Biographical review : this volume contains biographical sketches of leading citizens of Cumberland County, Maine, Part 1

Author:
Publication date: 1896
Publisher: Boston : Biographical Review Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 722

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GENEALOGY COLLECTION

ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01088 2154 E

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Biographical 1Review

THIS VOLUME CONTAINS BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF

LEADING CITIZENS OF

CUMBERLAND COUNTY

MAINE

" Biography is the home aspect of history "

BOSTON BIOGRAPHICAL REVIEW PUBLISHING COMPANY 1896

1142732 PREFACE.

N all this wide earth there is nothing else so interesting and important as human life; and the history of individual lives is recognized as, at its best, one of the most attractive and valuable forms of literature. It behooves every generation to write its own records, to leave behind its own memorials. The present volume of local biographies, carefully prepared from materials furnished by the patrons of the work, is issued by the publishers in the confident hope that it will prove satisfactory as the fulfilment of promise and a work of permanent value. These pages treat of earnest toilers of to-day and of yesterday, workers with hand and brain, who have been largely instrumental in the industrial, social, and political development of Cumberland County -men and women who, taking life in "earnest," have made "footprints on the sands of time." The conquests here recited are of mind over matter and circumstance.

To preserve the memory of local worthies, as well as of national celebrities, is to foster home ties, local attachments, and patriotism, and to encourage good citizen- ship. Furthermore, to borrow the words of an eminent speaker, "Whatever fame great achievements may bestow, whatever honors the world may give, it is ever the most cherished hope of every seeker after fame and fortune to be kindly remembered and lovingly honored on the spot which gave him birth."

NEAL DOW.

BIOGRAPHICAL.

ENERAL NEAL DOW, who is "greatest in great things," was born in Portland, Me., March 20, 1804. He is yet interested, active, and influ- ential in his chosen field of philanthropic, reformatory labor. To be able to say that in the closing months of 1895 of one who was born when the century was but three years old; who was engaged in affairs before John Quincy Adams attained the Presidency; who in early manhood achieved success in business; who served his city and State in civil positions with distinction; who, after the age when men are exempt from such demands, gave three years to the military service of his country, commanding successively a regiment, a brigade, and a division, suffering mean- while sickness in hospital and wounds in battle and subsequently confinement in mili- tary prisons ; whose form has been familiar for more than the lifetime of a generation on plat- forms in over a score of States in this country ; who has been a welcome speaker in the largest cities of the English-speaking world; who has reached the people through the press of three continents during all this time; and who even now looks forward to work to be done rather than back upon that accomplished - is to prove that Neal Dow, of whom it is said, has won a place on the roll of the world's great and grand old men.

The subject of this sketch is of English stock. His ancestry on both sides came to this country from England in the first half of the seventeenth century. His race has been a long-lived one, his family records showing

many who lived beyond the allotted age of man. He is a lineal descendant of John Dow, who resided in Tylner, Norfolk County, England, dying there in 1561, whose grandson, Henry, was the first of the family to come to America, settling in Hampton Falls, N. H., in 1637. On the maternal side Neal Dow is descended from Christopher Hall, who was the earliest settler of the family in this country. His parents, Josiah and Dorcas (Allen) Dow, were members of the Society of Friends, as indeed were his ancestors on both sides for three generations. His mother died in 1851 at seventy-seven years of age, and his father in 1861 at ninety-five.

Possessing by inheritance British pluck and Quaker patience and persistency, physical and mental vigor, Neal Dow was providentially prepared to be a leader in a great reform. His boyhood presaged the man. He was educated in the town schools and in the Portland Acad- emy and at the Friends' Academy in New Bed- ford, Mass. In the latter school among others he had for a classmate the late Moses H. Grin- nell, of New York ; while in the Portland Acad- emy among his school-fellows was Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. He was fitted for college; but, because of the prejudices which then generally prevailed among the Friends against it, his parents would not permit him to pursue a collegiate course of study. His love for reading was never abated, and books have been his closest companions through his life. He was far from a recluse, however, and in his youth entered with ardor into all the athletic sports of the period. Twice it has been his good fortune to turn his skill and strength as a swimmer to account in the saving of life.

