USA > Maine > Maine; a history, Volume IV > Part 7
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Mr. Thurlough married, at Fort Fairfield, Olive Marshall, daughter of Alfred and Anlena (Wade) Marshall, and their children are: Agnes, died when an infant; Nellie E., born January 11, 1884, married Junius P. Loring, and they have one child, James Thurlough, named after his grand- father.
ALGER VEZIE CURRIER-The influence ex- erted by the artist upon the community in which he lives is not to be expressed in material terms. It is not commensurate with that of the mer- chant, the business man or even the inventor, al- though into the best of these a certain amount of art may enter. In the case of the inventor, and even more of the craftsman or artisan, the art but enhances the value of the material object at which he works and changes the degree, but not
the kind of value possessed by the article that he produces. In the case of pure art, however, in the case of music or painting, the change is one of kind rather than degree, so that no common standard can be found for the two types which cannot be compared together. But although this is true, and it must forever remain impossible to compare the work of the artist with that of al- most any other kind of man who performs a serv- ice for the community, the man of aesthetic sen- sitiveness knows by a sure instinct that the serv- ice of the artist is by its very nature a thing far greater than that of the materialist, that it is in- commensurate but the other is finite, while it is, in a sense, infinite; that is, that its effect is only limited by the capacity of those who receive its message, for, while if a man shall benefit a com- munity to the extent of a thousand dollars, noth- ing will avail either to increase or decrease that benefit, if another benefit it to the extent of a beau- tiful picture, the benefit depends solely upon how greatly those who see are capable of being moved thereby and, with their increasing appreciation, might rise beyond any limit we could set for it. It is for this reason that in speaking of the work of Alger Vezie Currier, whose death on March 16, 19II, removed one of the most youthful and promising figures from the field of American art, while it is possible to apply to his work the terms great, powerful, or whatnot, it is beyond the power of anyone to assert definitely how great or powerful it be. That it was great and not small we may be certain, however, because of the posi- tion that he held in the estimation of those whose knowledge and taste qualified them to know and judge the quality of art.
Alger Vezie Currier was a native of Hallowell, Maine, where he was born February 7, 1862, a son of Alexander and Louise (Hersly) Currier. Like him, both his parents were natives of Hallo- well, and the father was a prominent architect at this place, and for years was retained as the head draftsman of the Hallowell Granite Company. The Currier family is a very ancient one, and is descended from a distinguished English house, from which have also sprung families in various parts of Great Britain and the United States, bearing alternate forms of the same name, such as Currie, Curry, Corror and Carrier. Several of these lines were of the ancient aristocracy of England and we have the Carriers of Wirksworth, Derbyshire, bearing as their arms the following blazon: Sable, a bend between three spearheads, while the arms of the Currier or Carrier family of Gosport,
James R. Thurlough
Alger V. Currier
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BIOGRAPHICAL
Hampshire, is: Sable, a chevron ermine between three crosses crosslet argent; and the crest: Out of a ducal coronet a dragon's head vert. The Curriers were founded in this country by one Richard Currier, who was born in England about 1616, and who came to America some time prior to 1641, when we find him settled at Salisbury, Massachusetts. He was the father of but three children, but some of his immediate descend- ants had large families and the name spread rapidly over a large part of New England.
