USA > Maine > Maine; a history, Volume IV > Part 41
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Mr. Pinkham was united in marriage, Novem- ber 10, 1880, with Sarah E. McMaster, a native of Portland and a daughter of Samuel and Cad- die (Skillins) McMaster, who during their life were highly respected residents of the city but have now been deceased many years. To Mr. and Mrs. Pinkham the following children have been born : Ethel C .; Eleanor M .. who resides with her parents in Portland, and is at present assistant superin- tendent of the Sunday school of the Williston Congregational Church; Sarah B., who became the wife of Edward S. Anthoine, of Portland; Herbert N., Jr., who is now an editorial writer on the Boston Journal and resides in that city ; Helen N. and Elizabeth, who reside with their parents; and Dorothy E., who at the present time attends the Portland High School.
The Pinkhams are among the very old New England families, it having been founded as early as the year 1637, at Dover Point, New Hamp-
BIOGRAPHICAL
shire, by one Richard Pinkham, who came from Plymouth, England, and settled there. Members of the family removed from that place at an early date and settled in Maine, where, at the village of Harpswell, Elijah Pinkham, the paternal grandfather of the Mr. Pinkham of this sketch lived and died.
ALFRED MORTON GILMORE SOULE- The man whose name furnishes the title of this article needs no introduction to his fellow-citi- zens of Augusta, nor indeed to anyone within the limits of the State of Maine. As chief dep- uty of the Bureau of Inspection, Department of Agriculture, Mr. Soule is influentially connected with a group of interests vital to the well-being of the entire community.
Alfred Morton Gilmore Soule was born No- vember 7, 1879, in Woolwich, Maine, and is a son of Alfred Merritt and Agnes Delano (Gilmore) Soule. The education of Alfred Morton Gilmore Soule was received at Lincoln Academy, Bowdoin College and the Medical School of Maine.
In April, 1907, Mr. Soule first entered the serv- ice of the Department of Agriculture and in 1914 he was appointed Chief Deputy of the Bu- reau of Inspection, Department of Agriculture of Maine, charged with the enforcement of the Pure Food and Drug Law and also the laws regulat- ing the sale of commercial feeding stuffs, com- mercial fertilizers, fungicides and insecticides. This very responsible office he has since continu- ously filled with an efficiency which has secured highly beneficial and gratifying results. The poli- tical principles favored by Mr. Soule are those ad- vocated by the Republican party. He is vice- president of the Association of American Dairy, Food and Drug Officials, Food Administrator for Kennebec county and a member of the State Ad- visory Board of the United States Food Adminis- tration, the State Fuel Wood Committee, the As- sociation of Food Control Officials, the American Public Health Association, the American Associa- tion of Economic Entomoligists and the Ameri- can Academy of Political and Social Science. He belongs to the Committee of Food Production and Conservation for Maine. Among the other organizations in which Mr. Soule is enrolled are the Maine Historical Society, the Maine Academy of Science and the Zeta Psi, Theta Nu Epsilon and Alpha Kappa Kappa fraternities. He affili- ates with Lincoln Lodge, No. 3, Free and Ac- cepted Masons and the Patrons of Husbandry, No. 68. He is a member of the Protestant Episcopal Church.
Mr. Soule married, September 4, 1907, Mary Emily, daughter of William Henry and Mary Emily (Weston) Hilton, of Damariscotta, Maine, and they are the parents of the following chil- dren: Gilmore Weston; Mary Morton; Frances Gilmore; William Hilton; and David Bradford.
It would be difficult to exaggerate the import- ance of the office which Mr. Soule fills with such rare competence, and his native State has reason to congratulate herself that interests essential to her very existence are entrusted to one so worthy of the confidence reposed in him.
WILLIAM OWEN PETERSON-The Peter- son family has resided in Maine for many years, its members having made distinguished places for themselves in the life of the various communi- ties with which they have dwelt. There are vari- ous branhces in different parts of the State, but the line with which we are concerned at the present time was living at the town of Bowdoin- ham, in the early part of the nineteenth century. It was here that John H. Peterson, the father of William O. Peterson, was born September 28, 1833, though he afterwards removed to the town of Bath, and still later to Brunswick, Maine, where his death occurred March 1, 1915. In his youth he was a mechanic by trade, but was turned from this line of work by an accident, which more or less disabled him, and thereupon engaged in the grocery business, in which he made a very considerable success. He married Abbie Neal Woodside, a native of Brunswick, born June 20, 1835, and died at the age of seventy-five years. They were the parents of four children, as fol- lows: William Owen, of whom further; Nellie A., who resides at Brunswick; Frederick and Emma, both of whom died in early childhood.
