USA > Maine > Biographical encyclopedia of Maine of the nineteenth century > Part 39
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Prentiss Mellen was not exclusively a lawyer. His services were demanded and granted in the domain of politics. In 1808, 1809, and 1817 he was elected to the Execu- tive Council of Massachusetts. In 1817 he was Elector-at-Large of the President of the United States. In 1817 he was sent to the U. S. Senate as one of the representatives of Massachusetts, with Harrison Gray Otis as his colleague. This position he retained until 1820, when Maine was organized as a separate State. In July of that year he was ap- pointed Chief Justice of its Supreme Judicial Court. In the same year he also received the honorary distinction of Doctor of Laws from the colleges of Harvard and Bowdoin.
Chief Justice Mellen continued to discharge his highly responsible duties, with singular ability and fidelity, until October, 1834. Then, having reached the age of seventy, he was constitutionally disqualified for further service. "On the bench his thorough knowledge of practice, his familiarity with decided cases, and his quick perception of the points and merits of a case, were peculiarly valuable at a time when the new State was forming its system of jurisprudence and establishing rules for its future government." His industry and ability are apparent in the contents of the first eleven volumes of the Maine Reports. Of the sixty-nine cases reported in the first volume, edited by the accomplished Greenleaf, the opinions in fifty are those set forth by the Chief Justice. He drew seventy-four out
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of the eighty-four contained in the second volume. "Nor were those decisions," says Willis, "of a light or hasty kind; many of them involve points of the highest importance, requiring profound study, nice discrimination, and keen analysis." The Maine Reports at that period were cited in other States with great respect. "Never were stricter in- tegrity, nor a more earnest desire to render exact justice in every case, carried to the bench ; and no judge ever performed his duties more conscientiously." If he had any fault, it was that of impatience with the unwillingness of prolix advocates to credit the court with a knowledge of the elementary principles of law ; or with pertinacious witnesses, who insisted on telling all their experience before coming to the point in question. Like Fuller's "good judge," he nipped those lawyers who, "under a pretence of kindness to lend a witness some words, give him new matter, yea, clean contrary to what he intended."
The Cumberland bar profoundly regretted his enforced retirement from the bench, and expressed through the instrumentality of a letter its high appreciation of his personal and judicial merits. To this tribute of respectful affection he responded with profound and touching sensibility.
Judge Mellen was appointed, in 1838, by the Governor of Maine to the chairmanship of a committee charged with the revision and codification of the public statutes of the State. These consisted of nearly a thousand chapters, and contained various and sometimes in- consistent provisions. Samuel E. Smith and Ebenezer Everett were his colleagues. Their report was submitted on the Ist of January, 1840, and embraced the whole body of public statutory law in one hundred and seventy-eight chapters, under twelve titles. The work was adopted by the Legislature, and constituted the first volume of the Revised Statutes. This was his last public service.
A remark made in his last sickness was believed by those who knew him best to ex- press the perfect truth. It was, " I have always endeavored to do what I believed to be right."
Deeply religious, devoutly attendant upon public worship, faithful and conscientious in the performance of every duty, and true in every relation of life; of cheerful and gay temperament, overflowing with wit and anecdote, social and benevolent-he was a welcome guest in every company, and one of the brightest ornaments of the society in which he lived. Possessed of vivid imagination and nice literary taste, he himself cultivated a soi- disant acquaintance with the muses. Poetry, or rather rhyming, was the sport of leisure hours to the very evening of his life. One brilliant jeu d'esprit, addressed in 1801 to Daniel Sewall, together with that gentleman's reply, was published in the Portsmouth Advertiser on the 17th of October, 1801.
Judge Mellen met death with all the composure that might have been expected from one of his sincere faith and firm religious principles. Perfectly submissive to the Divine will, he was wishful to depart, and yet content to stay. When the silver cord was at last
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loosed, and the golden bowl broken at the cistern, his spirit triumphantly ascended to its celestial home. The Cumberland bar erected a solid and beautiful marble monument, suit- ably inscribed, to his memory. His mortal remains await in the Portland Cemetery the final summons to the Great Assize.
Prentiss Mellen was married in May, 1795, to Sally, daughter of Barzillai Hudson of Hartford, Connecticut, whose musical talents attracted his attention while he was prac- tising law in Bridgewater. Amiable, accomplished, and hospitable, she bore him six chil- dren while they were residents of Biddeford. Two daughters survived their parents. Grenville, the eldest son, graduated at Harvard in 1818, was a lawyer, but better known as a literary man. He died in 1841. Frederick, another son, graduated at Bowdoin, pre- pared for the practice of law, devoted himself to the art of painting, and died in 1834.