The childhood of Alger Vezie Currier was passed at his native Hallowell, and it was there that he attended school as a lad and gained his elementary education. From a very early age, however, he displayed marked artistic taste and ability, and while still a student at the local schools of Hallowell, determined to make art his life work. He gained but the most rudimen- tary knowledge of his chosen work under the local teachers, but showed so much talent and skill that he was sent by his father to the Boston Art School connected with the Museum of Art in that city, and there he studied under Profes- sor Grundmann and others the technique of char- coal drawing. He gained in proficiency with great rapidity and won the commendation of his instructors, not only for his technical skill but for a certain individuality and boldness that seemed to presage much for the future. He also studied painting in oil and when only twenty- three years of age gave an exhibition of his work in these two mediums and a few water color sketches at the rooms of the Portland Art Club, in Portland, Maine. His work was most favor- ably commented upon, and the young man wisely determined to study in Paris at the ateliers of the best modern masters. His first instruction in Paris was gained at the Academie Julien, in the classes of Boulanger and LeFebvre, where he continued his work with charcoal point, princi- pally from the nude. Under these masters the work of Mr. Currier developed greatly and gained form and character. After a year he returned for a brief visit to the United States, but four months after was again in Paris and this time placed himself under Carolus Duran and stud- ied in the private atelier of that master. Here he followed up his study of the nude, this time in oils, and supplemented this with special work in drapery and costuming painting at the Atelier Colarossi. At the close of another year M. Duran told his promising pupil that he felt that he could make more progress working in his own studio, where he would have more time and opportunity
to develop his individual tendencies than he could under further tuition, and advised him to compete for entrance to the salon. This advice was taken by Mr. Currier and its wisdom was quickly demonstrated in the development of a very distinctive and original manner and the rapid production of a number of splendid can- vasses. His work attracted no little attention and admiration in the world of the art students of Paris, and received the seal of official approval in 1888, when two pictures of his were chosen for exhibition at the salon. The works selected for this honor are divided by the judges into four classes, class one being reserved for the work of acknowledged masters. Mr. Currier's pictures were placed in class two, an honor very unusual for so young an artist and one who had so re- cently graduated from the rank of student. Shortly after this event, Mr. Currier returned to America, and on parting from his old master, Duran, that great man said to him, "I hope you will return to Paris. A great many Americans go back to the states and devote themselves to money making, forgetting their art. I want you to come back to Paris and paint for the exposi- tions, and I will do all I can for you. The time will come when you will stand in the front rank of painters."
Shortly after his return to this country Mr. Currier gave an exhibition of his work in his native town of Hallowell and shortly after an- other at Portland. He also had canvasses in sev- eral exhibits in New York City, and his work met with warm commendation everywhere. Among the efforts showed by him in this coun- try were the Salon pictures, "Déesse," and "Sante," a still later canvas, the "Mandolin Girl," as well as numbers of sketches in oils, water color, and black and white. Perhaps that which attracted most attention was "Déesse," an ex- tremely difficult subject of a nude girl against a white background, which the artist has handled with masterly skill and striking effect; but cer- tainly not less in popular favor was the "Mando- lin Girl," which many competent critics pro- nounced an advance even upon his salon pic- tures, and "Sante," an elderly bon-vivant, wlio seems to be pledging us in high good humor from the frame. These and other views of Mr. Cur- riers' work attracted marked attention in the art world generally, which soon awakened to the fact that here was a new factor in its life, a factor of force and originality which might be expected to accomplish much in pointing out new paths and ideals for his contemporaries to follow.
ME .- 2-3
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HISTORY OF MAINE
There is always a certain duty devolving upon such men as Mr. Currier, which some acano ... edge and others do not, namely that of teaching others what they themselves have learned or discovered, of imparting something of the new matter their originality and genins has recov- ered of the aesthetic meaning of life. This duty Mr. Currier recognized frankly, and though it is always more or less difficult for the creative genins, with his brain teeming with new ideas to be rendered into the concrete, to confine him- self even for a time to directing and moulding the immature ideas of his pupils, set himself to perform it. Accordingly he became instructor in drawing and painting in the Portland Society of Art, and shortly after was appointed instruc- tor in art in the Art Department at Bowdoin College. For two years he continued in this work, and then turned his attention to private classes he had formed, continuing in this line until the year 1907. It was in that year that the city of Seattle, Washington, decided to found its Art Institute, which was for "the purpose of snp- plying the artists of Seattle a permanent place where to receive instruction and display their worl :. " A rising young artist of that city, Jul- ian Itter, in association with August Wolf, presi- dent of the Spokane Chamber of Commerce, per- suaded Mr. Currier to take charge of this ini- portant work. This he consented to do and for some time after was in the West doing a not- able work for the development of art and art ap- preciation in that region. Some of Mr. Currier's original work during this period is exceedingly interesting, although in a realm quite other than that of his efforts during his period as a student and afterwards in France. It was as a decorator that he did some very notable work in Maine, one canvas particularly attracting attention. This was a large subject that he called "Honor to the Living and to the Dead." He also designed striking seals for that college and for Walker Art Building there, where he had taught for some two years. Mr. Currier's health failed, and there followed a long period of illness that finally cul- minated in his death.
