History of Penobscot County, Maine; with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 227

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

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115

ADDENDA.

[CHAPTER XVI .- The following additions have been received from Judge Godfrey at the eleventh hour]:

Peregrine G. White is a son of Chandler White, born in Dixmont, Maine. His early education was academ- ical. He was admitted to the Bar of Penobscot county, October, 1868; he has applied himself closely to his pro- fession in Bangor, and is taking a fine position at the Bar. The indications are that he will have good stand- ing as an advocate in the not distant future. On the occasion of the presentation of the Bar resolutions rel- ative to William T. Hilliard, Esq., recently deceased, his address to the Court produced a marked impression by both its manner and matter. After referring to their acquaintance, which dated from his admission to the Bar; to their intimacy for seven or eight years past, which grew out of the fact that they were upon the same flat and their offices were opposite each other, so that they were accustomed to meet, and perhaps visit each other's rooms almost daily ; to his kindly, generous, frank, and youthful qualities, which he manifested in such a manner "that one could scarcely realize that he was not a young but an old man," he proceeds :

He was intelligent and appreciative on almost any subject. He was a great reader of books-desultory and miscellaneous, it may be, but wide in range and variety, covering both light and solid literature. Few men, who do not make a study and profession of letters, are possessed of so thorough and intimate an acquaintance with English history and literature. . He was also a great admirer of our own historians, Irving, Prescott, Bancroft, Motley, and Parkman. I do not mean by the mention of these authors to indicate even an outline of his reading on these subjects, but merely to show that his taste was rather for historical than other literature, although he had read pretty much everything in fiction, English, French, and American.

By nature he was mild, gentle, and affable. As a neighbor he was generous, considerate, and obliging; as a friend, self-sacrificing, thought- ful, and full of the warmest sympathy. Constitutionally he was sens- ible, entertaining, and entirely free from arrogance or deceit. He has penetrated the vail and mystery which divide the living from the dead-the life we are living from the life we are to live. The prob- lem he so often expressed a desire to solve, he has at last succeeded in solving.

The above extracts give an idea of Mr. White's man- ner, as well as his idea of his friend's character, an idea which was explained by Judge Peters and C. T. Apple- ton, who both bore testimony to the kindly, genial nature of Mr. Hilliard, as well as to his good qualities as a law- yer and a citizen.

Charles P. Brown was born in Newburg, Maine. He read law with Hon. Hannibal Hamlin, then with Hon. Judge Hathaway. Was admitted to the Penobscot Bar January 7, 1840. Has been engaged in many important cases, in which he has shown what may be done by a man with brains. Has given much attention to the pro- curing of land warrants and pensions, and has been a successful practitioner. Rumor crediis him with a large fortune-with being one of the few members of the pro-

fession here favored by the god Plutus. Has been some- what engaged in politics. Has been in the municipal government, and has represented the city several times in the Legislature, and interested himself largely in keep- ing down taxation.

[CHAPTER XVII.]-We have also from Mr. Duren, the following addition to the bibliographical notice of Mrs. Laura Jane (Curtis) Bullard :

Schoolmates of No. 40; Philadelphia Ed- itor of The Revolution one year, June, 1870, to June, 1871. Previous to that, she edited: The Ladies Visitor and Drawing-Room Companion, a monthly publication, July, 1855, to November, 1860, in which were published articles written by her,- among them: The Overseer's Daughter, a tale of the South, July, 1855; Frederick Murry, the Man who Couldn't Marry a Homely Woman, August; The Love Letter, September; Parson Dole's View, October; Bea- trice, November; Cousin Ben., December; Herbert Martyn's Mistake, January, 1856 ; Air-Castles and Reali- ties, February; Our Music Teacher, March; Mrs. Mor- timer's Daughter, June; The White Sun-Bonnet, July; My Fit of the Sulks, and What Followed of It, August ; My Great American Novel, September; My Husband's Mother, October; A Simple Story, November; Ada Vincent's First Love, December; Miriam in the Desert, an Arabian tale, translated from the German, January, 1857; Jehiel's Lessons, February; The Teller's Wife, March ; The Spirit Warning, April; The Quaker's Plot, or How One Match was Made, May and June; Nathalie Maitland's Experience, July; The Planter's Inventory, from the French of Emila Souvostre, August; The New Boarder, September ; June Worcester, October ; Georgia's Journal, November; Aunt Ruth's Proverbs Illustrated, December; Mathilde, January, 1858; Before and After Marriage, February; John Salisbury's Household, March; The Step-Mother, April; Lucy Arundel, an Old Maid's Story, July; Fannie's Lovers, August; The Second Wife, a Confession, September; Rainbow, January, 1859; The Violets of Parma, translated from the French, March and April ;. The Poverty-cure, June; The Cousin's Wager, July; (the following after her marriage) Overseer's Daughter, a tale of the South, January, 1860 ; The Devoted House, April ; Hugh Forester's Revenge, July.

