History of Penobscot County, Maine; with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 196

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

USA > Maine > Penobscot County > History of Penobscot County, Maine; with illustrations and biographical sketches > Part 196

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wick and Bar Harbor two trips a week, was successful in a surprising degree; and in the winter of 1878-79. a larger steamer, the City of Bangor, was built, and the Bangor and Bar Harbor Steamboat Company was formed, in which Colonel Pullen is Secretary and one of the Directors, and General Agent of the line, as he has been from the beginning. The business continued to grow, and still another steamer was required. In the winter of 1880-81 the Queen City was built, and the three vessels have during the last season had a very heavy trade, paying the stockholders handsome dividends.

Colonel Pullen has, of course, retained a lively interest in military affairs, and was long borne on the roll of the Jameson Guards as an honorary member, and assisted in its maintenance as best he could. He was one of the original members of the B. H. Beale Post, No. 12, of the Grand Army of the Republic, of Bangor, organized soon after the war, and has since been one of the most active of its members and supporters. In the winter of 1880-81 he was appointed by the Governor Commissary- General of the State, with the rank of Colonel, in which position he is now serving.

Colonel Pullen is also a Free and Accepted Mason, in which he is a member of St. John's Commandery of Knights Templars, Mount Moriah Chapter, and Rising Virtue Lodge, all of Bangor. He is also an Odd Fellow in the Oriental Lodge and the Katahdin Encampment ; a member of the Knights of Pythias and of the Knights of Honor; and is connected with several of the open societies and clubs of the city. In a number of the or- ganizations with which he is connected, he was a charter member.

Since he came to the city, Colonel Pullen has been a very active worker in the ranks of the Republican party, especially in the First Ward, where he has labored effectively against a tremendous opposition majority. He has never, however, been in anywise an office-seeker, nor has he manifested any ambition for political position, except as he could serve the interests of his party, as a member of the City Committee and in the various con- ventions of the State, county, city, and Congressional district. He has been content to remain an influential and laborious private of his party.

Colonel Pullen was married June 23, 1868, in Bangor, to Miss Hattie E. Johnson, of that place. They have resided for some years at the Penobscot Exchange.

ADOLPHUS J. CHAPMAN, ESQ.

This gentleman, a well-known lawyer and Federal war- claim solicitor of Bangor, is a native of Newburg, in this county, born on Independence Day, 1837. He was a seventh son, born of the union of William and Eliza (Mor- rill) Chapman, who occupied a farm in that town for many years. Both are now dead. The mother was daughter of Thomas Morrill, an old resident of Newburg, who died there at the age of eighty-four. Senator Morrill, of this State, is of the same blood. William and Eliza Chapman had a family of thirteen children, of whom

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HISTORY OF PENOBSCOT COUNTY, MAINE.

Adolphus was the ninth. Nine of the brothers and sis- ters are still living, all in Maine but two, who reside in California. Thomas M., the oldest, and Augustus P. re- side in Oldtown; the former being quite noted as an in- ventor, particularly of a saw-filing machine, which has at- tained popularity. Horace H. Chapman lives in Rock- land, a harness-maker and merchant; Milton C. resides in Newburg, on a farm about two miles from the ances- tral home; Charles D. is an Orrington farmer and nur- seryman. They have three sisters-Elizabeth, now wife of Captain George W. Orne, of Cape Elizabeth, near Portland; and the two sisters in California.

The young Adolphus received his elementary educa- tion in the public schools of Newburg and the Hamp- den Academy, to which he went at about the age of fif- teen, and remained in attendance several terms, when he retired with a fair academic education. He had little taste for farm life, but during his earlier manhood en- gaged in various clerkships, in teaching penmanship, and in other temporary employments. In 1859 he went to the West, first visiting Minnesota, where he remained until the next spring, engaged in lumbering and as a writing- master. He next settled in Davenport, Iowa, where he was a student in Pratt's Commercial College, a young man in his twenty-fourth year, when the War of the Re- bellion broke out. He enlisted at once as a private sol- dier in Company C, Second Iowa Infantry-Captain Brewster's company, raised in Davenport, and among the earliest recruited in the State. He was with his regi- ment in Fremont's army at St. Louis, at Bird's Point, Pilot's Knob, and other points. After about seven months' service he was taken sick of a dangerous fever, the results of which compelled his discharge from the army. He returned to the parental roof in Newburg, and assisted for a time in the labors of the farm; but in the winter of 1862-63 he obtained a situation as en- grossing clerk in the office of the Secretary of State, at Augusta, and was on duty in this capacity during the Legislative sessions of two years. In the winter of 1864-65 he transferred his services to the Provost- Marshal's office at the State capital, and while there was offered by Governor Cony a commission as First Lieu- tenant of Company E, Fourteenth Maine Infantry, ac- cepted it, and took the field at once. Upon arriving at Savannah and reporting for duty, he received immedi- ate promotion as Adjutant of the Regiment, and served in that capacity until August 28, 1865, when the regiment was mustered out of service, and he returned with it to his native State.

