USA > Maine > Biographical encyclopedia of Maine of the nineteenth century > Part 9
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Mr. Bradbury supported Mr. Clay's compromise measures from the conviction that they were proper in themselves, and were a peaceable adjustment of matters in controversy, and secured to the North the advantages to which it was entitled. It is a significant fact that while Jefferson Davis, Mason, Hunter, and others entered their protest upon the records of the Senate against the adjustment measures as conceding everything to the North, Mr. Webster was denounced at the time for his support of them as a dishonorable concession to the South. During the intense excitement in Congress, when the crisis was alarming, the friends of the measure often met for consultation. These conferences led Mr. Bradbury to entertain the highest regard for the genuine patriotism of Mr. Webster and Mr. Clay. Subsequent events, ten years later, proved that these great statesmen did not over-estimate the danger. They unquestionably acted with Douglas, Cass, and others from the highest dictates of patriotism. Mr. Bradbury has often said that he regarded Mr. Webster's speech of March 7, 1850, as the most patriotic act of his life.
In 1852 Mr. Bradbury was upon a special committee on French Spoliations, and had charge of the bill in the Senate "to provide for the ascertainment and satisfaction of claims of American citizens for spoliation committed by the French prior to the year 1800." The bill was strenuously opposed by Senator Felch of Michigan, and others, and Mr. Bradbury made an able and elaborate specch in reply. The bill passed the Senate by a large majority. With much labor and preparation, Mr. Bradbury secured the passage of a bill to indemnify Maine and Massachusetts for having conveyed to settlers this side of the new boundary-line of Maine under the Treaty of Washington, who had received their grants from the British Government, to enable the United States to fulfil its treaty obliga- tions that such titles should be made good. The States had gone on and made the con- veyances, thereby fulfilling the treaty obligations of the nation before they received their pay, and it was urged that they were estopped by their deed ; but Congress, upon under- standing the question, refused to take such an advantage. Mr. Bradbury found that Maine had received no interest on money advanced by her in 1839-40, during the " Aroostook War," in discharge of duties that pertained to the United States, and a bill was reported for its payment.
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When the bill for the apportionment of Representatives to Congress, under the new Census, was under consideration, the Census had been so defectively taken in California that a majority of the committee reported in favor of reducing the number of Representatives from two to one, although that State had been rapidly increasing in population since her admission to the Union. The States having the largest surplus were strenuous to hold on to the fractions and secure the additional member, but Mr. Bradbury opposed reducing California on account of the neglect of Government officers, and by means of a good deal of effort prevented the contemplated injustice. It was through his efforts that the first appropriation was made by Congress for improving the navigation of the Kennebec River. He was an active member during his entire term of service in the Senate, looking carefully after the interests of his constituents and of the public. Upon committees and in the Senate he was always at his post, a hard-working and useful member. He was a ready debater and a good speaker, who skilfully presented the strong points of a subject with great clearness and force. He declined to be a candidate for re-election, and at the close of his term he returned to private life and the practice of his profession, entirely satisfied with his official participation in public affairs. While grateful to his constituency for having conferred on him so honorable a position, he determined not to avail himself of so long a continuance in public life as to create such taste for office as is apt to leave one unhappy out of it, and break up business relations at home. With no desire for any office since his retirement from Congress, Mr. Bradbury has devoted himself to the practice of his profession and attention to his private affairs. He believes in the necessity of occupa- tion and the use of one's faculties, and hence he has continued in the practice of the law until quite recently, and was even engaged in the argument of causes in the same court- room where he began to try and argue them fifty years ago. Always faithful to his clients, he was ever ready to advise and promote a settlement between the parties when it could be effected on fair principles, especially in family difficulties, and to avoid litigation about trifling matters. He and Henry W. Paine, before the removal of the latter to Boston, were often opposed to each other in the trial of causes, and they used to pride themselves on saving their clients a great deal of money by waiving all matters of form, and trying their causes upon the substantial issues involved. They knew they could trust each other, and were personal friends.