Born August 13, 1857, at Bath, Maine, William Owen Peterson, oldest child of John H. and Ab- bie Neal (Woodside) Peterson, passed his child- hood and early youth there. He received an edu- cation there, attending for this purpose the local public schools. He then removed to Brunswick, Maine, with his parents, and there studied at the high school, from which he graduated in 1873. Here he was prepared for college and immediately after matriculated at Bowdoin College. He did not, however, complete his course at that institu- tion, remaining there during the years 1873 and 1874, at the end of which period he withdrew and began working for his father in the latter's gro- cery establishment. He continued at this work until the retirement of the elder Mr. Peterson in 1889, upon which William O, tool: over the man-
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agement of the business and continued it on his own account until 1898. This was the year of the outbreak of the Spanish-American War, and im- mediately Mr. Peterson sold his business and ac- companied his regiment, which was in State mili- tia, he being major. After the war Mr. Peterson spent two years as a commercial traveler, and in 1901 moved to Portland. Here he took up the insurance business, and is at present (1917) car- rying on a very successful enterprise in that line. He represents the National Life Insurance Company and holds the office of cashier in that concern. Mr. Peterson has always taken a keen interest in military matters, and at the present time holds the rank of colonel in the Maine Coast Artillery. He owns a delightful summer cottage on Casco Bay, where he spends his holidays. He has al- ways been devoted to ont-door life, and in his youth was a well known rifle shot. Mr. Peter- son is affiliated with a number of organizations of a social and fraternal order, among which should be mentioned the local lodge of the Inde- pendent Order of Odd Fellows, and the Society of United Spanish War Veterans. His wife is a member of the Universalist church in Portland, and active in advancing the cause of the same there.
William Owen Peterson was united in mar- riage, June 3, 1880, at Bowdoinham, Maine, with Mary D. Cheney, a native of that town, a daugh- ter of Abiel H. Cheney, a practicing physician there, and Caroline L. (Curtis) Cheney, his wife. Mr. and Mrs. Cheney died at the age of sixty- four and fifty-three, respectively. Mr. Cheney was a native of Springvale, while Mrs. Cheney was born at Bowdoinham. To Mr. and Mrs. Peter- son one child has been born, a son, John Arthur, February 21, 1884, in Brunswick, Maine. In the year 1902 he graduated from Deering High School, and is now connected with the firm of R. G. Dun & Company.
Mr. Peterson's many sterling qualities make him a splendid type of the useful citizen who places public interests before private ones. A gentleman of the old school, possessing the more inflexible ideas of a past generation where ques- tions of ethics and practical conduct are con- cerned, he is singularly free from the corres- ponding prejudices, a man of the day, a progres- sive business man in all matters where the meth- ods of the present do not cross swords with his convictions of the right, and his influence is a most potent one and what is even rarer always exerted in the cause of good. In the end, it is not in any of his concrete achievements, though
these are noteworthy enough, that his real power lies, and it has been said of him that not until one knows him personally can he form a judgment of his actual worth. Behind the things a man does lies the still more important thing what he is, and it is from this final, fundamental term most of all that the virtues go forth from Mr. Peter -. son to affect the world about him. He does much, but he is more, and it is in his good citizenship and worthy and virtuons manhood that the chief value lies.
FRANK NELSON JORDAN, one of the most progressive and sucessful merchants of Lewiston, Maine, while not a native of that city, comes of good old "Pine Tree State" stock, and was born in the town of Trenton. He is a son of John Wilson Jordan, also a native of Trenton, Maine, born April 4, 1847. He was a seafaring man in his youth, but save for the time spent upon the sea he made Trenton his home and there dicd, September 15, 1915. After retiring from his life on the sea, Mr. Jordan, Sr., followed farming as an occupation until the close of his life, and was well known and highly thought of in the com- munity. He married Susie J. Nichols, a native of Buxton, Maine, born January 3, 1842. Mr. Jor- dan, Sr., is survived by his wife, who still resides at Trenton, in the old Jordan home. Two chil- dren were born to them, Frank Nelson, with whose career we are especially concerned, and a daughter, Bertha Ethelyn, who is now the wife of Joseph W. Remick, of Trenton.
