USA > Maine > Maine; a history, Volume IV > Part 44
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teacher, and occupied positions of trust in his home town as well as in the county and State. Solomon Stanley was the son of Liberty Stanley, who was born in 1776, and died in 1863, and he married Hannah Fairbanks, a member of the well- known Fairbanks family of Dedham, Massachu- setts. The maternal grandfather of Francis E. Stanley was Isaac French, who was born in 1770, and died in 1835, and who married Mehitable Kezar. These families were all of the pioneer stock of New England, and were highly-respected for integrity, ability, and patriotism.
Francis Edgar Stanley was brought up in the village of Kingfield, on a farm, where he and his twin brother, Freelan O. Stanley, were known as the "Stanley twins." They were industrious, resourceful, and exceptionally fine students, their talent for acquiring knowledge far out-running the limits of the common schools of their vicin- ity. They both attended the Farmington Nor- mal School, and graduated from this institution. Francis E. Stanley became a teacher when still very young, but was ever a student. He was of an artistic temperament, and had an unusual tal- ent in portraiture. At one time he had decided on the study of the law as a profession, but the demand for his freehand drawings which he was making in increasing numbers attracted him into this line of work. In search for a larger field he removed to Auburn, Maine, where he also took up photography, and becoming very suc- cessful in it became soon one of the leading pho- tographers in Maine, with few superiors in New England. In 1883 Mr. Stanley took up a series of experiments upon the photographic dry-plate. The dry-plate in photography had been known for some time, but had not been used to any great extent. Mr. Stanley developed a formula of his own, and began the manufacture of photo- graphic dry-plates in Lewiston, Maine. His product attracted attention from one of the larg- est supply houses in the United States, which had scen the work done by some of the Stanley dry-plates in the studio of a leading photographer in Portland, Maine. A large order was placed with the Stanley Dry-Plate Company, his twin brother, Freelan O. Stanley, having joined him in the business. Automatic machinery was in- vented and installed for the manufacture of the plates in large quantities and the business de- veloped into large proportions, until the Stanley dry-plate became known throughout the world. The Stanleys continued their business in Lewis- ton for several years, building a large factory, and leaving Maine for Newton, Massachusetts, only
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when it became evident that the growth of the business required the establishment of a plant nearer the market. They built a factory in Watertown, Massachusetts, and resided in New- ton, where Mr. Stanley lived until his death. After many years of prosperity as manufacturers of the dry-plate in Newton, they sold out their patents and goodwill and all other appurtenances of the dry-plate business to the Eastman Kodak Company, of Rochester, New York.
Through his restless energy in improving com- mon things, Mr. Stanley became interested while a resident of Newton in the application of steam to the moving of a vehicle upon the highways. The story of the making of Mr. Stanley's first automobile is of great interest as showing his faith in himself and his perseverance in the face of many discouragements. He utilized and adapted 'the common type of locomotive engine which has been the standard since the days of George Stevenson, and was the first to construct a high pressure boiler of light initial weight, yet of sufficient water capacity to provide for a stor- age of a considerable amount of heat. The boiler, combined with a light weight reversing engine, and an unfailing application of gasoline fuel under perfect combustion, made a compact little power plant, which was capable of develop- ing power greatly in excess of the rated capacity. Steam pressures of two hundred pounds were considered high at the time Mr. Stanley started to build his boilers carrying from six hundred to a one thousand pounds pressure; and even today, with the exception of the flash-boiler, there are few steam boilers in use with working pres- sures over six hundred pounds, which differ ma- terially from the original Stanley boiler. The first car Mr. Stanley built resembled a common wagon with whip-socket, wire-wheels, and pneu- matic tires, and was steered by a curved handle. From the first there was no queston of its power or its speed. A company for the manufacture of these automobiles was formed, consisting of F. E. and F. O. Stanley. This was in 1897. In 1898 many cars had been built. They modified the type of their mortor carriage slowly, but kept continually adding automatic devices of their own invention, thus blazing the way in the development of the Stanley motor carriage of today. F. E. Stanley designed the first motor carriage to travel two miles in less than a min- ute. This record was made at Ormond, Florida, where the car, driven by Fred Marriott, achieved a record of a mile in 28 2/5 seconds. Marriott was later injured severely while driving a Stan-
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ley racing car, this accident causing the Stan- leys to withdraw from that time from the racing game. In 1904 F. O. Stanley was the first per- son in the world to drive a motor carriage to the top of Mt. Washington, and later F. E. Stanley broke all records of speed in a similar ascent.
