USA > Maine > Biographical encyclopedia of Maine of the nineteenth century > Part 49
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Mr. Bradley opened an office at Fryeburg in the fall of 1803 or spring of 1804, for the practice of law. When the county of Oxford was organized in March, 1805, he was appointed Register of Probate. Aided by family connections, he soon secured a large business. Attending the courts of Oxford, York, and Cumberland counties, he acquired and held a respectable rank, in competition with the leading lawyers practising in them. In 1810 he resigned the post of Register of Probate.
Mr. Bradley in one particular was an ideal lawyer. He identified himself with his client, and entered into his case as if it were his own. He often helped to defray the costs of his client's suit. Thoroughly honorable, he never assumed the conduct of a cause that he did not belicve to be entirely just. Through his kindly sympathies and impulsive
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temperament he was, however, likely to be occasionally deceived. It is no injustice to him, nor any violation of the laws of probability, to conjecture that this sometimes oc- curred. With such rules of professional conduct, it is not to be marvelled at that he did not find the practice of law to be very lucrative. It was not wholly congenial to his tastes and preferences. There was much about its details that he did not like.
Politics were more interesting to him than legal affairs. Their principles and activities ranged over a vastly wider area. During the discussions on the Embargo Act, on the War of 1812, and in the debates on separation from Massachusetts he threw himself with entire abandon into the strife of parties. For five years-between 1813 and 1818-he was the Re- presentative of the citizens of Fryeburg in the General Court of Massachusetts. His part in the debates of the House was a very prominent one. He violently opposed the war with Great Britain, and the separation of Maine. He wrote and talked and pleaded on these matters with all the energy of a man thoroughly in earnest. As a speaker he was lengthy, minute, and used many facts and illustrations. Too prolix for real effectiveness, he presented his subject under every possible aspect. Fryeburg voted against separation in 1816, and he was sent as its delegate to the Brunswick Convention to oppose that measure. The singular mathematics of the majority of that convention, hy which they endeavored to demonstrate that separation had received a legal majority of votes, were indignantly repudiated by him. Renewed effort after the Brunswick fiasco was crowned with success. In the vote taken in July, 1819, no less than 17,091 votes were cast in favor of separation, against 7132 in opposition to it. This decisive majority settled the question. Nothing remained for dissidents to do except to adjust the laws and affairs of Maine to the new conditions. Mr. Bradley retired to private life, and thenceforward left politics to other men.
Removing to Portland about the year 1825, he speculated in timber lands, and in other affairs foreign to his profession. He made large purchases, gave personal attention to business, and acquired wealth. In that year occurred the centennial celebration of Lovewell's battle with the Indians at Pickwacket-now Fryeburg-in May, 1725. In that engagement the Indians lost their leader, Paugus. Lovewell also was killed, and only eight of his thirty-two men escaped with life. The Indians themselves were so discouraged that they abandoned that favorite resort of their tribe. Colonel Bradley, who was suffering from a broken leg, resting on his crutches, eloquently addressed the crowd, described the battle, and pointed out the places where the several incidents of the sanguinary encounter took place. He was one of the most prominent figures at this joyous festival, and had much to do with its projection and realization.
Tall, well-made, and admirably proportioned, Mr. Bradley was a handsome man, of easy and graceful address. In personal appearance he resembled Josiah Quincy. He never married. Severe bodily injuries and wasting sicknesses brought him near to death.
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Feeling the need of more kindly and considerate attention than he could receive at a boarding-house, he returned to Fryeburg in July, 1841, and died at the house of his brother Robert, on the 24th of September, 1844.
Samuel A. Bradley was a man of large, warm, and noble heart. The abundance of kindly feeling he possessed sought expression in profusion of words. Though prosy, he was attractive and amiable, and was one of the comparatively few whose memories are in- variably recalled with pleasure.
ITCOMB, SAMUEL, of Augusta, Maine. Born July 19, 1820, at Bel- grade, Maine. His father, Samuel Titcomb, was born at Kennebunk in 1756, was a surveyor by profession, removed to Hallowell in 1783, was appointed surveyor to the American Joint Commissioner charged with the duty of defining the boundary-linc between the State of Maine and the British Provinces in 1784. In this work he was engaged, together with John Harris, the surveyor appointed by the British Government, for about three years. After that he settled in Augusta, of which he was the second postmaster. In 1815 he removed to Belgrade, represented that town in the General Court of Massachusetts in 1819, and died Septem- ber 18, 1849, at the advanced age of ninety-three.
