History of Penobscot County, Maine; with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 191

Author: Williams, Chase & Co., Cleveland (Ohio)
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Cleveland, Williams, Chase & Co.
Number of Pages: 1100

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jority the next year. Although yet scarcely in the prime of life, he was nominated in the first year of his Mayor- alty as a Whig candidate for Governor. Although un- successful in his first canvass, he was triumphantly elected the next year, and after a sharp Legislative and judicial struggle over the returns in an effort to prevent his in- auguration, he was inducted into office late in January, 1838, his inaugural message being greatly complimented by the Whig organ at the State capital. He served one year, and was again a candidate for the Executive chair in 1840, against three opponents, one of whom was the Hon. Hannibal Hamlin, of the same county (then resid- ing at Hampden), who was the candidate upon the Dem- ocratic ticket. There was no election by the people, but Mr. Kent was chosen by the Legislature the follow- ing winter, and served another year at the helm of State. The next year he was a member of the important Com- mittee sent by the Legislature to Washington to repre- sent the interests of Maine in the pending negotiations concerning the Northeast boundary. Soon afterwards he recommenced practice in Bangor, again in association with Mr. Cutting. This partnership continued until he was appointed United States Consul to Rio Janeiro by President Taylor in 1849. He remained abroad four years, and then returned to his practice, with which his brother George, now of the Treasury Department at Washington, and about eighty-two years of age, presently became associated. On the 11th of May, 1859, he was appointed by Governor Morrill a Justice of the Supreme Judicial Court, and was re-appointed by Governor Cony in 1866, at the expiration of his seven-years term, leaving the bench finally in 1873, in his seventy-first year, with his powers unimpaired. He traveled with his family one year in Europe, and then, notwithstanding his advanced age, resumed practice in Bangor, undertaking a number of notable cases between 1874 and the year of his death. In 1875 he was a member of the Constitutional Conven- tion of the State, and his last public service was per- formed with distinguished honor as its President. He died at his home in Bangor, May 19, 1877, aged seventy- five years, four months, and eleven days.

Governor Kent's first wife was Sarah, daughter of Nathaniel Johnston, of Hillsborough, New Hampshire. Of this union were born one son, James, who died at Rio Janeiro; Charlotte, who married an English resident in Rio, and also died there; Kitty, who survived her mother's death but two years; and others who died young. Mrs. Kent died in 1853, soon after their return from South America; and in 1855 the Judge remarried, this time being united to Miss Abby A., daughter of the Rev. Otis Rockwood, of Lynn, Massachusetts, who still survives him, and resides in Boston, Massachusetts. They had one son-Edward, named from his father, now an undergraduate in Harvard College, and a young man of superior ability and promise.

763

HISTORY OF PENOBSCOT COUNTY, MAINE.

HON. JOHN APPLETON.

The Hon. John Appleton, of Bangor, Chief Justice of the Supreme Judicial Court of Maine, is a native of the Granite State, born at Ispwich, in New Hampshire, on the 12th of July, 1804, only son of Jonathan and Eliza- beth (Peabody) Appleton, of that town. He was de- prived of maternal care and instruction when at the ten- der age of four years, by the death of his mother, which occurred in 1808. His one sister, Eliza Appleton, grew to maturity, and was married to Mr. George Gibson, the father of Charles A. Gibson, Esq., now of Bangor, who was their only child.

After due attendance in the elementary schools of the time at his home, young Appleton took his preparatory course for college also at New Ipswich, in the Academy there. In due course he entered Bowdoin College, and was graduated with credit from that institution in the class of. 1822, when he was but eighteen years old. He began to read law with George F. Farley, Esq., of Groton, Massachusetts, and afterwards pursued his studies with his relative, the celebrated Nathan Dane Appleton, in Alfred, the shire-town of York county, Maine. He was admitted to the bar, however, in his native State, at Amherst, New Hampshire, in 1826, when scarcely more than of ull age. The same year he removed to Dix- mont, in Penobscot county, and opened an office for law practice. He remained there, however, but a few months, and then removed to Sebec, then also in Penobscot, but now in Piscataquis county, where he lo- cated in the fall of the same year. For six years he re- mained in this then remote and sparsely settled country, and finally, in 1832, came to Bangor to make another beginning of business; and here he found a permanent home, in which he has resided during the last half-cen- tury, much of the time aiding largely to give it name and fame. In his first year at Bangor he formed a partner- ship with Elisha H. Allen, Esq., under the firm name of Allen & Appleton. This relation in business existed until 1841, when it was dissolved by the election of Mr. Allen to a seat in the Federal Congress. He is now, after a long and honorable career, ex-Chancellor of the Sandwich Islands, and Minister of that country to the Government of the United States.

