USA > Maine > Biographical encyclopedia of Maine of the nineteenth century > Part 19
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Colonel Robie had served his country faithfully and well. This fact the press of his native State was quick to gratefully acknowledge. "He has been a gentlemanly and cour- teous officer, and has faithfully discharged the duties of his office," remarked the Argus. "Colonel Robie's service has been honorable to himself, and eminently satisfactory both to the Government and its claimants with whom he has had to deal," said the Press. "Major Frederick Robie, the popular and efficient paymaster of the United States, who has been so long stationed in this State, has been promoted to lieutenant-colonel by brevet. This is the first instance of a Maine paymaster securing such an honor, and it could have been bestowed on no more faithful, modest, and unassuming officer. He is held by the Pay- master-General as one of the best officers in the Pay Department of our country," added the Portland Star.
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That the press accurately voiced the popular estimate of Colonel Robie was manifest in the fact of his election to the Senate of Maine in September of the same year, and by a second election to the same body in 1867. Seven times he has been elected to represent the citizens of his native town in the lower house of the State Legislature. In 1872, and again in 1876, he officiated with great acceptability as Speaker of the House. Three times he has been chosen to membership in the Executive Council, viz., in that of Governor Washburn in 1861, of Governor Dan in 1880, and of Governor Plaisted in 1881-2.
Politically Governor Robie is identified with the Republican Party, and is in full sym- pathy with its most progressive elements. He was a delegate to the National Convention which nominated General Grant for a second incumbency of the National Chief Magis- tracy. From 1868 to 1873 he was an active member of the Republican State Committee. In the latter year he revisited Florida, and received hospitable entertaiment from those who, thirty years previously, had been his pupils. The fact that several of his hosts had served in the Confederate Army had not impaired the strong friendships formed in the years of early manhood. All parties had fought and suffered for their opinions, and in the con- vulsions of conflict had arrived at tolerably definite conclusions with respect to aim and effort in the future.
In the educational and industrial interests of Maine Governor Robie has for many years illustrated a true and enlightened interest. The establishment of the State Normal School at Gorham is largely due to his influence. In 1878 he was appointed one of the Commissioners to the Paris Exposition of the World's Industry and Art. While absent in the discharge of his duties he travelled extensively in Europe, and by keen observation and philosophic thought increased matured qualifications for the high office to which he was afterward called. In many business enterprises he has been and is one of the most potent factors. For many years he served as one of the directors of the Portland and Rochester Railroad Company-a corporation which in its earlier history owed much to the sympathy and assistance of Toppan Robie. He is, and for many years has been, a director of the First National Bank of Portland. He is also President of the Eastern Telegraph Company. At one time he was the business manager of the Portland Press Publishing Company. The Patrons of Husbandry attracted his favorable notice some years ago. He saw in the organ- ization an instrument fitted to infuse fresh vigor into the agricultural interests of Maine, and for preventing the depopulation of the agricultural portions of the State. This instru- ment he judiciously utilized. Giving to the order the weight of his personal influence, he has largely augmented its efficiency for good. In 1882 he was chosen Worthy Master of the State Grange for two years. Under his administration the order grew in numbers and social power to an extent far beyond the expectations of its friends. It is now one of the most opportune and beneficent of the industrial and social agencies in the State.
Thus intimately associated with the history, the head, heart, and hand of the State, it
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naturally followed that Colonel Robie should be suggested as onc most likely to make an admirable chief magistrate. The idea occurred simultaneously to many minds in different parts of the State. It at once became active. Consent to his nomination was sought and obtained. Although late in the field, he was received at once with marked favor. His familiarity with all the affairs of the State, his integrity and sturdy sound sensc, together with other qualifications, made him a very available candidate. Hundreds of old soldiers remembered him as the courteous and obliging paymaster. Scores of men were familiar with him as a member of more than half a dozen Legislatures. Hundreds of farmers regarded him as the head of their order. Business men everywhere acknowledged his pos- session of the attributes which make a wise and prudent Governor. All of these several classes ardently supported his candidacy. The convention, at which he was nominated on the first ballot, was the largest ever held in the State. Thirteen hundred and thirty-one delegates were present, and gave him ninety-cight votes more than those cast for his dis- tinguished competitor, William W. Thomas, Jr. The ensuing political campaign was char- acterized by unusual fervor and earnestness. One of the leading issues between the parties was the differences between Governor Plaisted and the Executive Council, of which the Republican candidate was the chairman. His canvass, which was cordially commended by the Republican press within and without the State, proved him to be an exceptionally strong and popular candidate. His honorable and faithful public career-covering the space of twenty years-was so irreproachable, that his adversaries could pick no flaw in its record. He had neither votes nor acts to explain. In addition to this, he was personally known to voters in three fourths of the towns of the State. This was not only a great advantage to him, but strengthened the ticket, which contained the names of four candi- dates for Congress. An independent movement was organized to defeat the Republican ticket, but met with ignominious failure. Speaking privately of Colonel Robie's candidacy, the veteran statesman and politician James G. Blaine stated that in his opinion the nomi- nation of Colonel Robie was the strongest that could have been madc, and that to it was largely attributable the subscquent splendid victory at the polls. The election took place in September, 1882, and Governor Robie received a majority of nearly 9000 votes over his competitor. In January, 1883, his inauguration followed. His address to the Legislature commanded approbation as a strong and sensible document-one that evinced a just State pride, and also an intelligent familiarity with the affairs and demands of the Commonwealth. He was again elected in 1884 by a largely increased majority.