In the spring of 1866 Lieutenant Chapman resumed business, this time opening a variety store at Winterport. In August following, having abandoned the store, he en- tered the office of Charles P. Brown, Esq., of Bangor, to read law. He remained with him five years, as student and clerk, then purchased his extensive war-claim busi- ness, and opened an office on his own account, having meanwhile, in 1871, been admitted to the Bar of the State. His first office was over the present telegraph headquarters in Brown's Block, West Market Square. He continued here to practice law and prosecute claims

against the Government until 1879, when he removed to the spacious and pleasant office he now occupies on the second floor of the Taylor Block.

Lieutenant Chapman has been a steady Republican from the organization of the party, but has not cared to be active as a politician or to be in any way an office- seeker. The attempt to remove the artillery from the Bangor Arsenal in the winter of 1878-79, to be used in sustaining the Garcelon-Smith Government at Augusta, brought him to the front, however, and he rendered effi- cient aid in preventing the removal, personally checking the further movement of one of the loaded wagons. In February following, a paralytic shock disabled his left side, and within a week three additional but lesser shocks disabled him completely for about five weeks, and his side has never yet fully recovered from their effects. He is not a member of any of the religious or secret organi- zations, although he is a quite regular attendant upon public worship, and entertains liberal views of theology.

Mr. Chapman was united in marriage in Newburg, by the Rev. Mr. Thomas, of the Christian Church, to Miss Linda H., youngest daughter of Nathan and Mary (Jud- kins) Doane, of Newburg. They have but one child living-Lillie Adolph, born in June, 1866. They, how- ever, lost two children-a daughter named Caledonia, and an infant who died unnamed. Mr. Chapman and his family reside in a pleasant home on Ohio street, in West Bangor.

FLAVIUS O. BEAL.

This gentleman, lessee and landlord of the Bangor House, and also owner of the excellent line of Tallyho coaches to Mt. Desert, is a native of Monmouth, this State. His father, Samuel Beal, was from an old family of that place, and himself a native of it and a farmer. His ancestry was English. His mother, whose maiden name was Maria Antoinette Warren, was also born in Monmouth. They both died, within four months of each other, in 1848, when the subject of this sketch was but seven years old. They left a family of two sons and one daughter, of whom Flavius Orlando was the second-born. His natal day was June 2, 1841. He attended the public schools of Monmouth until twelve years old, when he was sent to the Towle Academy at Winthrop, and re- mained there five years, in which time he acquired the rudiments of a fairly liberal education. He then went to Augusta, where he took charge of a large milk farm for Mr. William Chisholm -- an important position for one of his years. At the expiration of about twelve months he went to Portland and learned the trade of brush-making. He remained in this work for two years, or until the War of the Rebellion broke out, when he promptly enlisted in Company E, of Portland, Captain Shaw, in the First Maine Regiment, recruited for three months service. After the expiration of its term he was considerably engaged in recruiting and other duties con- nected with the war, but, October 10, 1862, he began service as a baggage-master on the Maine Central Rail- road, running from Portland to Bangor and back. For

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HISTORY OF PENOBSCOT COUNTY, MAINE.

