Project Gutenberg's The Bay State Monthly, Volume 3, No. 5, by Various

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Title: The Bay State Monthly, Volume 3, No. 5

Author: Various

Release Date: February 9, 2006 [EBook #17725]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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[Illustration: William W. Crapo]

THE BAY STATE MONTHLY.

_A Massachusetts Magazine._

VOL. III. OCTOBER, 1885. NO. V.

* * * * *

HON. WILLIAM W. CRAPO.

By Edward P. Guild.

A citizen of Massachusetts, eminent in public and private life, and now
in the prime of manhood, is the Hon. William W. Crapo, of New
Bedford. He is the son of Henry Howland Crapo, a man of marked abilities
and with a distinguished career, whose father was a farmer in humble
circumstances in Dartmouth, the parent town of New Bedford, and able to
give but meagre opportunities for education to his son. Henry had,
however, a thirst for knowledge, and his determination in providing
himself with the means of study affords a parallel to the early life of
Lincoln. It is told of him, that having no dictionary in his father's
house, he undertook to be his own lexicographer in the task of preparing
one. He soon fitted himself as a school teacher and afterwards became a
land surveyor in New Bedford. As a man of ability and integrity, he at
once began to rise to positions of trust, and among the offices he held
were those of City Treasurer and Trustee of the Public Library. He was
interested in the whale fisheries, then the great enterprise of this
famous seaport, and was a successful business man.

In 1857, having made extensive timber purchases in Michigan, he removed
to that state, where he took an active part in political affairs. In
1865, he was elected Governor of that State and held the office for four
years. He was a lover of books all his life, and was the author of
articles on horticulture in which subject he w