USA > Maine > Biographical encyclopedia of Maine of the nineteenth century > Part 18
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Governor Coburn's pre-eminent public spirit has been exemplified in many and various
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ways. Education has rejoiced in his beneficence and co-operation. Higher educational establishments particularly have received generous aid from his hand. Together with his associates, he so augmented the fund of the old Bloomfield Academy that in its new form of the Skowhegan High School it will afford the best opportunities for higher culture to generations yet to come. Trustee and Vice-President of Colby University for years, he has laid that prosperous seminary under permanent obligations to gratitude by his tact, in- fluence, and liberality. The debt is recognized by his associate trustees in the bestowal of his name upon one of their buildings-Coburn Hall. Of the College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts he early became the firm friend, and was for some time the President of its Board of Managers. Zealous in its behalf and liberal in his zeal, he brought friends to its aid that no other man had at command. Other scholastic institutions have been fructified by his golden favors. To him Somerset County owes its graceful court-house, and Skow- hegan one of the best and most elegant public halls in the State.
Singularly enough, he has never been incorporated with the visible Church of Christ. His convictions and sympathies are with it ; his love and his means lavished upon it. He has always attended the Baptist section of that Church, but has never united with it. He has done more in its interests and in building its churches than any other man in Maine. His private deeds of kindness are uncounted-at least by his fellow-men-and have been performed with so much secrecy, and in such a Christian spirit, that most of them have escaped the knowledge of the people. He has not allowed his left hand to know what his right hand did.
Endowed with a power for work so rare as to be almost unique, he has held in his own hands every thread that went to make up the warp and woof of life, has watched the weaving as the pattern slowly developed, and at the same time has kept himself in a state of familiarity with all passing matters of moment to the general public. No issue debated by the public press has been unscanned, or not understood by him. He has known how to seize and hold vital points in all subjects of controversy. As a practical political economist, his status is of the highest. His life has been simple and pure. Gossip and slander never dared to breathe upon his name. Wealth only made him more popular, because it was practically shared with multitudes of needing ones. Unostentatious, real, prizing genuine- ness in others, and uniformly exceeding promise by performance, he was a true man in every relation of life. As such, Maine is justly proud of him, and numbers him among those worthy of imitation as approximations to ideal manhood.
Abner Coburn was never married.
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P ERHAM, SIDNEY, of Portland, ex-Governor of Maine. Born in Wood- stock, Oxford County, Maine, on the 27th of March, 1819. Joel Perham, his father, was born in Paris, Maine, on the 31st of March, 1797. Lemuel Perham, his grandfather, was a native of Upton, Massachusetts, and was of the fifth generation in line of direct descent from John Perham, who was an inhabitant of Chelmsford, Massachusetts, in 1664. Joel Perham, his father, married Sophronia Bisbee, who was born in Paris, Maine, on the Ist of April, 1801, and who was the daughter of Rowse Bisbee, son of Calvin Bisbee, and a descendant of Thomas Bisbee, who emigrated from England to Scituate Harbor, Massachusetts, in 1634.
Thus honorably descended, on both sides the house, from long lines of hardy and enterprising ancestors, young Perham began life with hereditary probabilities of success. Educated in the district schools of his native town, and in Gould's Academy at Bethel, he himself began educational labors at the age of nineteen. Like many other New England youths who afterward carved out their way to fame and fortune, he taught school in the winter months and devoted himself to agriculture in the summer. Fifteen years were passed in these alternations. Twenty-five terms of service attested his popularity; which was not at all diminished when in charge of schools confessedly difficult to manage. Teachers' institutes and educational conventions also derived much benefit from his active participation in their proceedings. Time has not impaired his zeal in the cause of popular education. For several years he has served as President of the Board of Trustees of West- brook Seminary and Female College.
Not only in educational affairs, but also in agriculture and pastoral pursuits, Mr. Per- ham has achieved considerable local distinction. When twenty-one years of age he pur- chased the homestead farm of his father, and during the twenty years next ensuing conducted farming operations on a comparatively large scale. Of sheep-husbandry he made a specialty, and kept from two hundred and fifty to five hundred sheep. In 1853 and 1854 he was elected by the Oxford County Agricultural Society to membership in the Maine Board of Agriculture. At agricultural fairs he has delivered many addresses ger- mane to the objects of the gathering, with great acceptance and usefulness.