Early in their business career in automobile manufacture, the Stanleys sold out their motor- carriage business to John Brisbane Walker, the editor of the Cosmopolitan Magasine, and Amzi L. Barber, both of New York, and for a time the Stanley patents were used by the Locomobile Company, as the firm was then called. The Locomobile Company shifted from the steam- type of motor cars to the gasoline type; discon- tinned making steam cars and resold to the Stan- lays all that the latter had sold to them, as well as other rights which they had in other patents. The Stanleys then returned to the manufacture of the Stanley automobile and built a large cement factory in Newton, Massachusetts. The history of the development of the Stanley car is a part of the history of the automobile in Amer- ica. While other automobile manufacturers in Europe and America shifted from the steam type of motor car to the gasoline type, the Stanleys held fast to the former, and became absolutely dominant in this type of car throughout the world.
Francis Edgar Stanley and his brother retired from control and management of the Stanley Motor Carriage Company on June 7, 1917, sell- ing their interest to a corporation of the same name, incorporated under the laws of Delaware, the president and the treasurer of which are the two sons-in-law of Mr. Stanley, Prescott Warren and Edward M. Hallett, respectively. Francis E. Stanley retained a certain minor interest in the company, but retired completely from the manu- facture of automobiles. He retained an interest in what is known as the "unit car," a develop- ment of the Stanley method of handling steam at high pressure as applied to the running of unit passenger cars or freight cars on interurban lines-in other words, a car to take the place of the interurban trolley car. One of these cars had been running successfully upon a New Eng- land Interurban Railroad, and Mr. Stanley was on his way to a conference with the engineer of this company at the time of his death. Mr. Stanley's inventive ability was not limited to these two practical inventions-the photographic dry- plate and the steam automobile-for with his brother he invented a process for manufacturing illuminating gas from gasoline and also developed
an X-ray machine when these machines were in their infancy. He and his brother also gave much attention to the theory and practical sci- ence of violin construction, and together they made violins which attracted the attention and aroused the admiration of the finest violinists in the country, among them members of the Bos- ton Symphony Orchestra.
Mr. Stanley was deeply interested in social economics, and was a life member of the N'a- tional Economic Association. He was an able and vigorous public speaker, and a writer on so- cial, economic, and mechanical subjects of un- usual power and clarity. Several of his papers on economic subjects have been published, and have proven highly-valuable constructive contri- butions to the progressive thought of the time on certain phases of economic study. He was a natural musician and did much as a patron of music to develop talent in those in whom he took an interest. He was also a remarkable story- teller, and an incomparable conversationalist with an unusual fund of humor. He loved all out- doors-the woods, the sea-shore and the lakes of Maine, where he went in the summer to live by the sea or to fish in the lakes or ponds along the northern border. His personality partook of the high purpose that pervaded his whole life. Everything was ordered on the basis of the prac- tical and the useful, whether in the material, the artistic, the idealistic or the spiritual side of life. He was concerned in all movements of human betterment. He was never a perfunctory mem- ber of any organization. He was always busy. Largely self-educated, he attained a wide and ex- act knowledge upon a great variety of practical and useful topics, and a deep insight into funda- mental principles of philosophy and fact. All his life he was a student of mathematics and physics, especially as they concerned the develop- ment of the automobile and other technical prob- lems, with which he was concerned in his life work. He shared with the pioneers in the stress and strain of the earlier days, but prosperity made no differences in his simple habits, or in his at- titude towards his fellow-man, seeking as he did always to bring into practical use his concep- tion of justice and brotherhood. Although in- ventive, artistic, musical, and creative in tem- perament, he was possessed of sound business sense. He did his own thinking on politics and upon all social and economic problems. A dis- tinctive characteristic of Mr. Stanley was his un- varying demand to "be shown" before he es- poused any policy, or supported any contention,
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and whoever undertook to "show him" was, per- force, subjected to the most rigorous examina- tion and inquiry possible-usually after the So- cratic method. He was proud of his New Eng- land lineage, and of his birth on a farm in Maine. He was devoted to his family and his home. His personal life was absolutely clean and pure. He thought on high lines and lived as he thought. He had, in short, the energy and uprightness, intellectual ability, common sense and sound judgment that distinguish the best New England blood. In addition to these qualities he was a man with an infinite capacity for enjoyment of the righteous things of life, and had a most cheer- ful nature, a kindling wit, and powers of mind and body of the highest order. He left behind him a name to honor and cherish, and a host of friends, who esteem him as one of the most remarkable men of his time, whose native mod- esty and whose aversion to publicity alone have prevented him from being even more than he was -a national figure in the world of business and invention. Besides being a member, as has been already mentioned, of the National Economics Association, he was also a member of the Eco- nomics Club of Boston, of the Monday and Tues- day Literary clubs of Newton, Massachusetts, of the Brae-Burn Country, and a member of the Hunnewell Club, which he served as president, and member and past commodore of the Booth- bay Harbor (Maine) Yacht Club.