Alger Vezie Currier was united in marriage, September 14, 1892, with Catharine Isabelle Moulton, a daughter of Oliver and Catharine (Shaw) Moulton. Mrs. Currier, who survives her husband, is, like him, a talented artist, and her sympathy with his aims and skill as a critic aided him greatly in the development of his tal- ent. One child was born to them, a daughter, Catharine Mace, who is now the wife of Edwin
C. Bnrleigh, assistant editor of the Kennebec Journal, of Augusta. Mrs. Burleigh is a tal- ented and accomplished musician, and inherits much of her taste for it from her father, who was devotedly fond of that art. After the death of her first husband, Mrs. Currier was married again, and is now Mrs. F. J. Thrasher, of Hal- lowell.
A word concerning Mr. Currier's attitude to his art will serve to close this all too brief sketch of a brilliant and a remarkable man. Enough has already been said to indicate that he was of a strongly independent mind and character and one not apt to fall in lightly with accepted ideals and methods, merely because they were accepted. Early in life he came under the in- finence of the great French school of modern art, and was inevitably affected by it most po- tently; so much so, that its aims and manner remained his normal atmosphere and medium of expression to the close of his life. Yet through it all there was visible the effects of his own strong personality ever struggling for a more definite and individual expression of its ideals, which Professor Johnson, of Bowdoin, very truly remarked were pnrer and more lofty than much that is discernable in modern French art. And while, too, the method and manner of this school were his own mode of expression in the main, he did not begrudge others their's, but was keenly and responsively appreciative of them. Always prompt to recognize and proclaim originality in others, he exhibited that final test of a great in- telcet, a generons tolerance, by no means incom- patible with the keenest enthusiasm for one's own linc of work, but which is, alas, none too common in artists of any variety. But although he was ever ready to acknowledge originality, that did not mean in his case that he was easily imposed upon by the countless new "schools," so called, and "isms" that are forever cropping ont in the field of art. He knew originality when he saw it, even when it appeared under strange forms, but he had no patience with the mere novelty mongers who would pass off their vagaries as originality, ap- preciating well the profound difference between the two. He perceived the taint of degeneracy in much of modern European art, and perceived the danger of its getting a foothold in this coun- try among the less virile of the younger artists, and he repelled it with all his might. He stood for the healthy, the individual, the normal in art, and was himself a living example of the dictum of Matthew Arnold, that the artist can never afford to take his eyes from his object to engage
"HONOR TO THE LIVING AND TO THE DEAD"
Elwyn M. Miles.
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BIOGRAPHICAL
in puerile pre-occupation with himself. For in art as in religion, he who seeks his life shall lose it, and it is only in self-forgetfulness in some larger objective that we attain at length to true self expression.
ELWYN M. NILES was born in Bridgewater, Aroostook county, Maine, April 16, 1892, a son of Nelson George and Myrtle (Bradstreet) Niles. He was educated at the public schools of Bridge- water, and also attended Bridgewater Classical Academy, from which he graduated in 1911. When his business life began he elected to go into that of buying potatoes and general farm- ing, later entering into partnership with R. T. Snow, general merchandise, Westfield, Maine, where he is now located. Mr. Niles settled in Westfield in 1911. He is a Republican in his politics. He has served on the board of se- lectmen of his town for four successive years, and is now a member. He is also a trial justice for his county, and treasurer of the Ministerial and School Fund of his town, and treasurer of the Westfield Electric Company. He is a mem- ber of Aroostook Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons, at Blaine, Maine, past grand of West- field Lodge, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and a member of Bridgewater Camp, Modern Woodmen of America, Bridgewater, Maine. He is a member of the Baptist church.
Mr. Niles married at Westfield, Maine, Octo- ber 8, 1913, Martha N. Chase, daughter of Nor- man W. and Carrie A. (Trueworthy) Chase, and granddaughter of Hon. Cyrus Chase, her father being a farmer. Mr. and Mrs. Niles are the par- ents of four children as follows: Mildred I., born June 27, 1914; Elwyn M., Jr., born August 29, 1915; Madeline W., born January II, 1917; and Laurel H., born July 29, 1918.
JOHN FULLER APPLETON MERRILL- The bar of Cumberland county, Maine, numbers among its members many distinguished and cap- able men and many who stand for the best tra- ditions of the legal profession in this country, but of none may this more truly be said than of John Fuller Appleton Merrill, who is well and favorably known, not only to his own large clientele but to all his colleagues and to the community in general.