Social reforms have had particular interest for Mr. Perham. Quite early in life he enlisted in the promotion of the great temperance cause ; assisted in organizing the first temperance society in his town ; gave many lectures in that and other localities, and has been abundant in similar labors to the present hour. After the repeal of the Prohibitory law, and while the question of its re-enactment was yet pending, in 1857-8, he was employed by the State Temperance Society to address the people in its favor. This he did in about two hundred different towns. The order of the Sons of Temperance and also
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that of the Good Templars in the State placed him at their head, and repeatedly sent him as their representative to the National Conventions. His prominence as an orator on these occasions led to a popular demand for his services at celebrations of the National Declara- tion of Independence, inauguration of soldiers' monuments, ceremonies on Decoration Day, and similar events. Lecturing is naturally allied to such engagements, and as a lecturer he has won flattering success. "The American Citizen" and "Success" are topics on which he has many times spoken, and always with wisdom, eloquence, and effect.
Closely allied as religion is to sound ethics and pure morals, Mr. Perham logically identified himself with that phase of theology known as Universalism. Quick to perceive and acknowledge whatever is good in other denominations, he has for that reason been intensely devoted to the peculiar work of his own. Not infrequently he has officiated as President of the State Universalist Convention, and also of the National Convention of that body of believers. For twelve years he has been a trustee of the General Convention, and for a portion of that time the President of the Board.
In public-spiritedness he has ever been an example to his fellow-citizens. When twenty-two years of age he was elected one of the Selectmen of Woodstock, and rendered excellent service to the town in that and other official positions until other duties com- pelled discontinuance. He began political life as a Democrat, and consorted with the Democracy until 1853, when he supported Anson P. Morrill for the gubernational chair, in opposition to the candidate of his old associates. When the great Republican Party was organized he actively aided in giving shape to its policy, and has since been closely affiliated with it. Returned to the State Legislature in 1854, he received on the Ist of January, 1855, at the commencement of the session, the very unusual compliment of election to the Speaker's chair. This was the first instance in Maine of election to the Speakership of a member destitute of prior legislative experience. In 1856 he was one of the Maine Presidential electors, and in common with his colleagues cast the vote of his State for the gallant John C. Fremont. In 1858 he was elected Clerk of the Supreme Judicial Court for Oxford County, was re-elected in 1861, and resigned in January, 1863.
Previous to his resignation of the clerkship, Mr. Perham had been elected-in the fall of 1862-Representative to Congress from the Second Maine District. This section, com- posed of the counties of Oxford, Androscoggin, Franklin, and Sagadahoc, gave him a majority of twenty-five hundred votes. This majority was increased at his second election, in 1864, to 4486 ; and still further augmented at his third election, in 1866, to 6421-the largest majority ever received in that district.
In Congress Mr. Perham served in the Committee on Pensions, and for the last four years was chairman of that body. As such his duties were exceedingly laborious. The old pension laws required revision in view of the enormous access of business consequent
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on the war for the preservation of the Union. The Pension Bureau needed reorganiza- tion. Both necessities were wisely and fully met, and the claims of the soldiers and of their dependants received due recognition, In addition to the general business, a very large number of individual claims were examined and passed upon at each session.
In sessions of the House Mr. Perham was anything but a lay figure. His voice was often heard in incidental debate. Speeches of elaborate character and telling force were also delivered. On the 4th of May, 1864, he addressed the House on the bill "to guarantee to certain States, whose governments had been usurped, a republican form of government." After reviewing the history of parties in relation to slavery and the Rebel- lion, he explained the condition of the rebel States, and argued the right and duty of the National Government to protect its own life and the life of its citizens. He insisted that it ought to guarantee a republican form of government to all the people in the rebellious States, and that obligation in this particular was paramount to all other considerations. On the 21st of April, 1866, he made a speech on the reconstruction of the rebellious States, in which, referring to the spirit of the North, he said " that the horrors of Fort Pillow and Andersonville had inspired no desire for revenge on the part of the loyal people ; that they felt themselves to be masters of the situation, and would not stoop to exult over a fallen foe ; that while they demanded that 'treason should be made odious,' and that ample guarantees against future rebellion should be given, they were willing to accept the least possible degree of punishment and concession that would secure those results."