Neal Dow's attention was early given to

BIOGRAPHICAL REVIEW

business. His father, who had been a teacher, established a tannery, building up a successful business, to which Neal succeeded. His in- tuitive judgment and flash-light perception unusually qualified him for affairs; and a comfortable competency, which he soon ac- quired, enabled him early to withdraw much of his attention from business pursuits to de- vote his time, at first largely and later almost wholly, to the cause that he early espoused. During his active business career his assistance and advice were sought in many enterprises which served to develop his city and State; and he was found in the directorate of banks, railroads, manufacturing and other business corporations.

As was the case with most of the active young men of his time, he was connected with the volunteer fire company, rapidly rising to be its chief. Under his charge the Portland Fire Department became famous for discipline and efficiency. It is undoubtedly true that the confidence and respect which he won in that capacity attached to him a corps of earnest, active young men who materially aided him in the contests in which he was afterward in- volved. His first temperance speech resulted from his connection with this department. He was twenty-three years of age and clerk of the Deluge Engine Company, which voted to fur- nish liquors on an anniversary occasion. Upon the declaration of the vote young Dow took the floor, and following his speech the com- pany reversed the vote and established a prece- dent which it always followed during its existence, and which soon became the rule throughout the Portland Fire Department. Thus in 1827 the majestic moral victor was born.

From that time on his efforts at reform have been unremitting. In 1829, in an address before the Maine Charitable Mechanics' Asso- ciation, he called attention to the subject ; and in the same year he introduced in its meetings a proposition to abolish the custom then pre- vailing among employers of furnishing liquor to their workmen, and the ringing of the eleven and four o'clock town bell, with which up to that time for many years it had been cus- tomary to notify laborers that the usual hour for dram drinking had come. With such a

beginning, encountering as he did almost single-handed and with marked success the social customs and prejudices of the day, it was inevitable that his field of labor should broaden ; and after 1830 he sought every oppor- tunity with pen and speech to awaken the public conscience and to impress upon his fellow-citizens a sense of their personal respon- sibility.

He and his friend, the now venerable Hon. William W. Thomas, of this city, with a few of their associates, took the first steps in organ- izing the Young Men's Total Abstinence So- ciety of Portland. He was also active at that early day in procuring the enforcement of the penal provisions of the then existing license legislation against the violators of those laws. It was at that time that the necessity of legis- lative suppression of the traffic forced itself upon his mind. Progress was slow. The road over which it was made was steep and rugged, involving the severing of social ties, the break- ing of political connections, the sacrifice of time and money, of comfort and of pleasure. All this Neal Dow accepted without faltering. One of the first results of the agitation was the enactment of a law, practically the local option system prevalent in some States to-day, which permitted selectmen of towns and alder- men of cities to submit to the people the ques- tion whether licenses should be granted. In 1839, under its provisions, Mr. Dow appeared before the aldermen to oppose the granting of licenses. As a result the question was submitted to the people. The vote favored license by a considerable majority, but a year or two later the public expression was reversed by a large majority.

In pursuing the work Mr. Dow, with others, took long tours into different parts of the State. Meetings for arousing public interest were held in school-houses, in town halls, where these existed, and in churches, and where, as was sometimes the case, none of these could be obtained, in private houses, or, when the weather would permit, out of doors. This was before the days of railroads; and Mr. Dow travelled with his own team, often accompanied by one or two or three others. Some of these tours involved two hundred miles of travel in open sleighs with the ther-

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BIOGRAPHICAL REVIEW

mometer at times below zero. This method of agitation continued for a term of years ex- tending from about 1835 to 1850. Meanwhile Mr. Dow had appeared at nearly every session of the legislature, advocating the enactment of a law prohibiting the liquor traffic, but with in- different success. At first the result was a vote authorizing the petitioners to withdraw; then the measure would be passed in one house to be rejected in the other; the next year, per- haps, the latter branch would pass the bill and the former reject it; later still both houses approved the measure, leaving to the Governor the responsibility of vetoing it.

In 1851 Neal Dow, who had been in poli- tics a Whig, was nominated by that party as its candidate for Mayor of Portland. This nomination was brought about rather by the rank and file than by the party leaders, to many of whom the selection of Mr. Dow as a candidate was far from agreeable. A con- siderable number of what were at the time called "Liberal Whigs," under the guidance of some of the leaders of the party, bolted the nomination; but Mr. Dow was elected by a larger vote than had ever been given to a Whig candidate before.

