USA > Maine > Oxford County > Bethel > History of Bethel : formerly Sudbury, Canada, Oxford County, Maine, 1768-1890, with a brief sketch of Hanover and family statistics > Part 35
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In the especial field of exertion to which he has mainly devoted himself, Mr. Chapman has risen to the highest eminence. It is not alone his standing as a business man that gives him his place in the esteem of his fellow citizens. Broad-minded, cultured and public- spirited, a liberal promotor of important enterprises to benefit the community, a patron of art and education, he is looked up to as a thoroughly representative man, who has been successful not only in business, but successful in life.
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Mr. Chapman was married in Boston, on the 16th of" April, 1850,- to Miss Laura Bowker, daughter of David and Eunice (Clapp) Bowker, of Scituate, Mass. Mrs. Chapman is a lady of rare intel- ligence, fine character, and dignity and grace of manner, and has made her husband's home a recognized center of social refinement and cultured intellectual impulse. They have two daughters.
Mr. Chapman's munificent enterprise is not confined to the city of his residence. For some years past he has been making practi- cal experiments in scientific agriculture, with a view of determin- ing the conditions under which farming in New England, and es -- pecially in his native state of Maine, can be restored to its old-time prosperity., These experiments, conducted on the old homestead farm at Gilead, have attracted wide attention, and have demon -- strated that if the New England farmer will put thought and capi- tal in with his hard work, he can make his acres yield him a fair revenue. Some of Mr. Chapman's ideas upon the reasons of Maine's agricultural decadence, and the means by which prosperity may be restored, he has laid before the public in the form of contributions. to the press. He is a strong believer in the American protective tariff, and in response to an attack upon the theory of protection. which was made in a published criticism of one of his agricultural essays, he wrote a defense of the tariff system which elicited much approving comment. As may be inferred from his stand on the tariff, Mr. Chapman's political sympathies generally lie with the re- publican party, though he is not a narrow partisan. During the war he was a type of the staunchly loyal men who by their outspoken devotion to the union cause, and readiness to contribute liberally toward the expenses of carrying on the struggle, helped to hold up the hands of the martyr President, and to preserve the republic from dismemberment. While never shirking his political duties, he has never been a politician. When a movement to nominate him for office of Governor of Wisconsin was made, in 1888, he declined to become a candidate.
Mr. Chapman is an original thinker, and a man of positive con- victions. He despises cant in all things, and shows his character and ability more by what he does than by what he says. He is one of the living exemplars, and reminders of Carlyle's noble declaration that "all true work is religion," and that "the essence of every sound re- ligion is, 'know thy work and do it.'"
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Chas Chapman
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HENRY L. CHAPMAN.
Professor Henry Leland Chapman was born in Bethel, July twenty-sixth, eighteen hundred and forty-five. He attended the town schools and Gould's academy until the family moved to Port- land. He fitted for college and graduated from Bowdoin in the class of eighteen hundred and sixty-six. From the Bangor Theological Seminary he graduated in eighteen hundred and sixty-nine, and im- mediately accepted a tutorship in Bowdoin College. In eighteen hundred and seventy-two he accepted the professorship of Latin and was subsequently transferred to the chair of rhetoric and ora- tory, and English literature has since been added. He is a pro- found scholar, an original thinker, and one of the most valuable and popular teachers connected with the college. He has never been settled as a pastor, though he has had frequent.opportunities of do- ing so. He has occasionally supplied vacant pulpits, and is an eloquent preacher. He is a ready, off-hand speaker, and on post- prandial and other similar occasions, he has few equals in the State. He has a remarkably easy flow of language, can be witty or wise and can change from grave to gay, with remarkable facility. His written addresses are noted for the pure and forcible English in which they are clothed, recalling forcibly the manner and style of Addison and other English classical writers of that period. Professor Chapman sometimes successfully falls into rhyme and poetry, and his Centennial poem printed in this volume, does him great credit, both as a literary and poetical production. He is now in the prime of manhood, in the enjoyment of excellent health, and with every promise of a brilliant future.