Some of the guarantees proper to be established were, that "the leading traitors who knowingly and wilfully went into the Rebellion should be deprived of all political power- for the present at least-until the loyal sentiment of those States should become so strong as to render them powerless for evil; that all the civil and political rights belonging to citizenship, including the right of suffrage, should be guaranteed to all loyal citizens, irrespective of race or color ; and that the payment of all debts contracted in aid of the Rebellion, or for emancipated slaves, should be prohibited." In closing his speech Mr. Perham said : "Our people have stood unawed and invincible when carnage and death held high carnival. It remains for us to show to the nations of the earth that we can stand erect in the great moral conflict upon which we have entered. . . . We shall surely win at last. . . .. While God sits on His throne, right and justice are indestructible. . . . While the nation in her tears and ghastly wounds bows her head before Him who has given us the victory, she makes the solemn pledge that justice and equal rights to all her people shall be the rule of her conduct."
On the 2d of March, 1868, he spoke in favor of the impeachment of President Johnson ; arraigned that official for numerous violations of the Constitution and laws, and for a series of disgraceful usurpations unequalled in the history of the country ; and con-
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tended that it was the duty of the House to present the articles of impeachment then pending to the Senate. On the 21st of March, 1868, Mr. Perham again addressed the House on relief from taxation and on the National finances. Clearly and sharply he insisted on the imperative duty of Congress to lighten the burdens of taxation ; to establish the National credit ; to supply a currency equal in value to gold; to reduce the rate of interest by funding the National debt ; and to provide for the gradual payment of the National debt.
The biographer of the members of the Fortieth Congress said of Mr. Perham "that he was always at the post of duty, whether in the committee-room or on the floor of the House ; that he was untiring in his attention to the wants of the soldiers-visiting them in the hospitals, communicating with their friends, aiding them to obtain discharges, fur- loughs, pay, bounty, provisions, etc .- in every possible way ministering to their necessities ;. that he reported and carried through the House most of the legal provisions for the increase of pensions to invalids in proportion to the degree of their disability ; and giving an additional pension to widows according to the number of children dependent upon them for support."
The meritorious services of Mr. Perham in Congress, and in many minor subordinate positions, were appropriately and gratefully recognized in 1870 by his election to the chief magistracy of Maine, by a majority of 9,208 votes. In 1871 he was again elected by a majority of 10,673 votes, and in 1872 by a majority of 16,510 votes. This steady increase in the numerical strength of his supporters is sufficient proof of his acceptability and beneficence. In his admirable inaugurals he presented the importance of reform in the jail system of the State, so as to provide for the employment of the prisoner in some industrial pursuit ; of an industrial school for girls; of establishing free high-schools; and of biennial sessions of the Legislature. All these measures, excepting the last, were adopted during his administration. That was not favorably received by the Legislature until after the close of his gubernatorial service.
Governor Perham has been President of the Board of Trustees of the Industrial School since the time that it went into operation. In 1877 he received the appointment of Appraiser for the port of Portland, and still holds that office.
A life crowded. with beneficent activities, characterized by the purest virtues, and devoted to the highest ends, has richly earned for Governor Perham the respect, the confi- dence, and the affection of all who know him.
Sidney Perham was married on the Ist of January, 1843, to Almena J., daughter of Lazarus Hathaway of Paris, Maine. From this union have sprung five children, namely, Aurestus S., Fannie L., Georgie S., Herbert M. (died at seven years of age), and Willie L.
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ONNER, SELDEN, ex-Governor of Maine. Born in Fairfield, Maine, January 25, 1839; graduated at Tufts College, Class of 1859; was reading law in the office of Washburn & Marsh at Woodstock, Vermont, at the outbreak of the Rebellion. Enlisted as a private in the First Vermont Volunteers, commanded by Colonel, afterward General, Phelps, and was mustered out with that regiment in August, 1861, after a service of four months. Re-en- tered the service at once as lieutenant-colonel of the Seventh Maine Volunteers. Pro- moted to colonelcy of the Nineteenth Maine Volunteers in December, 1863. Com- manded the brigade of the Second Division, Second Army Corps, to which the Nineteenth Maine was attached, until the reorganization of the Army of the Potomac, just prior to the campaign of 1864. Left thigh was shattered by a musket-ball in the battle of the Wilderness, May 6, 1864. Taken to Fredericksburg, thence to Washington, where he remained in Douglas Hospital until August, 1865, where he went to his father's in Maine, making the journey on a stretcher. Commissioned brigadier-general of volunteers by President Lincoln in June, 1864.