Born October 17, 1877, at Trenton, Maine, Frank Nelson Jordan passed his childhood and early youth in his native place. He obtained the elementary portion of his education at the local public schools, and afterwards attended the Blue Hill Academy, at Blue Hill, Maine, from which he graduated in 1896. He then entered the Bry- ant & Stratton Commerical School at Boston, Massachusetts, where he took a business course, which occupied about eight months, after which he secured a position with the E. E. Gray Com- pany, of Boston, which operated Food Depart- ment Stores. Here he learned the details of this business, and then joined the Mohican Company with which he has continued associated up to the present time. This was in the year 1910 and im- mediately afterwards Mr. Jordan came to Lewis- ton, where he took charge of the present store of that company, situated at No. 217 Main street. This establishment is the largest of its kind in Maine and everything in the line of food is sold there. From thirty-five to forty men are employed
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there continually and an enormous business is transacted. Mr. Jordan, as head of this great con- cern, is a very influential figure in the mercan- tile and business world of Lewiston. He also takes an active part in many other departments of the city's life, and is in all respects a public- spirited and energetic citizen. Nowhere is his public spirit more obvious than in connection with his membership in the Chamber of Com- merce of Lewiston. Besides being a member of this organization, lie is a director and has done not a little to promote business interests and en- terprises of all kinds in the city and the sur- rounding region. He is a conspicuous figure in the social life of the community and is a mem- ber of many clubs, among which should be men- tioned the Rotary Club and the Advertising Men's Club. He is also affiliated with the Masonic or- der, and has been greatly interested in military matters. While a resident of Boston, Mr. Jordan was a member of the Coast Artillery Corps for a period of some six years, and was discharged upon his coming to Maine with the rank of ser- geant. In his religious belief Mr. Jordan is a Congregationalist, and he attends the Pine Street Church of that denomination of Lewiston. He is a man of strong religious instincts, and has done not a little to advance the cause of his church in the community.
Frank Nelson Jordan was united in marriage at Malden, Massachusetts, September 30, 1912, with Eliza Ann Crowe, a native of Dorchester, Massachusetts, and a daughter of Louis and Mar- tha (Money) Crowe, old and highly respected residents of that place. Mr. Crowe is deceased, but Mrs. Crowe survives him and at present makes her home at Melrose Highland, Massachu- setts.
Frank Nelson Jordan is one of the best type of New England business men, whose reputation for integrity and probity in all his transactions is unimpeachable. Of great energy and ready re- source in every emergency, his great enterprise continues to grow uninterruptedly during his en- tire career. He is extremely public spirited and always keeps the interests of the city in mind and constantly aims at serving them. He has won, not only the respect and admiration of his fellow citizens, but their affection as well, and there are very few who might claim so large a circle of friends or such devotion on the part of those who make it up. We have a term which originated in this country to express a particular type of man who, though not peculiar to our- selves, is probably more common here than any-
where else in the world. The term is that of "self-made man," which expresses with a certain pungent precision common to popular phrases a type with which we are all familiar. It is diffi- cult to discover a better example of what is meant by the term than in the person of Mr. Jordan.
GEORGE J. KEEGAN-A native of Van Buren, Maine, and an attorney of that place, Mr. Keegan, is of the third generation of his family in that locality, grandson of James Keegan, who was born in Slane, county of Meath, Ireland, Feb- ruary 15, 1803, and who sailed from Dublin, Au- gust 3, 1826. He landed at Green Island in the St. Lawrence river, September 15, 1826, and after bec, moved to the Madawaska Territory, arriving one month in River Du Loup, Province of Que- October 16, 1826. The following spring he took up land immediately below Van Buren Village, all of which is still owned and occupied by his descendants. He was a farmer in calling and hav- ing become a citizen as the result of the Web- ster-Ashburton Treaty of August 9, 1842, he affili- ated with the Democratic party and continued therein throughout his entire life, with the excep- tion of the period from the beginning of the Civil War until about 1870, when he voted with the Republican party, believing it his duty to sup- port the administration during the trying time of the war and the reconstruction era. He served a term as commisisoner of Aroostook county and in 1871 was elected register of deeds for the northern district of Aroostook, an office he filled for about fourteen years, resigning at the age of eighty-three years. His death occurred on his original farm, April 4, 1892. He married, Janu- ary 31, 1832, Lucy Parent, who was born at St. Mary's, county of Beauce, Province of Quebec, March 13, 1811, died November 1, 1894. Children of James and Lucy (Parent) Keegan: Rose Annie, born December 3, 1832; John, born December I, 1834; Thomas, of whom further; James, born April 4, 1838; Catherine, born May 28, 1840; Mary, born April 17, 1842; Elizabeth Ann, born Jann- ary 13, 1844; Michael, born April 9, 1846; So- phia, born November 3, 1848; Peter Charles, born May 13, 1859.