The common ancestor of this branch of the Titcomb family was William Titcomb, who emigrated from England and settled at Newbury, Massachusetts, in 1635. By his first wife, Joanna Bartlett, and his second wife, Eliza Stevens, he became the father of a family of fifteen children, composed of nine girls and six boys. Judge Titcomb is of the fifth generation in line of descent from him. Addicted to agriculture, and-in the learned professions-to the law and to the Christian ministry, the Titcombs are also remarkable for their longcvity, many of them having reached the tenth decade of human life.
The mother of Judge Titcomb bore the maiden name of Chloe Cummings, and was the daughter of Samuel Cummings of Dedham, Massachusetts.
The early education of young Titcomb was begun in the common-schools, continued at the Belgrade Academy, and completed at the Liberal Institute in Waterville, now the seat of Colby University. Selecting the profession of law, he entered upon the studies appropriate to it in the office of the Hon. Richard H. Vose of Augusta, was admitted to the bar in 1842, and at once commenced professional practice in Augusta, and was subse- quently admitted to practice in the District and Circuit Courts of the United States. From the date of his admission to the bar until the association of his son Lendall Tit- comb with himself in business relations, Judge Titcomb practised alone. Lendall Tit-
Samuel Detcomb
Metropolitan Riblishing &. Engraving Co Boston.
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comb graduated at Harvard College in 1871, then studied in the Harvard Law School, was admitted to the bar in 1872, and subsequently formed a copartnership with his father.
In public life Judge Titcomb has served as a member of the Common Council of Augusta, in the years 1851, '52, '53, '55, and '57; as a member of the Board of Aldermen in 1854; as City Solicitor for several ycars; and as Mayor in 1869 and 1870. In 1858 he was appointed Municipal Judge of Augusta by Joseph H. Williams, clccted to the same office in 1859, and continued to hold that office by virtue of successive re-elections until 1866. In 1867 and 1868 he represented the city of Augusta in the State Legislature ; and in the years 1872 and 1873 was also onc of two members representing that corporation in the same body. While thus identified with legislative service, he did effective work in the Committees on the Judiciary, Claims, Banking, and Legal Reform. Of the latter he served as chairman on the part of the lower House. Politically, he was affiliated with the Whigs until the organization of the Republican Party, with which he has since been accustomed to act. In financial affairs he has enacted an influential part as one of the trustees of the Augusta Savings Bank for more than twenty years. He has also acted as director of the Freeman's National Bank of Augusta, since its reorganization under the system of National banking. Prior to that event he held the same relation under the old State system. With military matters he is conversant; having held the office for one term of Division Advocate of the Second Division, with the rank of Major. To this he was appointed by Governor Hubbard.
Judge Titcomb was married on the 20th of February, 1845, to Miss Julia A., daugh- tcr of Artemus Kimball of Augusta. Two sons were the issue of their union. Of these, Everett was born March 28, 1846, and died May 9, 1856. Lendall, his present law-part- ner, was born March 14, 1848.
EAZIE, SAMUEL, of Veazie, Maine. Born at Portland, April 22, 1787. His father, John Veazie, came with his father, the Rev. Samuel Veazie, from Nantasket to Harpswell in 1767. His scholastic education was of rudi- mentary but serviceable character. Apprenticed to a baker, he served out his full term, but decided, when he had reached the estate of manhood, to adopt other means of acquiring wealth than the ordinarily slow ones connected with his trade. He therefore engaged himself as a seaman before the mast, for eight dollars a month, to parties in the trade with the West Indies. The genuine mercantile spirit showed itself in the very terms of his contract, which stipulated that in addition to his wages he should have certain rights for the conveyance of goods on the outward and also
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on the return voyage. These rights werc turned to so good an account, that by the end of a few years he had obtained funds sufficient to purchase a vessel for himself.