He has ever kept up his interest in Bowdoin College ; was for several years a member of the Board of Overseers, and since 1860 has been a member of the Board of Trustees. In 1866, on the retirement of Judge Shepley, he became Chairman of the Committee on Finance. He has been an active member of the Maine Historical Society, and its Presi- dent since the death of Judge Bowen in 1873. So early as 1846 he obtained the favorable report of a committee of the Legislature, and the passage of an act granting to the society half a township of land to aid in the general purposes of the society. The sale of this land
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has furnished a fund which has enabled the society to go forward in its work. He has for years been a member of the Congregational church in Augusta, and interested in the denomination at large. He finds good men in all denominations of Christians, and would have them work harmoniously under their different names and agencies in the extension of the pure principles taught by the Divine Founder.
As a citizen, Mr. Bradhury has ever taken an active part in all the public enterprises of the day, and been ready to devote time and money for the advancement of those calculated to benefit the city of his adoption, and the State. He early saw the loss that would be occasioned by the construction of two parallel lines of railway near each other through the same section of the State, and made an effort to avoid it by having the line from Portland running east through the river towns of Kennebec County commenced in advance of any- thing being done .on the other proposed line. He called a meeting of the citizens of Augusta, pointed out the danger, and urged an immediate subscription sufficient to justify the commencement of the work. His law partner, the late Judge Rice, made a like appeal in the paper of which he was then editor. Had they succeeded, millions would have been saved to the people of the State, and the public better accommodated by a single trunk line and a sufficient number of branch roads as feeders. In the building of the Kennebec and Portland Railroad, and also in the Somerset and Kennebec, he took great interest, and had much to do in influencing the legislation that insured their success. As a director in the latter road, he aided in securing a consolidation of that road with the Portland and Kennebec.
The good-fortune of Mr. Bradbury adhered to him in his domestic relations. He married Miss Eliza Ann, daughter of Thomas W. Smith, Esq., November 25, 1834. Mr. Smith was an enterprising and successful merchant of Augusta. Mrs. Bradbury was a remarkable woman. Affectionate, cheerful, full of energy, and possessed of great execu- tive ability, she was a model wife and mother, and member of society. They lived in happy union for upwards of forty-four years, and for the greater part of her life she enjoyed perfect health. She died suddenly January 29, 1879, greatly lamented by her surviving family, and deeply mourned by the whole community. The epitaph engraved upon her gravestone is only expressive of her character :
"SHE LOVED TO DO GOOD."
They had four children : Henry Westbrook, James Ware, Jr., Thomas Westbrook Smith and Charles. Thomas W. died May 11, 1868, and James W. September 21, 1876, both in the prime of life, and both young men of excellent character and full of promise. Henry W. married Louisa H., a daughter of Dr. Thomas H. Gregorie of South Carolina, in 1878. They have one daughter, Eliza Louisa.
James Bridge
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B RIDGE, JAMES, of Augusta, was not, in the estimation of the world, con- spicuous as a statesman, a magistrate, or a politician. This sketch of his life has been written because, having the advantages which social position, education, and a competence confer, conceded ability, un- spotted integrity, and the friendship of men high in station, who held the staff of office within his reach, he chose rather to seek for happiness in the con- tent and enjoyment of home, the esteem of his friends and neighbors, and in the consci- entious discharge of duty to God and man.
Notwithstanding its brevity, the memoir has been framed under many disadvantages. Judge Bridge kept no copies of his own letters, and preserved very few of those received from correspondents : even of those addressed by him to his own family not many are now to be found. Fire and flood have been active agents of destruction ; but the prevailing opinion that a letter once read has fulfilled its purpose has been equally pernicious.
