Background
Samuel Billings Capen was born on December 12, 1842 in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, the family home since the landing of Bernard and Jane Capen, May 30, 1630; the second son of Samuel Childs Capen and his wife, Anne Billings.
(This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)
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Samuel Billings Capen was born on December 12, 1842 in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, the family home since the landing of Bernard and Jane Capen, May 30, 1630; the second son of Samuel Childs Capen and his wife, Anne Billings.
His academic training ended with his graduation from the Boston English High School in 1858.
Capen went into the carpet business of Wentworth & Bright, later Torrey, Bright & Capen. Here, a partner from 1864, he remained in active business until 1909.
Early interested in Sunday-school work, first in the Old Colony Mission School, then in the Central Congregational Church of Jamaica Plain, to which place he had moved shortly after his marriage, he, in 1882, became president of the Congregational Sunday-school and Publishing Society, at a time when its future seemed most problematic. To this office he brought the rare combination of unselfish devotion and great business sagacity which distinguished him throughout life. Between 1882 and his resignation in 1899, under the guidance of a board of directors reorganized to include business men as well as churchmen, the capital of the society increased from $35, 127 to $125, 490, most of this increase coming from the profits of its own operations. In 1899 Capen became the president of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, a position which he administered with the same competence and high endeavor which he had brought to the earlier work. To stabilize the finances of the board and to interest the business man in what he considered the all-important duty of the Christian Church, were the tasks he set himself. His eagerness to accomplish the latter purpose brought forth from him the commercial argument for missions, that "trade follows the missionary, " an argument the use of which called down upon him sharp criticism. A new field of activity was opened to him when, at a stormy time in the history of the Boston public schools, he was elected to the Boston School Committee, on which he served from 1888 to 1893, the last year as president of the committee. During his term, more businesslike methods of administration were introduced, a building programme, long delayed, was inaugurated, the curriculum was overhauled, a "parental school" for incorrigibles was established, and manual training was given a secure place in the school system. In 1900 higher education enlisted his services. He became a member of the board of trustees of Wellesley College, of which body he was a judicious and enthusiastic president from 1905 till his death. Among Capen's other active interests may be mentioned his work for the Municipal League, local and national, for the Indian Association, for temperance reform, and for world peace. In politics he was a conservative. His address to the Boston Ministers' Meeting in 1896 did service as a campaign document.
In September 1913, he sailed for the Orient, as president of the American Board and representative of the World Peace Foundation. After some active weeks in India and Ceylon, he died of pneumonia in Shanghai.
(This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)
In politics he was a conservative.
He was interested in the work of educational establishments, being the president of the Congregational Sunday-school and Publishing Society, of the Boston School Committee and a member of the board of trustees of Wellesley College. He was also president of the American Board and representative of the World Peace Foundation.
He was married, on December 8, 1869, to Helen M. Warren.