ANNALS OF BANGOR.

[1801.] The valuation of the town of Bangor, accord- ing to an old official record in the collection of the Ban- gor Historical Society, was as follows :

Polls, 45; 19 dwellings at 15s; 4 shops at ros; 4 tanneries, 30s; 9 barns, ros; 6 grist-mills, 7os; tillage, 109 acres, at 6s; upland mowing-

915

HISTORY OF PENOBSCOT COUNTY, MAINE.

land, III acres, 8s and 6d; meadow, 115 acres; pasture, 33 acres, 25 and 6d; woodland, 2,515 acres, Ios; unimprovable, 186 acres; horses, 3; oxen, 53; cows, 63; swine, 42; plate, 40 oz. ; tonnage of vessels, 214.

Nothing is reported of cash or stock in trade, both of which are prominent items in the returns of Hampden for the year.

[1879-81.] The following is the official statement of the amount of lumber surveyed up to October 1, 1881, compared with the amount surveyed in the same period of 1879 and 1880: 1879, 92,541,767; 1880, 87,500,- 195; 1881, 111, 814,920.

Statement of the amount of lumber surveyed from July I, to October 1, 1881, compared with the amount surveyed in the same period of 1879 and 1880 :

1879.

1880.

Green Pine.

4,324,279

3,247,936

I88I. 8,921,326

Dry Pine.

3,079,469

3,089,923

4,143,467

Hemlock, etc

4,240,419

6,124, 157

5,267,801

Spruce.

40,271,774

34,685.987

47,501,703

51,915,94I

47,148,003

65,834,297

DEXTER.

[The following should appear among the Dexter Settlement Notes. ]

The first representative of the Bridge family to settle in this county was Levi Bridge, who came here from New Hampshire in 1806. His father was a revolutionary soldier under Washington. Mr. Bridge remained there but a short time, until 1810, when he sold out but returned again in 1826. He married Sarah Bridges, who was born in 1792 and died in 1840. Mr. Bridge was born June 4, 1784, and died in Dexter in 1875. He was a farmer and never engaged in public affairs. Mr. and Mrs. Bridge had seven children: Levi, born in November, 1814, died in 1845; Sarah, born in December, 1816, died in 1844; Mary, born in September, 1820, now lives in Littleton, Massachusetts; Joseph, born in February, 1823, lives in Dexter; Lafayette, born November, 1824; Susan, born in July, 1827, died in 1828; Samuel, born in December, 1830, died in 1833; Abby, born in December, 1836, lives in Lyndesborough, New Hampshire. Lafayette Bridge, sub- ject of this sketch, married Lucretia Austin, born in July, 1830. They have no children. Mr. Bridge and his brother, Joseph, now live on the farm where their father lived in Dexter.

[ANNALS OF BANGOR, CHAPTER XXXVII .- We take es- pecial pleasure, even as the pages of this history are about to close, in adding to the biography of Captain Boutelle, of the Whig and Courier, the following fuller account of his public life, kindly prepared for this work by a friend in Bangor. The story begins with his enlistment in the navy, and appointment as Acting Master, April 8, 1862.]

After a brief period at the school of instruction at the Charlestown Navy Yard, he was ordered to report to Rear Admiral S. F. Dupont, commanding the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron, and was by him assigned to duty on board the United States steamer Paul Jones, a side-wheel, double-ender, armed with a heavy battery. On this vessel Mr. Boutelle participated in the blockade of Charleston, South Caro- lina, in the disastrous Pocataligo Expedition, in several engagements with rebel batteries on Morris Island and an exchange of rifled compli- ments with the rebel iron-clad Chicora across Charleston Bar. Also in the combined naval and military operations against the ten-gun battery on St. John Bluff, near the mouth of the St. John River, Florida, at the capture of which he commanded a battery of navy howitzers landed and served by United States marines. At the subsequent occu- pation of Jacksonville he also landed with the howitzer battery to check

