USA > Maine > Biographical encyclopedia of Maine of the nineteenth century > Part 53
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In all the relations of life he illustrated the same excellent traits of character. In a business career extending over nearly half a century, and involving transactions whose aggregate money value amounted to hundreds of millions of dollars, the same methods of honorable and magnanimous dealing were invariably exemplified. The Coburns were as kecnly alive to relative values and firm-interests as any other men ; but shrewdness was not the quality on which they relied for success. The secret of their success was to be found in thorough, minute, and comprehensive knowledge of business ; in the rare judgment dis- played in buying or selling at the best time ; and in the cool tenacity with which they held property when others yielded to panic fear, or were driven in defeat from the field. Yct it was no part of their policy to acquire wealth by means of the poverty and ruin of neighbors. They never figured in hostile rivalry to other men. On the contrary, prudent counsels and timely aid were often extended to rescue an imperilled firm from failure and wreck. In this way the friendship of business men and the confidence of the public were firmly secured, and converted into positive and powerful elements of brilliant success.
Rounded, complete, and forceful as Mr. Coburn's character in private life undoubtedly was, it was not less so in his relations to public affairs. Dceply interested in everything per- taining to the welfare of his country and of humanity, he was repeatedly chosen to represent his county in the Senate of the State, There also hc displayed the same rich combination
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of energy, skill, and prudence so conspicuous in the administration of private concerns. To his exertions was due, in no small measure, the election of the late William Pitt Fessen- den to the Senate of the United States. Other excellent candidates had enthusiastic sup- porters, but the public and private virtues and unrivalled abilities of Mr. Fessenden en- titled him to that eminently august and responsible position. The soundness of Mr. Coburn's judgment in that memorable contest was subsequently vindicated by Fessenden's splendid National services, and the acquisition of a fame that will endure as long as the Republic itself shall last.
In other spheres of activity Mr. Coburn was an able and gencrous supporter of every good cause. No worthy enterprise, whether secular or religious, in the northern part of Maine was permitted to languish for want of his sympathy, or to suffer from lack of liberal aid. Nor were his benefactions confined to this section alone, but were as far-reaching as all the undertakings initiated by the great and good men of the age for the intellectual and moral improvement of the race.
In private life Mr. Coburn was a man of stainless character, and united in himself many of the sterner virtucs of the old Puritans, of whom he was a worthy descendant and representative. But there was nothing austere or harsh in his nature. He was one of the most genial and agreeable of men. The rugged strength of his virtues was most apparent in the presence of great temptations. In the ordinary intercourse of life he was frce, frank, and very companionable. Possessing remarkable conversational powers, and an inexhaustible fund of rich and varied experiences, he was never parsimonious in the drafts he made upon these resources for the benefit of others ; but was as generous in the distri- bution of his mental as of his material wealth. Many are the men who have become wiser and better by reason of their association with Philander Coburn.
Skowhegan was always the domicile of Mr. Coburn. He never married. His usual residence was with his elder brother. When there, his mode of life was of the same quiet and unostentatious style that always distinguished the household of that remarkable man. He died after a lingering illness, on the 8th of March, 1876.
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B AKER, JOSEPH, of Augusta, Maine. Born June 23, 1812, in the town of Bloomfield, now called Skowhegan, Maine. His ancestry, as indicated by his patronymic, was of the old Saxon-English stock. Amos Baker, his father, early in life emigrated to Maine from New Ipswich, in New Hamp- shire ; spent the remainder of his years in that district, and died in 1813, when his son Joseph was only twelve months old. Amos Baker, at the age of fifteen, enlisted in the Revolutionary Army, and served in General Washington's body-guard. Of this he was ever afterward very proud. He delighted to relate his experience of the hard- ships and privations of that memorable struggle. Not the least pleasant of his reminis- cences was that of having been obliged to stand on tiptoe, when a candidate for military service, in order that he might reach the requisite height of stature.
After the removal of Mr. Baker to Maine he devoted himself to teaching, and was widely known as " Master Baker." During the summers he diligently cultivated his farm, and in the winters taught school in different places on the Kennebec River, in Somerset and Kennebec counties. Canaan and Bloomfield were among the localities that received the benefits of his instructions. Of strong intellect, sturdy character, and considerable. learning, he was as deeply respected as he was generally known.