The property thus acquired steadily increased, until from one vessel of two or three hundred tons burthen it had become quite a mercantile fleet. His next additional venture was in the manufacture and sale of tobacco, cigars, etc. Removing to Topsham, from motives of convenience, he gradually augmented his stock in trade until he became the proprietor of a general country-store. Whatever he touched sprang at once into vigorous prosperity. His real character was apparent in his countenance and movements, which gave him favor in the eyes of the shrewdest observers. An illustration of this was afforded by his first experience as a purchaser in Boston. Taking with him a quantity of oars for sale, he was mischievously recommended to a prominent dry-goods merchant as a probable customer. Proceeding to the store of this gentleman, Mr. Veazie made his proposals. Another customer was quickly found for the oars, the merchant sold him all he wished from his own stock, and introduced him to other traders. Veazie returned home with a . capital assortment of goods, an enviable credit, and the reputation of being the most suc- cessful buyer among his companions.
Business extended in every direction. Navigation and ship-building were permanent departments of it. Lumbering was next added. Acquiring the ownership of the Andros- coggin Boom, he managed that with his wonted deftness and success. Freighting his own vessels with his own lumber, he despatched them to the West Indies, where he always found a remunerative market and a sufficiency of return cargo. His self-command, fertility of expedient, and rapidity of execution enabled him to outwit some of the British authorities in the War of 1812. One of his vessels was driven by stormy weather to seck refuge in a harbor on the Bay of Fundy. There it was detained as a lawful prize by the military officers. Mr. Veazie repaired to headquarters, received orders for the release of his vessel. delivered them himself with all possible specd, and had his craft well under way out of the harbor before countermanding orders could reach the local officials. No man better understood the value of speed, being first on hand, and having the first interview. His was the speed of the hare and the purpose of the tortoise.
Mr. Veazie was even then a citizen of unusual public spirit. Society, politics, rc- ligion, the moral and material development of Topsham, engrossed a duly proportional share of his time and attention. His agents and employés uniformly received the most kind and considerate justice. In the second War of Independence, that of 1812, he was utterly loyal to his own Government, served in the militia, and rose from the rank of Ensign to that of General.
"Cribbed, cabined, and confined " by the comparatively narrow limits of Topsham and vicinity, his restless energies sought wider scope. In 1826 he bought the Jackson Davis Mills and appurtenances at Oldtown, on the Penobscot River. This primary purchase was
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followed by others, until he became sole proprietor of all the establishments on the west side of the river at that point. The lumbering interest was the chief industry of the place. The mills were repeatedly injured or consumed by fire, but were as repeatedly and as thoroughly restored. The prosperity of Oldtown Falls was preserved intact so long as he lived.
General Veazie was as just and resolute as he was enterprising. The privileges of the Williams Mill were put on the market while he was securing the title of his first invest- ment. He was one of the bidders, and Wadleigh, another owner of the shore, and to whom the marketed property was equally valuable, was another. The latter bid as high as $30,000, and stopped there. Veazie outbid him, and through a trick of the auctioneer, kept on bidding until the property was declared to be his at $40,000. Craft chuckled in its sleeve, but reckoned without its astute host. Veazie discovered the fraud, and stiffly refused to pay more than his first bid after Wadleigh's last. A lawsuit followed at Augusta. The judge stated that the decision must be in General Veazie's favor, unless it could be proven that the auctioneer had been authorized to make the bids as he had done. A functionary so unscrupulous could scarcely be trusted to tell the truth. The litigants understood this. Both hurried to Bangor, where he resided, and reached it at the same time. Veazie, however, knew where he lived, and the plaintiff did not. He therefore had the first interview. The auctioneer affirmed that he had not been authorized. This settled the matter. The General won his case.
In 1832 General Veazie changed his domicile from Topsham to Bangor, and there built his house. His next-door neighbor, building on higher ground, bade fair to overtop him. This could not be tolerated. In no sense would General Veazie be inferior to any- body. He therefore added a third story to his residence, and rose superior to his neigh- bor. In Bangor his prosperity continually grew. He gradually acquired the proprietary of the entire Penobscot Boom and its charter, and with them corresponding continuous influx of wealth. He was sole member of the corporation ; convened its meetings in his own home; elected himself president, clerk, and director ; and regularly went through all the business of legally associate life. Affairs were seriously debated, but were invariably decided by unanimous vote. In time he became the largest owner of saw-mills in the State. Of these he had nineteen at Oldtown Falls, twenty at North Bangor, and thirteen at Orono-fifty-two in all. The score at North Bangor he gave to John W. Veazie, his son ; the remainder he held to the date of his death.