the offensive demonstrations of the enemy. The Paul Jones was actively engaged in expeditions and blockading all along the South Carolina and Georgia coast and the Atlantic coast of Florida. In the fall of 1863 Mr. Boutelle was ordered to the United States steamer Sassacus, one of the new double-enders then fitting out at Boston. On this fine vessel he was Navigator and Ordnance Officer, and during her first week of service on the off-shore blockade near Wilmington, North Carolina, two valuable blockade runners were chased ashore, and destroyed by a boarding crew from the Sassacus under Acting Master Boutelle. In the spring of 1864 his vessel was ordered to Albemarle Sound, North Carolina, where the rebel ram Albemarle, similar to the Merrimac, had created havoc with our little fleet. May 5, 1864, a desperate engage- ment took place in the sound between the iron-clad Albemarle and two steam consorts and the Union wooden fleet led by the double-enders Mattabessett, Sassacus, and Wyalusing. In this fight the Sassacus sought to sink the Albemarle by ramming her at full speed, and very nearly sent her to the bottom. For some twelve or fifteen minutes the two vessels were engaged in a death grapple, when a hundred pound solid rifle shot from the iron-clad crashed through the boiler of the Sas- sacus, killing and fearfully scalding a number of the latter's crew, and temporarily disabling her, but not until a solid shot from the one hun- dred-pounder Parrott gun of the Sassacus had entered the Albemarle's port and inflicted very serious damage. The rebel iron-clad rapidly retreated to Plymouth River and remained there moored under the guns of a land battery until blown up by Lieutenant-Commander Cushing, of the navy, with his torpedo launch some months later. In the early part of the action the rebel steamer Bombshell surrendered to the Sassacus. In his report of this engagement Lieutenant-Com- mander F. A. Roe, of the Sassacus, said :

" I take great pleasure in testifying to the fine conduct of Acting Masters A. W. Muldaur and C. A. Boutelle. These officers were as cool and fearless as if at a general exercise. I respectfully recommend each for promotion to the grade of lieutenant, deserved for good be- havior and ability before the enemy in battle."

Under date of May 24 following, Secretary Welles promptly be- stowed upon Mr. Boutelle a commission declaring:

"In consideration of your gallant conduct in the action with the rebel ram Albemarle, on the 5th inst., the Department hereby promotes you to the grade of Acting Volunteer Lieutenant in the Navy of the United States."

This was the highest rank then attainable by any volunteer officer of the Navy, and there were but few instances of its being conferred in so complimentary a manner. Lieutenant Boutelle, after serving tem- porarily as Executive Officer of the United States steamer Eutaw on the James River, and convoying the ill-fated monitor Tecumseh from Norfolk to Pensacola, was ordered in the autumn of 1864 to command of the light-draught gunboat Nyanza, stationed at Berwick's Bay, Louisiana. In the winter of 1864-65 he succeeded in obtaining the trans- fer of his vessel to participate in the operations against Mobile, Ala- bama. He volunteered his vessel to pilot the proposed iron-clad as- sault, and his was the first naval vessel that passed through the obstruc tions to that city. He was immediately dispatched by Admiral Thatcher to follow the retreating rebel fleet up the Tombigbee River, and captured a boat's crew from Admiral Buchanan's flag-ship Nash- ville, and a rebel commissary steamer laden with cotton. A few days later he made a trip of nearly five hundred miles up the Alabama River, through the heart of the rebel country, bearing dispatches to our army commanders at Selma and Montgomery, terminating the Sherman- Johnston armistice, and ordering renewal of hostilities. Lieutenant Boutelle, with his vessel, participated at the surrender of the rebel naval fleet at Nannahubba Bluft by Confederate Commodore Eben Far- rand, May 10, 1865, and was afterwards ordered to the command of the naval forces in Mississippi Sound, the district extending from New Or- leans via Lake Ponchartrain to Mobile Bay, with headquarters station at Pascagoula. This closed his active service, and at his own request Lieutenant Boutelle was honorably discharged from the United States Navy January 11, 1860.

During his noval service he received the Inghest encomiums of all his superior officers in their official reports now on file in the Navy Depart- ment. Captain (now retired Rear Admiral) Steedman writes the Secre- tary that Mr. Boutelle " performed his duties in a manner to merit my approbation." Commander (now Commodore) A. C. Rhind, the heroic commander of the Keokuk in the famous assault on Sumter, states officially to the Department: " I regarded him (Mr. Boutelle) as one of the best of the volunteer appointments; officer-like in his bear- ing, intelligent, and exinbiting an interest in las professional improve- ment, gunnery and small arms, unusual in one not bred to the service."

916

HISTORY OF PENOBSCOT COUNTY, MAINE.