In the spring of 1866, when he had been on crutches only about three months, the fracture was renewed by a fall, and he was again compelled to await for the period of a year and a half the slow process of the reunion of the broken femur.
In 1868 he was appointed Assessor of Internal Revenue for the Third District of Maine, and when that office was abolished was appointed Collector of Internal Revenue, which office he resigned in 1875.
In 1875 he was nominated by the Republican Party of Maine as its candidate for Governor for the year 1876, and was elected. He was re-elected in 1876, and again in 1877; and received a fourth nomination from his party in 1878, in which year there was no elec- tion by the people, the constitution of the State at that time requiring a majority to elect. The House of Representatives was politically adverse, and, under the provision of the constitution applicable to such cases, elected two of his competitors and returned their names to the Senate, one of whom was perforce elected Governor by a Republican Senate.
In February, 1882, he was appointed by President Arthur Pension Agent for the district constituted by the State of Maine.
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R OBIE, FREDERICK, M.D., of Gorham, Governor of Maine. Born in Gorham, August 12, 1822. His ancestors on both sides the house were of the best English blood, and belonged to that sturdy, aggressive, and godly class whose members have founded new nationalities in different parts of the globe. In every generation they have been distinguished by noble character and beneficent social power. The first American forefather, from whom he is lineally descended, emigrated from England in 1660, and settled in what is now the town of Atkinson, New Hampshire. His fate was tragic. Himself killed by the Indians, his twelve-year-old son, Ichabod, was carried captive into Canada, and held there until rcdeemed at the end of twelve long months. Returning to New Hampshire, Ichabod Robie settled in the town of Hampton ; married, and became the father of three sons, of whom Samuel, the youngest, was born in 1717. Samuel Robie was a farmer and also a tanner by occupation, and was the father of thrce sons, of whom Edward, the cldest, married Sarah, daughter of John and Sarah (Toppan) Smith, on the 10th of October, 1771. John Smith, father of Mrs. Robie, was a prominent graduate of Harvard College ; Sarah (T.) Smith, her mother, was a sister of Colonel Christopher Toppan, and a relative of many of the most respectable families in New Hampshire.
Edward and Sarah (Smith) Robic were the parents of six children, of whom one was named Toppan. Toppan Robie were born in Candia, New Hampshire, January 27, 1782 ; and at the age of seventeen removed to Gorham, Maine, where he found employment in a country store. There he remained until he had attained his majority. By that time his habit of rigid economy had enabled him to accumulate a sum sufficient to begin business on his own account. This he did and succeeded. In the course of a few years he was joined by his brother, Deacon Thomas S. Robie. The firm of T. & T. S. Robie, then organized, was subsequently known throughout Maine. In New Hampshire also, and even in Vermont, its reputation was familiar, and ranked with the highest in trade. Nearly sixty years were thus spent by Toppan Robie in commercial pursuits, which he finally relinquished at the death of his brother. Three sons of that brother are now active and useful in the ministry of the Gospel. His own children were to become conspicuous and influential in other spheres of activity. Retiring to his own homestead he devoted himself to the careful cultivation of his farm, which has since been enlarged, and is now occupied by his son, Governor Robie. Captain Toppan Robie was remarkable for energy, culture, good morals, and unblemished success. For more than half a century he was one of the leading men in his town. A consistent and excellent member of the Congregational Church, a refined gentleman of the old school, honorable, dignified, and urbane, his word was as good as his bond. He abounded in every good word and work. Civil as well as
Metropolitan Publishing & Engraving Co. Boston
Frederick Robie.
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religious and commercial affairs claimed and received his attention. Every office in the town was repeatedly honored by his incumbency. Six times he represented the citizens of Gorham in the General Court of Massachusetts, before Maine received State autonomy. In the first two sessions-1820 and 1821-of the Maine Legislature he also represented his town, and in 1837 was a member of Governor Edward Kent's Executive Council.
