Men of progress; biographical sketches and portraits of leaders in business and professional life in and of the state of Maine, Part 13

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 13

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SHAW, JEREMIAH GOODWIN, Postmaster of Bid- deford, was born in Sanford, York county, Maine, February 28, 1845, son of Timothy, Jr., and Eliza- beth (Emery) Shaw. His family removed in 1852 to Alfred, Maine, where he attended the common schools until the age of sixteen. After leaving school he went to Boston and bought a half interest in Chase's Panorama of the late War, with which he visited all the principal cities and towns of New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut and New York. In the spring of 1864 he returned to Alfred, and in the fall of the same year came to Biddeford, where he began working for Shaw & Clark, making boxes for sewing machines. In October 1865 he took up his permanent residence in Biddeford, continning with Shaw & Clark and having full charge of the

shipping department until the business was sold out to the Lamb Knitting Machine Company. For the next two years he travelled for the Union Paper Collar Company, as their attorney, making settle- ments with parties in the trade selling unlicensed goods, and visiting all the principal cities of the United States. He next travelled for the Hinckley Knitting Machine Company of Bath, Maine, in 1871-2 establishing local agencies for the Hinck- ley machines throughout the West and South, acting also at this time as travelling agent for the Ne Plus Ultra Collar Company of Biddeford. Soon after this he bought James R. Clarke's advertising business at Biddeford, including all the sewing machines then

J. G. SHAW.

on hand. Later he sold a half interest in this busi- ness to John A. Staples, and still later sold the remaining half to George West, formerly of Bidde- ford. During the four years 1873-6 he carried on an advertising, insurance and general business with Otis T. Garey, finally disposing of all these interests to Mr. Garey in 1876. Next, in company with James A. Strout, he bought out the E. S. Frost Rug Manufactory at Biddeford, and continued the business for about eleven years, with branches in Boston and other principal cities of the East. In 1886, with the late O. H. Staples, he established the Traders' Electric Light Company, holling the offices of Superintendent and General Manager until con-

MEN OF PROGRESS.

solidation with the Saco Electric Light Company and subsequent absorption of the late Horace Woodman's controlling interest in the Saco and Biddeford Gaslight Company. From this combina- tion of interests, consummated in February 1891, resulted the York Light & Heat Company, of which Mr. Shaw has since been Agent to the present time. He is a Director in the Biddeford National Bank, also a Director in the Masonic Building Association and a member of the Building Committee. He was appointed Postmaster of Biddeford by President Cleveland in 1894. In politics Mr. Shaw is a Dem-

ocrat. He served as a member of the Board of Aldermen from Ward Seven in 1877, was Street Commissioner from 1886 to 1891, and was a mem- ber of the School Board for the three years 1893-6. In June 1892 he was one of the delegates from the First Congressional District of Maine to the National Convention at Chicago which placed in nomination Grover Cleveland for President and Adlai E. Stevenson for Vice-President In 1892 he was nominated for Sheriff, and although in the contest that ensued he was defeated by a plural- ity of nine hundred, he made the strongest fight made by a Democrat in York county in years, run- ning over two hundred ahead of his ticket. Mr. Shaw is a member of Laconia Lodge of Odd Fel- lows, also of York Encampment and of Bradford Commandery Knights Templar. He was married November 14, 1878, to Miss Jane Patterson Grant, of Philadelphia ; they have had three children : Howard G., born December 25, 1879, died Novem- ber 16, 1830 ; William Emery, born May 27, 1882, and Ray Timothy Shaw, born March 7, 1893.

SMITH, AUGUSTINE Dow, Carpenter and Builder, one of the founders and for two years President of the Builders' Exchange of Portland, was born in Buxton, Maine, July 28, 1829, son of Abel and Nancy (Gilman) Smith. His father's ancestors were Scotch. His mother was of the Gilmans of Gilmanton, New Hampshire, where her grandfather, of English descent, for whom the town was named, built the first log-house in the woods and cleared up the land to make a farm. He received his educa- tion in the common schools, working on the farm until the age of sixteen. His father's death taking place when he was but fourteen, he and his three brothers carried on the farm. In 1845 he obtained other employment with Deacon Joseph Hobson of West Buxton, and for three years drove a team

about the latter's lumber mills for eight dollars a month. In April 1848 he came to Portland on a stage-coach - that being about the only means of public conveyance in those days - with the sum of five dollars in his pocket with which to seek his fortune. He soon found employment driving an ox-team for the city, and continued at this service for four very long years. In 1851 he visited Boston, and while there, Sims, a former slave, was arrested and tried under the Fugitive Slave Act of Congress. The authorities roped off a space around the Court House and guarded it by a force of fifty policemen during the trial. He there heard for the first time Wendell Phillips, who upon that memorable occa-

AUGUSTINE D. SMITH.

