Men of progress; biographical sketches and portraits of leaders in business and professional life in and of the state of Maine, Part 11

Author: Herndon, Richard; McIntyre, Philip Willis, 1847- ed; Blanding, William F., joint ed
Publication date: 1897
Publisher: Boston, New England magazine
Number of Pages: 1268

USA > Maine > Men of progress; biographical sketches and portraits of leaders in business and professional life in and of the state of Maine > Part 11

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WM. GARDNER REED.

He received his early education in the public schools of Waldoboro, and at Little Blue School in Farmington, where he was fitted for college. He pursued a four-years course at Bowdoin College, Brunswick, receiving the degree of A. B. upon graduation in 1882, and being subsequently honored, in 1885, by the degree of A. M. from that institution. Adopting law as a profession, he studied at the Boston University Law School, and in the office of the late William Gaston, ex-Governor of Massa- chusetts, and was admitted to the Massachusetts Bar in January 1885, and to practice in the United States courts in October 1892. Mr. Reed has been engaged in the general practice of law in Boston since January 1885, for five years in the firm of Reed & Curtis, and since then in the firm of Reed, Curtis & Manson, his partners being ex-Mayor

MEN OF PROGRESS.

Curtis and George F. Manson, with offices at 10 Tremont street. In 1894 Mr. Reed was associated with Edwin U. Curtis and Thomas W. Proctor in the successful defence of the Commissioners of Public Institutions of Boston and their subordinates in the eleven-months investigation of Boston's pub- lic institutions by the Board of Aldermen. Mr. Reed was a resident of Boston Highlands from 1882 until 1892, and represented Ward Twenty-one in the Common Council of Boston in IS88, and the Tenth District in the Board of Aldermen in 1889 and 1890. From 1892 he has resided in the Back Bay district, in 1892-3 at 259 Beacon street, and since then at 222 Marlboro street. He has served in the Massachusetts Militia as a member of the First Corps of Cadets, and is a member of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company. He is also a member of the Boston Art Club, the Pine Tree State Club of Boston, and Secretary of the Association of Bowdoin Alumni in Boston and vi- cinity. He was married October 18, 1882, to Miss Mary Louise Hagar, daughter of the late Marshall Spring Hagar of Richmond, Maine ; they have two children : William Gardner, Jr., born September 5, 1884, and Edwin Curtis Reed, born March 7, 1886.

REYNOLDS, EDWARD CLAYTON, Lawyer, Portland, was born in Braintree, Massachusetts, November 15, 1856, son of Lorenzo D. and Elvira L. (Wing) Reynolds. He is of the Bridgewater, Massachu- setts, branch of the Reynolds family, and of the Cape Cod branch of the Wings. His mother's family in all its branches have been members of the Society of Friends. His father and mother were natives of Sidney, Kennebec county, Maine, but since 1861 have resided in South Portland, formerly Cape Elizabeth, where they have held prominent place in public and social affairs. He received his early education in the common and high schools of Cape Elizabeth, and at the Portland Business College ; studied law for two years, and was admitted to the Cumberland Bar at the January 1880 term of the Supreme Court. Afterwards he took a post-gradu- ate course at Georgetown University Law School, Washington, D. C., from which institution he received the degree of Master of Laws, and was admitted to the United States Circuit Court at Port- land in 1890. In 1874 Mr. Reynolds taught in the Portland Business College, and again during the school year of 1877-8. He commenced the prac-

tice of law in Portland in 1880, where he has since been actively engaged in his profession with the exception of the two years 1884-6, spent in pursuing his legal studies in Washington, during which time he filled a government position as Clerk of the Lighthouse Board. Mr. Reynolds is a Director in and Attorney for the Cumberland Loan and Building Association, also a Director in the Union Safe Deposit and Trust Company, and Lecturer on Com- mercial Law in the Shaw Business College. He served on the School Committee of Cape Elizabeth in 1879-82 and 1888-91, was elected Register of Probate of Cumberland county in 1888 and re- elected in 1892, and was elected State Senator from

EDWARD C. REYNOLDS.