A few weeks after his election Mr. Dow again appeared before the legislature and advo- cated the prohibition of the liquor traffic. He had formerly appeared before that body simply as a private citizen : now he took with him whatever of weight and influence his official station could add to his character and ability as an individual. The legislature was Demo- cratic in both branches, and some of the war horses of that party did not take kindly to a measure urged upon them by a representative Whig. An amusing but earnest speech made by a leading Democrat begged Democrats not to follow "this popinjay Whig, Lord Mayor of Portland." But the bill passed both branches of the legislature just as it was written by Mr. Dow. This was on May 31, 1851. On June 2 it was signed by Governor Hubbard, also a Democrat. It is safe to say that no measure of only local effect ever at- tracted wider attention than did that enact- ment, which earned world-wide celebrity as the "Maine Law." Similarly the fame of its author commenced its extension in constantly

widening circles throughout the English- speaking world.

Upon Mayor Dow fell the task of enforcing this new and startling measure in the largest city in the State. It demonstrated its effi- ciency under an earnest and impartial enforce- ment ; and the marked results of the law for good throughout the State not only firmly established the policy of prohibition in the convictions of the people of Maine, but aroused agitation in behalf of similar legisla- tion in several of the States in this country and also in Great Britain. Mr. Dow's ser- vices upon the platform and through the press were widely sought; and, being relieved by a defeat at the polls in the spring of 1852 from the cares of the Mayoralty, he was able to re- spond to many of those invitations, and travelled extensively in the northern part of the Union, addressing by request the legis- latures of several States. In 1855 he was again elected Mayor of Portland as the first candi- date for that position of the Republican party, which was then just organized in Maine. He was unanimously elected as a Representative to the State legislature in 1858, and re- elected in 1859. In 1857 he visited England and Scotland by invitation of the United King- dom Alliance, and addressed audiences in all the larger cities.

In the latter part of 1861, after the first flush of war enthusiasm had expended itself and enlistments were dull, Governor Washburn, of Maine, requested Mr. Dow to raise a regi- ment of volunteers; and about the same time the Secretary of War commissioned him to re- cruit a battery of artillery. He was made Colonel of the Thirteenth Maine Regiment, and was ordered to the Gulf Department under General Butler. On the way thither the

steamer "Mississippi," in which was Colonel Dow with a portion of his regiment and a Massachusetts regiment also under his com- mand, was wrecked off Frying Pan Shoals. The occasion afforded an opportunity for the display of his wisdom and fortitude in trying circumstances. He was shortly after commis- sioned Brigadier-general by President Lincoln, and was in command at Fort St. Philip and also at Pensacola, Fla., and subsequently of the defences of New Orleans to the north

BIOGRAPHICAL REVIEW

of the city. He participated with his brigade in the first assault upon Port Hudson, where he was wounded, and, while convalescing at a farm-house within the Federal lines, was capt- ured by a party of Confederate cavalry. He was confined at Libby Prison, at Mobile, and again at Libby Prison, for some nine months, when he was exchanged for General Fitz Hugh Lee. Finding his health and strength impaired by the exposure of army life and the hardships of his imprisonment, he then re- signed his commission, and upon the conclu- sion of peace returned with unflagging zeal to liis labors for the promotion of temperance, in which he has ever since been engaged.

From the inception of the troubles incident to the election of President Lincoln, Mr. Dow was active with speech and pen in support of a policy which should at once preserve the Union and abolish slavery. At the suggestion of his friends in Great Britain, with a view to counteracting the machinations of the enemies of the Union there, he wrote many articles for publication in English journals; and, by tend- ing to show that the war was precipitated upon the country in an effort to perpetuate and ex- tend slavery, he was enabled to render good service to the cause of freedom. While he was connected with the army he devoted all his leisure to this work, with such result upon the public sentiment of Great Britain that he was formally thanked therefor by the Union Emancipation League of Great Britain and the United States Minister at the Court of St. James.

On January 20, 1830, Mr. Dow married Maria Cornelia Durant Maynard, of Boston, a woman of culture and refinement. Mrs. Dow died on January 13, 1873. Of the ten children born of this marriage, but four are living - Mrs. Louisa Dwight Benton, of Lan- caster, N. H .; Emma Maynard Gould, of Bos- ton, Mass. ; Frederick Neal Dow, recently Collector of the Port of Portland; and Cor- nelia Maynard Dow, of Portland, who presides over her father's home.