R AND, JOHN, Lawyer, of Portland, Maine. Born in Newburyport, Massa- chusetts, in 1811. His father, John Rand, was a merchant of Newbury- port, and a native of Massachusetts. His grandfather, Edward Mather Rand, was also a merchant in the same town. The mother of John Rand, Jr., bore the maiden name of Mehetabel Smith, was born in Massachusetts, and was an excellent woman.
Subsequent to the removal of the family to Portland, young Rand prepared for col- lege in the public academy. In 1827 he matriculated at Bowdoin, and graduated from that excellent institution in 1831, with the diploma of A.B. The degree of A.M. he re- ceived in due course. After leaving college he commenced the study of law in the office of Professor Simon Greenleaf. From thence he repaired to the Harvard Law School, and prosecuted his researches into the nature, character, and application of law, under the tuition of the famous Judge Story.
Admitted to the bar in 1835, Mr. Rand began the practice of the law, in which he has attained such eminence, at Portland, in the same year. After that date he prosecuted the duties of his profession, without the aid of any colleague, until 1862, in the April term of which year he associated his son Edward M. Rand in business relations with himself. Life has been exclusively legal with Mr. Rand. In politics, as partisan or candidate, he has taken no part, although always diligent to acquit himself as an intelligent and patriotic citizen at the polls. With financial affairs and with the direction of banking institutions he is intimately conversant. With railroads, and with the statutes pertinent to those great highways of travel and commerce, he is perfectly familiar, both as director and as legal adviser. Since 1871 he has been solicitor of the Grand Trunk Railway of Canada.
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Mr. Rand was married in 1838 to Miss Caroline D. Doane of New Orleans, a family consanguineous with that of the Doanes of Boston, Massachusetts. Four children, of whom three-namely, Edward M., George D., and John M .- are living, were the fruit of their marriage.
EERING, NATHANIEL, of Portland, Maine. Born in Portland, June 25, 1791. He was a descendant of the eighth generation from George Deering, one of the twenty thousand Englishmen from whom the greater number of New England families derive their origin, who emigrated to America soon after its first colonization, and who resided in 1635 at Black Point, now called. Scarborough, Maine. His son Roger died in 1676, leaving a son, Clement, who married Jane Bray, an aunt of Sir William Pepperell ,and died in 1701 Their son John, born June 17, 1680, married Temperance Fernald, and was followed in the line of descent by his son John, born July 16, 1710, who married Anne Dunn. Natha- niel, one of the issue of this marriage, born January 29, 1737, at Kittery, was united in wedlock with Dorcas, daughter of Deacon James Milk. Removing from Kittery to Port- land in 1760, he established himself in business at the latter place as a boat and ship builder. He was the principal promoter in 1793, of the construction of Long Wharf, which was extended from his ship-yard. He also became a successful merchant and large land-holder, laying the foundation of what are now designated the Deering and Preble estates.
Nathaniel Deering died in 1795. Of his two children, one, named Mary, married Commodore Edward Preble ; the other, James, was born on the 23d of August, 1766, and succeeded his father in the mercantile business. In 1789 he married Almira, daughter of Enoch Ilsley, a prominent and influential citizen, who was selectman and town treasurer for fifteen years. James Deering died, universally respected, on the 21st of September, 1850. His excellent wife survived him for a few years.
These were the parents of Nathaniel Deering, second of that name, who at the time of his death was the last survivor of a large family of brothers and sisters, the youngest of whom was the wife of William Pitt Fessenden. In early boyhood Nathaniel Deering attended the private school of Mr. Patten. From thence he was sent to Phillips Exeter Academy, and received the proper qualifications for collegiate matriculation, under the tuition of Benjamin Abbott, the celebrated preceptor. Entering Harvard College, he passed through the usual curriculum, and graduated from thence in 1810, with the standing of fourteenth in a class of sixty-three.
After leaving college Mr. Deering entertained the thought of pursuing the same vocation as that of his father and grandfather, namely, that of a merchant. He therefore
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entered the counting-house of Captain Asa Clapp, but remained there only a short time. The profession of law held out greater inducements, and was more congenial to tempera- ment and mental habit. He therefore studied law in the office and under the direction of Judge Ezekiel Whitman, and was duly admitted to the bar in 1815. He began legal practice in that part of the town of Canaan now denominated Skowhegan. While resi- dent there, and before his marriage, Mrs. Lydia Maria Childs wrote the following pleasant epigram, which indicates her estimate of its subject :
" Whoever weds the young lawyer at C., Will surely have prospects most cheering; For what must his person and intellect be, When even his name is N. Deering."