Cumberland county in 1896. He is President of the Maine State Relief Association, and has been President of the Cape Elizabeth Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument Association since its organization ; is President of the Portland Club ; was President of the Young Men's Republican Club of Portland in 1892 ; is a Mason of the Knight Templar degree, a Knight of Pythias and a member of the Grange, the Maine Genealogical Society, and the Cumber- land and Maine bar associations. Mr. Reynolds' religious preferences are those of the Society of Friends. He resides in South Portland, and is un- married.

MEN OF PROGRESS.

RICE, JOHN OLIN, Professional Accountant, Port- land, was born in Eliot, Maine, June 10, 1843, son of Reverend John and Mary Tirrell ( Hunt) Rice. He is sixth in descent from Thomas Rice, and his wife Mary, daughter of Thomas Withers, emigrants from Wales in the early settlement of Kittery, pro- vince of Maine, under the charter of Charles I. to Sir Fernando Gorges in 1639. ' On the maternal side he is a descendant of Enoch Hunt and son Ephraim Hunt, both emigrants from Titenden in the county of Bucks, England, and settlers at Weymouth, Massachusetts, about 1638. The genealogy of his Massachusetts ancestry traces a lineal connection

JOHN OLIN RICE.

with Elder William Brewster, Governor Prince, Assistant-Governor Bangs of the Plymouth Colony, and with the Millet, Freeman, Quincy and Hoar families, all of whom came to this country prior to 1650. His great-grandfather Lemuel Rice of Scar- boro, Maine, served in the Revolutionary War from April 1775 to 1780, and his grandfather George Rice was a soldier in the War of 1812. John O. Rice received his early education as a student in private schools and under the home tutelage of his father, a clergyman, supplemented by a three years course at Yarmouth ( Maine ) Academy, then a special fitting-school for colleges. He attributes the best part of his early training, however, to that acquired

during a three-years service in the Union army, in which he entered at nineteen and remained until the close of the war. After the war period Mr. Rice was employed as accountant with several prominent business firms and banking institutions, and later, as office-representative of the house he was with, travelled extensively in this country and Europe. About 1880, having been called upon to assist in important cases requiring expert examinations, he decided to devote all of his time as a professional accountant, in which line of work he now enjoys the reputation of being one of the first experts in the country. Mr. Rice has served as a member of the City Council of Portland, in 1869-70. His military career covers the period from his enlistment in the Seventeenth Regiment Maine Volunteers, July 11, 1862, until his discharge at the close of the war, June 6, 1865. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity, the Odd Fellows, Grand Army of the Republic, Maine Genealogical Society and Sons of the American Revolution. In politics he is a Dem- ocrat. He was married June 2, 1861, to Sarah J. Merrill, daughter of Captain Adams and Clarissa (Pope) Merrill of Falmouth, Maine ; they have two children : Gertrude, now Mrs. Allen Wilson of Con- cord, New Hampshire, and Jeannette B., now Mrs. Frederick H. King of Portland.

RICHARDS, FRED EDGECOMB, President of the Union Mutual Life Insurance Company, Portland, was born in Lincolnville, Maine, August 28, 1841, son of Charles and Elizabeth Pierce (Smith) Richards. His great ancestor was Edward Richards - born 1610-15, died September 7, 1684 - a nephew of Thomas Richards of Dorchester, Dorsetshire, England, who came to this country in 1630 in the ship Mary & John, with Captain Clapp and others who were the first settlers of Dorchester, Massachusetts. Thomas Richards brought with him his wife, Welthean, and a son John, a lad of fifteen, who in after years figured so largely in the history of Massachusetts and the province of Maine as the Worshipful and Major John Richards. Edward Richards (1) came from England in 1632 in the ship Lyon, with his brother, Nathaniel ; Nathaniel settled in Cambridge, building a house near the present site of Harvard University, his . brother Edward, who was some years his junior, living with him. The two brothers must have brought from England considerable wealth, for Edward having married the daughter (or perhaps sister) of

