USA > Maine > Men of progress; biographical sketches and portraits of leaders in business and professional life in and of the state of Maine > Part 10
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O'NEILL, JAMES BERNARD, M. D., Portland, was born in Highgate, Vermont, October 26, 1859, son of Patrick and Bridget (Nolan) O'Neill. His early education was obtained in the district school and at Bristol and Beeman academies in Vermont, after which he attended Middlebury College four years, graduating in 1883, and studied medicine four years at Harvard Medical School, from which he received his degree of M. D. upon graduation in 1887. During his collegiate course he taught district
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MMEN OF PROGRESS.
school and as Principal of the Bristol graded school in Vermont, and while pursuing his medical studies .they have two children : Edward, born May 17, 1889, served as House Physician and House Surgeon in and Helen O'Neill, born June 10, 1892. the Carney Hospital, South Boston. In April 1887 he commenced practice in Portland, where for the
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JAS. B. O'NEILL.
past nine years he has been among the leaders of the profession in the general practice of medicine, and more especially in obstetrics and diseases of women and children. He was the first surgeon in New England to perform the operation of symphy- seotomy - the delivery of a child through an abnormal or deformed pelvis - the operation re- ferred to being performed successfully for both mother and child, at the Maine Eye and Ear In- fimary in Portland, May 10, 1894, and constituting the subject of a paper read before the Maine Med- ical Association and subsequently printed in pam- phlet form. Dr. O'Neill is a member of the Portland Medical Club, the Maine Medical Association, Maine Academy of Medicine and Sciences and the American Academy of Medicine, also the Chi Psi and Alpha M college societies, the Elks, the Foresters, the Maccabees, the Catholic Benevolent Legion, Irish-American Relief Association and the Portland Athletic Club. He is also Assistant Surgeon of the First Regiment National Guard of State of Maine Militia, with rank of Captain, having been appointed March 12, 1896. Dr. O'Neill was married June 22,
ISSS, to Miss Nellie Josephine Lynch, of Portland ;
OSGOOD, HENRY SMITH, Resident Manager of the American Express Company, Portland, was born in North Yarmouth, Maine, November 17, 1834, son of Dr. Amos and Lucy B. (Chase) Osgood. His ancestors came over from England and settled in Massachusetts at an early period in the history of the country. From them sprang the Osgoods that settled in New Hampshire, from whom Dr. Amos Osgood originated. Henry S. Osgood acquired his education in the academies at North Yarmouth, Bethel and Bridgton, Maine, from which last-named institution he graduated in 1856. He was trained for a strictly business life - although liberally edu- cated in other lines, and teaching several terms in public schools - and in March 1857 he commenced his career in the express business with George Car- penter of Augusta, Maine. In 1859 a new company
H. S. OSGOOD.
was formed under the name of the Eastern Express 'Company, in which in 1863 he became a partner. In iSSo the company sold out to the American Express Company, Mr. Osgood remaining, and since ISSo he has held the position of Manager of the
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business in Portland. Besides his public services as the local head of one of the city's most important and useful commercial institutions, Mr. Osgood has in many ways been prominent in the business and commercial life of Portland. He is President and one of the founders of the Casco Loan and Building Association, the largest institution of. its kind in the state; is a Director in the Chapman National Bank and Director in several large corpo- rations ; was for nine years Treasurer of the Maine State Agricultural Society ; is an active and influ- ential member of the Portland Board of Trade ; and has served in the City Government of Augusta as a member of the Common Council and on the Board of Aldermen. He was also a United States Revenue Officer under President Grant, and was a member of Governor Coburn's staff with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. In politics Colonel Osgood has always been a Republican. In all public mat- ters, business or political, he is recognized as a leader of great efficiency, and he is a liberal con- tributor to all worthy objects. He is a member of the Portland and Athletic clubs, and his social status is of the highest. The Portland Board of Trade Journal, as voicing the sentiment of the city's business interests, says of him : " Colonel Osgood one of the prominent and progressive business men of Portland. Well educated, and having acquired a most thorough knowledge of business, his manage- ment of his business here has been vigorous and progressive, and has met the popular demands of the public so acceptably tnat a great business has grown up, of which no complaints are ever heard among our business men, because Mr. Osgood has given close personal attention to seeing that goods or funds entrusted to his care are carefully and promptly delivered, and they know that if any com- plaint should be made, the matter would be at once satisfactorily and equitably adjusted. Hence, the American Express Company under its present busi- ness-like administration is one of the institutions in which Portland people have pride and confidence." Colonel Osgood was married December 15, 1859, to Miss Eliza Frances Sawin of Augusta, Maine ; they have one child : Wallace Chase Osgood.