Thomas, son of James and Lucy (Parent) Kee- gan, was born August 9, 1836. His occupation was that of farmer and for forty years he was the first selectman of his town, also representing his district in the Maine Legislature for several terms. He married, at Van Buren, Maine, August 31, 1852, Eugenie Du Bay, a direct descendant of Maturin Du Bay, who emigrated to Canada from
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HISTORY OF MAINE
La Chapelle Detrer, Eveche de Lucon, France, in 1631, settling at Ouelle river, Canada, and ma- ternally a direct descendant of Louis Habert, who emigrated to Canada from Paris, France, in 1617, becoming the first settler of the city of Quebec and one of the most active pioneers in its devel- opment, his residence the first built in the upper city. (See Dictionnaire Genealogique des Familles Canadiennes, by Tanguay.) Children of Thomas and Eugenie (Du Bay) Keegan: Joseph A., born August 16, 1855; Lydia M., born February II, 1870, married Walter Greenier; Omar C., born April 24, 1872, married Caroline Daigle; Addis E., born August 14, 1874, married Alice Frank; An- nie M., born August 15, 1876, married Eugene Jacques; James J., born September 18, 1878, mar- ried Marie L. Bourgoin; Evie R., born March 5, 1881, now Sister Marie Eucharie, a Sister of Mercy; Lucy, born September 9, 1883, now Sis- ter Marie Eugenie, a Sister of the Good Shep- herd; George Joseph, of whom further.
George Joseph, son of Thomas and Engenie (Du Bay) Keegan, was born at Hamlin, Aroos- took county, Maine, October 5, 1885. He was early thrown on his own responsibility and his present high standing in the law shows how well he rose to the occasion. When George J. Kee- gan was fourteen years of age, his father, not satisfied with his record at the Van Buren Col- lege Preparatory School, told him "to go back to school and work or go out and earn his own liv- ing." He chose the latter course and immedi- ately secured employment as a mule driver on railroad construction work. At the age of eighteen while employed as a lumber surveyor, he was active in unionizing his fellow workmen, and later was instrumental in organizing a strike which proved to be the turning point in his career, as legal complications arising from the arrest of a large number of strikers, including himself, di- rected his attention to the field of law, which he determined to make his profession. After hav- ing been engaged as a wood worker, an electri- cal worker, a street car conductor, and teacher, during which time he devoted every spare mo- ment to study, he finally entered the University of Maine College of Law, completing his course in 1913 and immediately was admitted to the bar. Since that time Mr. Keegan has conducted a suc- cessful practice in Van Buren, and has gained worthy reputation among his professional breth- ren and the general public for ability and integ- rity. In his political faith he is a Democrat, and is town agent for Van Buren, also bail commis- sioner. He is a trustee of the Van Buren Light
and Power District and the Van Buren Water District. From his college years Mr. Keegan is a member of the Phi Alpha Delta law fraternity, and a communicant of the Roman Catholic church, a fourth degree member of the Knights of Columbus, of which he is a past State advocate and past grand knight.
FRANK BAILEY WOODBURY WELCH- Among the successful business men of Port- land, Maine, in the present generation, the name of Frank Bailey Woodbury Welch stands out as an example of one whose entire career is fol- lowed with the most scrupulous concern for the rights and interests of others, who never wit- tingly harmed a fellow, even a rival in business, and who has an unsullied reputation for unim- peachable integrity and uprightness in all his dealings. Frank Bailey Woodbury Welch is a son of Alvin Francis and Mary A. (Bailey) Welch, and is a member of an old and prominent Maine family. His father was a native of Casco, Maine, where he passed his entire life, dying there at the age of sixty-five years. He held a posi- tion as steamship steward on one of the coastwise vessels plying between Portland and New York City for many years. He married Mary A. Bailey, who still resides at Portland at the age of eighty years, and they were the parents of two children, Frank B. W., and Bertha May, who be- came the wife of Judge George F. Gould, of Portland.