In October, 1824, he married Anna M., daughter of Major John Z. Holwell of the British Army, whose great-grandfather, J. Z. Holwell, commanded the garrison of Fort William, Calcutta, at its surrender on the 20th of June, 1756, and who, with twenty-two other persons, came alive out of that terrible imprisonment in the Black Hole, which proved so horribly fatal to one hundred and twenty-two of their comrades.
Mr. Deering returned to Portland in 1836, and continued to reside there until the summer of 1878, when he removed to the paternal homestead, which embraces about two hundred acres, is within one mile from the City Hall, and is nearly surrounded by dense settlements. It presents the appearance of a broad and beautiful park, enriched by large. numbers of gigantic oaks, both of the white and red varieties, ornamental elms, and prolific fruit-trees, and is adorned by elegant buildings and tasteful grounds. Interesting stories of Indian warfare and of early colonial experiences cluster around the place, and give zest to the appreciation, which even an ordinary observer entertains, for the marvellous natural beauty of the country, and still more for the island-studded Casco Bay-so like, in many particulars, to the Sea of Marmora and the maritime vicinity of Constantinople.
All these scenes of natural grandeur and beauty necessarily developed the poetic temperament of Nathaniel Deering, tinctured as it was by the classic culture of Harvard, and evoked the outpouring of thought and feeling in literature and song. For some time he edited a political paper, named the Independent Statesman, which was first published in Portland, about the year 1822, in the interests of Henry Clay for the Presidency, and of General Wingate for the Governor's chair. Literature proved to be more congenial than law, and the latter was gradually forsaken for the former. In 1830 he wrote "Carabasset ; or, The Last of the Norridgewocks," and dedicated the play to his old and respected pre- ceptor, Mr. Abbott. It is a tragedy, in five acts, founded upon the death of Father Rassle, who for forty years was the Jesuit missionary to the Norridgewocks. A few years later he wrote "The Clairvoyant," a comedy, which was repeatedly represented on the stage,
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both at Portland and in Boston. His tragedy of " Bozzaris," in five acts, written and pub- lished in 1851, is the most carefully composed and finished of all his productions. "The Donation Visit," "Timotheus Tuttle," "Tableaux Vivants," and " Mrs. Sykes" are among the most widely known of his brief stories.
His brilliant wit, sparkling repartees, and striking bon-mots will long be remembered in the chief city of Maine. His native humor was ebullient in numerous ballads, political songs, sonnets, and epigrams, published from time to time in the periodicals of the day. Some of these, and in particular the comico-tragical ballad of "The Wreck of the Two Polleys," are still preserved in the memories and scrap-books of his later contemporaries. The most memorable of his odes has unfortunately perished. It was composed for and was also sung by him at a public dinner, given by the citizens of the town to the surviving officers of the Enterprise, after her capture of the British vessel Boxer, in 1813. The bat- tle between the two ships was his theme. His audience was sympathetic and appreciative, bestowed on him the most liberal and lively applause, and compelled him to repeat it. He was then only twenty-two years of age, and diffident in the extreme. He refused to furnish a copy for publication. More fortunate was the toast he proposed on that occasion : "The brave who fell in the late action : they have given to their country dignity and lustre, and to themselves an imperishable name."
Mr. Deering was also a composer of church music. Some of his compositions are familiar to students of choir melodies.
Signs of failing health admonished Mr. Deering that the end was nigh, even before he removed to the ancestral homestead, just outside the city limits. But the familiar haunts of childhood seemed to revive his vigor of body and mind. The recuperation, in the nature of things, was only temporary ; and he died on the 25th of March, 1881, at the patriarchal age of eighty-nine years and nine months. Nine children were the issue of Nathaniel Deering's marriage with Anna M. Holwell, who still survives him. Four of them were sons, of whom Henry is the sole survivor. He is now the head of the family, and its only male representative. Resident on the old homestead, amid his ancestral oaks, he is actively interested in the New England Historical and Genealogical Society and Maine Historical Society, of which he is a member. Of the three surviving daughters, one always remained at home with her parents, and is unmarried; another is Mrs. A. H. Gilman; and the third, Mrs. George F. Noyes, is a widow. There are also six grand- children.