Frederick Robie was married on the 27th of November, 1847, to Olivia M. Pricst, an accomplished lady of Biddeford, by whom he is the father of four children, namely, Harrict, wife of Clark H. Barker; Mary Frederica; Eliza, who died September 3, 1863 ; and Wil- liam Pitt Fessenden Robie.
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John Appleton
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PPLETON, JOHN, LL.D., of Bangor, ex-Chief Justice of the Supreme Judicial Court of Maine. Born at New Ipswich, New Hampshire, July 12, 1804. The Appleton patronymic is in all probability of Saxon origin, and, according to Bosworth's Anglo-Saxon Dictionary denotes an apple garden or orchard. It did not become a surname until the times of the Norman Conquest. The Christian names of the early wearers being all Norman,-e. g., William, John, Henry, Edward,-the family is probably of Norman descent, and took its name from the place where lands were granted to it. The name itself is variously spelled in the earlier days of English history. Apylton, Apilton, Apelton, Apeltun, Appulton, Apctone, etc., are forms indicative of the ignorance or carelessness of a rude and unsettled age.
Throughout the known history of the Appleton family it appears not only as the possessor of a long pedigree, but of a highly respectable standing and reputation. Little Waldingfield in Suffolk, England, is the parish from which the first American immigrant came to this country. He (Samuel Appleton) was born in 1586, and was the son of Thomas, son of William, son of Robert, son of Thomas, son of John, son of John, son of John Appulton of Great Waldingfield, in the same county, who died in the year 1436. John Appulton was, it is believed, a lineal descendant of William de Appleton of Suffolk, who died in 1326. The Appletons were of knightly rank in the feudal ages, as appears from the fact that William, the grandfather of Samuel, the emigrant, bore on his coat of arms, " Argent, a fess sable between three pomgranets gules, slipped and leav'd vert." CREST, "an Olivant's hed couped sa tusked ear'd or, with a serpent writhed about his noz vert."
But of far greater real importance than descent from the Norman conquerors is the fact that Samuel Appleton was a godly, noble, enterprising exponent of civil and religious liberty, as he understood it. His emigration, as a. Puritan, was prompted by religious motives. On the 25th of May, 1636, together with sixty-one others, he took the Freeman's oath in the colony of Massachusetts. He settled at Ipswich, where he had a grant of lands, of which a large portion is now in possession of his descendants. In 1637 he was Deputy to the General Court, but was not elected again because of his opposition to in- tolerance and persecution. He died in June, 1670, at Rowley, in Massachusetts.
Samuel Appleton, the second son of the wise and excellent immigrant, was born at Little Waldingfield, in England, in 1624, and came to New England, when eleven years of age, in company with his father and the other members of the family. He was Deputy to the General Court, under the title of Lieutenant Samuel Appleton, in 1668, and in 1669 to '71, in company with his brother, Captain John ; again in 1673 and 1675 by himself.
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In the latter year King Philip's War broke out, and he was commissioned to command a foot company of one hundred men. On the 4th of October he was appointed "com- mander-in-chief of the army in those parts of the country" exposed to the depredations of the enemy. By his "industry, skill, and courage," writes Hubbard, an admiring neighbor, " those towns [on the Connecticut River] were preserved from running the same fate as the rest, wholly or in part so lately turned into ashes." On the 19th of October a violent assault was made upon Hatfield by about seven or eight hundred Indians, who were re- pulsed after a sharp conflict, in which Major Appleton behaved with distinguished gallan- try, and very narrowly escaped death from a bullet which passed through his hair. His military reports are written in a beautiful chirography, with great precision of style, and arc full of the pious spirit of the day. In the sanguinary action of the 19th of Decem- ber, 1675, resulting in the capture of the Narragansett fort, and in the loss to Massa- chusetts of one hundred and ten men killed and wounded, the colonial forces were under the able military management of Major Appleton. After the return of the troops to Boston he seems to have left the service.