Mr. Merrill is a member of a family which has lived for three generations in the State of Maine, his grandfather having come to that State and settled in the city of Portland many years ago. He was Dr. John Merrill, who was well known in
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his own profession in his day. He was a native of New Hampshire, but made Portland his home during practically his entire life, and it was here that his death occurred when he was more than seventy years of age. He married a Miss Boyd and they were the parents of four children, one of whom, Mary B. Merrill, still resides at Bethel, Maine.
Another of these children was Charles B. Merrill, the father of the Mr. Merrill of this sketch, and himself a prominent man in the com- munity. Charles B. Merrill was born in the year 1827 at Portland, and received his educa- tion in the schools of that city. He had studied for the law and was practicing his profession when the outbreak of the Civil War caused him to abandon civil life and take the sword in the defense of his country. He served with the rank of lieutenant-colonel in the Seventeenth Regi- ment of Maine Volunteer Infantry, and saw three years active service. He was twice wounded and commanded his regiment in the battles of Chan- cellorsville and Gettysburg. Upon returning from the war, he engaged in a commercial line of business in Portland, in which he was eminently successful, and was also active in local public affairs, serving as a member of the school com- mittee in Portland for many years. He was mar- ried to Abba Isabelle Little, a native of Port- land, born in the year 1834. Her death occurred in the year 1891 as did also that of her husband. They were the parents of eight children, of whoni all but two are deceased, as follows: John Ful- ler Appleton, of whom further, and Charles P. Merrill, of Portland. Mrs. Merrill, Sr., was a daughter of Josiah Stover Little, a native of Newbury, Massachusetts, and of Abba Isabella (Chamberlain) Little, his wife, a native of Ver- mont. Her father, Josiah S. Little, graduated from Bowdoin College in the famous class of 1825, one of his classmates being the poet Long- fellow. He was a very prominent man in the politics of the State of Maine, and was speaker of the State House of Representatives for two terms. He was also very well known in busi- ness and was president of the Atlantic & St. Lawrence Railroad, which has since come to form a part of the Grand Trunk Railroad, and was also one of the organizers of the Berlin Mills Lumber Company. The class of 1825 of Bowdoin College gave to the country and to the world an unusual number of brilliant and successful men, and included in its membership not only Long- fellow, but Hawthorne and President Franklin Pierce. Mr. Merrill, Sr., was also a graduate of Bowdoin.
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HISTORY OF MAINE
John Fuller Appleton Merrill was born Febru- ary 10, 1866, in the city of Portland, Maine. He began his education by attending the local pub- lic schools and graduated from the City High School in the year 1883. He then was sent to the Phillips Academy at Andover, from which he graduated in 1885, and where he was prepared for college. In the same year he matriculated at Yale University, where he took the usual aca- demic course and was graduated with the class of 1889. He had in the meantime determined upon the law as his profession in life and pro- ceeded to study his chosen subject in the office of Judge Putnam, an eminent attorney of Port- land. He then attended the Harvard Law School, was graduated with the class of 1892, and admit- ted to the bar of Cumberland county in his native State the same year. Mr. Merrill at once be- gan the active practice of his profession in Port- land and has met with a very gratifying suc- cess there. He has developed a large clientele and much important litigation passes through his office.
But Mr. Merrill has not confined his activities to his private practice. On the contrary he has given much thought and effort to public affairs and has held a number of important local offices in Portland. He has served for a number of terms as a member of the Common Council of the city and is at the present time (1917) a member of that body. He has also served on the Board of Aldermen for two years, and was a member of the City School Commission one year. He re- signed from this commission to take a place of the police board, where he served a number of years. Besides these important posts Mr. Mer- rill has also been a member of the City Hall Building Commission, and with his associates, Leighton and Pason, planned and erected the handsome new Portland City Hall in 1906. Be- sides his local offices Mr. Merrill was a member of the State Senate in 1906, serving one term on that body when he was appointed judge of the Western Circuit Court of Portland. This respon- sible office he held from 1911 until 1915 and in the latter year was appointed to the post of dis- trict attorney for a term of four years. Mr. Merrill is prominent in the general life of the community and especially so in its social and reli- gions affairs. He is a member of the Episcopal church and attends St. Luke's Cathedral in Portland, of which he has been senior warden for ten years. This is particularly interesting in view of the fact that his father and grandfather be- fore him held the same position. On June 7, 1910,
Mr. Merrill was united in marriage with Eliza- beth Payson Goddard, a native of Portland, a daughter of Judge Charles W. and Rowena C. (Morrill) Goddard.