MEN OF PROGRESS.

the Rev. Mr. Hunting of Watertown, became one of the settlers and proprietors of what is now the town of Dedham, embracing however a much larger tract than is now included in the town. The his- tory says that "Edward Richards began life with more means than most of the planters of Dedham, and left his descendants good estates." His fourth child, Nathaniel (2), who seems to have been his favorite, inherited the homestead in Dedham, where Rev. Ebenezer Burgess, D. D., recently resided, and a double share of his father's lands; he was born November 25, 1648, married Mary Aldis of Dedham in 1678, and died February 15, 1727 ; they had

FRED E. RICHARDS.

eight children, the second of whom was Jeremiah. Jeremiah Richards (3) was born March 30, 1681, married Hannah Fisher and settled in West Roxbury, on what is now Spring street ; he was a captain of the old militia, and a man of wealth and influence ; his death is not recorded, but he was living in 1752, aged seventy-one years. He had eight children, of whom the second was William (4), born in December 1707, married Elizabeth Baker, and settled in North Sharon on land given him by his father, where he died March 5, 1786. He had six children, of whom the third was Benjamin (5), born in Sharon, March 20, 1738, married Mary Belcher, had ten children, and died in Sharon in January 1816. His oldest son,

Benjamin. Jr. (6), was born March 6, 1768, married Ruth Billings, and died in Sharon in 1850, having had nine children, of whom the oldest son was Charles (7), father of the subject of this sketch ; he was born January 16, 1800, married Elizabeth P. Smith of Canton, and in 1829 moved from Sharon to Lincoinville, Maine, removing thence in 1856 to Rockport, where he died December 4, 1880. Fred E. Richards attended the public schools of Lincoln- ville, and the High School at Camden, and after- wards received a course of private instruction. When sixteen years old he went to work as clerk for D. Talbot of Camden, owner of extensive ship- ping interests. where after four years of service he was admitted to the firm and the name was changed to Talbot & Company. Four years later he retired on account of declining health, which necessitated less arduous confinement to office work. Soon after he was elected Representative to the Legislature from Camden, on the Republican ticket, and was re-elected for a second term. He next served two years as a member of the Executive Coun- cil, under Governors Dingley and Connor, and was then appointed State Land Agent. After serv- ing a year in this office he was appointed by Governor Connor a Trustee of the Maine Insane Hospital. He held this position until 1880, when he was appointed State Bank Examiner by Gover- nor Davis, which office he filled nine years, having been twice reappointed by Governor Robie, and resigned in 1889 to engage in the banking business in Portland. Mr. Richards performed his duties as Bank Examiner with energy, firmness and great ability, and it was mainly through his exertions and influence that a change was made by the savings banks in favor of more conservative investments. During his nine years supervisorship of the savings banks of Maine, the deposits therein increased from twenty-one millions to forty-one millions, in round · numbers, or about one hundred per cent, a showing which furnishes a striking demonstration of the people's confidence in his supervision of these institutions. Mr. Richards has always favored, in the banking business, investments whose soundness and intrinsic value could be understood by the average depositor. Consequently he has been an earnest and successful advocate of home securities in the investment of trust funds, which accounts in no small degree for the remarkable confidence the people of Maine have in their savings institutions. Soon after establishing the banking house of F. E. Richards & Company, Portland, Mr. Richards was

MEN OF PROGRESS.