In political affairs Major Samuel Appleton was as conspicuous as in military mat- ters. Chosen to the Council as Assistant in 1681, he continued in that office until the appointment of Sir Edmund Andros as Governor-General in 1686. That and the follow- ing year were the darkest of American history, and yet the precursors of republican liberty. In the words of the eloquent Rufus Choate, "Our whole Colonial Legislature abolished, our whole civil power grasped by Sir Edmund Andros, our whole adopted law swept away by a stroke of the pen of the king; the principles of justice silenced ; every man's title to his farm required to be confirmed by a fine; those little democracies, the towns, annihilated by a law forbidding them to meet more than once a year, and that simply for the election of town officers ; the gun announcing to Boston that a standing army was quartered there, and overawing the liberty of the inhabitants-at that moment of peril Sir Edmund Andros was pleased to lay a tax, and to apportion it upon the towns, and thercupon to ordain that they should assemble and make choice of a commissioner, and that a board should be constituted for the assessment of the tax upon themselves."
The town-meeting was held, but neither commissioner was chosen nor board consti- tuted. The town of Ipswich was second to Boston only in respect of wealth and popu- lation. Its citizens were second to none in point of clearness of conviction and force of resolution. Under the leadership of Samuel and John Appleton, the town-meeting spread upon its records the vote, "That considering that said act" (referring to the order of the Governor and Council) " has infringed upon our liberty, as it is contrary to the acts of His Majesty, by violating the statute law of the land, which declares that no taxation shall be laid unless with the consent of the people ; they do therefore vote first, that they will not choose a commissioner, and decide that the Selectmen shall not lay such a tax
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till it is determined on by the people." Here was the Declaration of Independence in embryo. This was the first gun fired in the long struggle for popular rights which was to culminate in the concession of national independence by the mother-country to her re- volted colonies in 1783. "Taxation without representation" was never tolerated by the colonists. They wisely bowed for the time being to irresistible force, but only waited for the inevitable hour which should bring the ability to throw off the yoke of the oppressor at once and forever.
Samuel Appleton inflexibly opposed the tyrannical procedure of Governor Andros, and from the rocky eminence at Lynn known as Appleton's Pulpit addressed the people in justification of his own course and in favor of resistance. On the 30th of November, 1687, he was imprisoned in Boston jail, where he remained for some time. The English Revolution followed in 1688. Sir Edmund Andros was deposed and imprisoned in 1689, and Major Appleton had the stern satisfaction of handing him into the boat which conveyed the crestfallen tyrant to the castle. He was a member of the Provisional Government of the colony, and was also a member of the council named in the Charter of William and Mary in 1692.
Samuel Appleton was twice married. His second wife was Mary Oliver, to whom he was united on the 8th of December, 1656. By her he had four children, of whom Major Isaac Appleton was the third. Samuel Appleton died in great honor in the year 1696. Isaac Appleton was born in 1664, at Ipswich, and married Priscilla Baker, a grand- daughter of Lieutenant-Governor Symonds, who married a daughter of Governor Win- throp. He died in 1747. Of his seven children, Isaac was the third. Isaac Appleton, second, was born in 1704, at Ipswich, and married Elizabeth Sawyer, the daughter of a merchant at Wells, Maine, by whom he had ten children. Of these, Francis, who settled at New Ipswich, New Hampshire, was the second. He was born in 1732, married a lady named Hubbard, by whom he became the father of four children, of whom John was the third. John Appleton married Elizabeth Peabody, by whom he was the father of an only son, the future Chief Justice of the Supreme Judicial Court of Maine.