PEARSON, REVEREND SAMUEL FREEMAN, Founder and Pastor of the Gospel Temperance Mission, Portland, was born in Roxbury, Massachusetts, July 16, 1841, son of William and Mary A. (Dodge)
Pearson. His American ancestor was probably John Pearson of Rowley, Massachusetts, who came from Wales in 1624, and died in 1693. The line of descent is through Samuel Pearson, son of John, . born in Haverhill, Massachusetts, July 29, 1648 ; Samuel Pearson, born in Newbury, Massachusetts, January 22. 1673 ; William Pearson, born in New- bury, in 1712 ; Samuel Pearson of Newbury, born in 1760, and William Pearson, born in 1813, father of the subject of this sketch. Samuel Freeman Pearson acquired his early education in the public schools of Roxbury and Chelsea, Massachusetts, and at a business college in Boston, and received his training for active life in the business house of Pearson, Howe & Stockman, Roxbury. After leav- ing school he was engaged in the grocery and pro- vision business until August 1862, when he enlisted for three years in the Fortieth Massachusetts Regi- ment, and served with distinction until the close of the war in 1865, being twice offered commissions and refusing to accept them. After the close of his army career he engaged in the chandlery and ship- store business in the house of Henry T. Holmes, Boston, and in 1866 established the firm of Weth- erby, Pearson & Company, as successors to Henry T. Holmes. In 1872 Mr. Pearson came to Port- land, and immediately after his conversion engaged in temperance reform work, and was President of the State Temperance Organization for more than three years, after which he became identified with and was employed by the Young Men's Christian Association for two years and a half. On the morn- ing of May 7, 1878, Mr. Pearson was about to leave the city to engage in the gospel temperance work at St. John, New Brunswick, when he was met upon the street by F. W. McKenney, the evangelist, and after consultation and due consideration as to the impera- tive needs of the city, both from a religious and temperance standpoint, it was then and there deter- mined that Mr. Pearson shoukl cancel his St. John engagement and enlist in the effort to establish a mission work in Portland. A search for suitable quarters in which to inaugurate the work was at once instituted, and a room in the Mechanics' Building was secured the same day. The room was immediately fitted up, although in the most humble manner - a drygoods box serving for a platform, a . washstand for a pulpit - and with a borrowed Bible the earnest missionaries began their work on the evening of May 9, less than forty hours after the inception of the undertaking. Every seat, compris- ing twenty-five chairs and four borrowed settees,
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was filled the first evening, the workers being Evan- gelist McKenney, F. E. Shaw, H. B. Smith of the Young Men's Christian Association, J. C. Murch. and Mr. Pearson. The service was both interesting and successful, one convert being secured, who afterwards remained faithful ; and the work at once took on an impetus which led to an increasing interest and the successful maintenance of the mission, with Mr. Pearson at its head, to the present time. It has long been recognized as a great power for good, and as exercising a widespread influence in behalf of temperance, morality and religion throughout the community. Mr. Pearson was ordained to the ministry August 6, 1879. During the seventeen years of his connection with the Mission, he has conducted nine thousand and sixty- four services; as a result of which four thousand seven hundred and three persons have been for- ward to the altar for prayers, and over fifteen thousand names have been added to the temperance pledge. More than seven hundred thousand per- sons have attended the services, largely those who never attend any other place of worship. Upwards of thirty-one thousand pounds of provisions have been distributed and about eight thousand articles of wearing apparel provided ; five hundred and eighty- two lodgings and one thousand seven hundred and ninety-four meals have been furnished to those in need; two hundred and two persons have been assisted to reach home or friends in other places, and five thousand six hundred and twenty dollars has been paid in cash for charny. During these seventeen years, Mr. Pearson has made eighteen thousand one hundred and eighty-six visits ainong the sick and needy, conducted four hundred and thirty funerals and married two hundred and sixty- one couples. The value of this work to the city can- not be estimated by dollars and cents, for the Mission doors have been open every evening of the year, thus offering to the weary, downcast soul an oppor- tunity to spend the time surrounded by the best influ- ences. This striking summary of the work of the Mis- sion tells its own story. As illustrating the practical character of Mr. Pearson's personal work in con- nection, the following incident communicated to the Eastern Argus by a Portland physician is worthy of a place in this sketch: "It is not a great while ago that I was called to the bedside of a woman whom I found in a dying condition ; the house cold and without a fire, and a severe snow- storm raging outside. After doing what I could to make her as comfortable as possible, she expressed
an earnest desire to see a clergyman, and named . the church of which she was formerly quite an active and influential member, for she had seen more prosperous days. It was one of the leading churches of the city. So the storm was again faced and the minister for that church rung up and the case stated. He could not go out on such a night. But I was determined that the woman should have the consolation which she so much desired, and went for another clergyman whom I did not then know personally. He responded cheerfully, dressed himself, and we ploughed our way through the snow and were soon in the sick chamber. The
SAM'L F. PEARSON.