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OW, FREDERICK NEAL, was born in Portland, Maine, December 23, 1840. He is the son of General Neal Dow and Maria C. D. (Maynard) Dow. His maternal grandfather was John Maynard of Boston, who was a lineal descendant of Sergeant John Maynard, famous in English history.
He was educated in the Portland Academy, the Portland High School, and the Friends School in Providence, Rhode Island.
During these early years of his life the radicalism which he had inherited from both lines of ancestry found expressions in numerous contributions to the Antislavery and Temperance discussions in the public press ; in participation in the debates, upon those and kindred topics, in the Lyceum; and in active practical efforts for the advancement of those causes.
In 1857 his father visited England, in aid of the Temperance cause there ; and Frederick was called from school, and obliged to abandon all hopes of a collegiate course to fit himself for the charge of the family business, which his honored grandfather, then at the age of ninety years, was about relinquishing, and to which his renowned father, owing to his philanthropic devotion to the cause of Temperance, could thereafter devote but little attention.
He accordingly learned the tanner's trade, and upon attaining his majority became a partner, and assumed entire charge, of the business of Josiah Dow & Son, then the oldest firm in the city of Portland. In this occupation he continued until 1873, when his health became so much impaired by overwork that he was compelled to retire from business ; and the firm of Josiah Dow & Son, which for more than forty-eight years had carried on the business of tanning and currying,-during all that time meeting every obligation at maturity,-closed up its affairs ; and the business, which had for more than eighty years been carried on in his family successfully by three generations, was relinquished.
At the outbreak of the war in 1861, being then in his minority, he volunteered in the first company of militia (of which he was then an honorary member) which offered its services to the State of Maine. But his father, convinced that his health was not suffi- cient to endure the hardships of a soldier's life, strongly objected to this step, decided to enter the army himself, and, accepting the colonelcy of the Thirteenth Maine Regiment, rendered it impracticable for Frederick to leave home.
Almost before his majority he had become actively interested in political matters, in exemplification of his belief that all good citizens should give attention to the affairs of the Government ; and in 1867 he was chosen a member of the city government of Port- land, and was re-elected in 1868. In the same year he was elected a member of the Super- intending School Committee, on which board he served until 1873, when he declined a
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re-election, owing to the press of his private business. In 1871 he was appointed by Governor Perham as aide-de-camp on his staff, with the rank of colonel. In 1872 he was elected a member of the Executive Council of Maine. In this position he acquired prominence and influence in the councils of the State, and of the Republican Party to which he belonged. He was re-elected to the Executive Council in 1873 and again in 1874, in which latter year he was chairman of that body. During his service in the Executive Council, among other matters he actively interested himself in securing modifi- cations of the methods pursued at the Reform School, and to his efforts as much as to any other agency is to be attributed the abandonment of the cell and penal system which then existed in that institution. In 1874 he was nominated for the State Senate by the Republicans of Cumberland County, but, owing to factional difficulties in the party, failed of an election. In 1876 he was appointed by Governor Dingley as one of the commis- sioners from Maine to the Centennial Exhibition at Philadelphia. In the same year he was chosen a member of the Republican State Committee, a position to which he was annually re-elected up to and including the year 1882. On the retirement of Hon. James G. Blaine from the chairmanship of this committee, Colonel Dow was made chairman of its Executive Committee, and, upon the retirement of Senator Frye, chairman of the General Committee. In the conduct of the political campaigns in Maine, and especially in that of 1882, he applied himself to the duties of this position with an intuitive percep- tion of the popular feeling, prompt recognition of the best methods in politics, and a marvellous aptitude for organization and management of details which commanded the attention of all the public men of the State.
Colonel Dow had now achieved an honorable and influential position in the politics of Maine. He had become known as a man of strong convictions and progressive views on all public questions. In the department of business he was known to have a ready grasp of business propositions, with the power of prompt decision and efficient action. His integrity of character in all the relations of life had won the confidence of the community. When, therefore, upon the death of ex-Senator Lot M. Morrill, a vacancy occurred in the Collectorship of the Portland Custom-house, the citizens of Portland, with unprecedented unanimity and without regard to party, recognized Colonel Dow as one eminently qualified and entitled to succeed to that office. This movement on the part of the people was warmly seconded by almost the entire political influence of the State. He was accordingly appointed by President Arthur, and on the 9th day of February, 1883, entered upon the discharge of his duties as Collector of the Port of Portland, which position he now holds.