eight years he handled trunks and valises, and checked baggage, when he was promoted to the post of conductor on the road. He was for a year on what was then known as the "Shoo Fly" train, from Augusta to Bangor, which he took out and back regularly. When this train was dis- continued he handled temporarily the mixed trains be- tween Waterville and Bangor, and then the night train from Bangor to Boston, which he accompanied through. He held this important post until he left the road at the ex- piration of four years from the beginning of his con- ductorship. He then settled down in Bangor in June, 1874, buying the livery stock of Mr. O. M. Shaw, who was keeping the Bangor House, in whose stables the livery was then, as now, kept. About a year afterwards he bought also the livery stable of Mr. Abram Wood- ard, near the Penobscot Exchange, and ran that as a branch establishment for three years, when he closed it out and brought the stock to the principal stable on the west side. Some time before this, after Mr. Shaw retired from the Bangor House, and during the eight months of Harrison Baker's charge of it which followed, Mr. Beale kept the entire stables of the house for livery and boarding, and for transient business and coaching. He had been prospered in his business, and in the summer of 1878 he started again the enterprise of running a stage-line to Bar Harbor, on Mount Desert, which had been suspended for several years. This he has main- tained with great success and popularity, particularly in the warm season, and now has the contract, for four years, of supplying Bar Harbor with mail twice a day. He joins with this a profitable livery business at that place during the three months that tourists most fre- quent it. His coaches constitute a favorite line, being preferred by many to the sea route to Mount Des- ert, and travelers are quite enthusiastic in its praise. To serve his coaches better in getting and delivering the mail, Mr. Beale in the summer of 1881 put a beautiful little mail-wagon on the road in Bangor, for the transport of mails to and from the post-office.

January 24, 1878, Mr. Beal leased the Bangor House, and conducted it successfully for fourteen months and one week, when he re-leased it for the period of three years, which will expire the Ist of April, 1882. His management of this house has given it great fame, and the traveling public accord it a very large and profitable patronage. When he took the establishment, it was much neglected and dilapidated; nobody had ever made any money keeping it, and it was generally regarded in the city as an "elephant" on one's hands. He soon put it in apple-pie order; added thirteen new rooms to its ac- commodations, and has made it a reputable, successful, and profitable venture from the beginning. Mr. Beal is as yet in the prime of his years, and has the prospect of a long, honorable, and lucrative career. He was made a Free and Accepted Mason in 1874, in a Waterville lodge, of which he is still a member. He is a supporter of and attendant at the Independent Congregational or Unitarian Church, opposite his hotel, where the pastor of the church is a boarder.

Mr. Beal was married December 7, 1865, in Freeport,

Cumberland county, Maine, near Portland, to Miss Lucy Jane, youngest daughter of Reuben and Sarah (Brown) Randall, of that place. They have had no children.

LEMUEL NICHOLS, JR.

This gentleman, for the last ten years keeper of the Franklin House livery stable in Bangor, was born in Lis- bon, Androscoggin county, Maine, 'on the 25th day of June, 1828. He was the son of Lemuel Nichols, a native of Durham, Maine, and a farmer at Lisbon, also engaged often in teaming and removing buildings. At the early age of four, young Lemuel removed with his parents to Augusta, where his father engaged in the busi- ness of saw-milling. Here the boy came near meeting his death one day, by getting badly jammed between a pile of boards and a pile of joists, but escaped without permanent injury. Two years after the removal he lost his mother by death. The father is still living at the advanced age of ninety years, and makes his home in Bangor, in remarkable health and activity for one of his years. His son and namesake received his little school- ing mainly in Augusta and places where his father subse- quently lived-Harmony, Maine, and Bangor. He has been doing for himself, however, ever since he was ten years old. He worked first on a farm and in care of horses with the Hon. Mason W. Palmer, in West Cor- inth, for two and a half years, getting only his board and clothes for pay, but retaining a very pleasant recol- lection of Mr. Palmer and his family; he then went to East Corinth, three miles distant, where he engaged with William B. McLaughlin, then keeper of the East Corinth hotel, but later of the Franklin House, Bangor, to take care of his stable at $6 per month "and found." He remained six months with Mr. McLaughlin; and as an illustration of his temperate habits and careful economy at this time, it may be stated that in the whole half-year he used up but $1 of his wages, and the entire balance of $35 coming to him at the close. It may as well be mentioned here that Mr. Nichols has never drunk intox- icating liquor of any kind nor smoked or chewed tobacco-a truly remarkable case of abstinence for a man in his line of business. He then engaged with Mr. William S. Ordway to take care of the stage horses at East Corinth, and part of the time to drive the stage on the upper end of the route between Bangor and Brown- ville. He was now getting $9 a month, $3 more wages, and not quite so hard work. He was with Mr. Ordway, in this employment, for about eighteen months, when he went into other business. For one summer he drove a team for Mr. Willard W. Harris, now of Portland, then a store-keeper and mill-owner at Guilford, Piscat- auquis county, hauling lumber to Bangor, before the construction of the railroad.