clergyman looked inquiringly about the room, knelt by the bedside, made a brief and fervent prayer, arose, took his hat and departed without saying a word. I thought it rather strange, and after wait- ing a while started to rouse up some of the neighbors, to see if something could not be done at once for the dying woman, and the relief of her famishing children. Upon returning, there was my minister down on his knees again, but this time blowing up the fire. He had gone back to his own house, strapped a good bundle of wood upon his back, made up a package of tea, milk and sugar for the sick woman, and another of food for the children. In a short time there was a cheery fire, a cup of hot tea, and the little ones were warming themselves
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MEN OF PROGRESS.
and eating the food cooked for my friend's own table. The look of gratitude and smile of. hapri- ness upon the face of the poor woman, as she saw her children being warmed and fed, more than repaid me for what I had done that night, and we had to go though snow-drifts nearly shoulder-high. That clergyman was the Rev. S. F. Pearson, and I've been a Gospel Mission man ever since." Commenting upon this the Argus said . " Very few of the friends of the Gospel Mission ever heard of this incident, but it is by similar practical Christian and temperance work by large-hearted, whoie-scaled, hard-working Rev. S. F. Pearson, aided by his estimable wife, that great good is accomplished and much suffering relieved." In 1886 Mr. Pearson went to Europe, and was abroad nearly & year, during which time he did revival and temperance work under the auspices of different organizations, and secured over one hundred thousand names to the pledge. He has had repeated calls and invi- tations from the other side to return. In politics Mr. Pearson was a Republican from 1863 to 1878, and since then has been a Prohibitionist. He was married December 25, 1865, to Elvira. L. Merrill of New Gloucester, Maine ; they have had two children . Mary Frances and Evangeline Pearson.
PETERS, JOSEPH WESCOTT, Superintendent of the Portland & Rochester Railroad, was born in Bluehill, Maine, December 31, 1854, son of Joseph Parris and Nancy (Wescott) Peters. He is descended from Andrew Peters, the earliest well- authenticated ancestor of the Peters family in New England, one of the first settlers of Massachusetts, who was a distiller in Boston in 1659, removed to Ipswich with his family in 1665, and thence to Andover, Massachusetts, where he died December. 13, 1713, aged seventy-seven years. From Andrew Peters in the fourth generation descended John Peters, Esq., Joseph's great-grandfather, who was born in Andover, Massachusetts. in 1740, and removed to Bluehill, Maine, in 1765. He was a land surveyor and was sent into the district of Maine by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and intrusted with important services, among which was the original lotting of townships in Eastern Maine. For many years he was in the employment of the agent, of the Bingham Purchase. He sur- veyed many townships in Hancock and Washington
counties, and his surveys are the foundation for a large majority of the deeds of lands in that section of the state. On the maternal side Joseph W. Peters is descended from William Wescott, one of the early settlers of Penobscot, Maine. His early education was acquired in the public schools and at Bluehill Academy. In May 1870, at the age of fifteen, he came to Portland and entered the Treas- urer's office of the Portland & Rochester Railroad, continuing there as clerk and Paymaster until 1876. In 1374 he was appointed General Ticket Agent, in ISSo he became Train Dispatcher also, and in 1882 he was appointed Superintendent and General Ticket Agent, which dual office he at present fills.
J. W. PETERS.
Mr. Peters was a member of the Board of Alder- men of Portland for two years, 1894-5, and is now serving as one of the Back Bay and Fore River Commissioners for a term of five years, 1892-7. In politics he is a Democrat, and has served as a member of the Democratic City Committee of Port- land two years, 1890-1, the Cumberland County Democratic Committee four years, 1893-6, and the First District Congressional Committee two years, 1894-6. He is a member and Trustee of Portland Lodge, Benevolent Protective Order of Elks. He is unmarried.