Judge Appleton had subsequently a partnership with John B. Hill, Esq., of Bangor, and then with his brother and former student, Moses L. Appleton, Esq. The latter association was maintained for a number of years, until it was necessarily broken by the appointment of the subject of this notice to the Supreme Judicial Bench. He had already in his profession reaped a full share of success, with its attendant reputation and honors; and in 1841, on the fifth day of March, he had been appointed Reporter of Decisions for the court of which he was ten years afterwards to become a member. He served about one year, and was the compiler and editor of volumes XIX. and XX. of the State Reports- volumes which are highly esteemed in the profession. May 11, 1852, Mr. Appleton received his first appoint- ment as Justice of the Supreme Judicial Court, in which body he has served with distinction for now thirty years.

He was re-appointed at the expiration of his term, and on the 24th day of October, 1862, upon the retirement of Chief Justice Tenney, he was elevated to the head- ship of the Court. He was re-appointed Chief Justice September 17, 1869, and again September 20, 1876, now serving his third term of seven years each, which will not expire until September of 1883.

For some years the energies of Justice Appleton were devoted in part to the preparation of a treatise on Evi- dence, which was published at Philadelphia, in 1860, and has had a very wide circulation and reputation. He is still remarkably vigorous in mind and body, although in his seventy-eighth year, and bids fair to round out a full century in eminent honor and usefulness.

Judge Appleton was married February 6, 1834, to Sarah N. Allen, who died August 12, 1874. His second wife was Annie V. Greeley, to whom he was united March 30, 1876. General John F. Appleton, a promi- nent lawyer in Bangor and a distinguished officer in the late war, deceased August 12, 1874, was the oldest son of the first marriage.

CONGRESSMAN LADD.

The Hon. George W. Ladd, Representative in Con- gress from the Fourth or Bangor District of Maine, was born in Augusta, September 28, 1818, son of Joseph Ladd, an immigrant from New Hampshire ten years be- fore. His father was an extensive merchant, lumberman, and vessel-owner, and in his later years added to the first-named business a branch in Florida, where he died in 1835. His mother was the oldest daughter of The- ophilus Hamlin, of Augusta, an immigrant from Massa- chusetts in 1784. She was a lady of unusual energy and mental power, and joined her husband cordially in his liberal schemes for the education of their child. George enjoyed the advantages of private instruction, as well as attendance upon the public schools. In due time he was sent to the University at Kent's Hill, in this State, but his preparation for college was completed under the Rev. J. H. Ingraham, the famous writer of religious novels. Financial considerations, however, obliged him to check his progress on the classic road, and he soon after ef- fected an engagement as a druggist's clerk in his native town. It is this circumstance alone that has caused him to be familiarily known as "Dr. Ladd" from that day to this. He remained with the firm, of which the junior member was an older brother of his, for six years. It was a profitable period for him, as giving him excellent opportunities for mental growth and for acquaintance with men and affairs. His business abilities were already much developed at the age of eighteen, when he was en- trusted with the sole management of an extensive drug store. He removed to Bangor two years later, in 1838, where he opened a drug store on his own account, and remained in the business with marked success for fifteen years, receiving valuable aid from his uncle, the Hon. Luther Severance, for a quarter of a century the able editor of the Kennebec Journal. During his earlier

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HISTORY OF PENOBSCOT COUNTY, MAINE.

residence here, in 1843, Dr. Ladd was united in marriage to Miss Marcia D. C. Ingraham, daughter of his former tutor, grand-daughter of the Hon. Daniel Cony, and niece of the Hon. Ruel Williams, United States Senator from Maine in 1837-42.