appointed fiscal Agent of the Maine Central Rail- road. While serving in this capacity he refunded the Androscoggin & Kennebec loan, amounting to $1,500,000 of six-per-cent bonds, substituting there- for a loan of Maine Central bonds bearing interest at four and a half per cent ; refunded t'ie European and North American loan of $1,000,000 ; purchased for the Maine Central the Knox & Lincoln Rail- road, owned by the cities and' towns between Bath and Rockland, paying for the same $1,500,000, and placing and disposing of bonds secured by mort- gage upon this for 31,300,000 at four per cent ; and also sold bonds issued in extension of the Mountain Division (Portland & Ogdensburg), amounting to nearly a million dollars. He was appointed Fiscal Agent of the Portland & Rumford Falls Railroad in 1890, and conducted the financial affairs of that office up to the time of his retirement from the banking business three years later, the railroad in the meantime extending its lines from Mechanic Falls to Lewiston Junction, a distance of fifteen miles, and from Canton to Rumford Falls, twenty miles. In October 1893, without solicitation of any kind on his part, Mr. Richards was unani- mously elected President of the Union Mutual Life Insurance Company of Portland, to succeed the lamented John E. DeWitt, killed in the Boston & Albany Railroad disaster at Chester, Massachusetts, August 31 of that year. He assumed control of the affairs of that widely-known institution November 1, 1893, in the midst of a financial panic, and for the year ending in December . 394, the company made a gain of $130,000 in surplus and $168,000 in assets, also very materially improving the character of its assets, which in 1896 amounted to about seven millions. Mainly through Mr. Richards' influence was organized the Portland National Bank, established in August 1889, of which he was elected President, and which position he still retains ; although comparatively a new bank, it now has deposits amounting to over a million and a half dollars, and has grown to be one of the most prosper- ous and substantial banking institutions of Portland. In April 1895 the Union Safe Deposit and Trust Company organized its trust department, with a paid- up capital of $250,000, and made Mr. Richards its President. During the first six months this institu- tion earned and paid a dividend of two and a half per cent, and left a handsome balance of undivided profits. Besides his responsible and arduous posi- tions as President of the Union Mutual Life Insur- ance Company, Portland National Bank and Union

Safe Deposit and Trust Company, Mr. Richards fills Directorships in the Portland & Rumford Falls Railroad, the Limerick National Bank of Limerick, Rockland Trust Company of Rockland, Camden & Rockland Water Company, the Rockland Build- ing Syndicate, York Heat and Light Company o Biddeford, Rumford Falls Water and Light Com- pany, Bar Harbor Electric Light Company, and the Athol Water Company of Athol, Massachusetts. He is also connected with the management of the Knox Gas and Electric Company of Rockland, and the Rockland, Thomaston & Camden Street Rail- way, one of the most important and prosperous electric railroads in the state. Mr. Richards' ability to handle his vast amount of business and look out for his personal interests in the midst of all, is due to his remarkable executive capacity and his faculty for employing and controlling capable subordinates. He is a member of the Portland and Cumberland clubs, has been for twenty years a Mason, a charter member of Keystone Royal Arch Chapter of Camden, and has held many Masonic offices. He was married November 23, 1875, to Miss Caroline S. Piper, of an old family who were among the first settlers of Rockport, her grandfather being the celebrated General Moses Carlton of Wis- casset, Maine, who in the time of the War of 1812 was one of the merchant princes of New England, owning a large fleet of merchant ships. They have no children.

ROBIE, FREDERICK, of Gorham, Governor of Maine 1883-7, was born in Gorham, August 12, 1822, son of Toppan and Sarah Thaxter (Lincoln) Robie. He is of the seventh generation from Henry Robie (or Roby), of English descent, sup- posed to have been born at Castle Dunnington, Yorkshire, England, February 12, 1618 or 1619. Henry Robie had at least two brothers, Thomas and Samuel, the former living and dying at Castle Dunnington. Of Samuel it is recorded that he left home for America, but his arrival was never heard of. Thomas Robie's son William emigrated to America, and settling in Boston, married Elizabeth Greenough, and tradition says they reared fifteen children. Their descendants still live in New York, Illinois and Michigan. The exact date of the arrival of Henry Robie, the American ancestor of Ex-Governor Robie, is not known. The first we hear of him is that he was at Dorchester, Massachu- setts, early in 1639. He went in that year to

MEN OF PROGRESS.

Exeter, New Hampshire, and his name is appended to a petition signed by a number of the inhabitants of Exeter, dated May 4, 1639, and addressed to King Charles I, declaring their allegiance to him, their obedience to such laws as he should make for the government of the colony, and to such whole- sale regulations as they should make for themselves. His name also appears on a similar petition ad- dressed to the Governor of the Colony asking that the town be laid out. In 1653 or 1654 Henry Robie went to Hampton, New Hampshire, and was constable there in 1662. On October 18, 1669, he was an attorney in a matter before the court of

FREDERICK ROBIE.