Mr. Welch was born November 27, 1868, at Mason City, Iowa, where his parents were resid- ing at the time, and four years later returned with them to Portland, where he has made his home ever since. It was in Portland that he re- ceived his education, attending the local public schools for this purpose, and where at the age of eighteen years he began his successful business carecr. His first position was with a local book store, the firm of Loring, Short & Harmon, where he remained for sixteen years. In 1907 he pur- chased a stencil company, to which he gave the name of the Welch Stencil and which is at the present time located at No. 24 Plumb street, Port- land. The concern is incorporated with Mr. Welch as president and now does a very large and remunerative business in that region.
Mr. Welch does not confine his activities to his business interests, however, but is a prominent figure in the public life of Portland and in many other departments of its affairs. He began while quite a young man to play an active part in local politics, and in 1903 was elected a member of the
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common council of the city. In the following year he was returned to this body and became its president, an office which he held during that term. In 1905 and 1906 he was elected to the Board of Aldermen and as member of that body rendered an important service to the community- at-large. In 1915 Mr. Welch became city clerk of Portland and is now serving his second year in that important and responsible office. Another aspect of the life of Portland with which he has been closely identified has been that connected with the military organizations of the city and State, and he has now served for twenty years in the National Guard of Maine. In the year 1890 he enlisted as a private in the Coast Artillery and was one of the first to volunteer for the Spanish- American War in 1898. He eventually became colonel of the Coast Artillery and has been an important figure in its affairs, Mr. Welch is a member of many important social and fraternal orders, among which should be mentioned the Knights of Pythias, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Sons of Veterans, the Maine So- ciety of the Sons of the American Revolution, the Society of Spanish War Veterans and the Portland Athletic Club. In his religious belief Mr. Welch is an Episcopalian and attends St, Stephen's Church in Portland.
On February 3, 1903, Mr. Welch was united in marriage at Portland, Maine, with Carry Cook Horr, a native of Portland and a daughter of Henry J. and Ellen L. (Gould) Horr, now both deceased.
Mr. Welch is a typical man of business, of the kind that has made New England famous and placed her so high among the industrial re- gions of the world. He cannot be classed with the type of men which is becoming more and more dominant in contemporary business life, whose interests in their own achievements are so narrow that they forget the welfare of the community, but with that more gracious type which is growing smaller, whose operations never dull their public spirit, and who aim at the advancement of the whole community quite as much as their own. He is the kind of man at whom the community can and does point with that of gratitude and admiration for the bene- fits which his activities have conferred upon it. Not less conspicnous than his public are his private virtues, which render him a beloved hus- band and friend, and wins him a host of compan- ions with whom his relations are of the warm- est. Both he and Mrs. Welch are conspicuous figures in the social life of the city, and have won
a well deserved reputation as delightful and hos- pitable hosts. Their charming home is the abode of cultivation and refinement as well as of those more homely virtues which form the only stable foundation for home lifc.
WESLEY MORRILL SNOW -The Snow family is a very old one in Maine and many of its members have held distinguished places in the life of the "Pine Tree State" during the many years it has resided there, while today it is spread throughout the entire region. It is represented at the present time by Wesley Morrill Snow, of Portland, the progressive and successful business man so well and favorably known to a large cir- cle of friends and associates. Mr. Snow is a son of Reuben Swift and Candace (Morrill) Snow, who for many years were prominent fig- ures in the life of Scarboro. It was there that Reuben Swift Snow was born, and during the greater part of his life he carried on agricultural operations on the valuable farm owned by him in that region. Mr. Snow, Sr., was a native of Milbourne, Quebec, Canada. They were the par- ents of four children, as follows: Edith, who died in infancy; Reuben, Jr., who resides in Portland, where he is engaged in the real estate business; Lottie B., who resides in the old Snow home at Scarboro; and Wesley Morrill.
Born November 27, 1879, on his father's home- stead at Scarboro, Maine, Wesley Morrill Snow has all his life resided in Cumberland county and has become thoroughly identified with the life and affairs of that region. His childhood was passed in his native place, where he attended the public schools until he had attained the age of eighteen years. Upon completing his studies at these in- stitutions, he entered Gray's Business College at Portland, where he took a commercial course and studied bookkeeping. Immediately upon graduating from this institution he secured a posi- tion as bookkeeper with the firm of C. H. Thomp- sont & Company, who were engaged in a large grocery business in Portland. Here he remained for a period of some three years, and at the ex- piration of that period secured a position with W. P. Carr and became a partner of that concern. This company was known as W. P. Carr & Com- pany and continued in business for a period of eight years after which the interests were pur- chased by Mr. Snow and the name was changed to that of W. M. Snow & Company. Under this style the business is being conducted with a high degree of success today, and it is at the present time in a process of rapid development. Besides
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