This is the most responsible and lucrative Federal office in the State of Maine, and, in the extent of some departments of its customs business is second only to that of New York, and is outranked in general importance by only six custom-houses in the country. In view of the unanimity with which his appointment was urged, it was a compliment of
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no ordinary character, as a recognition of Colonel Dow's ability and influence. Shortly after his accession to this position he retired from the Republican State Committee, of which he was chairman.
October 22, 1864, he married Julia D., daughter of William Hammond, who was the son of Thomas Hammond, both of whom were prominent and well-known merchants in Portland.
They have two children : William, born December 25, 1866, and Marion, born August 24, 1870.
In social life Colonel Dow is dignified in manner, but uniformly affable and courteous. A highly retentive memory for historical facts, and wide and accurate information in regard to public men and affairs, combined with a lively sense of humor and ready wit, render him a highly entertaining conversationist and agreeable companion. He is ready and forcible as a public speaker, his style being argumentative rather than imaginative. In his religious life he has been identified with the Orthodox Congregational Church ; but his religious views are broad, practical, and charitable, and, while holding personally to the leading doctrines of that denomination, is inclined to the belief that religion is more a matter of heart and life than of dogmas, and that these latter differ more in terms and definitions than in essential truths.
ILMAN, JOHN TAYLOR, M.D., of Portland, was born in Exeter, New Hampshire, May 9, 1806. The emigrant ancestor of the Gilman family in this country was one Edward Gilman, who came from Hingham, Norfolk, England, in the ship Diligent, which landed at Boston, August 10, 1638. He located at Hingham, Massachusetts, where he remained up to 1641, when with others he received a grant of land some eight miles square from the Plymouth Colony. It was situated near the borders of Rhode Island, and was called at that time Seekonk, and now known as Rehoboth. In 1647 we find him at Ipswich, where he re- mained only a short time, and then removed to Exeter, New Hampshire, whither he had been preceded by his sons, who had established themselves in business in that place. He died here in 1681. His son Hon. John Gilman, who was extensively engaged in lumber and milling business, rose to a prominent position, and held various offices of trust and honor. In 1674 the town of Exeter gave him important grants of land; and in 1680, when New Hampshire was separated from Massachusetts, he was appointed councillor, and served as such for three years. He became a member of the House of Representatives, and was Speaker of that body in 1693. He died in Exeter in 1708, at the advanced age of eighty-
John Taylor Gilman.
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four. Among his great-grandchildren was Nicholas Gilman, who was the grandfather of Dr. John Taylor Gilman. Nicholas Gilman was born October 21, 1731, and was married to Ann, a daughter of Rev. John Taylor of Milton ; her mother was Elizabeth, daughter of Rev. Nathaniel Rogers, a descendant of the Plymouth Pilgrims. His services in public life were of the greatest value, and rendered at a critical time in the history of the country. From 1775 to 1782 he was Treasurer of the State of New Hampshire, and the judgment displayed by him in the management of the finances of the State was invaluable. He was Continental Loan Officer, one of the chief members of the Committee of Safety, and Coun- cillor of the State from 1777 to the time of his death, April 7, 1783. He had three sons, John Taylor, Nicholas, and Nathaniel, who inherited as it were an aptitude for pub- lic affairs. John Taylor, the namesake of our subject, was born in 1754. He was a volunteer in the Revolutionary Army ; a delegate from New Hampshire to the Hartford Convention in 1780; a delegate to the Continental Congress in 1782,'83 ; and in the latter year succeeded his father as Treasurer of the State of New Hampshire. He resigned this office in order to act for the State as a commissioner in the settlement of some of its accounts, and upon the completion of this duty was re-elected to the office in 1791. From 1794 to 1805, and also from 1813 to 1815, he was the honored Chief Magistrate of New Hampshire. During his gubernatorial term the celebrated Hartford Convention of 1814 was held. Governor Gilman declined to send delegates to the convention, or to con- sult his council, or convoke the Legislature. His private opinions were opposed to war ; but when it was brought about, he marked out and pursued his course faithfully to the end. In 1815 he steadfastly declined a re-election and retired from public life, honored by all for his sterling qualities. Nicholas Gilman, the second son, as mentioned above, was born August 3, 1755. He was a delegate to the Continental Congress from 1786 to 1788, a member of the Convention that framed the Constitution, and thus became one of its signers. After the adoption of the same, he was elected a Representative to Congress, where he served from 1789 to 1797. From 1805 to 1814 he was a Senator in Congress from his native State. He died May 2, 1814.
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