Mr. Bridge was a descendant in the sixth generation from " Deacon " John Bridge, a Puritan, who migrated from England in 1631, and settled in Cambridge, Mass. (then Newtowne), in 1632. So far as known, he was the progenitor of all persons bearing the name of Bridge who early settled in New England. His English ancestors have been traced, save a single missing link in the chain (which there is good reason to believe will be found by a search in a new direction), to Thomas Bredg, of Malden, county of Essex, who died in 1440. In the will of his son John of Pagelsham, proved in 1530, his father's name (with the not uncommon disregard of orthography in those days) is written Bredg, his own Bredge, and one of his son's Bridge. The colonial, town, and parish records show that Deacon Bridge was upright, sagacious, energetic, and influential ; and that he contributed much, not only to the outward prosperity of the towns of Cambridge and Lexington, but also not a little to their educational and religious privileges. He died in 1665. His son Mathew, his grandson Mathew (2d), and his great-grandson Samuel, were all men of mark in their day ; each and all, as appears from many notes in the local records, were enterpris- ing, reputable, and leading citizens.
Edmund Bridge, the son of Samuel, and the father of James, the subject of this memoir, requires ampler notice. He was born in Lexington, August 8, 1739, and was nurtured there ; he came to the District of Maine in 1760 ; purchased land, and built a house thereon. He then returned to Lexington, married Phebe Bowman, daughter of Joseph Bowman of Westborough, and without delay they took possession of their homestead. There they lived nearly seventy years, brought up six sons and three daughters, and there they died.
Pownalboro, when incorporated, enclosed an area of about 150 square miles, embracing
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the present towns of Wiscasset, Dresden, Alna, and Perkins (or Swan Island). It extended from the Kennebec River on the west to the Sheepscott on the east. Eastern River, its banks the home of the Bridge family, lies between. It had access by the Ken- nebec to the northern settlements, and by it, Eastern River, and the Sheepscott it reached the sea. Although it had a population larger than any town in Lincoln County except Georgetown, it was sparsely peopled. Sullivan, in his History of the District of Maine, states that in 1764, as appears by a census made by the " Lords of Trade," it had but eight hundred and ninety-eight inhabitants. In March, 1782, Mr. Bridge was appointed by Gov- ernor Hancock High Sheriff of Lincoln County, at that time an office of dignity and import- ance. The county included a territory equal in extent to both the States of Connecticut and Rhode Island, and stretching out from the sea at Pemaquid Point, to the Canada line. He held the office, not only with governmental but with popular approval, for nearly thirty years. He was noted for vigor in action, integrity, benevolence, and public spirit. His hos- . pitality was exceptional : owing to the times and his position, greater demands were made upon it than was usual then or would be tolerated now ; but his open heart transformed a burthen into an enjoyment. Sheriff Bridge died at Dresden, in the house he first built and where he always lived, in September, 1825. Long and laudatory notices of him may be found in North's History of Augusta, in "The Courts and Lawyers of Maine," and in the newspapers of that day.
James Bridge, the son of Edmund, was born at Pownalboro, September 25, 1765. Owing to the imperfect educational privileges in Maine during his childhood, he was sent to Lexington, where he received such instruction from its schools and clergymen as well fitted him for Harvard College, which he entered in 1783. He graduated in 1787. He was a classmate of John Quincy Adams, Judge Putnam, Judge Cranch, and other distinguished men.
A warm feeling of friendship existed between them long after they left their Alma Mater, as is pleasantly manifested in letters now in possession of the family. Mr. Bridge was the room-mate of Mr. Adams in college, and his fellow-student in the office of Judge Parsons at Newburyport.
Mr. Willis, in "The Courts and Lawyers of Maine," gives an accurate compend of the professional life of Mr. Bridge, which we venture to reproduce :
"On being admitted to practice in 1790, he first opened an office at Bucksport, on the Penobscot, but soon after removed to Augusta, where he ever after lived ; he entered on the profession with the reputation of being a good scholar, and he soon acquired that of a good lawyer.