sion delivered an address on Boston Common. In the following year the young man entered the employ of T. & J. B. Cummings in Portland, to learn the carpenters' trade. During the winter of 1853-4 he worked as journeyman in Newport, Rhode Island, and in the succeeding spring renewed his connec- tion with the Cummings firm. In 1862 he became their foreman, and continued in this capacity until they retired in 1867. He then with J. C. Ward as partner took the business and carried it on until 1868, when he bought ont Mr. Ward, and since then has continued alone to the present time. During these years Mr. Smith built the Farrington, Storer, Davis, Wolf & Ricker, Rines and Brown blocks, and

MEN OF PROGRESS.

numerous others, besides innumerable town dwell- ings and suburban cottages in the city and outside. Between the years 1870 and 1880 he built some thirty or forty houses, also new lighthouse stations in the first and second districts under the direction of General Duane of the United States Lighthouse Department, and in later years has been the builder of many of the finest and most pretentious resi- dences and business buildings erected in and about Portland. In August 1889 Mr. Smith with nine or ten other prominent builders of Portland formed the association which became known as the Builders' Exchange, of which he was elected the first Presi- dent, and in January 1890 was re-elected for the ensuing year. In February following he was elected a Delegate to the meeting of the National Associa- tion of Builders at St. Paul, Minnesota, and in 1891 he was a Delegate to the Builders' Convention held in New York city. Mr. Smith represented Ward Five in the City Council of Portland during the years 1882-3 and 1889. In September 1889 he was elected Representative to the State Legislature, and was re-elected in$1891, serving on the Public Buildings and other committees. In 1855 he joined Maine Lodge of Odd Fellows, of Portland, and has ever since taken a deep interest in that order; he was appointed a member of the visiting committee in January 1856, was elected Treasurer of the Lodge in 1862, and has continued to hold both offices to the present time; was Noble Grand in 1858, became a member of the Grand Lodge of Maine in 1859, was Grand Patriarch of the State in . 1874-5, was representative to the Sovereign Grand Lodge at Baltimore in 1879 and to the same at Toronto in 1880. In Masonry he became a mem- ber of Ancient Landmark Lodge of Portland in 1874, and of Mount Vernon Chapter, Portland Commandery and the Council of York Rites in the two succeeding years, joined the Maine Consistory of Scottish Rite Masons and took his Thirty-second Degree in 1879, and took the Shrine Degree in Aleppo Temple, Boston, in 18SS. In politics Mr. Smith was originally a Whig. He joined the Know- nothing party in 1854, but attended only the first meeting. Upon the founding of the Republican party in 1855, he at once joined its ranks and has been a zealous member ever since. He has been three times married - first, August 24, 1854, to Miss Mary Elizabeth Martin ; second, August 31, 1871, to Miss Almira Macomber ; and third. April 4, 1891, to Mrs. Eliza J. Morong. His first wife bore him three children : George A., born Septem-

ber 20. 1863 ; Pearl L., born April 4, 1866; and Freddie C., born June 15, 1868, deceased. By his second marriage he had four children : Charles E. (deceased) ; Albert F., born May 16, 1873 ; Eugene C., born Jane 8, 1876, and Elmer G. Smith, born July 3, 188 :.

SPAULDING, JOSEPH WHITMAN, Lawyer, of Boston, was born in Carratunk, Somerset county, Mame, August 11, 1841, son of Joseph and Elvira (Chasc) Spaulding. He is a descendant of Edward Spaulding who settled at Braintree, Massachusetts, in the first half of the seventeenth century, and was

J. W. SPAULDING.

made a freeman May 13, 1640. His father, Joseph Spaulding, who was a lumberman well-known in Somerset county, Maine, in his day, moved in 1854 to Richmond, Maine. Joseph W., the subject of this sketch, received his early education at Rich- mond Academy and Westbrook (Maine) Seminary, studied law, and was admitted to the Bar on Nov- ember 28, 1865. Hle practiced his profession in Richmond, which was his home, until February 1886, then practicing in Portland until February 1889, and then at Fort Payne, Alabama, until Nov- ember 1892. Then returning North, he engaged in practice in Boston, in which he has since continued, residing in the suburban town of Melrose. Mr.

MEN OF PROGRESS.

Spaulding enlisted in the army early in the war ior the Union, and served nearly three years in the First Brigade, Second Division, Second Army Corps, Army of the Potomac, successively as First Lieutenant of Company A, Nineteenth Maine In- iantry Volunteers, from August 1 to November 10, 1862 ; Captain from the last-named date to Decem - ber 3, 1864 ; and then Lieutenant-Colonel of the regiment until June 1, 1865. He participated in the important engagements of the war from the battle of Fredericksburg in December 1862 to the surrender of Lee, the last being at High Bridge, April 7, 1865, two days before the surrender. Since the War, Colonel Spaulding has served on the military staffs of Governors Joshua L. Chamberlain and Selden Connor of Maine. He has also served at different times in municipal offices, and five years in the Maine Legislature, as a member of the House of Representatives in 1868, 1870 and 1879, and of the Senate in 1871 and 1872. He was Reporter of Decisions of the Supreme Judicial Court of Maine for the eight years 1880-8. Colonel Spaulding is a member of Richmond Lodge of Masons ; U. S. Grant Post of Melrose, Grand Army of the Republic ; and Maine Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion. In politics he is a Republican. He was married November 4, 1864, at Boston, to Mary J. Clark, who was born in Tinmouth, Vermont, November 19, 1840, daughter of Albert S. Clark, M. D., who resided many years in Bristol and Waldoboro, Maine, and granddaughter of Elisha Clark of Vermont, of Revolutionary fame ; they have had two children : Mary Clark Spaulding and Annie E. Spaulding, the latter of whom died at the age of one year.