Mr. Stanley married, January 1, 1870, Augusta May Walker, daughter of William and Mary Walker, of New Portland, Maine, and a descend- ant of Edward Woodman, who came from Eng- land to Old Newbury, Massachusetts, in 1632. Mr. and Mrs. Stanley had three children: Blanche May, who married Edward M. Hallett, of New- ton; Emily, who married Prescott Warren, of Cambridge; and Raymond Walker Stanley, who married Constance Hughs Jones, of Newton Cen- ter, now in the service of the United States, in the aviation branch. Both daughters reside in Newton, Massachusetts.
WILLIAM ORRIN COBB, M.D .- Well known and highly esteemed by his professional brethren in Gardner, where he has been identified ever since he has entered upon his practice, Dr. William Orrin Cobb is reaping already the results of his faithful work and excellent training in the healing art. He was born in Chelsea, Maine, February 18, 1869, the son of Stephen and Harriet (Searles) Cobb, botlı of them natives of Chelsea, and both now deceased. His father was a farmer by occupation, and during
the Civil War did his part in the service of his country in the hour of need.
Doctor Cobb received his preliminary education in the local schools of Chelsea, a training interrupted by the usual calls upon the time of a farmer's boy. These calls have, however, their place in the training of the youth in all those diversified needs which eventually furnish a great amount of initiative, a thing always remarked in the young men whose early life has been spent on a farm. His attendance at the public school was followed by work at Kents Hill Seminary, from which he graduated with the class of 1892. He then took a special course in Wesleyan University, and lastly went to the Dartmouth Medical School, from which he was graduated in 1899 with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. He then elected to come to Gardner, where he opened an office and has built up an excellent practice in the years that have passed since that time.
Doctor Cobb has been so busy with his profes- sional duties that he has not given much of his time to other activities. He is, however, interested and active in the support of all projects that look to the betterment of conditions in the town of his adop- tion. He has taken his part in the burdens of citi- zenship, and has been especially interested in the educational needs of the town. He is the chairman of the school board. In his political views he is affi- liated with the Republican party, and was elected to the office of State Senator. In the year 1914-1915 lie was Division Commander of the Sons of Vet- crans. He is a member of the Masonic order, of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and the Patrons of Husbandry. He and his family attend the Meth- odist Episcopal church.
Dr. Cobb married Marion Pierce, of Southport, Maine, daughter of George W. Pierce of Southport and of his wife Catherine (McMillan) Pierce, a na- tive of Stornoway, Scotland, and they have one son, Donald Pierce.