On the mother's side, Joseph Baker was allied to the Weston family, which is well known throughout the central portion of Maine, and which has many branches. Of one of these the late venerable ex-Governor Coburn was the head. Mr. Baker's mother, née Elizabeth Weston, was the daughter of Samuel and Mary Weston; was born in Bloom- field, and died in China about the year 1865. She was fond of saying that the Westons had " Pocahontas blood" in their veins. Samuel Weston was one of a large family of brothers, who were pioneers in the settlement of Somerset County. At the epoch of their advent there was neither road nor mill in that section of Maine. The necessities attach- ing to the rough and primitive life of the settlers are indicated by the methods adopted in order to secure a supply of corn-meal. When Samuel Weston's stock of that useful article was exhausted, he was wont to select a hardwood log, excavate it at one cnd, fill it with corn, float it down the river for forty miles to the Cobbossec contee Mills at Gardiner, wait there until the grain was ground, and then paddle his unique vessel up-stream back to his home. The house built by the enterprising pioneer at Bloomfield is still standing. In the days of its founder it was regarded as a great and famous structure.
The boyhood of Joseph Baker was passed in agricultural occupations. But other pursuits than those of bucolic character were more congenial to his nature. He determined to pass through college, and acquired the necessary preparation for entrance at the China Academy and by private study. Matriculating at Bowdoin College in 1832, he pushed his
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way through the usual curriculum, and was graduated in 1836. In the truest sense of the phrase, he was a self-made man. The best educational advantages are comparatively valueless without the earnest and intelligent co-operation of those who enjoy them. The college must go through the man, as Horace Greeley was wont to affirm, in order to do him real and permanent good. More than that, the college must stay in the man. All that the college proposes to confer became the permanent possession of Mr. Baker. By his vigorous and purposeful industry he acquired ripe scholarship, and all the qualities of an eminent legist. While yet a student at college he was accustomed to teach school in the winter months, and to utilize the early hours of the days in reading and study. " Boarding round," as was the custom of rural teachers, he retired at the same hour with the family, rose at the same time, and sat down to breakfast at three or four o'clock in the morning. The long still hours intervening between the matutinal meal and the opening of the school session were employed in reading nearly the whole of the British Poets. This occupation gave breadth, polish, and force to his scholarship, and excellently contrib- uted to his future forensic success.
After graduation the life of Mr. Baker, as sketched by one who knew him intimately, was well worth the study of young men. Subsequent to graduation at Bowdoin College, he went to Augusta, and there officiated for two years as the assistant-teacher of the high-school, under Professor William H. Allen, who was afterward the honored and efficient President of Girard College, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. During this period Mr. Baker began the study of law, continued it in the office of Williams & McCobb, and com- pleted preparation for practice in that of Vose & Lancaster. Admitted to the Kennebec bar in August, 1839, he forthwith opened an office in the city of Augusta. In 1848 he entered into partnership relations with Sewall Lancaster, under the firm-title of Lancaster & Baker. His political affiliations were with the Whig Party, and his action therein forceful and effective. In May, 1854, he assumed the editorial conduct of the Kennebec Journal, of which William H. Simpson was proprietor. In November of the same year James G. Blaine purchased an interest in the paper, which thenceforward was published by Baker & Blaine until January, 1855, when Mr. Baker sold his share of the capital-stock of the concern to John L. Stevens. Returning to professional pursuits, he prosecuted them with ability and zest to the close of his useful eareer. He was an admirable editor. Manuscripts were faultless; editorials were clear, able, and forceful. Had he adhered to journalism, the legal fraternity would have lost one of its brightest lights, but the republic of letters would have gained an additional leader and choice adornment.
Mr. Baker was the City Solicitor of Augusta in 1858, '59, '60, and '68. He represented the citizens of Augusta in the Legislature in 1870, and the voters of the county in the State Senate in 1847. He was clerk of the Commission on Revision of Statutes in 1841, and member of the Commission in 1857 and 1871. Throughout the whole of the length-
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ened period covered by his public labors he was intimately associated with Mainc's most cminent sons in practical politics and in legal practice. His wide and commanding influcnec was felt in giving form and direction to the public affairs of two gencrations. State legislation owed much to his judieious counsels, which were always highly prized by legislators.
In less conspicuous relations Mr. Baker was not less wisc and beneficent. Hc filled the office of Superintendent of Schools with wisdom and zeal ; that of County Attorney for Kennebec County, and other positions, with marked faithfulness and ability. From 1861 to 1868 he was associated with George E. Wecks, of the firm of Baker & Weeks, in the claim business. In 1872 his son Orville D. Bakcr became partner with him in legal practicc. The firm of Baker & Baker lasted until 1882, when it was rcorganized under the title of Baker, Baker & Cornish, with the addition of Lcslic C. Cornish as junior partner.
Sueeessful in his undertakings, it was as a lawyer that hc achieved his greatest suc- ccsscs. To the profession of law he eonseientiously eonseeratcd all his mighty powers. For more than forty ycars he was in constant and active practice. His name appcars in every Maine Report sinec 1841.