CHARLES J. CHAPMAN.
Hon. Charles J. Chapman, son of Robert A. Chapman, was born in Bethel, January twenty-ninth, eighteen hundred and forty-eight, was educated in the public schools and Gould's Academy of Bethel, and Gorham academy, entered Bowdoin college and graduated with honor in eighteen hundred and sixty-eight. The first prize for ex- cellence in English composition was awarded him in his senior year. After graduation, his health having become somewhat impaired by study, he made a trip to Minnesota, where he was employed by the Northern Pacific Railroad Company in its earliest railroad construc-
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tion across the State. He remained in the employ of this company until his return to Maine in the summer of eighteen hundred and seventy, when he became a member of the old established commis- sion house in flour and grain, of Norton, Chapman & Company of Portland. He has continued with this firm during all its changes up to the present time, having become, in the meantime, its senior member. This firm has become the representative of some of the largest and best known mills in the West, including the famous Pillsbury-Washburn mills, and is recognized as the leading house of its kind in the State. Recently, Mr. Chapman has also become in- terested in banking, having formed in connection with his brothers, Cullen C., and Robert, the Chapman Banking Company of Port- land, Maine ; to this branch of business he devotes a portion of his time. Mr. Chapman is a member of the Portland Board of Trade, and has always been known as a man of large public spirit and en- terprise.
In politics, Mr. Chapman is a republican, and from boyhood greatly interested in political matters. He was elected to and served on the school board of Portland, from eighteen hundred and seven- ty-three to eighteen hundred and seventy-five, was chosen member of Common Council in eighteen hundred and seventy-seven, eight and nine, serving as President of that body in eighteen hundred and seventy-nine ; was elected Alderman in eighteen hundred and eighty and eighty-one, serving as chairman of the Board in the lat- ter year ; was elected Mayor of Portland, first in eighteen hundred and eighty-six, and subsequently twice re-elected. During his office as Mayor, he planned and carried forward to successful consumma- tion the great Centennial celebration of the city in eighteen hun- dred and eighty-seven ; also among other results of his administra- tion may be mentioned the Back Bay improvements, the lease of the Portland and Ogdensburg Railroad to the Maine Central, and the contract with the Portland Water Company, whereby a new reservoir was constructed on Munjoy Hill. He also accepted, in behalf of the city, in fitting speeches, the Longfellow statue from the Longfellow Association, and the magnificent Public Library building, the free gift of James P. Baxter, Esq.
Mr. Chapman was appointed by the Governor of the State, one of the Commissioners to represent the State on the occasion of the National Centennial in New York eighteen hundred and eighty-eight, and was also chosen as an alternate delegate at large by the Repub-
GEN. CLARK S. EDWARDS.
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lican State Convention to the National Republican Convention to Chicago in eighteen hundred and eighty-eight. In religion, Mr. Chapman is a Congregationalist. He was married in September, eighteen hundred and seventy-five, to Annie D., daughter of B. F. Hinds of Portland, and has a family of five children, one daughter and four sons.
CLARK S. EDWARDS.
General Clark Swett Edwards is the youngest son and child of Enoch and Abigail (McLellan) Edwards, and was born at Otisfield, Maine, March twenty-six, eighteen hundred and twenty-four. His father and mother were of Gorham, Maine, and the latter was of the distinguished family of Mclellan, so closely identified with the early history of that town. They had an old-fashioned family of eleven children, the youngest three of whom alone are now living. The subject of this notice was brought up on his father's farm, and obtained what education the public schools afforded. In eighteen hundred and forty-eight he came to Bethel, and with Edwin R. Eastman bought out Kimball and Pattee and went into trade in a store which stood where the store of Ceylon Rowe now stands at the northwest corner of the Common. After a year they purchased a building standing southerly and a little back of the store they then occupied, which had been used as a shoemaker's and harness mak- ing shop, moved it up in line with their store and that of John Har- ris, then occupied by Abernethy Grover, which stood farther south, and finished the three stores under one roof. This was the block that was burned during the war and has since been rebuilt. He subsequently built the store near the railroad, on the spot where the store of Woodbury & Purrington now stands, and traded in com- pany with Charles Mason. He sold out to Mason and the store was afterwards burned. Mr. Edwards then built a store near the foot of Vernon street. where he traded until eighteen hundred and fifty- eight, when he sold out. During these years he built several houses at various parts of the village, and in various ways contributed to the growth and prosperity of Bethel Hill.