SILAS BRADLEY ADAMS-But few regions have such good cause as has New England to boast of the men whose names, forming a brilliant galaxy, are indissolubly associated with her industrial dc- velopment, whose unwearied, undiscouraged efforts liave turned in a little over a century, a rural, unde- veloped country into one of the greatest manufactur- ing communities in the world. Thousands of such "men there were who gave their whole life time, sur- rendering present ease and comfort to the building up of great business concerns which should realize the ideals they had formed, and which now, in their triumphant sequel, stand as models for the imitation
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William O. Golf
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of the world. Such a man is Silas Bradley Adams, who was born in Portland, Maine, October 17, 1863, and whose entire life has been associated with that city and its business and industrial development. He is a member of a very old New England family and exhibits in his own person the sturdy virtues and abilities which have marked a long line of worthy ancestors.
Although the line of descent is perfectly direct and easy to be traced during the residence of the Adams family in this country, there is much doubt about its origin in the old world, and several dif- ferent traditions exist among its members today. There is one, for instance, that its founder here was a Scotchman, while others variously ascribe his birthplace to Holderness, Yorkshire and Devonshire in England. If there is any choice between them or the evidence favors any one, it is perhaps the last, in which case he was a son of Robert and Elizabeth (Sharlon or Sharland) Adams and thus connected with the Ap Adams line and a cousin in some degree of Henry Adams of Braintree, from whom president Adamns was descended. However this may be, the Robert Adams in question was certainly born in Eng- land or Scotland in the year 1602 and came to this country in 1635, with his wife who had been a Miss Eleanor Wilmot and the two children who had been born to them in the old world. They came first to Ipswich of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and later lived in Salem and Newbury, where his will is dated, March 7, 1681. From this ancestor the line runs through his son, Sergeant Abraham, Robert II, John, Corporal Moses, Moses II, Silas Merrill and George Moses, the father of the Mr. Adams of this sketch. Silas Merrill Adams, was a native of Falmouth, Maine, where he was born in the month of April, 1809. His life was an active one and he was en- gaged at different times and different places in sev- eral diverse callings. He was a ship carpenter for a time and a merchant in Portland and later in Bos- ton. Still later he returned to Maine and spent the last years of his life on a farm at Deering. He mar- ried Miss Olive Elizabeth Moulton, a daughter of Elias and Mary (Skilling) Moulton, a native of Scarborough, where she was born September 24, 1812, and who died at Deering, September 29, 1888, at the age of seventy-six years. There was but one child, a son, born of this union, George Moses, the father of Silas Bradley Adams, whose birth occurred in the city of Portland, September 29, 1834. He was a farmer during practically his entire life and died at Deering, Maine, August 10, 1892. He was mar- ried December 15, 1862, at Elmira, Illinois, to Miss Hannah Rosina Adams, a daughter of John and Charlotte B. (Pratt) Adams, like himself a native
of Falmouth, Maine, where she was born August 24, 1840. They were the parents of the following chil- dren : Silas Bradley; Martha Preble; Frederick Waldemar; Olive Charlotte; Moses Parker; Henry Charles; George Palmer, and John Howard.
Born October 17, 1863, Silas Bradley Adams, eld- est child of George Moses and Hannah Rosina (Adams) Adams, has made his native city his home ever since. He received his education in the local public schools and graduated from the Deering High School in the year 1879. He also took a course in the New Hampton Institute, New Hampton, New Hamp- shire. In the year 1889 he secured a clerical position in the firm of Curtis & Son, of Portland, engaged in the manufacture of chewing gum there, having spent the preceding seven years in various minor positions with several concerns in the city. He proved him- self a valuable assistant and rapidly worked his way up with the Curtis people from position to position, gaining in the process a very complete knowledge of the various departments of the business until, upon the death of Mr. Curtis in 1897, he was ap- pointed to continue the great enterprise and man- age the estate. On the first of January in the fol- lowing year, Mr. Adams secured the incorporation of the concern under the name of the Curtis & Son Company and was himself appointed to the office of general manager and treasurer. From that time to the present he has continued to hold this responsible place and now occupies a most commanding position in the industrial world of Portland and that entire region. Under his management the plant of the company has more than doubled its annual output and is, without doubt, one of the best known manu- facturers of this popular commodity in the United States. It was inevitable that a man of so much enterprise as Mr. Adams should, through his posi- tion, become connected with many other important enterprises and he is now vice-president of the American Chicle Company, president of the Pcaks Island Corporation, a water and lighting concern of Portland, president of the Royal River Packing Company, vice-president of the Southworth Machine Company of Portland, and treasurer of the Port- land-Monson Slate Company and the Casco Paper Box Company of Portland.