By and by Mr. Nichols took an engagement with the stage proprietors, Messrs. Thomas Norcross & Son, who had the Bangor & Moosehead Lake stage line, and made one of their stopping places at West Charleston, where the head of the firm resided, and the son, Israel B. Nor-

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HISTORY OF PENOBSCOT COUNTY, MAINE.

cross, attended to the business in Bangor. Mr. Nichols hired to do similar work at West Charleston to that he had done at East Corinth, during part of the time, but mostly taking care of the stage horses. He staid with the Norcrosses about one year, and was married while in their employ. He returned to Guilford village, where he kept the hotel for a while, and then sold out and went back to East Corinth. Here he again engaged to take care of horses, being the first to have charge of the stable of the Parker House, which was then a new hotel, and had just been opened on the Fourth of July, 1849 or 1850. Here he bought his first horse-a pretty good one, a tough nag, which he got for only $65, in that day of comparative cheapness. He has since owned a great number, at one time, just at the outbreak of the war, having nearly one hundred in his possession. This one horse at East Corinth he kept for hire, thus making a humble beginning of his now extensive livery business. He began keeping house at this place, and by and by bought two more rather cheap horses, and began running an accommodation open wagon from that place to Ban- gor three times a week. This he kept on the road about two years, and then bought Jack Mayo, of Kenduskeag, off the same road, and ran into Bangor daily with a four- horse team and a coach for passenger business only. After a time, about 1857, he got the mail contract from Bangor to Moosehead Lake. By this date he had bought the Parker House, at East Corinth, and was conducting it himself. He had previously had experience as a land- lord in the same place, at the East Corinth Hotel, which he leased and kept for two years. After he got the Parker House he had profitable stage lines from that place to Bangor and also on the Moosehead Lake route, and made money rapidly. He built a fine, spacious public hall, connected with the Parker House, in 1860, which is still the best hall in East Corinth, and still bears the name, from him, of Nichols Hall. The next year he doubled the capacity of the Parker House stable, so as to accommodate one hundred horses at once. The car- riage-house connected with the stable was situated under his hall, and was of a size to correspond with the big- ness of his new stable. He had also now a good livery business, which added handsomely to his profits. In 1864 he sold out his hotel and furniture to James Knowles, his accommodation stage to E. H. Hunting, who still runs it to Bangor, and his Moosehead line to J. P. Webber, now the wealthy Bangor lumberman. He took in the trade with the last-named Mr. Webber's fine house in East Corinth, which burned to the ground six days afterwards, and brought him not a dollar of in- surance. He thereupon removed to Newport, where he bought the Shaw House and began a new career as land- lord, at the same time running a mail stage line from the Maine Central Railroad at Newport to Moosehead Lake. He kept the Shaw House one and one-fourth years, and sold it to Charles Sawyer, who has since kept it. He then came to Bangor and bought the livery business of O. M. Shaw, in the old Billings stable, on Main street. He presently, in February, 1866, bought out the Dwinel House, now the City Hotel, and changed its

name to the Nichols House. The fates were against him here, however ; and he closed up this business and removed to Dexter in the fall of the same year, where he re-engaged in livery and stage business, running again to Moosehead Lake from the end of the branch railroad, now built to Dexter. He staid in that place about five years, during which he operated in real estate and house- lots considerably. He kept the livery and stage business at the old Witherell place, opposite the Dexter House, considerably enlarging the stable and building on a spa- cious carriage-house. The handsome sign, "Nichols Place," which he put up there, remains to this day. Adjoining the Dexter House he built the fine business block now owned by E. C. Nichols, of Bangor, which he sold to Mr. Nichols for $7,800. He bought a large tract adjoining the town from Nathaniel Bryant, laid it off in lots, and built two dwellings upon them. Beech street, in the east part of the village, was laid off at his instance, and runs through his former property. He still holds some real estate in Dexter ; but mainly sold out there in 1871, and made his final removal to Bangor, where he has since steadfastly remained. He leased his present stand and the livery, hack, and boarding business of the Franklin House stables, of his old employer's son, Henry Mclaughlin, who, with his father, was keeping the Franklin House. In the spring of 1881 he became the owner of this valuable property, for which he paid $10,000. Every year since 1857 he has had important mail contracts, and he is now interested in eight or nine routes of this kind. One of them is run by his son, Mr. Frederick W. Nichols. Another son, Charles W. Nichols, assists him as clerk in the stable.

