USA > Maine > Maine; a history, Volume IV > Part 37
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Robert E. Hone was born February 18, 1856. at New Limerick, and as a lad attended the local public schools. He took a two year course of study at Houlton Academy, and upon complet- ing his studies at the latter institution took up farming as an occupation. He has been con- sistently engaged in this line of work ever since, although for two years he owned and ran a store at Littleton. But it is in connection . ith his public carcer that Mr. Hone is probably best known in this region, having held a number of important positions of trust in the gift of the community. He is a staunch supporter of Re- publican principles and policies and is regarded as one of the leaders of his party in this part of the State. He has served as chairman of the Board of Selectmen of the township of Littleton for several years, and for twenty consecutive years has served in the responsible post of treasurer of the township. He was also a member of the school board of Littleton, serving as superinten- dent of schools for six years and was clerk of the township for a similar period. Robert E. Hone was re-elected this year as chairman of the Board of Selectmen and also as a member of the school committee of Littleton. In his religious belief Mr. Hone is an Episcopalian and attends the Church of the Good Shepherd of that denomi- nation at Houlton.
Robert E .Hone was united in marriage on July 20, 1910, in the Episcopalian church at Houlton,
with Sarah L. Noyse, a daughter of Raymond and Angeline (Green) Noyse. They are the parents of one child, Raymond Robert E. Hone, born February 18, 1912.
HENRY WILLIAM POOR-The members of the ancient American family of Poor with whom this record is principally concerned, Henry Var- num Poor and Henry William Poor, both at- tained prominence through their connection with railroad development in the United States and the publication of text-books of railroad infor- mation, the various "Poor's Manuals." Both bore high reputation as students and scholars, Henry Varnum Poor, a noted writer on economic and political subjects, and Henry William Poor an accomplished linguist, and their lives again ran parallel in their unswerving devotion to high ideals, their able sponsorship of the right, and the uplifting influence they wielded throughout long lives of usefulness and honor. Maine is the State that gave them birth, and the annals of the lives of her citizens are the richer for the chronicle of their good works.
The family of Poor was founded by Daniel Poor, who came to Newburyport, Massachusetts, from Salisbury, England, in the ship Bevis, in 1638, the line descending through his son, Daniel, and Mary Varnum, his wife; their son, Daniel, and Mehitable Osgood, his wife; their son, Sam- nel, and Deborah Kimball, his wife; their son, Ebenezer, and Susannah Varnum, his wife; to Dr. Sylvanus Poor, father of Henry Varnum Poor, and Mary Merrill, his wife. In the Merrill and Varnum lines present day members of the fam- ily hold membership in the various societies re- quiring Revolutionary ancestry, in the former through the services of Ezekiel Merrill, and in the latter through the patriotic activity of John Varnum, whose name is on the list of original lenders to the Revolutionary government.
Henry Varnum Poor, son of Dr. Sylvanus and Mary (Merrill) Poor, was born in Andover, Maine, December 8, 1812, and died in 1905. "Poor's Manual of Railroads of the United States" was founded in connection with his son, Henry W. Poor, in New York, in 1868, his pre- vious interest in railroad publications having been as manager of the American Railroad Jour- nal, from 1849 to 1862. His economic writings were of national interest and effect, a treatise published at the outbreak of the Civil War on "The Effect of Secession upon the Commercial Relations between the North and South and upon each other" being taken in its first edition by the
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Department of State for distribution abroad in order to strengthen the credit of the government by showing that the northern or loyal States possessed ample means for carrying the war to a successful conclusion, no matter the magnitude it might assume. His works on the monetary system and the tariff were widely sold and quoted. Henry V. Poor was secretary of the corporators of the Union Pacific Railroad upon the organ- ization of that road, and was appointed to se- cure subscriptions to the capital stock of the company to the amount of two millions of dol- lars, a trust he capably discharged. His of- ficial connection with the road was short, but in 1879 he was the author of "The Union and Central Pacific Railroads and their Relations to the United States," whose purpose was to dem- onstrate that the country was greatly the gainer by the advances made to these companies should the whole amount be lost. He wrote extensively on the above and allied topics, all of his works, some of them the result of deep study and long research, receiving the attention accorded only to the writnigs of men able in the command of their subject. His life was one of laborious ef- fort, dedicated, not to the acquisition of large personal fortune, but to the combatting of de- structive tendencies in the national life and to the founding of national institutions upon basic prin- ciples solid and enduring.