On March 20, 1894, Mr. Dow attained the age of ninety years. Anniversary celebrations were held all over this country, and two hun- dred in Great Britain, many in Australia, and several in other parts of the world, among

them one in Jerusalem. Congratulatory mes- sages, letters and floral offerings, and formal addresses poured in upon him from all sides. The Old World and the New, and many foreign tongues, as well as his native language, contrib- uted to the memorable occasion. The State Board of Trade, then in session in l'ortland, passed appropriate resolutions upon the occa- sion, congratulating General Dow upon his great services to the State, and appointed a committee to wait upon him and convey the good wishes and respect of its members. The

city government of Portland did the same.

The immense audience which filled the City Hall of Portland in the evening exchanged mes- sages by cable with a great gathering in Free Trade Hall, Manchester, England. Among the distinguished speakers at the Portland cel- ebration were Governor H. B. Cleaves and ex- Governor Selden Connor. A portrait of Gen- eral Dow was presented, to be placed in the rotunda of the State capitol; and the Hon. James P. Baxter, Mayor of Portland, who pre- sided, said :-

"No son of Portland has thrown about it such a halo of wholesome light as the man whose ninetieth birthday we celebrate to-night. He sits here as an example for the old and young, and may the memory of this night long live with our people."

ATHANIEL DEERING, merchant, came to Portland, then Falmouth, in 1761, from Kittery, where he was born January 29, 1736. He was of the fifth generation in descent from George Deering, who was one of the early emigrants to this country, coming from Devonshire, England, about 1635, and settling at Black Point, now part of Scarboro, Me., not far from Richmond Island.

His son, Roger Deering, died in Kittery in 1676, leaving a son, Clement Deering, who married Joan Bray, a daughter of John Bray, of Kittery. Joan Bray's sister Margery mar- ried William Pepperell, and became the mother of Sir William Pepperell. Clement Deering died in 1701. His son, John Deer- ing, was born June 17, 1680, and married Temperance Fernald, a daughter of William

BIOGRAPHICAL REVIEW

Fernald, whose wife was a Miss Langdon, a member of the well-known New Hampshire family of that name, being a grand-daughter of the Tobias Langdon who married Eliza- beth Sherburne. John Deering was a sea captain, and commanded for many years vessels of his eousin, Sir William Pepperell, in their foreign voyages. His son, John Deering, was born July 16, 1710, married Anne Dunn, of Boston, and was the father of Nathaniel Deering. The second John Deering also was a sea captain, and he died at sea in 1758.

The responsibility of providing for his mother with her large family thus fell upon Nathaniel, and in order to better his condition he came East and settled at Falmouth. His family soon followed him; and before long his mother married Deacon James Milk, a promi- nent merchant and ship builder here, with whom Nathaniel associated himself in busi- ness. In 1763 James Milk, a son of Deacon Milk, married Mary Deering, a sister of Na- thaniel, which event was followed the next year by the marriage of Nathaniel Deering to Dorcas Milk, a daughter of Deacon Milk, and in 1766 by the marriage of his brother, John Deering, to Eunice Milk, another daugh- ter. Willis, in his history of Portland, says of these marriages, "This quadruple alliance formed a strong family eement, and concen- trated the efforts and extended the influence of prominent and enterprising men, which cn- abled them to accumulate property and create a large business."

Nathaniel Deering's mother died in 1769 at the age of fifty-eight; and in 1772 Deaeon James Milk died, leaving a large estate to be divided among his children. Among other portions was the large and valuable traet of land lying between Exchange and Market Streets and extending from Middle Street to low water mark. Nathaniel Deering lived in a house which stood on the corner of Exchange and Fore Streets till it was destroyed in the bombardment of the town by the British in 1775. After this he purehased and occupied the land on the corner of Exchange and Middle Streets, upon which the post-office now stands. He was actively interested in all town affairs, and was twice chosen Selectman,

his associates being General Peleg Wadsworth and John Fox, these being the first Seleetmen chosen after the separating of Falmouth and Portland in 1786.