Mr. Nichols was married, as before stated, during his first residence at East Corinth, on the 19th day of March, 1848, to Miss Martha Ann, daughter of Elauson and Philena (Chandler) Edmunds, of that place, where the father was an harness-maker. Their daughter, however, Mrs. Nichols, was born at Farmington, Maine, in 1830. She has proved a strong, able, and very faithful and laborious helpmate of her husband from the day of their marriage unto this present. They attend the First Bap- tist church regularly, and aid liberally in its support, although not members of the society. They have had four children, all living -Minnie Frances, now Mrs. Sidney Keith, married at Dexter in the winter of 1871- 72, wife of an engineer on the Maine Central Railroad, a very smart and trustworthy man, now residing in Ban- gor ; Frederick Waldo, before mentioned, who was mar- ried about six years ago, and has a small family ; Charles Willard, also married in the spring of 1881; and Henry Lemuel, now eighteen years old, and of Boston, where he is connected with a grocery store.

Mr. and Mrs. Nichols occupy a pleasant residence in East Bangor, at No. 57 Centre street. Two of Mr. Nichols's brothers, John Nelson and Willard, respectively next older and younger than he, are buried in the ceme- tery at East Corinth ; and his widowed sister Rebecca, Mrs. J. M. Tenney, formerly of London, New Hamp- shire, now resides with him in Bangor.

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HISTORY OF PENOBSCOT COUNTY, MAINE.

ABEL HUNT.

Mr. Abel Hunt, the well-known undertaker of Ban- gor, was born in Camden, Maine, April 19, 1835. His father, Simon Hunt, was a native of Concord, Massachu- setts. He moved from there to Camden, Maine, about 1806, and was one of the pioneer settlers of that region. He was a saddler by trade, and carried on the harness business in that place till his death, which occurred when he was in the eighty-first year of his age. His memory is perpetuated in the beautiful elms which he planted in that town, and which give such a charm to the village. The venerable wife of this good old man is still living. Her maiden name was Hannah Rogers, a sister of Cap- tain Thomas Rogers, one of the early steamboat cap- tains on the Penobscot.

In the old town of Camden Abel spent most of his school days, closing his school life with a few terms at Gorham Academy. He learned the harness business in his father's shop, but did not follow it long. He early developed an enthusiasm for progressive ideas, and, in company with another young man, took hold of a patent right, and in endeavoring to push it upon the market he gives his experience quite laconically : "We made some money and traveled some; but it paid more in expe- rience than money."

It was not until about the year 1860 that ready-made coffins or caskets were introduced into the vicinity of Camden. In connection with his other business Mr. Hunt conceived the idea of purchasing a small stock for sale. After corresponding for some time he learned that he could buy best in Cambridge, Massachusetts. What a change the business has since undergone! Now no undertaker is so remote from the lines of travel but that he is often visited by salesmen of all kinds of funeral furniture and mortuary goods.

Mr. Hunt relates that when he started to sell coffins as a retailer, he used to deliver most of them in company with his father, who was the actual undertaker, in the evening, using a wheelbarrow for conveyance. The feeling of the people at that time was that they were en- gaged in a mean business. In December, 1873, Mr. Hunt removed to Bangor and entered into a partnership with Enoch H. Tibbitts. At the end of two years Mr. Hunt bought out Mr. Tibbitts and took a lease for ten years. They had an agreement in regard to the business which has been the cause of a controversy in which con- siderable money has been spent.

The business which Mr. Hunt has built up in Bangor is the result of persistent energy and close application to it. The changes have been radical during the last ten years, but Mr. Hunt has ever kept up with them and never allowed himself to be " left." For a time he has had to combat the prejudices of the people against embalming, but the public opinion is gradually working in his favor and he is enabled to adopt it more extensive- ly every year. Mr. Hunt is now pleasantly situated, with a certain and growing professional career. He possesses a liberal mind and follows with great interest the course of modern progressive thought. His appreciation of the best in literature and art is acute, and he is an eager

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History of Penobscot County, Maine; with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 196

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