Dr. Ladd was one of the pioneers of the railway in- terest in Maine, giving it for years his best energies and enthusiastic support. His speeches and printed articles on this subject attracted marked attention, and were widely circulated. He began in politics as a Whig and an ardent admirer of Henry Clay. He was a member of the Whig State Committee for several years. Upon the break-up of that party in 1856, he practically retired from the political field until the Presidential canvass of 1860, when he again came to the front as a prominent member of the "Constitutional Union" or Bell-Everett party. That organization and the Douglas wing of the Democracy were co-operating to avert, if possible, the threatened disruption of the Union, and thus earned from their opponents the ironical but very honorable title of "Union Savers." At a large joint-meeting of the parties in Bangor, Mr. Ladd was presiding officer. In the next Presidential campaign he supported the claims of Gen- eral McClellan for the Presidency, and rendered the Democracy of Maine efficient service. In 1866 he was one of its delegates to the National Union Convention in Philadelphia. Two years thereafter he was the nomi- nee of the Democracy of the Fourth District for Con- gress; but they were then in a minority, and he was de- feated. In 1878, however, being renominated, this time by both the Democratic and the Greenback conventions, he was elected by a majority of nearly three thousand, in a total vote of about twenty-three thousand. Just ten years before, the Republican candidate in the same Dis- trict had been elected by a majority of nearly five thou- sand, which had been pretty closely kept good by that party down to Dr. Ladd's election. His most notable speech in the XLVIth Congress was one of considerable power on Wood's "Funding Bill," which was much read and quoted at the time. He was Chairman of the Com- mittee on Expenditures in the Post Office Department, and a member of the Committee on Banking and Cur- rency. In 1880 he was renominated and elected to Congress by a majority of 880, on the largest vote ever polled in the District. The next February, near the close of his first term, he delivered a strong speech in the House on the registry of foreign shipping, which was greatly applauded as a true representation of the great shipping interest of Maine and New England.

A biographical sketch of Dr. Ladd, prepared for the forthcoming book, "Public Men of Our Time," from which the materials of this notice are mainly drawn, closes with the following remarks :

Dr. Ladd has business capacity, and the forty years of his business life in Bangor have been marked by the closest application. Ambitious to obtain wealth, he sought it through the legitimate channels of labor and forecast, rather than by the doubtful expedients resorted to by the speculator and adventurer. His personal integrity was never ques- tioned, An extensive reader, particularly of history, he has devoted much time and thought to the subjects of finance and political econ- omy generally. As a public speaker he is fluent, self-possessed, bold in attack, and quick of repartee. His devotion to his public duties,

his uniform courtesy, and his fidelity to the interests of his constitu- ents, render him deservedly popular, and his friends indulge the hope that many years of public life and usefulness are yet reserved for him.

HON. LEWIS BARKER.

The Hon. Lewis Barker, member of the Executive Council of the State, and long a prominent attorney and political leader in Eastern Maine, is of an old English family, which has been traced back to the begin- ning of the twelfth century. It is not certainly known when his ancestors reached America, but it was at least two hundred years ago, when they are found occupying farmsteads at Exeter, New Hampshire. On the mother's side he is of the Peases of Parsonfield, among the ear- liest settlers of that part of Maine. He was born in Exeter, Penobscot county, which was named by his father and associates from the old home in the Granite State. His natal day is February 18, 1818. He was the fourth son and seventh child of Nathaniel and Sarah (Pease) Barker, who were married in Exeter, and lived there the whole of their married life. His father was killed by an accident in Bangor in 1823, at the comparatively early age of thirty-eight. The mother survived until January 6, 1880, when she passed away forever from the old home in Exeter, at the remarkable age of ninety-one.

Among the brothers of Mr. Barker are the Hon. Noah Barker, one of the most prominent citizens of Corinth, whose public services are elsewhere duly noticed in this History; and the late David Barker, Esq., who was also a native of Exeter, and resided there all his days as an at- torney, frequently relieving his severer labors, however, with the composition of a class of simple, popular poems which earned him from William Cullen Bryant the appel -. lation of "the Burns of America." Among the best known and widely circulated of his writings are "The Empty Sleeve," "The Under Dog in the Fight," "The Covered Bridge," and others, which all the English- reading world knows by heart. In 1876, after his death -which occurred two years before-his works were col- lected and privately published, under the editorship of the subject of this memoir, with a biographical sketch by Judge John E. Godfrey, of Bangor. The feeling and el- oquent eulogy pronounced by Judge Peters before the Pe- nobscot Bar formed a part of the biography. Although printed only for private circulation, the work was much viewed in the Independent and other leading journals of the day, sometimes at great length, and numerous of- fers have been made by publishing houses for its republi- cation for the general market; which it may be hoped, in the interest of popular poesy and general literature, will one day be permitted.