Henry V. Poor married Mary Wild Pierce, daughter of the Rev. John Pierce, D.D., of Brookline, Massachusetts, a graduate of Harvard University in the class of 1793.
Henry William Poor, son of Henry Varnum and Mary Wild (Pierce) Poor, was born in Ban- gor, Maine, June 16, 1844, and died in New York City, April 13, 1915. The summers of his boy- hood were spent on the old Merrill homestead in Andover, Maine, built by Ezekiel Merrill in 1791 and restored by Henry Varnum Poor, who gave zealous care to the preservation of its great natural beauties, and in 1849 he came to New York with his parents. In New York City he attended the public schools and the Mount Washington Collegiate Institute, and he pre- pared for Harvard University at the Boston Latin School. His term at college was during the Civil War, and the resulting small classes made the work of the students attending unusually profit- able because of the close personal relations that became possible under those conditions. In one of James Russell Lowell's classes Mr. Poor was one of but two students studying Italian and Spanish, and so thoroughly did he come to ap-
preciate the beauty of these tongues and the rich- ness of their classics that their reading remained a part of his lifelong recreation. He was grad- uated A.B. from Harvard in the class of 1865, later receiving his master's degree.
Coming to New York City with his father he established the firm of H. V. and H. W. Poor, beginning the publication of "Poor's Manual," a work which gained world wide acceptance as a text book of railroad information. He ac- quired large railroad interests and became en- gaged in the importation of steel rails from Nor- way in connection with railroad building. The firm of H. V. & H. W. Poor was dissolved in 1880 and in the same year Mr. Poor became a member of the firm of Anthony, Poor & Oli- phant. This firm, which dealt largely in the securities of the railroads which Mr. Poor had helped organize, later operated as Poor & Green- ough, finally as H. W. Poor & Company, Mr. Poor gaining wide recognition through the or- ganization and consolidation of numerous suc- cessful industrial enterprises. With the appoint- ment of a receiver for the firm of H. W. Poor & Company in 1908, subsequent to the disastrous panic of 1907, Mr. Poor confined himself to his publishing interests as president of Poor's Rail- road Manual Company, Inc., publishers of "Poor's Manual of Railroads," "Poor's Manual of Public Utilities," "Poor's Manual of Indus- trials," and "Poor's Handbook of Investors' Holdings."
Mr. Poor's relaxation from business cares was found in a well balanced blending of the studious and the athletic. To his family and intimates he was known as a purist in language. He knew Horace as few men have, appreciated his writ- ings, and throughout his life read Greek and Latin, also continuing his interesting pursuit of Sanskrit, Hebrew, Icelandic, and Russian. He loved books and book-making, and acquired a unique and carefully chosen library, including a first edition of Thomas A. Kempis' "Imitatio Christi," and many other rare first editions, and a collection of Americana, while among his specially bound copies were specimens of the best American book binding. He was a de- votee of the out-of-doors and during his college years was a noted athlete, possessing remarkable muscular strength. Fishing and hunting were his favorite sports in his later years, although he was fond of any pursuit that brought him close to the works and beauties of nature. He was a member of the Hakluyt Society, the Grolier Club, the New York Zoological Society,
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the Museum of Natural History, and the Sons of the American Revolution.
Mr. Poor married Constance Evelyn Brandon, daughter of A. R. Brandon, of New York City, February 4, 1880, and they were the parents of: Henry Varnum, Edith Brandon, married Briga- dier-General J. K. Cochrane, of the general staff of the British army; Roger Merrill, Pamela, and Constance Mary Evelyn.
MARY P. NOWLAND, the eldest daughter of James and Helen A. Nowland, was born in Hodgdon, Maine, November 23, 1853. She at- tended private schools in Carleton, New Bruns- wick, to which place the family moved when Mary P. was five years of age-afterward the public schools of Ashland, Maine, the town to which Adjutant Nowland went with his family in 1863 after resigning from the Fifteenth Maine Volunteers in which he held an adjutant's com- mission.