In 1776, the commeree of the town having suffered severely from the dcpredations of the British cruisers, Mr. Deering bought and fitted out the ship "Fox " as a privateer ; and, letters of marque and reprisal being issued by Gov- ernor John Hancock to Mr. Deering, John Fox, and Deacon Titeomb, the "Fox " did consider- able damage to the property of the enemy. Mr. Deering subsequently sold one-half of the "Fox" to Messrs. Fox and Titeomb. After the Revolutionary War was over he was the first to resume business in the town, engaging largely in commercial enterprises, to accom- modate which and to promote the mcreantilc facilities of the town, he extended the pier which had belonged to Mr. Milk and himself, near the foot of Exchange Street, and at that time called Deering's Wharf, into the spacious wharf which from its extent took the name of Long Wharf, and was for many years the principal centre for the shipping of the port. It was begun in 1793; and here Mr. Deering, having taken his son James into partnership with him, transaeted a large commereial busi- ness, and co-operated extensively with such well-known merchants as the Amorys, Grays, Dexters, and Derbys, in their varied enter- priscs.

Purchasing large and valuable traets of land in different parts of the eity, he laid the foun- dation of the Deering and Preblc cstates. Among the purchases made by him was the beautiful grove of oaks, containing about fifty acres, known for so many years as "Deering's Oaks," and immortalized by Longfellow in his poem of "My Lost Youth." This grove his descendants wishing to preserve gave in 1879 to the citizens of Portland for a public park on the condition that it should be kept for that purpose forever. The family at one time declined an offer of fifty thousand dollars for it from the city of Portland.

Mr. Deering died September 14, 1795. A man of energy, business eapacity, and un- swerving integrity, he was universally re- spected; and his death, when in the vigor of life and in the midst of large enterprises, was

BIOGRAPHICAL REVIEW

a serious loss to the community. His widow, a woman remarkable for her strong common sense and excellent judgment, survived him until 1826. She was greatly interested in the First Parish of Portland, and was one of the founders of its charity fund. Mr. Deering left two children - James Deering, of whom an account will be found below; and Mary Deering, who married in 1801 Commodore Edward Preble of the United States Navy, cel- ebrated for his bombardment of Tripoli.

AMES DEERING, a distinguished mer- chant of Portland, was born August 23, 1766, and was the eldest of the two children of Nathaniel Deering. He received his education principally at the Dum- mer Academy at Byfield, Mass., then the most frequented institution for preparatory studies in New England, under the care of the well- known Master Moody. Commodore Preble and other young men from Portland were also sent there in the absence of all means of in- struction at home during the disastrous period of the war. On his return and before coming of age, James Deering entered into commercial business with his father, a connection that ter- minated only at the death of the latter. The heavy responsibility then cast upon the son was relieved by the practical sagacity of his mother, which enabled him to continue the improvements of the estate in various direc- tions, especially the erection of the brick blocks on the easterly side on Exchange Street, commencing at the foot in 1797 and going up the street to Middle Street. By his judicious management, aided by the growing prosperity of the town, he accumulated a large estate.

He married Almira Ilsley, a daughter of Enoch Ilsley, Esq., a prominent and influen- tial citizen, in March, 1789; and they lived in uninterrupted happiness for more than sixty-one years. In 1804 Mr. Deering, having purchased some years previously the farm in Westbrook in the vicinity of Deering's Oaks, built the present Deering mansion, and took up his residence therein. At the time of his death his estate there consisted of over two hundred acres and was a model farm. He

was a member of the Massachusetts Horticult- ural Society, and introduced here the best variety of fruit-trees that could be imported, and always adopted the latest and best methods of scientific farming. His stock was of the best breeds, and usually took the prizes at the county fairs; if they did not, he at once purchased those that did. His fondness for real estate was proverbial. He bought large tracts in different parts of the city and in the suburbs, and time has shown the wisdom of those investments. In the development of his property he showed uncommon and far-seeing liberality, giving street after street to the city of Portland without asking for any compensa- tion. In 1849 he gave the land for New State Street, a broad and beautiful thoroughfare over seventy feet in width, running from Congress Street to Deering's Oaks, and contributed in addition seven hundred dollars toward making it. He also gave to the city part of the Eastern Promenade, which ran through his property for a long distance. He was greatly interested in the building of the Atlantic & St. Lawrence Railroad, and was the largest 'subscriber to its stock in Portland, and was one of its first Directors. For many years he was a Director in the Maine Bank.

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Biographical review : this volume contains biographical sketches of leading citizens of Cumberland County, Maine, Part 1

Author: Publication date: 1896 Publisher: Boston : Biographical Review Publishing Company Number of Pages: 722

Author:
Publication date: 1896
Publisher: Boston : Biographical Review Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 722