Judge Appleton was named after his father. Before he had attained the age of four years his mother died, leaving himself and only sister to the care of others. His pre- liminary education was received in the common-schools of his native town, in the academy of which he completed preparation for college. Matriculating at Bowdoin, he mastered the usual curriculum, and graduated from that institution in 1822, when only eighteen years old. Selecting the profession of law, he began the studies appropriate to it under the direction of George F. Farley of Groton, Massachusetts; and afterwards continued them at Alfred, York County, Maine, under the instructions of his famous relative Nathan Dane Appleton. Soon after he had reached his majority he was admitted to the bar at Amherst, New Hampshire, in 1826. In the same year he removed
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to Dixmont, Penobscot County, Maine, and there began legal practice. From thence, in the course of a few months, he went to Sebec, now in Piscataquis County, and spent six years in that thinly-peopled and comparatively inaccessible district. In 1832 he changed his residence again, and domiciled himself in Bangor, which thenceforward became his permanent home. For upward of fifty years his name has been prominently identified with its fame and fortunes. In the first year of his settlement in that city he entered into partnership with Elisha H. Allen, under the style and title of Allen & Appleton. This association lasted until the election of the senior partner to Congress in 1840. The clientage of the new firm was unusually large. For some time the suits intrusted to their care numbered many hundreds in each term. But the period was one of general insol- vency, and the receipts of the practitioners were consequently small. In respect of experience and multiform legal knowledge, it was largely remunerative. The research and activity to which it stimulated placed them in the very forefront of the legal fra- ternity. Mr. Allen subsequently became the Chancellor of the Sandwich Islands, and Minister of that unique kingdom to the Government of the United States.
In 1841 Mr. Appleton was appointed Reporter of Decisions. The nineteenth and twentieth volumes of the Maine Reports illustrate the cultured ability with which he fulfilled the duties of his office. Subsequent to the dissolution of the firm of Allen & Appleton he entered into partnership relations with John B. Hill of Bangor, and after that with his cousin, and former pupil, Moses L. Appleton. In both connections his practice was large and lucrative. The latter lasted until his elevation to the Supreme Judicial Bench.
On May 11, 1852, Mr. Appleton received his appointment as Justice of the Supreme Judicial Court. The District Court had been abolished, and its business transferred to the higher judicatory, for which three additional justices, including Mr. Appleton, were provided. He was reappointed at the expiration of his term. On the 24th of October, 1862, he was selected to occupy the dignity of Chief Justice, made vacant by the retire- ment of Judge Tenney. He was reappointed in 1869, and again in 1876. Each term embraces seven years. The last terminated in September, 1883.
Judge Appleton is a tireless worker, and an adept in legal composition. The rules of evidence have engaged much of his time and attention. Many statutory alterations in the law of evidence and in other branches of legal jurisprudence have originated in his fertile and practical mind. His writings on the rules of evidence were published in the Jurist, and were afterward collected and given to the world in the shape of a Treatise on Evidence, issued at Philadelphia in 1860. This volume enjoys high reputation, and has had extensive circulation. In this volume will be found the arguments and discussions which led to the change in the law of evidence, by which parties to causes, both civil and criminal, are admitted to testify in their own behalf. It is to Chief Justice Appleton
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more than any one person that this radical change in the law of evidence-since adopted in nearly every State-is due.
Judge Appleton has been longer on the bench, has decided more cases, and written more opinions than any of his judicial contemporaries in Maine. Nor has the era of his usefulness come to a close. Vigorous in mind and body, in the legal sense of the Scriptural words he "brings forth fruit in old age, and is fat and flourishing." With polite literature he is intimate. With politics he has not busied himself. With the law he is wholly familiar, and has profitably devoted himself to its cultivation as the one great secular business of his life.
Judge Appleton has been married twice. His first wife, to whom he was united on the 6th of February, 1834, was Sarah N. Allen. She died on the 12th of August, 1874. His second wife was Annie V. Greeley, whom he married on the 30th of March, 1876. His eldest son was John F. Appleton, an influential lawyer in Bangor, and a gallant, patriotic officer in the army during the late war for the preservation of the Union. Gen- eral John F. Appleton died on the 12th of August, 1874.
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P
ETERS, JOHN A., LL.D., of Bangor, Chief Justice of the Supreme Judicial Court of Maine. Born in Ellsworth, Maine, October 9, 1822, he is the son of Andrew and Sally (Jordan) Peters of that place.
Prepared for college at the Gorham Academy, young Peters matric- ulated at Yale, and graduated therefrom in August, 1842. Selecting the profession of law, he pursued a thorough course of study at the Cambridge Law School, and was admitted to practice at the bar of Maine, in Ellsworth, August, 1844.