After teaching for some years, beginning at the age of sixteen, Miss Nowland went to the Normal School at Castine, from which she was graduated in 1876. Following this she taught in the schools of Stockton, Sedgwick, Deer Isle and Bridgeton, then going to her home town, Ash- land, in 1878, where she taught the Free High School for two years. While teaching in Ash- land the Hon. N. A. Luce, State superintendent of common schools, offered to her the position of assistant in the Madawaska Training School at Fort Kent, Maine. Miss Nowland succeeded to the principalship of the school on the death of its first principal, Vetal Cyr, who was given charge of the school at its establishment. She is still teaching in the Training School.
VETAL CYR, principal of the Madawaska Training School, at Fort Kent, Maine, died on September 22, 1897, at the age of fifty years. He was born in Madawaska, Maine, the son of Solo- mon and Panline (Nadeau) Cyr, a direct descend- ant on his mother's side of the Arcadians. His childhood's home was in Fort Kent, the one lo- cality in the Territory of Madawaska, where the English language is spoken by any considerable number of people and where from the beginning schools have been maintained. When the boy had grown in knowledge up to the limit of the work of the home school, and had sought further education in Houlton Academy, he found a friend in that broad minded, cultured gentleman, Mr. James C. Madigan, and a home in his family, and it was equally fortunate that in the principal
of the Academy, later the distinguished ento- mologist of the Massachusetts Agricultural Col- lege, Professor M. C. Fernald, he came under the influence of a man who intensified his grow- ing love of learning and who got such a hold upon his confidence and affection as led the pupil to follow the master when he was called to a pro- fessorship in the young and growing State Col- lege at Orono, Maine.
Vetal Cyr was graduated from the State Col- lege of Orono in 1876. And finally it was for- tunate that the young Frenchman's command of both spoken and written English had become such that employment in some of the best and largest rural schools of the State were opened to him. And it was while so teaching that he came to be known and appresiated by the two men, Hon. W. J. Corthell and Hon. N. A. Luce, one of whom was to set him finally to his work and the other to stand behind him in it almost to the end. Such was the preparation of the man who was selected to take charge of the Madawaska Training School and its establish- ment and to remain in it until his death, nine- teen years later. He was a man fitted by birth, racc, training and personality to make the school a success from the start. The good he wrought lives after him in the larger, better and more fruitful life of those who were under his in- struction. The work of Mr. Cyr was crowned with the hearty approval and commendation of the highest educational and civic authorities of the State. He was loved and honored by a host of friends, young and old. What more or real success could human ambition ask as the crown of life?
JOHN AUGUSTUS DONOVAN, M.D., physi- cian and surgeon, was born in Houlton, Maine, Au- gust 4, 1841. His childhood and early life were spent at his native town, where he acquired the elementary part of his education in the district schools and at the Ricker Classical Institute, then called the Houl- ton Academy. In 1861 he entered St. Dunstans. College at Charlottetown, the capital of Prince Ed- ward Island. From that institution he returned to his native State, having decided in the meantime to begin the study of medicine. With that purpose in view he prepared to matriculate at the medical de- partment of the University of New York, from which he graduated in March, 1866. A few weeks later on May I of the same year, Dr. Donovan began the general practice of medicine and surgery in the city of Lewiston, Maine, where he is still engaged in practice with the same zeal and interest that charac-
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terized his work in all the years of his practice. In 1869 Dr. Donovan, feeling the need of further in- struction and study in the ever expanding science of medical and surgical practice, went again to his University alma mater for a period of six months at post-graduate work. In 1873, with the same pur- pose in view, he left his home and practice to con- tinue his professional studies in the hospitals of Eu- rope, devoting his attention mainly to surgical work and to the diseases of the eye and car. After fif- teen months of continuous work and observation in those notable and time-honored institutions. Dr. Don- ovan returned to his labors in Lewiston, where he intended to limit his practice to eye and ear work, but the claims of his former patrons to do their general and particularly their surgical service were so pressing that he reluctantly abandoned his in- tention of becoming a specialist.