At the breaking out of the war, when the first call was issued for three hundred thousand men, Mr. Edwards took out recruiting pa- pers and was chosen Captain of the first company organized under this call, in the county. This company became Company I, of the Fifth Maine Regiment, and an account of it is given in another
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in March, eighteen hundred and fifty. Late in the autumn of that year, he took passage on a merchant vessel bound round Cape Horn to San Francisco, where he arrived in July, eighteen hundred and fifty-one, and in the next month he arrived in Portland, Oregon, by the old steamer Columbia, then on one of her early trips. He at once proceeded to Salem, the capital of the territory, and estab- lished himself as a lawyer. The first regular term of the United States District Court was held at Salem in the following month, and on the invitation of Chief Justice Nelson, who presided over the court, Mr. Grover became the clerk, stipulating that he would ac- cept the position temporarily, and until a suitable successor could be appointed. He held the office six months, obtaining an excellent acquaintance with local court procedure, and with jurors, witnesses and litigants. The following spring, resigning the clerkship, he formed a law partnership with Benjamin F. Harding, afterward United States District Attorney, Secretary of the Territory of Oregon and United States Senator. With him Mr. Grover at once entered upon a general and lucrative practice, which lasted for several years.
In eighteen hundred and fifty-two he was elected by the legisla- ture, Prosecuting Attorney of the second Judicial District of the Territory, which district then extended from Oregon City to the California line. In eighteen hundred and fifty-three he was elected and served as member of the Territorial Legislature. During the summer of this year, serious hostilities of the Rogue River Indians occurred in Southern Oregon, and Mr. Grover was appointed by Governor Curry, recruiting officer to raise volunteer troops to aid the settlers against the hostiles. This was promptly done, and a company was at once mustered at Salem, of which J. W. Nesmith, afterwards United States Senator, was elected Captain and Lafay- ette Grover First Lieutenant. These troops, with a pack-train loaded with arms, ammunition and supplies, hastened south to the aid of the hard pressed settlers in Southern Oregon. At the close of hostilities in September, Mr. Grover appeared as Deputy United States District Attorney in the United States District Courts in the southern counties, then being held for the first time, by Judge Matthew P. Deady. Congress having assumed the compensation of settlers whose property had been destroyed by hostile Indians during the Rogue River Indian war of eighteen hundred and fifty- three, Mr. Grover was appointed one of the commissioners to assess
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the spoliations, and served as President of the Board in eighteen hundred and fifty-four. He was again returned as a member of the legislature from Marion county in eighteen hundred and fifty-five, and served as Speaker of the House during the session of eighteen hundred and fifty-five and six.
During this period the combined Indian tribes from the California line to the British boundary attacked the frontier settlements in a determined manner throughout Oregon and Washington, and two thousand volunteers were called into the field to co-operate with the regular forces for their suppression. In this movement on the part of Oregon, Mr. Grover aided in raising troops and served in the field throughout the Yakima campaign, on the staff of Col. Nesmith. He served the following year as a member of the Military Commis- sion, appointed by the Secretary of War under authority of an act of Congress, in auditing and reporting to the war department the expenses of Oregon and Washington incurred in suppressing Indian hostilities of eighteen hundred and fifty-five and six. On this com- mission his co-laborers were Capts. A. J. Smith and Rufus Ingalls ; the former served as Major General in the late war ; the latter hav- ing been Chief Quartermaster of the Army of the Potomac, became Quartermaster General of the United States.
