No. 3110 Robert Choate Bridgham, 1850-1926
From Men of Progress. Biographical Sketches and Portraits of Leaders in Business and Professional Life in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. (Boston, 1894), 202.
Robert Choate Bridgham, of Boston, manager for the Union Mutual Life Insurance Company, of Portland, Me., was born in Dorchester, December 4, 1850, son of Prescott C. and Lucy A. Foster Bridgham. The family removed two years later to Newton where they still reside. He was educated in the public schools, the Mayhew Grammar of Boston, and the Newton Grammar and High Schools, finishing in Allen’s Classical and English High School of West Newton. He then started in business, at the age of seventeen, as a boy with Ewing, Wise & Fuller of Boston, importers of linens and white goods. The following year he took a position in the Boston of the Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York under Henry H. Hyde, general agent, subsequently of Hyde & Smith (Amos D. Smith, 3d, of Providence, R.I.). He remained there till 1872, when, owing to the ill health of his father, he resigned his position to become a member of the firm of Bridgham, Jones & Co., jobbers of foreign and domestic woollens. Soon afterward, upon the death of Mr. Jones, the name was changed to Bridgham & Co., the firm composed of his father and himself. This association continued till 1882. For the succeeding three years he was partner in the firm of Burt, Bridgham, & Snow, of Providence, R. I. importers of woollens. In 1885, this partnership having been dissolved, he returned to the firm of Bridgham & Co., remaining four years. From 1889 to 2891 he represented the firm of Hitchcok, Biggs & Willett, of London, England, woolen warehhousemen; and in March, 1891, he accepted the position of manager for the Eastern Massachusetts department of the Union Mutual Life Insurance Company of Portland, Me., with offices a t No. 4 Post-office Square, Boston, which position he still holds. He is a member of Dalhousie Lodge of Freemasons, of Newton Royal Arch Chapter and Gethsemane Commandery, Knight Templar; a member of New Lodge No. 92, Order of Odd Fellows, and present regent of Mount Ida Council No. 1247, Royal Arcanum, of Newtonville. He is also a member of the Boston Life Underwriters’ Association, of the New England Commercial Travellers’ Association, and of the Massachusetts Poultry Association. He has been prominent for many years in the social and political life of Newton. As an active member of the Newton Club (serving for three years on the executive committee), he has been a leading factor in connection with the success of this organization; and his genial disposition and integrity have won for him a large circle of friends. He has taken an active part in the organization and success of the Republican party in his section, serving as chairman of the executive committee of the Republican Club of Ward 2, and for several years a member of the Republican ward and city committee of Newton. He is a member also of the Republican Club of Massachusetts. Mr. Bridgham was married January 18, 1872, to Miss Adelaide Luella Swallow, of Boston, by the Rev. Henry M. Parsons, of Union Church, Columbus Avenue