The sterling and attractive qualities of Captain Robie sufficiently account for his singular and lasting popularity. In 1814, when Portland was menaced by a British fleet, he marched at the head of the Gorham Company to its relief. At that epoch he was a Federalist in politics. Nor did he ever change his essential political opinions. Afterwards a Whig, he was also one of the first to aid in the organization of the National Republican Party, whose glory it is to have preserved free institutions in America, and to have dealt the death-blow to the hydra of slavery. He never lost his interest and pride in its princi- ples and accomplishments. The beautiful soldiers' monument which adorns the town of Gorham, and on which are inscribed the names of fifty-seven of its sons who died in the service of their country, was his generous and appreciative gift. It has the unique honor of being the first memorial of the kind erected in the State, and was dedicated October I, 1866. Public-spirited and munificent, his donations to the ministerial fund of Gorham aggregated in the sum of $9000. In addition to this, he gave $5000 for the support of the pastor of the Congregational church in Chester, New Hampshire. He died January 14, 1871, having crowded into his long and honored life of nearly eighty-nine years innumer- able acts of patriotism, piety, and philanthropy. The whole community mourned his loss -the loss of one of the best and most active participants in the most eventful experiences of the American people.
In 1804 Toppan Robie was married to Lydia, daughter of Benjamin Brown of Chester, New Hampshire, and sister of the Rev. Francis Brown, D.D., President of Dart- mouth College. She died in 1811. His second wife was Sarah Thaxter, daughter of Captain John and Bethiah Thaxter Lincoln. The Lincoln family emigrated from Hing- ham, England, to New Hingham, Massachusetts, in 1637. General Benjamin Lincoln of Revolutionary fame, Governor Levi Lincoln of Massachusetts, and Governor Enoch Lincoln of Maine are among their descendants. President Abraham Lincoln, according to the most authentic genealogies, was of the same blood, if not of the same family. He certainly exemplified the ability, the good sense, the inflexible virtue, and other admirable qualities of the old Hingham stock. Captain Toppan Robie and his second wife rejoiced in the parentage of three sons, of whom Frederick was the youngest.
Frederick Robie received his preparation for college in the Gorham Academy, where he began it under the tuition of the late Rev. Reuben Nason, and completed it under that of the Rev. Amos Brown. Matriculating at Bowdoin College in 1837, he graduated from it in 1841, at the age of nineteen years. In the same year he went into the South, and
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occupied the position of principal to academies in Georgia and Florida. But medical rather than educational duties were morc to his taste, and he decided to devote his future activities to the practice of the healing art. For that purpose he studied the theory and practice of medicine in the Jefferson Medical College at Philadelphia, from which he rc- ccived the diploma of M.D. in 1844.
Dr. Robie began professional practice at Biddeford, Maine, in April, 1844, and prosc- cuted it in the same place until May, 1855. He then removed to Waldoboro, and estab- lished a large and lucrative practice, which he enjoyed for three years. At the end of that period he decided to settle permanently in his native town, and executed his decision. There he was residing when the great Rebellion against the Government of the United States precipitated the war for the preservation of the National Union. At that epoch Dr. Robie was a member of the Executive Council of Governor Israel Washburn. This position he resigned in order to accept the appointment from President Lincoln of Ad- ditional Paymaster of United States Volunteers. His commission, dated June 1, 1861, was one of the first belonging to this special grade of appointments. Assigned immedi- diately to active duty, he paid a number of regiments in the Army of the Potomac during the years 1861, '62, as well as several new Maine regiments mustered into the United States service in August, 1862. In 1863 he was stationed in Boston as Chief Paymaster of the Department of New England. In the early part of 1864 he was transferred to the Depart- ment of the Gulf, in which he paid the troops for more than a year. The spring of 1865 brought with it the triumphant issue of the terrible and protracted contest, and also an order to Paymaster Robie to return to Maine, for the purpose of superintending the final payment of the citizen soldiers from that State at their muster out of the service. His meritorious and invaluable services in this important branch of the army system earned for him the brevet of lieutenant-colonel-an honor that few paymasters received. His brevet commission is dated November 24, 1865. On the 20th of July, 1866, his own talents being no longer needed by the Government, he himself was honorably mustcred out of service and relegated to civil life.
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