"Admitted when the bar embraced such men as Wells, Evans, Allen, Paine, Boutelle, Reuel Wil- liams, Bradbury, and Morrill, it required no small degree of ability and integrity to secure and maintain a position among them ; but Mr. Baker was soon accorded a leading place. It is not too much to assign him place as the Nestor of the Maine bar. The Kennebec bar has long enjoyed the reputation of being second to none in the State. Its membership has included many intellectual giants, whose names are written in fair letters upon the annals of the State. It is still adorned by some of the most successful practitioners. But Mr. Baker stood head and shoulders above every living member. No one of his associates at the Kennebec bar but would gladly accord to him the leadership. He was often called upon to conduct important and difficult cases in all parts of the State. No case was ever sub- mitted to the courts, or left his hands, without the fullest and most thorough preparation. As men in desperate straits of body turn from quacks and their nostrums to the skilful physician, so parties with knotty legal points passed by the second and third-rate lawyers to consult with Mr. Baker, well knowing that they had turned to a master-mind. His efforts were not the scintillations and flashes of genius, but the results of close observation, a retentive mind, power of application, and hard work."
This critical cstimatc of a kcen and discriminating contemporary rcccives the eordial concurrence of all who enjoyed familiar acquaintance with its subject. Mr. Baker's death in Augusta, on Thanksgiving Day, November 29, 1883, at the age of seventy-one ycars and five months, was felt as a personal loss by numbers of deeply appreciative friends, and was sincerely mourned by the general public. Mr. Blainc, with whom in former ycars he had been so intimately associated, wrote of him as follows : "He was a man of strong in- tcllectual grasp. Mr. Webster said that one of the rarcst faculties in the human mind was the power to make a elcar statement-cxaet, lucid, logical, analytic, and cxhausting. Mr.
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Baker had this power in the highest degree. At the bar of Maine he had in that regard no superior. I have never heard him equalled-except by George Evans."
On the 4th of December, 1883, at a full meeting of the Kennebec bar, in which Mr. Baker had passed the professional part of his life, resolutions pertinent to his decease were introduced, discussed, and adopted. His intellectual and legal characteristics werc admir- ably summed up by the Hon. E. F. Webb, the eloquent mover of the resolutions, as follows :
"His intellectual qualities seemed to be indicated by his robust frame-sound and vigorous through- out. As a lawyer, he was learned in his profession. His ambition centred wholly in that. To that end he bent all his mental and physical powers. His industry was unceasing. He was cautious and delib- erate in all his professional business, systematic and exact in his arrangements, and orderly in his prepa- ration and method of trials. Though his perceptions were quick, and his logical powers at once comprehensive and ready, he never entered into the trial of causes without being thoroughly equipped with well-marshalled evidence and clearly defined law. He planted well the bottom sills of his case. He had from the outset a distinct and firm theory of his cause ; and when, in the production of evidence, and as an advocate, he came to defend it, every step was taken with precision, for a fixed purpose and with telling effect. He first persuaded himself, and then persuaded the court and jury. From the in- ception of his cases to their final determination, though all the stages of consultation, preparation, and trial, his labors were thorough and constant. He never left a weak spot in his armor.
" As an advocate he was earnest, convincing, and often eloquent. He thought earnestly and talked persuasively. His reading was thoughtful and thorough, his analysis keen, his memory retentive. He brought to his labors a matured and well-trained mind, quickened by keen observation of human nature in its manifold phases. His arguments to courts and juries were addressed to their judgment and reason. He always spoke in plain, forcible language ; generally with slow delivery, impressive manner, and dignified, effective action. His addresses were as remarkable as they were comprehensive and pow- erful. He had great aptness of language, and delighted in simple, sturdy phrases, although he had finely feathered arrows of irony, which, on just occasions, he could use. He claimed for each fact a fixed and special purpose in the line of his argument, and had uncommon tact and ability in dealing with usual issues of mingled fact and law. His individuality was strong and impressive. Some- times he would press his attacks with terrific weiglit and vigor ; and at other times would electrify his hearers with passages .of exceeding beauty and eloquence.
" In the trial of causes he was very quick to observe the mental reservations of a reluctant witness, and to detect the inconsistencies of a swift witness. Both classes he abhorred. As an examiner he never permitted himself to put a question to his witness which he did not deem admissible ; and he was easily aroused if the opposing counsel attempted the contrary practice. In his nature he was not of those called magnetic : on the contrary, he was possessed of a certain seriousness-not melancholy, nor moodiness-of disposition and deportment, which in business matters induced him to discard levity, and to conduct himself soberly and earnestly."