" The time was remarkably favorable for a practitioner. Land titles were then in great confusion ; large proprietors-absentees-had neglected their estates. Many persons were coming into the District ; not knowing where to apply to make purchases, they had entered upon favorable locations, and pitched their habitations without title to the land ; vexing questions were constantly arising in regard to bound-
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aries, as well as to rights of title and possession. Into the midst of this practice Mr. Bridge entered with intelligence, zeal, and activity ; he acquired the confidence of landed proprietors and of the com- munity, and became the leader of the bar. It was particularly as the agent and attorney of the ‘ Pro- prietors of the Kennebec Purchase' that his business was extended and a large property accumulated. He associated with him in practice as partner a young lawyer who had been his student-Reuel Wil- liams, who laid in this connection the foundation of a fortune and political distinction. Mr. Bridge was so much engrossed by professional duties for the first twenty years of his practice, that he did not engage in political life. In 1789 he represented his town in the Legislature, probably with a view to effect the establishment of Kennebec County, which was separated from Lincoln in that year. He was appointed the first Judge of Probate of the county, which office he resigned in 1804, and was succeeded by Judge Daniel Cony. He was a member of the Executive Council of Massachusetts in 1818 and 1819, and a delegate to a convention which prepared the constitution of Maine, and one of the committee to draft that instrument. He was appointed one of the joint commissioners of Massachusetts and Maine to adjust the 'personal concerns of the two States.' They made their report thereon in May, 1822. December 28, 1822, they made a report on the division of the public lands under the Act of Separation-a long and able document ; and they made a final report of their doings in May, 1823. The office business of Mr. Bridge was so extensive and lucrative, that it occupied his time too much to enable him to make a distinguished figure as an advocate. Yet he was an easy and graceful speaker, and capable of taking a high position in that character if he had given attention to it. Not long after his connection with Mr. Williams he gradually withdrew from the courts and practice, and found sufficient employment as President of the Augusta Bank and in the management of his private affairs. It is worthy of remark, that of the fifty-four lawyers in practice in Maine in 1800, forty-nine were immigrants from other States. Of the five natives, Judge Bridge was one."
Reference has been made to the abstention of Judge Bridge from politics, when the elements of success in that direction seemed to lie ready for his grasp : his friends believed that it was due to a deliberate preference for a less brilliant and a more tranquil and con- tented life. From 1797, when the town of Augusta was organized, to 1805 he was necessarily active in town affairs, and was chosen for various stations of trust about thirty times. He then leisurely withdrew from personal participation therein.
Judge Bridge inherited from his ancestors of at least six generations a sinewy frame and tall stature, and was conspicuous always for his distinguished mien Although stately, and at times apparently austere, he had in fact an unusually sympathetic heart, responding not only to human sorrow, but to acts of self-devotion, to generous words, to mag- nanimous deeds. No better mark of his benignity could be proffered than the mutual love which existed between children and himself. Maintaining commonly a certain reserve in public, he exhibited to his intimate friends, and especially in his own family-cir- cle, those kindly traits which have left so fond a memory there.
He was a discriminating and assiduous reader. For fifteen years of the latter part of his life books were his chief source of pleasurable occupation ; his library was small-pos- sibly it contained not more than one thousand volumes, but it was select, and in constant use.
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In 1797 Judge Bridge formed a fortunate and happy marriage with the only daughter of the Hon. Joseph North. Differing in temperament, there was full accord in action. Opinions might vary, but as the choice of each was to yield a preference rather than to persist in dissent, harmony was the sure result. For ten years of their union Judge Bridge suffered greatly from dyspepsia, and not unfrequently from the melancholy it induces. The discretion and affectionate solicitude of his wife was then specially apparent, silently removing sources of discomfort, and taking upon herself so far as she could the burthen bearing so heavily upon him. Her cheerfulness and vivacity brightened, if it could not dissipate, the cloud that darkened the evening of his life.
Her beautiful face, her joyous temper, her kind disposition, and unbounded benevo- lence are still fresh in the memory of her few living contemporaries ; and these charac- teristics have been made known to another generation by their frequent mention of them. One charity in which Judge Bridge and his wife were greatly interested is of so rare occurrence that we think it worthy of notice. Early in the history of Maine, when the jails were often crowded with prisoners, poor debtors as well as criminals, the mother of Mrs. Bridge instituted a gracious benefaction, which her daughter accepted as a trust.
Two or three days previous to the annual Thanksgiving, having ascertained the num- ber of the prisoners, she provided a bountiful repast for each, and upon the morning of that day it was presented to old and young, to good and bad, alike. Mrs. Bridge inherited this custom from her mother, and until her death continued it ; as the eldest daughter was married shortly before, and removed to a distant State, the second undertook the charge ; upon her marriage and removal the youngest assumed it, and in loving memory of ancestral beneficence has for more than half a century persevered in its exercise until this day. Thus for nearly one hundred years the seed that germinated in a benevolent heart has borne perennial fruit.