Mr. Adams is a very cospicuous figure in the gen- eral life of Portland, and is affiliated with many im- portant organizations there of a social and fraternal character. He is particularly prominent in the Ma- sonic order and is a member of Deering Lodge, No. 183, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, of which he is a past master ; Greenleaf Chapter, No. 13, Royal Arch Masons, of which he is a past high priest; Portland Council, No. 4, Royal and Select Masters;
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Portland Commandery, No. 2, Knights Templar, Kora Temple, Ancient Arabic Order, Nobles of the Mystic Shrine; and Maine Consistory, Sovereign Princes of the Royal Secret and has attained his thirty-third degree in Free Masonry. He is a mem- ber of Unity Lodge, No. 3, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and a past grand thereof. He is a member of the Republican party, as indeed are prac- tically all the members of the Adams family. Mr. Adams is devoted to out-door life and is especially fond of shooting, being indeed one of the best known marksmen in the State of Maine. He was champion trap-shooter of New England in 1912, and has been champion of Maine both in trap-shooting and as a marksman with the rifle. He and his family are members of Trinity Episcopal Church and he is a director of the Young Men's Christian Association in Portland.
On the fifth day of October, 1886, Mr. Adams was imited in marriage with Miss Aurilla Emma, a na- tive of Stockton, Maine, where she was born Sep- tember 18, 1864, and a daughter of Captain Edwin Elias and Emma (Dickey) Patterson. To MIr. and Mrs. Adams two children have been born, Eleanor W. and Waldemar P.
The influence exerted by Mr. Adams is not pos- sible to gauge by a mere enumeration of the offices held by him or the deeds he is known to have accom- plislied. These, beyond doubt, are of great value to the community, yet his distinctive influence lies rather in his personality than in any of these things. From his youth upward he has always breathed the atmosphere of culture and enlightenment which does not fail to affect his development in a most marked manner, giving to him that broad cosmopolitan out . look on life, that sure tolerance of other men, their beliefs and customs, that true democracy of thought, word and bearing, which is worth a thousand for- tunes to its possessor and more than a rich bequest to those about one. He values the permanent things, the things of true worth, and pursues them with an unwavering constancy that is remarkable through- out his entire career. The basis of his character is honor and sincerity but in addition to these he adds all the graces which are the accompaniments of thet true love of the beautiful and worthy, that is per- haps the sorest need of his countrynien.
ISABELLE FRANCES MARR, a lady well known in the life of Portland, Maine, with the af- fairs of which she has been associated for many years, is a member of a family undoubtedly a branch of the great house of Marr of Scotland, and which for a number of generations has held a conspicu- ous place in the various communities in which they
have made their homes in the State of Maine. She is a daughter of Foxwell Cutts and Rhoda (Jordan) Marr, her father, who was a native of Maine, having been a well known hotel man at Wales, in this State. He also followed the occupation of farming, but died while still in the prime of life and when his children were young. He and his wife were the parents of five children, as follows: Dennis Jor- dan, who is mentioned below; Josiah L., also men- tioned below; Elizabeth, who died in early youth; Martha M., who became the wife of E. P. S. An- drews, of Tacoma, Washington; and Isabelle Fran- ces. After the death of her husband, Mrs. Marr sold her property in Wales, Maine, and removed to Portland, where she made her home for several years, and where the children attended school for a time. She then went on to Boston, where she con- tinned to reside during the remainder of her life. and where her declining years were made happy by the devotion of her children and by the tender ministrations of her daughter Isabelle, who left nothing undone to make hier happy and contented. Mrs. Marr died at Boston, and was buried in Ever- green Cemetery, Portland, beside her husband, whose remains were removed from the cemetery at Wales at the time of his wife's death and placed by liers in Evergreen Cemetery. Mrs. Marr, who was a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, was pos- sessed of a beautiful Christian character, and ten- derly cared for her children when they were left fatherless, educating them and instilling into them the ideals of Christian charity and virtue.
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