Joseph Baker was married in November, 1841, to Frances Gilman, daughter of An- drew Rogers, and sister of Jonathan P. Rogers, formerly Attorney-General of Maine. He left only one child, namely, Orville D. Baker, now Attorney-General of Maine,
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B
AKER, ORVILLE DEWEY, of Augusta, Maine. Born in Augusta, December 23, 1847. He is the son of the late eminent Joseph Baker, an account of whose ancestry and public services is contained in the preceding biography of that gentleman.
Of Anglo-Saxon derivation on the father's side, and of blended English and Irish aneestry on the mother's, Mr. Baker unites in himself the best elements of both stocks. His uncle, the Hon. Jonathan P. Rogers, formerly Attorney-General of Maine, was famed among the older members of the legal profession as one of the most pro- found and powerful lawyers ever produced by the State of Maine. He removed from Maine to Boston at the urgent solieitation of Daniel Webster, took the office of that peer- less statesman, and died in the youthful promise of his powers, but not before he had at- tained high reputation among the leaders of the Boston bar.
Andrew Rogers, the maternal grandfather of Mr. Baker, was born at Berwick, Maine, in 1768, and died at Augusta on the 9th of August, 1836. Subsequent to his marriage he resided in Shapleigh until 1809, next in Exeter until 1814, when he removed to Augusta. He was the son of William Rogers, who, with his English wife Susannah Moore, brought. their house entire from England, and put it up in America.
Mr. Baker's maternal grandmother was Elizabeth Palmer, daughter of Jonathan Palmer, and was of Irish extraetion. The Palmer family was particularly distinguished by its longevity. The father of Jonathan Palmer survived to the patriarchal age of about one hundred and five years.
Mr. Baker's early education was largely received under the immediate personal super- intendenee of his revered father. Passing from tliat to the tuition of Prof. F. A. Water- house, now Principal of the English High-School in Boston and a most accomplished teaclier, he completed preparation for admission to college. Matrieulating at Bowdoin in 1864, he graduated therefrom in 1868, at the age of twenty, and at the head of his class. His proficieney as a student is further indieated by the fact that all the prizes aeeessible to members of his class were awarded to him. These were for superior deelamation, and English composition. In the graduating exercises he was also honored by being made the orator of his elass.
After leaving his Alma Mater, the youthful graduate spent the time between May, 1869, and November, 1870, in the pleasing exeitement of European travel, and the profit- able study of languages. On returning to the United States he commeneed the study of law in the office of his father. In 1871 he received the degree of Master of Arts from Bowdoin College, and in 1872 graduated honorably at the Harvard Law School. He was then offered a tutorship of the French language by the authorities of Harvard University,
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and at the same time was invited to accept the Professorship of Modern Languages in a Southern University. Both of these flattering proffers were declined in order that he might begin the practice of law, he having been admitted to the Kennebec bar in 1872. The law-partnership of Baker & Baker was at once contracted with his father, and con- tinued until the death of the senior member in November, 1883. In 1882 Leslie C. Corn- ish was received into the firm. The association still continues under the old style and title of Baker, Baker & Cornish.
The forensic practice of Mr. Baker has been very wide, extending over many counties of the State, and including the courts of the United States. In 1883 he was admitted to the Supreme Court of the United States. Several notable cases, exciting great popular in- terest, have given employment and scope to his talents. Among them may be mentioned the Delaney case, the Abbott will case, and the famous action of Powers v. Mitchell, which has attracted the attention of the bar by the vigor with which it has been contested in three different counties and through four jury-trials, and also by the novel questions of pro- cedure which have been raised during its progress.
Politically, Mr. Baker has always been identified with the Republican Party. As a popular or "stump" orator he is as effective as he is well known. His voice has been heard in every National and in most of the State campaigns since his graduation in 1868. In 1880, when that remarkable and historic attempt was made by Governor Garcelon and his Council to " count out" a sufficient number of Republican legislators-elect in order to give the choice of the next Governor to the Democrats, Mr. Baker was selected as counsel for the Republican case. Taking up the cause with enlightened and vigorous zeal, he carried it forward to a successful issue. His argument in the mandamus case, by which it was sought to compel the Secretary of State to exhibit to the members-elect the official returns of their election, attracted wide attention. He is now extensively engaged in corporation cases, and is retained as counsel for large corporate interests.
Mr. Baker received very large support in his candidacy for the Attorney-Generalship of the State of Maine in 1883, and was elected to that office by the Legislature in January, 1885, receiving the unanimous vote of the Republican caucus.
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