Judge Bridge was a Christian without a trace of bigotry. At the time he entered upon active life (1795), and for some years after, the creed of Calvin was the prevalent belief in the District of Maine : by many it was considered the chief test of a pious life. If he did not disavow, he did not profess to believe, that system of faith. On the contrary, on all suitable occasions he expressed more catholic views; not, however, at variance with the fundamental doctrine now held by nearly the whole body of Christians styled orthodox. His religious opinions were the result of study and reflection : having satisfied the de- mands of reason and conscience, he felt under no obligation to revise his belief, or to re-examine the evidence upon which it was founded, at the demand of a skeptic. Tolerant of the opinions of others, he claimed a charitable construction of his own : he believed that the careful nurture of his children, charity in its broadest meaning, and integrity in all the relations of life, were acceptable to God, if not the essence of true religion. Pressing affairs incident to his position may at times have caused less busy and more
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impulsive persons to contrast their outward zeal with his ; he might perhaps have answered as did Henry IV. of France when reproached by the Bishops for a seeming neglect of religious duties : "When I am working for the public, it seems to me that I leave God for God."
In September, 1812, he became a member of the church of which the Rev. Benjamin Tappan was pastor. Judge Bridge did not fully concur in his doctrinal opinions, but not- withstanding they were not upon that point in perfect accord, the most friendly and cordial relations ever existed between them.
Mention has been made of the afflictive disease which was the bane of Judge Bridge's life for more than twenty years and of which he died in January, 1834.
As it progressed, and when all hope was abandoned, his family observed that his faith grew firmer and his hope brightened as the shadows began to fall. His youngest son relates that, shortly before his death, while driving out for the last time, his father after a long silence repeated, soliloquizing : " I am the resurrection, and the life : he that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in Me shall never die."
The . Resurrection of Christ and the argument founded upon it was the hope, the expectation, and the sure trust upon which he relied. He died with its consolations in his heart and upon his lips.
He left three sons and three daughters, all living in 1882.
K ING, WILLIAM, of Bath, first Governor of Maine. Born at Scarborough, Maine, on the 9th of February, 1768. He was the seventh child of Rich- ard King, a wealthy lumber exporter of that place, by his second wife, Mary, daughter of Samuel Blake of York. Richard King had been a commissary in the army at Annapolis, Nova Scotia, in 1744. After that he established himself in commercial business at Watertown, Massachusetts, from which he removed to Scarborough in 1746, and again engaged in mercantile pursuits. A portion of his large landed estate remains in possession of his descendants. Perhaps no family belonging to the State has been more prolific of distinguished families than his. Its women have been the Doric mothers of men of much ability and usefulness.
The early scholastic advantages of William King were meagre and unsatisfactory. His half-brother, Rufus King, was permitted to lay the foundations of splendid social and political eminence in the classic shades of Harvard College ; his own brother, Cyrus King, was provided with facilities for future legal distinction at the bar; but William was obliged
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to content himself with practical education in the lumber manufacture and trade. While tending a saw-mill at Saco he was preparing to master the occult art of log-rolling, the practice of which has contributed so largely to the success of professional politicians. The defects of his literary education were his misfortune, not his fault. His grammar and rhetoric were often confused and blundering, and his orthography faulty ; but his powers of original thought and reasoning were of the highest and best class. Human nature was the book he studied most, and his knowledge of it was exhaustive and almost intuitive. Ambitious he was and had a right to be, and in seeking legitimate objects his perseverance was untiring. Self-reliance was one of his marked characteristics. He felt that he must be the architect and builder of his own fortune. This he was, and a very forceful and successful one too. In mercantile pursuits he acquired a fortune. He was also one of the largest ship-owners in the United States. Building a spacious house near the water's edge, where he could hear the mariner's song from his open window, he could survey his- own vessels moored at the wharf.
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