Next, in the development of business life, General Veazie became interested in rail- roads. One of the first constructed in the United States was that from Bangor to Old- town. It ran across his land to the Penobscot at the latter place, and gave occasion for a lawsuit, which resulted in a verdict of $17,000 damages to himself. Additional suits fol- lowed. In the outcome both the road and its charter were bought by him, became one of
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his most luerative investments, and were managed by him so long as he lived. He also bore an efficient part in the extension of the railroad up the Penobseot Valley, built a bridge, at his own eost, over the river, at the head of the falls, and had the satisfaction of seeing the railroad ears run to Milford. Beyond that point insuperable difficultics would not allow it to extend. The European and North American Railroad was shortly after- ward construeted along the bank of the river from Bangor, and his road and franchise were added to it by purchase from his heirs.
General Veazie's forte was that of a business man. As such he had few equals and still fewer superiors. In polities he was not speeially qualified to shine. He lacked both the ambition and the characteristics of the ordinary politician. When politics sought him, he served as a member of the Governor's Council for a single term. He also offieiatcd for two years as an alderman of the city. His single candidacy for Congress was unsueccss- ful. In finaneial matters he was an adept. As chief stockholder of the old Bank of Bangor, he was also its president, and well-nigh its only manager. When its eharter was . renewed, it was under the title of the Veazie Bank. The change of name was suggested by the Bank Committee. The bank itself remained unchanged, and was one of the sound- est and most stable in those days of uneertain and in some eases unexchangeable State- bank cireulation. Holders of its notes always felt themselves to be safe against rejection. The town of Ellsworth, crippled by the failure of its two banking institutions, was rclicved by the establishment of a branch of General Veazie's bank within its limits. This branch remained there until the substitution of the National for the State system of banking.
When the Great Rebellion broke out, and specie of all descriptions vanished from eirculation, General Veazie came to the relief of the ineommoded publie by the issuance of $70,000 in serip, in denominations of ten, twenty-five, and fifty eents. This was uni- versally received, and afforded great relief until the National Government issued its own fractional eurreney. Some of the Veazie scrip is still held as a memento of the war. When presented at the bank, it is always redeemed. General Veazie never took out a eharter for his institution under the National Bank Aet. He claimed the right to issuc State-bank notes as eurreney. This the Government did not deny, but insisted on the payment of a tax of ten per eent on the eireulation. He refused to pay. Other State banks joined him in testing the constitutionality of the aet. Reverdy Johnson and Calcb Cushing exerted themselves to the uttermost as their counsel. His bank was made the test case. The decision of the Supreme Court of the United States affirmed the constitu- tionality of the law, and the legality of exaeting the tax. Thereupon rcsistanee to the de- mand, and also State-bank cireulation, ceascd throughout the country.
General Veazie's bank was deservedly popular. The demand for its note-issues was so pressing, that he put more of them into eirculation than the letter of the law allowed. When ealled to account for this, he acknowledged and excused the faet, and was dismisscd
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with a caution, to which he paid so much respect as its intrinsic value, in his opinion, re- quired. Another of the peculiarities of the State-bank system was extremely objection- able to him. This was known as the Suffolk Bank "plan of redemption," which demanded all banks to hold sufficient money for the payment of bills as presented at their desks. He regarded this as unjust, and stoutly declined compliance. The result was a run upon him for the purpose of enforcing it. But the genius of the old veteran was equal to the con- flict. He procured the passage of a law by the Legislature, allowing banks a specified time within which to pay their bills, and availed himself of the privilege conferred by the act. He "carried the war into Africa." Acknowledging the requisitions of the Suffolk Bank, he obtained checks on that establishment, presented them for payment in specie, and with the specie paid his own bank-notes. This device compelled the Suffolk Bank to hold his notes for the time legally specified, and then to provide the specie for their liquidation. In this skilful warfare he had the entire sympathy of many other banking corporations.