The people of Oregon having resolved to form a constitution, and to apply for admission to the Union as a State, the voters of Marion county elected Mr. Grover a member of the convention, which was convened for that purpose at Salem in eighteen hundred and fifty- seven. In that convention, he served as Chairman of the Com- mittee on the Bill of Rights, and as member of several other impor- tant committees, and took an active and prominent part in giving direction to the work of that body.
Upon the holding of a general election under the constitution of the new state, Mr. Grover was returned as the first representative in Congress from Oregon. The chief work of the Oregon delegation at this time, was devoted to securing the admission of the State to the Union, and the assumption of the Oregon Indian war debt.
Retiring from the thirty-fifth Congress, he devoted himself almost exclusively for ten years to professional and business pursuits. He formed a law partnership at Salem with the late Honorable Joseph S. Smith, subsequently member of Congress, which was afterwards extended to Portland, including Judge W. W. Page. This firm
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conducted a very important and lucrative practice throughout the State for several years.
Taking an early and active interest in the establishment of manu- factures in the new State, he took part in the organization of the Willamette Woolen Manufacturing Company at Salem in eighteen hundred and fifty-six. This corporation had in view the introduc- tion to the State Capital, by canal and natural channels, the waters of the Santiam river, as power for general manufactures. He be- came one of the directors of the company, and remained in this con- nection for fifteen years, during which period this, the first broad enterprise for manufacturers in Oregon, attained large proportions and great success.
In eighteen hundred and sixty, Mr. Grover purchased the shares; of Joseph Watt in this corporation, and became owner of one-third of all the mills and water power of Salem. From eighteen hundred and sixty-seven to eighteen hundred and seventy-one, he was man- ager of the company. Under his direction, the Salem flouring mills, which had been begun, were completed, including the putting in of all the machinery and works, and constructing a steamboat canal from the river to the mills. These flouring mills were a marked success from the start, and were the first direct shippers of Oregon flour, by the cargo, to foreign countries. The operations of this. company were great stimulants to the growth of wheat and wool in early Oregon, and facilitated many other business enterprises in all directions. The unfortunate destruction of the Salem woolen mills by fire, occurred subsequently to Mr. Grover's retirement from the company.
In eighteen hundred and sixty-six, he presided over the Demo- cratic State convention of that year, and by the convention was elected chairman of the Democratic State central committee, which position he held for four years. During this period the democratic party attained the ascendancy in the politics of the state, which it had not had since eighteen hundred and sixty.
In eighteen hundred and seventy, Mr. Grover was elected by the democratic party as Governor of the State for four years, and in eighteen hundred and seventy-four he was re-elected to the same position, which he held till eighteen hundred and seventy-seven, when he entered the Senate of the United States, having been elected to that position by the legislative assembly at its September session of the previous year. In his canvass for the Governorship,
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he based the chief issue on the abrogation of the Burlingame treaty with China, though the subject was not mentioned in the platform of either political party.
During Governor Grover's term as Chief Executive, which lasted nearly seven years, many changes took place, and unusual progress was made in business enterprises, and in the general condition of Oregon. His first step as Executive was to put in force a law which had been enacted two years previously, but not executed, providing for tug boats at the mouth of the Columbia river, and a subsidy for their support. This movement gave the first reliable basis for a coastwise and foreign commerce from Oregon's great river, which took, root vigorously, and has increased ever since, to its now strong proportions.
He favored the construction of the locks at the Willamette Falls by a private company, assisted by aid from the state. The project was successful, and opened the Willamette river to competition with the railroads, and reduced freights throughout the Willamette Val- ley to such an extent as to stimulate greatly farm production and general commerce.
Another object of his administration was the securing to the state the segregation and patenting of all public lands to which Oregon was entitled under various grants by Congress, and a recognition of her rights to the tide lands which she held by reason of her sover- eignty as a state. All these rights became recognized, and a large proportion of these lands were secured to Oregon during Governor Grover's administration.
He also favored the erection of permanent public buildings for the state, and during his term of office, penitentiary buildings and the State House were erected of permanent and enduring structure, an example of economy and honesty in public work. One feature may be noted in these buildings, they were erected at an expense inside of the estimates of the architects, quite unusual in such cases. While the State House was not at first carried to full completion, its mason work was all done, the entire roof put on, and so much of the interior was finished as to render it suitable for the convenience of the State offices, the Legislature and the Supreme Court.