Boston, and July 13, 1680, he was foreman of the Grand Jury. In 1683 with other residents of Hamp- ton he petitioned the Colonial Governor to be freed from head money ; the same year he was elected a member of the Council from Hampton ; and the year following he was made a Justice of the Peace. He died in 1688, leaving a wife, Sarah, and the following children : Thomas, Samuel, Ichabod, Mary, John, Judith and Ruth. John Robie, the fourth son and great-great-great-grandfather of Ex.Gov- ernor Robie, was a soldier in King Philip's War under Captain Joseph Syell, and was credited on the books of Haverell ( Haverhill) Town, November 30, 1675, as having earned one pound and sixteen shillings. Part of the time he served in the garrison

at Chelmsford, and for like services the next year, under Lieutenant Benjamin Swett, on June 14, 1676, he was further credited with eight shillings and sixpence. In 1675-6 he built himself a house at Haverhill, in that part of the town now known as Atkinson, New Hampshire, and there met his death on June 16, 1691, being killed by the Indians. His wife had died a few days before, leaving seven children, the eldest not quite eleven years old. Warned of impending danger from the Indians, Mr. Robie had taken his family from his home to a place of safety, and was returning with his cart and oxen, about two hours before sunset, when he was shot down by the savages. His son Ichabod, who was with him, was taken prisoner and carried to Canada, where he was kept about a year, then ransomed, and returned home. Ichabod Robie, the great-great-grandfather of Ex-Governor Robie, was born in Haverhill in 1680, and worked as a tanner and surveyor. An entry in the provincial records of New Hampshire, dated July 3, 1697, states that he is entitled to two pounds and two shillings for seven days' work on the fort erected for pro- tection against the French and Indians. He ap- pears to have been an enterprising man, and was a prominent member of the society for set- tling the Chestnut Country, so called (Chester, New Hampshire), organized in October 1719 ; a member of the committee to manage the affairs of the society, and Chairman of the committee to lay out lots ; one of the petitioners to the Governor of the colony, asking that they might have a grant of said lands ; and one of the proprietors of the town of Chester, New Hampshire, named in the grant from King George, dated May 8, 1722. He was a member of the Assembly from Hampton in the Provincial House of Representatives for the years 1735 to 1742, on May 8 of the last-named year being appointed by the House one of the committee to address His Majesty the King upon matters relat- ing to the Colony, and was also elected to another committee to answer the speech of the Colonial Governor and present it to the House for approval. In the proceedings of the House, in many instances he is called Captain. On January 13, 1706 or 1707, he married Mary Cass, who became the mother of the following children : John, born in 1712 : Henry, born in 1714; and Samuel, born in 1717, the great- grandfather of the Ex-Governor. Samuel Robie settled on his father's lot Number 116, March 1, 1744. He was a Lieutenant in the New Hampshire regiment of which Samuel Moore was Colonel, and