For litigation he had unusual aptitude. Never plunging into it for the sake of the excitement it affords, he never shrank from it in vindication of his own rights or of those of the public. The State had granted W. B. S. Moor & Bro. the exclusive right of navigating the Penobscot above Oldtown by steam. General Veazie deemed the privilege an illegal one. To test the question, he built a steamer, and put it in opposition on the river. A lawsuit to determine the constitutionality of the exclusive statute was begun, carried through the courts of Maine to Washington, and there argued in session of the full U. S. Supreme Court. The decision in this case was against the contestor. The court decided that the act was constitutional, and that the State has exclusive jurisdiction over its internal navigable waters. General. Veazie again extracted profit out of loss, by taking his steamboat to pieces, sending it to California, reconstructing it at Sacramento, and then run- ning it to great pecuniary advantage. In one of his most memorable litigations-that with Wadleigh, about certain mill-privileges at Oldtown-Jeremiah Mason was his counsellor and Daniel Webster the counsellor of his opponent. It bade fair to be interminable, was never decided, and was ultimately settled by Veazie's purchase of all Wadleigh's interest in the shore and falls. Numerous other suits with the mill-owner below him on the river, suits that had dragged along for many years, were eventually settled by his heirs in the same judicious manner. Though litigious he was not implacable, and was ever ready to accept any offer that in his judgment had the spirit and character of justice and equity.
In 1853 a part of the territory of Bangor was incorporated as the town of Veazie. In 1854 the General moved his residence into it. Building a new mansion there, and putting his personal property on the tax-lists of the new town, he became a prominent citizen. In other respects his business relations were unchanged. He died intestate, at Bangor, where he lived in winter, on March 12, 1868, when nearly eighty-one years of age.
Samuel Veazie was twice married : first to Susanna Walker of Topsham, on the 3d
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of July, 1809. By her he was the father of five children, of whom three survived their mother, viz., Jones P. Veazie, who married Mary J. Winslow, and who died February 16, 1875 ; John W. Veazie, who married Ruth M. Bartlett, and who still survives ; Frances A. H. Veazie, who married Nathaniel Lord, and who died April 21, 1866. Mrs. Veazie died on the 27th of June, 1852. On the 17th of May, 1859, General Veazie mar- ried Mrs. Mary C. Blanchard, who outlives her husband.
ADLOCK, HARVEY DEMING, Lawyer, of Portland, was born at Cran- berry Isles, Hancock County, Maine, on the 7th day of October. 1845.
There are two Cranberry Islands, the Big and Little, which, lying to the south and east of Mount Desert, form the town of Cranberry Isles. Almost -
all of the " Little Cranberry Island" came into the Hadlock family through Samuel Hadlock, the grandfather of Harvey D. He was born in Massachusetts in July, 1771 ; and in the early part of the present century, acquiring by purchase the ownership of most of "Little Cranberry Island," settled there, and engaged in shipping and mer- chandise, in which business he accumulated a fortune, and died at that place in November, 1854. The business so successfully founded by Samuel Hadlock is to-day continued by two of his grandsons, under the name of W. E. & G. Hadlock, brothers of the subject of our sketch.
The father of our subject, Captain Edwin Hadlock, was born at Cranberry Isle, Janu- ary 17, 1814, and followed a seafaring life until 1853, when he retired. He married Mary Ann, daughter of John and Mary Stanwood, by whom he had a family, consisting of three sons, Harvey D. being the youngest. The Stanwood family came from Connecticut to Maine, purchased large tracts of timber-land at Mount Desert, and were engaged in the milling business.
Captain Hadlock, father of our subject, died at Cranberry Isles, September 15, 1875.
The education of Harvcy D. Hadlock up to the year 1856 was such as could be obtained under private instruction at home and in the schools of his native place. His parents then moved to Bucksport, Maine, so that he could there enjoy the educational advantages afforded by the East Maine Conference Seminary at that placc, in which institution and under private instructors he pursued an advanced course of classical study, which he supplemented with a partial scientific course at Dartmouth College.
Electing to follow the legal profession, he commenced his studies in September, 1863, in the office of Hon. Samuel F. Humphrey at Bangor; and after pursuing the requisite course of study and having passed the required examination, he was in that city, on the 6th day
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