The young Lewis was trained mainly in the stern school of the world. He received some formal educa- tion in the rude district schools of his childhood, with four or five terms at intervals at Foxcroft Academy, dur- ing the Principalships of Dr. Stevens and Professor Ropes, 1830-34. From the age of fourteen, however, he "did for himself." He boarded two miles from the Acade-

765

HISTORY OF PENOBSCOT COUNTY, MAINE.

my, working and "doing chores" for his board, and walking to and fro in all weathers. When sixteen years old he began to teach school in a district adjoining his home, and for seven years taught more or less in that and other schools of Exeter and elsewhere. His opportuni- ties were improved, however, in perfecting himself in his studies and reading somewhat widely. About 1838 he began studying law with the Hon. A. G. Jewett, of Bel- fast, but then of Bangor, and formerly United States Minister to Peru; and then with Messrs. Kent & Cutting, the head of whom was Governor of the State and after- wards became Justice of the Supreme Judicial Court, as did also Mr. Cutting, the two sitting together upon that bench-a quite unique fact in the history of the profes- sion. With them he completed his elementary studies, and was admitted to the Bar of the State in 1841. He began business at once in Stetson, adjoining his old home, and remained there in successful and widening practice for thirty years. He then removed to Bangor, where he has since been prominent in the legal profession of the county and of Eastern Maine. He is now head of the flourishing firm of Barker, Vose & Barker, whose members are himself, Thomas W. Vose, Esq., (admitted to the partnership in 1876), and Lewis A. Barker, only son of the head of the firm, who was admitted in 1875, after an undergraduate course at Union College and a professional training at the Albany Law School.

Mr. Barker, many years after coming of age, took little more interest in politics than to do his duty at the polls, and in a quiet way in the local party councils. The out- break of the war found him a comparatively obscure, un- obtrusive country attorney. He had thus far steadily supported the Democratic party, but, moved by the new issues created by the war, and discontented with certain partisan aspects of the situation, he became an ardent working Republican, and very soon was well-known in the politics of the county and State. For the first time in his life he developed an extraordinary oratorical faculty ; and his services as a Union and Republican speaker were early in request in many States. Substantially abandon- ing his profession for the time, he gave himself and his best efforts to the great cause, and speedily won enduring fame for the pungency and power with which he pressed his arguments and appeals upon the people. He has in later years been called to the stump in New York State in every Presidential campaign since and including 1864; and has also spoken often and effectively for his party in all the New England States, in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and other leading sections of the country. Countless complimen. tary notices, from the press and from distinguished con- emporaries, have been given him in the course of his re- markable career of the last twenty years, from which a good-sized volume might be made up.

Mr. Barker's services were also soon in demand by his fellow-citizens as a legislator and public officer. In 1864 he was sent by his constituency of the Stetson, Ply- mouth, and Newport Representative District to the State Legislature, and served in the House that session; then in the Senate in 1865-66; and was returned to the House the next year, when he was made Speaker of that body, |

and served during the term. In 1870 he was again in the House, and with that closed his legislative service. He was on the Judiciary Committee of one or the other body every term of service, and Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Commitee both terms. He was also on the Elec- tions and other important committees. In 1880 he was chosen by the Legislature a member of the Executive branch of the State Government, in the Governor's Council, and rendered invaluable aid as confidentialadviser to Governor Davis, who had been his law-student in Stetson, and had just become the Chief Magistrate of the State under pe- culiarly embarrassing circumstances, after the great strug- gle over that office in the winter of 1879-80. During the whole of the conflict Mr. Barker was Chairman of the advisory committee of his party, and rendered very great aid in bringing about the result of Republican vic- tory. He is still serving with the Executive Council. Mr. Barker was a Representative to the National Repub- lican Convention of 1868, which nominated General Grant for the Presidency; was one of the committee that went to Washington to notify the General of his nomina- tion ; and was made at the convention a member of the National Republican Committee for Maine for the next four years. He was again a National delegate, to the Chicago Convention of 1880, which nominated the late General Garfield to the Presidential chair, and was on the committee on resolutions, which prepared the Republi- can platform of the campaign.

