erous financial trusts held by the latter devolved
on him, and he has been, and is, President, Director, or Trustee of a
large number of institutions and corporations, including railroads,
national banks, savings banks, and manufacturing corporations. In 1880
Mr. Ames was elected to the State Senate, and was re-elected in 1881.
With the exception of having served on the School Committee of Easton
this was the first office to which he had been called by the suffrages
of his fellow-citizens. He had, however, taken a deep and active
interest in political matters, and had rendered efficient political
service by his connection with the Republican Town Committee of Easton,
as Chairman and Treasurer, since the formation of the Republican party.
As a member of the State Senate he was diligent and painstaking in
attendance upon his Legislative duties, and was known as one of the
working members of the body. He served during each year of his
membership on the Committees on Railroads, and Education. In 1882 he
received the Republican nomination for Lieutenant-Governor upon the
ticket headed by the name of Honorable Robert R. Bishop as the candidate
for Governor. In that tidal-wave year Mr. Bishop was defeated by General
Butler, but Mr. Ames was elected by a handsome plurality; and it is not
too much to say that by his courteous official demeanor towards his
Excellency, Governor Butler, during the somewhat phenomenal political
year of 1883, coupled with his firmness and good judgment in opposing
the more objectionable schemes of that official, he contributed much to
the restoration of the Republican party to power at the ensuing State
election. He was re-elected in 1883, and again in 1884, and has now
entered upon his third term of service. His political, like his business
life, has been characterized by a straightforward honesty of purpose, by
the strictest integrity, and by an energetic, able, and faithful
performance of trusts accepted. Mr. Ames is the possesor of large
wealth, but he has most conclusively proven that such possession is in
no sense a bar to a faithful and efficient service of his fellow
citizens in positions of trust and honor. His rare executive ability has
been of good service to the Commonwealth, in whose affairs he has
exercised the same good judgment and marked executive ability, as in his
own.

It is, perhaps, as a financier that Oliver Ames has won his widest
reputation. Upon the death of his father the m