MEN OF PROGRESS,

in January 1775 he was chosen a deputy to nominate delegates to the Congress of the roth of May follow- ing. In 1777 he was one of the Committee of Safety for Chester. He married a Miss Perkins, and their son Edward married Sarah Smith. daughter of John and Sarah (Toppan) Smith. Edward and Sarah Robie were the grandparents of our subject. the parents of his father, Hon. Toppan Robie of Gorham, Maine. The latter had three brothers and two sisters, who are now dead. Toppan Robie was born in Candia, New Hampshire, January 27, 1782. He was a man of great courage and ability, Captain in a company of state militia which participated in the War of 1812, and when in 1814 it was feared that Portland was in danger of invasion, and General Irish's brigade was ordered there, Captain Robie marched to the front at the head of his company. In politics first a Federalist, then a Whig, and later an ardent Republican, he represented his town six years in the General Court of Massachusetts. In 1820-I he was Representative in the Legislature of Maine, and in 1837 was a member of Governor Kent's Executive Council. He held many offices of public trust, and was the donor of many liberal gifts from his large estates for the furtherance of the public good, giving freely to religious and educa- tional institutions. The soldiers' monument at Gorham village was his gift, and on his eightieth birthday he gave five thousand dollars to the Con- gregational church and parish of Chester, New Hampshire. He died universally regretted, January 14, 1871. Hon. Toppan Robie was three times married. In 1804 he was united to Lydia Brown, daughter of Benjamin Brown of Chester, and a sister of the late Rev. Francis Brown, D. D., President of Dartmouth College from 1815 to 1820. Mrs. Robie died in February 1811, and Mr. Robie was again married, in September 1811, to Sarah Thaxter Lincoln, daughter of Captain John Lincoln, who came originally from Hingham, Massachusetts, a worthy representative of the distinguished Lincoln family of that state ; he was a resident of Gorham at the time of his daughter's marriage. The second Mrs. Robie died in 1828, leaving three sons : Charles, George, and Frederick (our subject). Frederick Robie at- tended the public schools in his native town and pre- pared for college at Gorham Academy, studying first under the tuition of Rev. Reuben Nason, who died many years ago, and completing his curriculum under Rev. Amos Brown, D. D. He entered Bow- doin College in 1837 and graduated in 1841 at the age of, nineteen. That sanie year he acted

acceptably as Principal of academies in Georgia and Fioridia, but though successful as a teacher, he desired to study medicine. Accordingly he entered the Jefferson Medical College at Philadelphia, re- ceiving the degree cf M. D. in 1844, and in April of that year he opened an office in Biddeford, Maine, and was in active practice in that place until May 1855. He then removed to Waldoboro, Maine, where for three years he enjoyed a large and lucra- tive practice. At the end of that period he decided to settle permanently in his native town; but destiny had other views for him. In 1861 he was a inember of the Executive Council of Governor Israel Washburn, and at the breaking out of the war was appointed by President Lincoln additional Paymaster of the United States Volunteers, his com- mission, which was one of the first of this special grade of appointments, being dated June 1, 1861. Resigning his position in the Governor's Council, he entered at once on active duty, and paid off a number of regiments in the Army of the Potomac in 1861-2, as well as several new Maine regiments mustered into the United States service in August 1862. In 1863 he was stationed at Boston as Chief Paymaster of the Department of New England, and in the early part of 1864 he was transferred to the Department of the Gulf at New Orleans, where for more than a year he judiciously handled the govern- ment's money. The spring of 1865 brought the termination of the war, and also an order to Pay- master Robie to return to Maine to superintend the final payment of the citizen soldiers from that state at their muster-out of the service. His invaluable services in this important branch of the army system earned for him the brevet of Lieutenant Colonel, an honor at that period that few paymasters received. His last commission is dated November 24, 1865. On July 20, 1866, he was honorably mustered out of service, and among encomiums of the public press at that time, the following appeared : " He has been a gentlemanly and courteous officer, and has faith- fully discharged the duties of his office." - From the Eastern Argus. "Colonel Robie's service has been honorable to himself, and eminently satisfactory both to the government and its claimants with whom he . has had to deal." - From the Portland Press. " Major Frederick Robie, the popular and efficient Paymaster of the United States, who has been so long stationed in this state, has been promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel by brevet. This is the first in- stance of a Maine Paymaster securing such honor, and it could have been bestowed on no more faith-

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Men of progress; biographical sketches and portraits of leaders in business and professional life in and of the state of Maine, Part 11

Author: Herndon, Richard; McIntyre, Philip Willis, 1847- ed; Blanding, William F., joint ed Publication date: 1897 Publisher: Boston, New England magazine Number of Pages: 1268

Author: Herndon, Richard; McIntyre, Philip Willis, 1847- ed; Blanding, William F., joint ed
Publication date: 1897
Publisher: Boston, New England magazine
Number of Pages: 1268