Mr. Barker was married August 2, 1846, to Miss Eliza- beth, third daughter of Colonel Frances Hill, of Exeter, and Mrs. Elizabeth (Wasson) Hill. The mother is of the family to which belongs the celebrated thinker and writer, Mr. David A. Wasson. She is still living. They have had but two children, of whom the eldest was Evvie, born May 11, 1848, and died November 3, 1872. She was regarded by her friends as a lady of great promise, and won considerable repute as a writer for the public press, in both prose and poetry, two pieces of bers at- taining large and probably enduring fame-one, the poem beginning-

Do the angels kiss good-night,

which has been set to music and widely sung, and is considered one of the sweetest things in the lan- guage. The other, " Angel Whispers," has also been - generally published as a fugitive piece in the newspa- pers of the country. The second and only surviving child is Lewis Amasa Barker, Esq., previously men- tioned as a member of the well-known law firm, who was born August 12, 1854. He was married Octo- ber 14, 1875, to Miss Maggie, daughter of the late Moses L. Appleton, Esq., a leading member of the Bar in Ban- gor in his day, and brother of Justice Appleton, of the Supreme Judicial Court. They have one child, a son, who is also named Lewis, the third of the family line bearing that cognomen.

766

HISTORY OF PENOBSCOT COUNTY, MAINE.

HON. HENRY LORD.

This gentleman, a prominent business man of Bangor, President of the Board of Trade in that city, and ex- Speaker of the House of Representatives in the State Legislature, is a native of the place, "to the manor born" May 7, 1847. His parents were Charles E. and Caro- line Lydia (Weston) Lord, old residents of Bangor. Their son Henry was educated in the public schools of the city, and also went for a time to the Bucksport Sem- inary. As soon as he was of age, however, he began his business career as a clerk for Mr. Thomas I. Stewart, a prosperous shipping broker and general commission mer- chant in Bangor; but in due time, having received a good training under Mr. Stewart, he set up an independent es- tablishment in the same business and at the identical stand where he has since remained and now is, at No. 21 Exchange street.

Mr. Lord not only began his business life in early man- hood, but also entered into politics almost as soon as he became a voter. Adopting from the beginning the prin- ciples and policy of the Republican party, he quickly be- came active and prominent in the organization of that party in his native city, and after a few years began to receive public office at its hands. He held several ward offices prior to 1872, when he was elected a member of the City Council from the Third ward, and was continued in that body by successive re-elections for three years. During his second and third years he served, by the suf- frages of his fellow-members, as President of the Coun- cil. In the fall of 1876 his field of action as a political leader and legislator was enlarged. He was elected by his party as a Representative in the State Legislature from the Bangor District, and was returned to the same house the next year, during which his business and gen- eral ability and integrity secured him the high position of Speaker of that chamber - the third office in the State.

Mr. Lord, previous to his more active business career, had read a course in legal study with Messrs. Peters & Wilson (now Wilson & Woodward, the head of the for- mer firm having become a judge of the Supreme Judi- cial Court), and with Colonel Jasper Hutchings, then and for some years since the Prosecuting Attorney for Pe- nobscot county. Although he finally chose his life-work in another vocation, and was never admitted to the prac- tice of the law, he has found the knowledge attained by his studies of much value to him in his legislative service and in his business, especially in maritime affairs, in which he has been largely concerned. He is quite ex- tensively interested in shipping, having an interest in a large number of coasting and sea-going vessels, of a con- siderable part of which he is either agent or managing owner.

Among other local honors bestowed upon Mr. Lord, he was in the spring of 1881 chosen President of the Bangor Board of Trade. He also served for some years as a member of the city School Committee, and is a Di- rector of the Mechanics' Library Association. He is now in the prime of his manhood, in good health and most energetic, efficient action in whatsoever will advance his

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History of Penobscot County, Maine; with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 191

Author: Williams, Chase & Co., Cleveland (Ohio) Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Cleveland, Williams, Chase & Co. Number of Pages: 1100

Author: Williams, Chase & Co., Cleveland (Ohio)
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Cleveland, Williams, Chase & Co.
Number of Pages: 1100