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MEN OF PROGRESS.
PIERCE, GEORGE MORTON, Wholesale Milliner, bought out a wholesale millinery firm, but in 1892 Boston, was born in Augusta, Maine, June 30, 1852, he returned to Boston and entered business on his son of Joshua D. and Louisa (Corbin) Pierce. Ht . own account, in which he has since been engaged, came of sturdy New England stock. His great- grandfather on the paternal side lived to the ripe 1
with success and increasing prosperity. Mr. Pierce is a member of the Pine Tree State Club of Boston, and of the Ancient Order of United Workmen.
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'.PIKE, CLIFFORD LLEWELLYN, M. D., Saco, was born in Sweden, Maine, February 21, 1859, son of Elias and Hannah Frances (Howe) Pike. His pa- ternal ancestor was ( 1) John Pike, who came from Southampton, England, in the ship James in 1635, and was noted as an able lawyer of pronounced opinions. From him were descended (2) Major Robert Pike of Salisbury, Massachusetts, who was appointed commander-in-chief of the military forces east of the Merrimac by Governor Simeon Brad- street, was a magistrate and member of the Board of Assistants and of the Governor's Council ; (3) Moses Pike of Salisbury, who occupied many prom- inent positions of trust in the public affairs of the times ; (4) Joseph Pike of Salisbury, afterwards of
GEO. M. PIERCE.
age of one hundred and two years and six months. He was educated in the comme > and high schools of Augusta, graduating from the latter in 1868. His training for active business life was received in the crockery business which his father established in 1842, until at the age of nineteen he went to Boston and entered the employ of William Heckle & Company, milliners. He remained with this firm two years, and then associated himself with W. H. Horton & Company, in the same line of business, as their travelling salesman in Maine. Later he was employed by Bowditch, Clapp & Pierce, wholesale millinery goods, and in this connection, as in his previous business relations, he was very successful. Upon severing his connections with this house Mr. Pierce was the recipient of many tokens of remem- brance and regard from the members of the firm and his friends in the establishment, significant of their appreciation of the sterling business qualities, genial nature and high personal character which had gained for him a universal popularity among his business associates. He left the employ of Bow- ditch, Clapp & Pierce to go to New York, where he
CLIFFORD L. PIKE.
Kensington, New Hampshire ; (5) Joseph Pike of Waterboro, Maine, who filled many town offices and positions of public trust ; (6) Moses Pike of Shap- leigh and Waterford, Maine; (7) John Pike of Waterford and Sweden, and (8) Elias Pike of
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.
Sweden, father of the subject of this sketch. Clif- ford L. Pike attended the common schools of his native town, and fitted for college at the Bridgton (Maine) High School, in the class of . 1878. In 1879 he commenced the study of medicine under Dr. Charles L. Wilson of Waterford. He entered the Maine Medical School at Bowdoin College in the same year, in the nieantime taking one course in the Portland School for Medical Instruction during the season of ISSo, and graduated from the former institution with the degree of M. D. in June 18S1. The following August he settled in Norway, Maine, purchasing the business and residence of Dr. O. N. Bradbury, where he remained in active practice until May 19, 1892, when he removed to Saco, where he has since been located with gratify- ing success. Dr. Pike is a member of the York County and Oxford County medical societies, while at Norway serving as Secretary of the latter. He was surgeon to the Grand Trunk Railway Company at the Norway disaster of January 17, 1885, and has served as surgeon of the Travellers' Accident Insur- ance Company for Oxford County. In the depart- ments of surgery, and especially in gynæcology, he has performed many of the major operations, and in the latter has devised many new appliances and methods of treatment, whereby the knife has been discarded. In Norway he was Medical Examiner of the United Order of the Golden Cross, and for a number of insurance companies and organizations, including the Unior Mutual of Portland, Mutual Life of Newark, Travelers of Hartford, Connecticut Mutual, the New England, the New York, the Penn, the Northwestern of Milwaukee, Provident Life and Trust, Maine Mutual Provident Association of Lewiston, and the Odd Fellows Graded Relief Asso- ciation of Norway. He is a member of Mount Tyren Lodge of Masons, Cumberland Lodge and Norway Encampment of Odd Fellows, Norway Commandery of the Golden Cross, of which he has been Noble Commander, the Norway Literary Soci- ety, and the Bowdoin College and Bridgton High School alumni associations. He has never been actively engaged in politics or a seeker for public office, but has held a number of minor offices, "for the public good." Dr. Pike is fond of literature and literary work, and as a writer of poetry has shown himself to be possessed of no small degree of talent. He has written and delivered the class poem at Bridgton High School, class of 1878; an " Address of Welcome " (poem) to the Seventeenth Maine Regiment, at its reunion in Norway in 1886 ;
a " Centennial Poem," at Norway's centennial anni- versary and celebration in 1886 : " In Memoriam," a poem for Memorial Day service in 1887 ; also " The Peculiar Neighbor," "The Little Maiden's Plea," " Review of Lucille," " Princeps Americanus," and many other published poems. He was married April 26, 1883, to Cora F. Plummer, daughter of John P. and Cordelia A. (Bennett) Plummer of Sweden, Maine.