Mr. Merrill is a man of strong and vigorous personality to which every element, physical and mental, contributes. He is the fortunate pos- sessor of good health, and his mind is an ex- tremely active and positive one which easily takes the lead in his relations with others and make him a dominant force in the sphere of his labors. He is not, however, one of those who at- tempt to impose their will upon others by a sort of aggressive insistence which serves only to gain the ill will of those about, but rather one whose judgment is so good and whose gnaging of the practical problems of life so quick and intuitive that others instinctively acquiesce in his decisions and follow the lead willingly. He is easily ac- cessible to all men and, although his time is oc- cupied by many details of his professional life, in which he is engaged, yet he always finds an op- portunity to attend to the needs of others, smali and great, and there are many who have found his assistance of timely value. He is, accordingly, highly honored by not only his immediate fam- ily and personal friends but by the community at large which regards him in the light of a leading member.
WILLIAM E. ROBINSON was born in the town of Blaine, Maine, September 13, 1862, the son of William F. and Mercy (Brown) Robinson, his father having been a native of Nova Scotia, and came to Maine when a small boy, and moved to Blaine in 1860. He built the mill at Robinson in South Blaine, in 1863, and sawed the first shingles in 1864. He brought up a family of fourteen children, his son, William E. Robinson, being the thirteenth. Two of his sons, Fred C. and Harrison H., served in the Union Army in the Civil War.
William E. Robinson was educated at the dis- trict schools of the locality, and when he reached man's estate became a farmer and lumberman. He is now the owner of two farms in the town- ship of Blaine which total two hundred and forty acres. He is a Republican in his political prin- ciples and has served for twenty-five years on the town board of selectmen, and for the past five years has been the chairman. He is a member of the Masonic order, holding member- ship in Aroostook Lodge, Blaine, and is also a member of the Grange. He attends the Baptist church.
Dr . E. Robinson
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BIOGRAPHICAL
Mr. Robinson married, at Blaine, September 22, 1883, Amber E. Ketchum, born 'at Bridgewater, Maine, February 14, 1867, daughter of John F. and Leonora (Foot) Ketchum, who for several years before her marriage had taught school. Her father, John F. Ketchum, served in the Civil War under General Sherman. Mr. and Mrs. Wil- liam E. Robinson were the parents of the fol- lowing children: I. Oscar B., born September 4, 1884; married, December 25, 1908, June B. Stevens, of Portage, Maine, and they have three chil- dren: Fred. Clinton, died May 16, 1913; Orrin Ellsworth; and James Archibald. 2. Clinton B., born Angust 31, 1888; married Helen A. Lincoln, of Mars Hill, Maine, and they have two children: Phyllis Marian and William Oscar.
THOMAS TETREAU, the energetic and effi- cient health officer of Portland, Maine, is not a native of that city at all, having come there at the comparatively recent date of 1911, since which time, however, he has had ample opportunity to identify himself most closely with the city's af- fairs and to perform for it an invaluable service. Dr. Tetreau is a member of a family which was undoubtedly of French origin but which had re- sided in Canada for a number of years. His father was Charles Tetreau, born in the Province of Quebec, Canada, in the year 1816. Charles Tetreau came in young manhood to the United States and lived for a number of years at Law- rence, Massachusetts, where his death eventually occured in the month of August, 1896, at the ad- vanced age of eighty years. He was engaged in business in Lawrence as a contracting mason and made a very considerable success thereof up to the time of his retirement. He married Ursula Vegiar, like himself a native of Canada and of French-Canadian stock. Mrs. Tetreau died at Lawrence in 1897 at the age of seventy-six years. They were the parents of fifteen children of whom Dr. Tetreau is the youngest and of whom thirteen are now living. They are as fol- lows: Charles E .; Ursula, now Mrs. Charles Daw- son; Joseph; Flavien; Peter C., deceased; Mary, now Mrs. Edwin DeMars; Frank X .; John B .; Melina, deceased, who was Mrs. Telesphore Geoffroi; Julia, who is now the wife of Captain Lewis Berney; Olive T .; George R .; Rose D .; Lucy, who is now Mrs. Louise Desjardins; and Thomas, with whose career we are especially con- cerned.
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