Lieutenant Commander (now Commodore) Francis A. Roe, in numer- ous letters, expresses his high opinion of and friendship for Mr. Bou- telle. In a letter dated July 7, 1865, to the Bureau of Navigation at the Navy Department, in reply to a request for his recommendation of an officer for special appointment, he writes :

" I respectfully recommend Acting Volunteer Lieutenant Charles A. Boutelle to the favorable notice of the Bureau. Mr. Boutelle served with me during my whole cruise of the Sassacus, as Navigator of the ship. I found him ambitious, talented, full of naval esprit du corps, and fully alive to the importance of our regular naval, etiquette. He is brave to a fault; he is intelligent and possesses the adornments of a culti- vated gentleman. I know of no others from the volunteers I could recommend."

Rear Admiral Henry K. Thatcher (since deceased), in May, 1865, as commander of the West Gulf Squadron, wrote the Secretary of the Navy: "Acting Volunteer Lieutenant C. A. Boutelle is an excellent officer. Keeps his ship in excellent order, and I consider him worthy of promotion," to the grade of Lieutenant Commander. In March, 1872, the same gallant Admiral, in a letter to George A. Thatcher, Esq., of Bangor, commended his former officer to the acquaintance and friendship of his kinsman, and said:

" My first personal knowledge of Captain Boutelle was at the mo- ment when we were preparing to attack the defences of the city of Mobile, when I made a personal inspection of all the ships that were to be used on that occasion; and the splendid order and fine disci- pline of Captain Boutelle's vessel is fresh in my remembrance, as well as the gallant and unremitting performance of all his duties as a com- mander, which followed. The patriotism and devotion to duty which he ever displayed whilst the war continued convinced me that he would prove an ornament to our service should he determine to remain in the navy.

After leaving the navy Captain Boutelle fitted out and commanded a passenger steamer on the route between New York and Wilmington, North Carolina.

On the 16th of May, 1866, he married Miss Lizzie Hodsdon, the youngest daughter of Adjutant-General John L. Hodsdon, at Augusta, Maine, and soon after engaged with the well-known house of Walsh & Carver in the shipping commission business in New York City.

Having from early boyhood a strong inclination towards journalism, he had contributed more or less of correspondence and controversial articles to political journals, and in the spring of 1870 determined to try his capacity for newspaper work. After consulting a distinguished ex-edit or whose opinion he highly valued, and who encouraged him by advice to strike out boldly, Captain Boutelle accepted the position of managing editor of the Bangor Whig and Courier, which had been tendered him by John H. Lynde, Esq., the proprietor, and he came to Bangor for three months' trial, subject to termination by either party at any time. Mr. Lynde and the local editor being called away, the new managing editor, who had never before had any experience in a news- paper office, was obliged to get out his first issue of the daily, May I, 1870, without any assistance, preparing the entire editorial, telegraphic, local, and miscellaneous matter, and reading all the proofs. His labors at this time in mastering the unfamiliar details and carrying on the ed- itorial work were very severe, but he applied himself almost literally night and day, and within a few weeks inaugurated improvements in the classification of matter and general make-up of the paper. Edito- rially the Whig at once assumed that prompt and positive character that has since distinguished it, while maintaining all its former reputa- tion for elevated moral tone and thorough reliability. The temporary relations were soon succeeded by a permanent engagement at a very liberal salary, and Captain Boutelle continued the management of the paper to the entire satisfaction of Mr. Lynde until the death of that enterprising and energetic publisher, which occurred at Savannah, Georgia, February 16, 1874, while he was on his way to Florida in the hope of restoring the health that had been undermined by years of un- remitting labor. From the first week of Captain Boutelle's engage- ment to the day of Mr. Lynde's death, the relations of the publisher and editor had been of the most cordial and confidential character, without even a momentary shadow upon the warmth of their mutual friendship.

On the 15th of May, 1874, the Whig and Courier establishment, in- cluding the daily and weekly papers, was purchased by Captain Bou- telle and Mr. Benjamin A. Burr, the former acquiring a controlling in- terest of five-eighths and assuming entire editorial charge of the paper, while the latter, who had been for a lifetime in the printing business and for twenty-two years one of the proprietors of the Bangor Jeffer- sonian (a weekly paper purchased by Mr. Lynde in 1870 and merged in

the Whig and Courier), assumed the duties of publisher and business manager. With the sense of ownership Captain Boutelle became even more vigorous and outspoken upon all public questions, and under his control the Whig has held a leading position among the influential Republican journals of the State.