Thoroughly industrious in his habits, loving his chosen vocation, of keen, critical, and judicial judgment, possessed of wide and accurate legal knowledge, Mr. Peters cntered upon active duty with the advantages of complete preparation. His qualifications were quickly recognized and duly appreciated. Humorous, good-natured, and imperturbable, nothing obstructed or attempted to obstruct his pathway to success. Judges, juries, and the general public received him with gratifying kindness.
Public political positions rightfully seek the incumbency of such gentlemen as Mr. Peters. In 1862 and 1863 he was a member of the State Senate. In 1864 he served in the lower House of the Maine Legislature, and in 1864, '65, '66, filled satisfactorily the office of Attorney-General. All of these positions were grades in the upward path of offi- cial honors. In the Fourth Congressional District of Maine, which consists of Penobscot, Piscataquis, and Aroostook counties, he was deservedly very popular. In 1867 he was elected to the Fortieth Congress. In the National House of Representatives he served in Committee on Patents and Public Expenditures. Elected to the Forty-first Congress in 1869, and to the Forty-second in 1871, he served in both in the Committee upon the Judiciary, and also as chairman on the part of the House upon the Joint Committee of House and Senate on the Congressional Library.
Shortly after the close of his labors in the halls of National legislation, Mr. Peters was appointed to the vacant seat on the bench of the Supreme Judicial Court of Maine. This was in May, 1873. The Governor of the State made a judicious selection. The citizens of the commonwealth as well as the members of the bar gave to it their entire approval. Judicial service justified the applause with which its commencement was hailed. The con- stitutional term of seven years expired in May, 1880. Judge Peters had firmly established a most excellent reputation for urbanity and impartiality. His legal expositions of law and fact to the juries left little to be desired in point of clearness and comprehension. His opinions, so uniformly in concord with law and with the nature of things, carried great weight. His reappointment for another septennial term to the Supreme. Judicial Bench was even more fitting than the first, by reason of riper abilities and richer store of ex- perience.
Metropolitan Publishing & Engraving Co. Boston.
8. a. Peters.
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On the 29th of August, 1883, Judge Peters was appointed by Governor Frederick Robie to the office of Chief Justice. Colby University conferred the degree of LL.D., upon him in 1884.
Judge John A. Peters was married on the 2d of September, 1846, to Mary Ann, daughter of Hon. Joshua W. Hathaway of Bangor. She died in 1847. He was again married, September 23, 1857, to Fannie E., daughter of Hon. Amos M. Roberts of Bangor.
B ARROWS, WILLIAM GRISWOLD, for twenty-one years an Associate Justice of the Supreme Judicial Court, son of William and Mary P. (Fes- senden) Barrows, was born in North Yarmouth (now Yarmouth) January 12, 1821. His father, the second son of Deacon William Barrows, one of the early settlers of Hebron, Oxford County, graduated at Dartmouth Col- lege with honor in 1806, in the same class with Governor Albion K. Parris and General Samuel Fessenden of Maine, Matthew Harvey of New Hampshire, Judge Richard Fletcher of Massachusetts, and other men of note in their generation ; and after graduating, taught the academy, then newly established in his native town, for some years, and afterward pur- sued the study of law with Samuel A. Bradley of Fryeburg, and settled in its practice at North Yarmouth in 1813. He is spoken of in an address delivered before the Cumberland bar by James D. Hopkins, and published in 1833, as one whose short career " gave prom- ise of eminence in his profession, and whose early death (November 18, 1821) disappointed the high hopes of his friends and the community." Besides his infant son, he left three daughters of tender years, with whom his widow returned to Fryeburg, her native town, where she died in March, 1823. Their children were scattered and kindly cared for among their kindred. Mary Osgood, the eldest daughter, subsequently married Alexander R. Bradley (H. U. 1831), a lawyer in Fryeburg, and became the mother of a numerous family. Sarah Fessenden, the second daughter, was the wife of Dr. Thomas F. Perley (Bowdoin College, 1837), a physician of high repute and unquestioned skill and learning, who during the Rebellion was for a considerable period U. S. Medical Inspector-General, in which position his uncompromising hostility to all shams and pretences tended to make his ad- ministration of the office much more honorable and useful to the public, than popular with those whose greed and inefficiency he was prompt to expose. Nancy Perley, the youngest daughter, was for some time a beloved and respected teacher in Gorham Academy, thence marrying Rev. Franklin Yeaton (Bowdoin College, 1831). They died within a few weeks of each other in the fall of 1864, leaving an only son, Frank, who graduated at West Point in 1869, and went as a lieutenant to New Mexico, where, a few months later, he received,
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