Quincy Adams Shaw (February 8, 1825June 12, 1908) was a Boston Brahmin investor and

business magnate A business magnate, also known as an industrialist or tycoon, is a person who is a powerful entrepreneur and investor who controls, through personal enterprise ownership or a dominant shareholding position, a firm or industry whose goods or ser ...

who was the first president of Calumet and Hecla Mining Company.

Family and early life

Shaw came from a famous and moneyed Boston family. With a net worth of $1,000,000 in 1846 (), Shaw's father, Robert Gould Shaw (1776–1853), was one of the wealthiest men in Boston. His mother was Elizabeth Willard Parkman (March 31, 1785April 14, 1853), whose father Samuel Parkman (August 22, 1751June 11, 1824) was the original source of capital upon which her husband built one of the wealthiest and largest business enterprises in Boston at that time. George Parkman (February 19, 1790November 23, 1849), a wealthy Boston physician who was murdered in 1849 in a gruesome and highly publicized case, was Elizabeth's brother. Shaw was good friends with his cousin, American historian Francis Parkman Junior (September 16, 1823November 8, 1893), and the pair travelled together to the American West after graduating from

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

in 1845. Parkman's 1849 book, '' The Oregon Trail: Sketches of Prairie and Rocky-Mountain Life'', is dedicated to Shaw. Shaw's older brother Francis George Shaw (October 23, 1809November 7, 1882) was an outspoken advocate of the

abolition of slavery Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the political movement to end slavery and liberate enslaved individuals around the world. The first country to fully outlaw slavery was France in 1315, but it was later used in its colonies. T ...

."An old abolitionist dead: Francis George Shaw and his services in the cause of freedom."
''The New York Times'', p. 5, November 9, 1882. Shaw's nephew, son of Francis George, was Robert Gould Shaw (October 10, 1837July 18, 1863). The latter was a

colonel Colonel ( ; abbreviated as Col., Col, or COL) is a senior military Officer (armed forces), officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations. In the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, a colon ...

in the Volunteer Army of the United States during the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

, and commander of the all-

black Black is a color that results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without chroma, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness.Eva Heller, ''P ...

54th Regiment. Colonel Robert Gould Shaw was

killed in action Killed in action (KIA) is a casualty classification generally used by militaries to describe the deaths of their personnel at the hands of enemy or hostile forces at the moment of action. The United States Department of Defense, for example, ...

during the

Second Battle of Fort Wagner The Second Battle of Fort Wagner, also known as the Second Assault on Morris Island or the Battle of Fort Wagner, Morris Island, was fought on July 18, 1863, during the American Civil War. Union Army troops commanded by Brigadier general (Uni ...

in 1863.

Later life

On November 30, 1860, Shaw married Pauline Agassiz (February 6, 1841 – February 10, 1917), daughter of

Louis Agassiz Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz ( ; ) FRS (For) FRSE (May 28, 1807 – December 14, 1873) was a Swiss-born American biologist and geologist who is recognized as a scholar of Earth's natural history. Spending his early life in Switzerland, he recei ...

and the step daughter of Elizabeth Cabot Cary. They had five children: Pauline, Marian, Louis Agassiz Shaw, Sr. (September 18, 1861 – July 2, 1891), Quincy Adams Shaw, Jr. (July 30, 1869 – May 8, 1960), and Robert Gould Shaw II (1873–1930). Shaw's grandson, Louis Agassiz Shaw, Jr., is credited along with Philip Drinker for inventing the Drinker respirator, the first widely used iron lung.

Career

Shaw and his brother-in-law Henry Lee Higginson (1834–1919) became major investors in the Calumet and Hecla Mining Company, and Shaw was the first president of the company. Shaw retained that position for only a few months before Alexander Emanuel Agassiz (another brother-in-law) took over. In his '' Boston Daily Globe'' obituary, Shaw was named "the heaviest individual taxpayer in Massachusetts" and "the head of the family whose members in various ways have done much to promote the educational and commercial interests of Boston."''Boston Daily Globe'' June 13, 1908
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References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Shaw, Quincy Adams 1825 births 1908 deaths American investors Harvard University alumni Calumet and Hecla Mining Company personnel 19th-century American businesspeople Shaw family