The grants by Congress for the establishment and support of a State University and for an Agricultural College in Oregon, having been secured and utilized, Governor Grover interested himself in promoting the organization of these institutions, which was also
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accomplished during his term of office. There was also, during the same period, founded at Salem, the institution for deaf mutes and the school for the blind.
Having labored to secure to the state the indemnity common school lands, held in lieu of those occupied by settlers before the public surveys, and the proceeds of their sales having been invested for common school revenues, the period had arrived for a more com- plete organization of the public school system of the state, and for its support out of the public funds thus utilized. This important foundation work was also accomplished, and the first distribution of public funds by the state in support of common schools in Oregon, was made during the term of Governor Grover as Chief Executive.
In his inaugural address to the legislative assembly in eighteen hundred and seventy, he presented the subject of Chinese exclusion, and favored the abrogation of the treaty between the United States and China, of eighteen hundred and sixty-eight, commonly known as the Burlingame Treaty. The legislature of that session, on his recommendation, memorialized Congress to that effect, and from that time forward, until from his seat in the Senate of the United States, he voted for a bill excluding the Chinese, and for a modified treaty with China, both of which prevailed, he never abated his zeal in promoting this movement.
An effort was made in the legislature of Oregon in eighteen hun- dred and seventy, to initiate a system of subsidizing railway corpo- rations by bonding cities and counties in their favor, as induce- ments to the construction of their roads. A bill was passed by both houses, by more than two-thirds majorities, authorizing the city of Portland to issue its bonds in the sum of three hundred thousand dollars, in favor of Ben Holaday, to induce him to build the railroad up the west side of the Willamette Valley, making its principal terminus at Portland. This bill was considered by the Governor as against public policy, and as against distinct provisions of the state constitution. The bill was vetoed in a message which settled the policy of the state on the subject of public grants of money to railway corporations, as long as the present constitution of the state exists. This veto having been filed subsequently to the adjournment of the assembly, went over as an issue in the elections which returned the following legislature, and the veto was almost unanimously sustained by the Senate, where the bill originated, only
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one vote being given against it. So that Oregon has been and now is entirely free from public debt, both general and local, growing out of the construction of railways, which has been the source of much embarrassment to the new Western states.
The memorable contest for the Presidency of the United States in eighteen hundred and seventy-six, between Hayes and Tilden, raised an electorial question in Oregon. In this case, Governor Grover held, on issuing certificates of election, that under the injunc- tion of the constitution forbidding a federal officer to be appointed a presidential elector, the votes cast for him were void, and as if never cast. And he gave the certificate to the candidate having the next highest vote. This decision was far-reaching, as the contested vote in Oregon held the balance of power in the Electoral College, if all other contested votes in Louisiana and Florida should be counted for Hayes. And it called for the organization of the "Electoral Commission," which overruled the Governor's decision. But he desires it understood that on re-examination he adheres to his original view.
Having been elected Senator from Oregon, he took his seat in the Senate of the United States in March, eighteen hundred and seventy- seven. In that body he served as member of the committees on military affairs, public lands, railroads, territories, manufactures and private land claims.
His chief efforts during his term as Senator, were to secure a set- tlement of the Indian war claims of Oregon ; to promote the com- pletion of the Northern Pacific Railway ; to obtain liberal appropria- tions for the surveys and improvement of the rivers and harbors of Oregon, and the Pacific Northwest coast ; and the extension of the government surveys of the public lands west of the Rocky Moun- tains. He also labored constantly for the modification of our treaties with China, and for the enactment of laws excluding the Chinese from immigrating to this country. He made speeches on the extension of time to the Northern Pacific Railway Company, for the completion of this road, on the several Chinese Exclusion Bills, and in secret session on the ratification of the treaty with China, modifying the Burlingame Treaty of eighteen hundred and sixty- eight, and on other subjects.
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