REDLON, NATHAN ELDEN, President of the Portland Cement and Carbonized Drain-Pipe Com- pany, Portland, was born in Buxton, Maine, Sep-
N. E. REDLON.
tember 30, 1830, son of .\mos and Elizabeth ( Berry) Redlon. His early education was obtained in the common schools and at Limerick (Maine ) Academy. Leaving home at the early age of fourteen, he worked for two years in a woolen factory at Dedham, Massachusetts, and after an interval of varied ex- periences returned to Maine and commenced, in 1848, to learn the mason's trade with W. P. Files in Portland. In 1854 he went to Biddeford, Maine, and in March 1855, having contracted the prevail- ing " Western fever," he went to Kansas, where he voted for the first territorial officers under Governor Reader. Later he went to St. Anthony as it was then, now the city of Minneapolis, Minnesota, where
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he worked at his trade, and shortly afterwards came back to Maine, establishing himself in trade at West Gorham, where he remained during the years 1856 9. In the latter year he returned to Portland and followed his trade of journeyman - mason until- 1863, when he went into the shoe business on York street and continued until after the great fire of 1866, and then commenced business as master mason, for some years thereafter conducting as large a business as any similar concern in the city. In this business he is still actively engaged, and is also President of the Portland Cement and Car- bonized Drain-Pipe Company. Mr. Redlon is a Director in the Casco and the Portland loan and building associations, is President and one of the Board of Trustees of the . Mechanics Association, and is a prominent member of the Portland Board of Trade. He served in the Common Council of Portland in 1875-6, and in the Legislature of 1879- So, at the time of the famous " count-out," also as a member of the Board of Aldermen in 1888-9 and as Overseer of the Poor for three years. He is a member of Ancient Landme -k Masonic Lodge, Greenleaf Chapter, and St. Albans Commandery Knights Templar, has taken ninety degrees in the Egyptian Rite, of Memphis, is a member and Vice- Grand of Ligonia Lodge of Odd Fellows and a Trustee of Falmouth Encampment, and member of C'anton Ridgely of Odd Fellows, the Good Templars and Sons of Temperance. In politics Mr. Redlon is a Republican. He was mari'ed in 1856 to Miss Alsadinia A. Cushing of Lewiston ; they have had two children : Franklin R., born in 1857, now in business with his father, and Harry Redlon, born in 1860, died in 1863. In 1866 he was married a second time, to Miss Sarah P. Files of Portland.
REED, WILLIAM GARDNER, head of the law firm of Reed, Curtis & Manson, Boston, was born in Waldoboro, Lincoln county, Maine, May 4, 1858, son of Isaac and Lydia Emery (MacDonald) Reed. He is descended from William Reade, who came to Boston from London in the ship Defence, in 1635, and is a great-great-grandson of Isaac Gardner of Brookline, the first Harvard graduate killed in the Revolution - killed by the retreating British after the battle of Lexington, April 19, 1775, while acting as Captain of the militia. His father, Isaac Reed of Waldoboro, represented that town in the Maine Legislature six times, and the county of Lincoln in the Maine Senate five terms, was a member of the
State Board of Agriculture, Trustee of the Maine Insane Hospital, Whig candidate for Governor in 1854 and 1855, State Treasurer in 1856, and Mem- ber from Maine of the Thirty- second Congress. On the maternal. side he is descended from John Mac- Donald, who enigrated from Scotland to Ireland, and from Ireland to this country about 1745. He is also a great-great-grandson of Lieutenant James Wiley, who served both in the old French and Revolutionary wars, and who followed Arnold on his expedition through the wilderness to Canada.
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