In 1877 it acquired a national recognition as a logical, earnest, and unyielding opponent of what was known as the Southern Conciliation Policy of President Hayes, by which it claimed that the legally chosen Republican State governments of South Carolina and Louisiana were overthrown; and on the floor of the Maine Republican State Conven- tion of that year Captain Boutelle made an earnest and successful con- test against an endorsement of that policy advocated by Ex-Governors Chamberlain, Morrill and others. The Whig has never wavered in maintaining that the primary and paramount duty of the National Government is the full and eq tal protection of every citizen, regardless of race, color, locality or creed, in the enjoyment of all the rights guaranteed by the Constitution and the laws; and it has good-naturedly welcomed back to the old platform many of its contemporaries who, it says, were temporarily beguiled by the syren song of compromise.

In the famous contest with and triumph over the "counting-out" of the Republican majority of the State Legislature by Governor Garcelon and his Council in the winter of 1879-80, Captain Boutelle achieved special distinction as the first to give warning of the designs of the Fusion Executive Department, by persistently arousing public at- tention thereto notwithstanding the incredulity of the people and al- most every other leader of his own party. The result was a remarkable vindication of his sagacity; and the final establishment of the Constitu- tional Government on the basis of the three great deliverances of the - Supreme Court of Maine, was universally conceded to have been largely due to his vigilance, energy, and unyielding determination. The prestige of his public services in this connection added fresh im- petus to a popular movement in his behalf in the Fourth Congressional District, which culminated in his unanimous nomination as the Repub- lican candidate for Representative in Congress, on the first ballot, in the District Convention held at Bangor June 24, 1880, comprising an ex- ceptionally large number of the most eminent and influential members of the party. Such a nomination by unanimous vote at a first candi- dacy was a remarkable if not unprecedented compliment in the history of the Congressional Conventions of the State, as was also the hearty expression of approval from distinguished public men and leading newspapers of his party in all sections of the Union.

Captain Boutelle at once commenced a most vigorous personal can- vass of the District, his competitor being Hon.Geo. W. Ladd, Demo- cratic Fusionist of Bangor, who was elected Representative in 1878 by 12,921 votes against 10,095 for Hon. Llewellyn Powers, Republican in- cumbent. Placing theeditorial management of the Whig temporarily in the hands of Howard Owen, Esq., formerly of the Kennebec Journal, Captain Boutelle made over fifty public addresses, traversing the entire district, which comprises more than a third of the area of the State, and meeting everywhere most enthusiastic receptions. The campaign is conceded to have been one of the most dashing and brilliant in Maine politics, and though Captain Boutelle lacked 855 votes of being elected, he received 13, 192 against 14,047 for his competitor, thus gaining 3,097 over the Republican vote of 1878, and overcoming nearly two thousand of the previous adverse majority of 2,826. In view of the concentra- tion of opposition effort in this district, which had already been wrested from the Republicans, the result was considered highly creditable to Captain Boutelle's candidacy, and after the outcome was substantially known on election evening, he was given a splendid ovation by his Re- publican fellow-citizens of Bangor in Norombega Hall.

Devoting but a few days to closing up the business of his Maine canvass Captain Boutelle promptly responded to the summons of the' Ohio Republican State Executive Committee to take part in that State in the great October battle. He reached Cleveland September 28, and having been chosen as the member from Maine on the National Re- publican Club Committee, accompanied a deputation of that body to Mentor on that day, where they had a very cordial conference with General Garfield at his home. On the 29th Captain Boutelle spoke in behalf of Garfield and Arthur in Cincinnati, and continued on the Ohio stump until the decisively triumphant election of October 12. At Eaton and Greenville he spoke with Governor Foster, and at Shelby with ex- Governor Dennison. On the 7th of October, by special invitation of General J. Warren Keifer, now Speaker of the House of Representa- tives, Captain Boutelle was assigned and spoke with Colonel Robert G. Ingersoll to an immense gathering counted by tens of thousands, on the county fair grounds at Springfield. He closed on the evening before the election by addressing a great mass-meeting of Muskingum county

Francis Mill

MRS. ELIZABETH HILL.

917

HISTORY OF PENOBSCOT COUNTY, MAINE.

Republicans at Zanesville. After a flying trip home Captain Boutelle took the field again in New York at the urgent invitation of General Arthur, the Republican candidate for Vice President, and devoted a week to speaking at important points in that State. Captain Boutelle's ability and effectiveness as a speaker were very highly complimented in Ohio and New York, and the flattering recognition given him abroad was very gratifying to his friends in Maine. He kept in harness until the National Republican victory was achieved, and the satisfaction of having contributed to that more than compensated for his own failure to be elected.

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History of Penobscot County, Maine; with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 227

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