About the years 1885 to 1900 the medical men of Lewiston and Auburn, realizing the urgent need for hospital accommodation for the two cities and sur- rounding country, gave much time and thought to securing a desirable site and suitable building for hospital purposes. Finally a nucleus was secured by the purchase of Mr. Newman's home, formerly known as the Bearce residence on Main street. That residence and a lot of land that now forms part of the Central Maine General Hospital grounds was the hospital necleus so long desired. The purchase was made by fourteen physicians of the two cities, who gave a joint note to secure the property which was taken over later by a corporate body which now controls and manages the interests of the institution. Thus it happened that the Central Maine General Hospital had its birth and the beginning of its activ- ities. Surely those physicians who acted as sponsors for its existence may justly feel a sense of comfort, if not an honest and laudable pride, in beholding that beautiful and imposing structure as well as in contemplating what it means to have such a house of refuge dedicated not only to the relief of suffer- ing humanity but to the creation of ways and means to prevent disease and to facilitate the progress of medical and surgical science. The saddest feature of the picture is that so many of the physicians who labored so earnestly to make the hospital a glorious achievement have already paid the common debt that all must pay once, and have gone to await the great awakening day.
In that hospital it was Dr. Donovan's privilege and pleasure to labor, to ohserve, to study and operate as major surgeon more than a dozen years. Then he retired from the staff service, so that younger men might take up the work. Dr. Donovan's pres- ent official relation to the hospital is surgeon emeri- tus.
His standing as a citizen and physician in this community is Lest seen in retrospect for more than half a century. In religion he is a Roman Catholic, in politics always a Democrat, a kind of faith in- herited from his revered father, but has not politi- cal ambition except for honest, intelligent and un- biased government. Yet he was once induced to ac- cept nomination and election to his State Legisla- ture as representative. It may seem singular, but it is true, that Dr. Donovan accepted nomination prin- cipally through the influence of his long time friend, the late Dr. B. F. Sturgis, who was as pronounced a Republican as Dr. Donovan is a Democrat.
Dr. Donovan's father, Jeremiah Donovan, was born in Ireland, where he lived to early manhood. Hc came to this country with an older brother, Michal, and a sister, Mary. He and his brother settled in Houlton, where they fashioned and carved from the virgin forests of northern Maine homes and competence, gaining all the while the confidence, re- spect and lasting friendship of the community in which they lived and labored. While thus engaged at pioneer life, the brothers suffered many disad- vantages, as is apparent, bad roads as we still have, no schools for a time for children soon to appear, no church of their creed for a long time, but in them the old faith was firmly planted and remained undis- turbed. Fortunately the brothers, Michal and Jerry, were unusually loyal to each other, their homes though not adjacent, were conveniently near, so they could visit often and enjoy that unsullied brother- hood which began in infancy and was terminated only by death.
Jeremiah Donovan married Anne Grimeson, who was born near Frederickton, New Brunswick. There were three children: A daughter, who died from accident in childhood; an older son, William, who devoted his time mainly to agricultural pur- suits ; and John Augustus, of this sketch.
Dr. John A. Donovan married (first) Jennie H. Sullivan, of Winthrop, Maine, the date of the mar- riage was January 16, 1872. Three children were born, John Bernard, who studied medicine mainly at McGill University and graduated at Baltimore; Wil- liam Henry, who became a dentist; and Mary Bea- trice, the youngest, who died at the age of twenty years. Mrs. Jennie H. Donovan died January 9, 1008, of acute pneumonia, which she contracted en route to Bermuda Island, a sad ending to a journey from which much pleasure was anticipated. Dr. Donovan married (second) Kate A. Joyce, a long time and dear friend of the first Mrs. Dono- van, the date of the marriage was October 26, 1909.
HARRY BANKS SAWYER, a prominent citi- zen of Bath, Maine, is a son of Elijah Field and
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Sarah Noyes (Marston) Sawyer, and was born in Bath, December 27, 1863. The Sa, yer family is of old New England origin, many of its members hay- ing become distinguished in public life, in law, in the ministry, and in various other callings. The name appears a few years after the landing of the Pil- grims, and has been an honored patronymic of men who have rendered faithful and conspicuous service to the State and Nation. It is a matter of record that eighteen men from the town of Lancaster. Massachusetts, all bearing the name of Sawyer, took part in the Revolutionary War, and one company re- cruited from that town was officered from the cap- tain down by Sawyers. John Sawyer, or Sayer, as the name was sometimes spelled, was a substantial farmer and land-holder of Lincolnshire, England. He was the father of three sons, William, Edward, and Thomas, all three of whom left England and came to this country in the ship commanded by Captain Parker, and eventually settled in Massa- chusetts.
