to open a branch of his lumber business in eastern Maine. His great grand- father. Colonel Frederick Pope, was a prominent citizen of Stoughton, repre- sentative to the General Court, and a gallant officer in the Revolutionary army. The father of this first American Colonel Pope of whom record appears was the greatly beloved Dr. Ralph Pope, one of Stoughton's pioneers, son of Ralph Pope, husbandman, a well to do citizen of old Dorchester, whose father, John Pope, first appears in the records of that oldest plantation of the Massachu- setts Bay Colony in 1633. The John Pope, Senior, who is mentioned in the records from 1634 onward, and named as a selectman in 1 63 7, and who was one of the signers of the covenant with Rev. Richard Mather in 1636, is presumed to have been the emigrant ancestor of the Pope family of Dorchester. The mothers of the line have been well con- nected, bringing in the qualities of wor- thy families, Neale, Stubbs, Cole, Clapp, Blake, Pierce, and others, Puritan or Pilgrim, of English descent.

Albert A. Pope's mother was a lady of rare discernment and quiet decision

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