Harry Banks Sawyer is the ninth in descent from William (1) Sawyer, the American progenitor of this branch of the family. The line comes down through William (2) the son of the immigrant, and through his son, Daniel, and his son, William (3), and his son, William (4), and his son, William (5). and his son, Benjamin, and his son, Elijah Field, the father of Harry Banks Sawyer, a prominent figure in the industrial and business life of the city of Bath in his day. A shipbuilder by occupation, he worked hi, way up to the top of the industry, and at the time of his death was the president of the Kelley-Spear Shipbuilding Company, builders of steam and sail- ing vessels, and during all the years in which he was connected with the shipbuilding industry the firm in which he was a partner, and of which he was presi (lent, constructed and launched a total of three hun- dred and forty-four vessels of all kinds, a greater number than can be claimed by any builder of wooden ships in the country. Elijah Field Sawyer married Sarah Noyes Marston, who was born in 1830, and they had five children : Emma, who died young : Ada R., married D. Howard Spear ; George. who died young; Harry Banks, of further mention : and Jennie, who died young.
Harry Banks Sawyer was educated in the Bath public schools, which having finished, he went to the Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, Massachusetts, from which he was graduated in 1886. He then took up teaching as a profession, his first position being in Washington, D. C., and from there going out to St. Paul, Minnesota, where he taught for ten years in the public schools. In 1898 Mr. Sawyer return d to his native New England, and was in the grain
business for a time, and then became associated with the Kelley-Spear Shipbuilding Company, as an assistant to his father, who was then the president of the company, but who was beginning to feel the weight of advancing years. Upon the death of the senior Mr. Sawyer, in 1906, Harry B. Sawyer was elected treasurer of the company and still crcup'. > that office, as well as that of general manager. I: addition to these duties he also serves as trustee of the People's Safe Deposit and Savings Bank and of the Bath Trust Company. In politics he is a Re- publican, and has taken an active part in that fickl of work. He represented the Seventh Ward in the Common Council in 1902, and served as alderman of the same Ward from 1903 to 1907. He is also prom- inent in fraternal circles, a member of Solar Lodge, No. 14, Free and Accepted Masons; Montgomery and St. Bernard Chapter, No. 2, Royal Arch Masters. Dunlap Commandery, No. 5, Knights Templar : .... ! Lodge No. 943, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. He also belongs to the Kennebec Yacht Club. Mr. Sawyer is a liberal supporter, and with his fam- ily is an attendant at the services of the Universalist church.
Mr. Sawyer married, August 22, 1889, Gertrude Hannah Frank, daughter of Anthony and Arletta Frank, born at Bath, in 1863. One child has been born to them, Jennie Mae, at St. Paul, Minnesota. June 28, 1894.
FREDERICK P. GRAVES, one of the most popular dentists of Saco, Maine, where he has been actively in practice for the past thirty years, is a native of this State, and has spent his entire life here. He is a son of Dr. Stockbridge and Frances Ellen (Graves) Graves, of this place, and grandson of Moses Graves. Stockbridge Graves was a physician in Saco for a great many years, and was well and favorably known through- out the region. He and his wife were the parents of the following children: Frederick P., with whom we are here concerned; Roscoe S .; and Martha Ella, who became the wife of Charles L. Nickerson. Dr. Stockbridge Graves died at his home here, October 12, 1916, and his wife, Feb- ruary 15, 1909.
Born January 25, 1866, at Bath, Maine, Dr. Frederick P. Graves attended the schools of Saco for the elementary portion of his education, and after preparing himself for college at these insti- tutions entered the Dental College at Harvard University. He graduated from this school with the class of 1888 and gained his degree there. In the autumn of the same year he came to Saco, where he established himself in practice, and
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where lie has made his home ever since. He has built up a very large practice, and has taken an ac- tive part in the life of the community so that he is a well known and much respected citizen. He is a prominent and popular Free Mason, and is a member and past master of Saco Lodge, No. 9, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons; York Chap- ter, Royal Arch Masons; Maine Council, Royal and Select Masters, of which he is past thrice il- Instrious master; and Bradford Commandery, Knights Templar, and is past commander of the last named body.
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