STEVENS, JOHN CALVIN, Architect, Portland, was born in Boston, Massachusetts, October 8, 1855, son of Leander and Maria J. H. (Wingate) Stevens. His father, I.eander Stevens, son of Calvin Stevens, a cabinet-maker and iarmer of Standish, Maine, and grandson of Jonathan Stevens, a farmer of Kennebunk, Maine, was a hotel clerk at the l'reble House in l'ortland for some years until the opening of the Falmouth Hotel in that city, was then clerk at the Falmouth from 1868 to 1876, and proprietor 1876-9, and was for ten years clerk at the Amer- ican House in Boston. His mother was the third child of John Wingate of Gorham, Maine, connected in direct line with the first John Wingate, who settled near. Dover, New Hampshire, about 1658.

He received his early education in the Portland schools, graduating from the Portland High School in June 1873, and in the fall of the same year entered the office of Francis H. Fassett, architect, in Portland. Remaining in this connection until 1880, he was then admitted to partnership, under the firm name of Fassett & Stevens, and a branch office was opened in Boston, of which Mr. Stevens assumed charge and where he remained eighteen months. While he was there he won in a competi- tion the award for a design of the Hotel Pemberton,

JOHN C. STEVENS.

built at Windmill Point, Hull, in Boston Harbor. Returning to Portland in the latter part of 1881, he continued with Mr Fassett until the spring of 1884, when he opened an independent office in the First National Bank Building, where he remained until removal to his present office in the Oxford Building. In 1885 he was made an honorary member of the Architectural League of New York. In 1888 he took in as a partner A. W. Cobb of Boston, but this relationship was soon dissolved and he has since continved the business alone. While associated with Mr. Cobb the firm published a book, " Exam- ples of American Domestic Architecture," which has been accorded much favorable and widespread comment from the architectural profession and the general public. Among prominent buildings de- signed by Mr. Stevens, which are mentioned here

MEN OF PROGRESS.

as conveying some estimate of the character and extent of his work, are the Ricker Classical Insti- tute at Houlton ; Physical Laboratory at Colby University, Waterville ; Hebron Academy, Hebron ; Theatre, Sagadahock Block and Young Men's Christian Association Building at Bath; Baptist churches at Skowhegan, Gardiner, Yarmouthville and Norway ; new. front of State-street Church, and Oxford Building, Portland ; also residences in Port- land for F. E. Richards, A. S. Hinds, Collector J. W. Deering, A. L. Bates, E. H. Davies, Harry Butler, J. Frank Lang, William C. Allen and many others, including the fine residence built for Wil- liam E. Gould, now occupied by J. H. McMullan. Some of his best work is also seen in extensive alterations and additions to the Poland Spring House, South Poland; Portland Athletic Club ; Biddeford City Hall ; Westbrook Grammar School ; and the residences of Henry St. John Smith, C. A. Brown, C. F. Libby, George S. Hunt and Fred Walker at Cape Elizabeth. He has lately won in competition the Eastern Maine Insane Hospital at Bangor, now under construction. The foregoing examples are all in Maine, but Mr. Stevens has done a good deal of work outside, including houses in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, and Newcastle, Indiana, and several fine residences near Boston. In the summer of 1892 Mr. Stevens, with F. A. Elwell of the Portland Transcript, or- ganized an architectural sketching tour on bicycles through northern and central France, which was very successful. The party comprised twenty-three · members, and travelled over a thousand miles on wheel, visiting many picturesque towns lying off the route of the usual tourist. Mr. Stevens is a fellow of the American Institute of Architects and has served upon its Board of Directors; is an honorary member of the Architectural League of New York ; member of the Portland Society of Art, of which he was President in 1895 and has served upon its Executive Committee since organization ; member of the Maine Charitable Mechanics As- sociation, serving as President in 1890-1 ; member of the Portland Athletic Club, of which he was third Vice-President in 1894-5 ; member of the Portland Wheel Club, was President of that organization in 1888-9, and was at that time Chief Consul of the Maine Division in the League of American Wheel- men. He is also a member of the Board of Direct- ors of the Maine Eye and Ear Infirmary, and an honorary member of the Portland Yacht Club. He is a prominent Mason, being a member of Ancient

Landmark Lodge, Mount Vernon Chapter, Portland Council, Portland Commandery, and Maine Con- sistory, and is also a member of Maine Lodge of Odd Fellows. In politics he is a Republican, and in 1890 was a member of the Portland City Coun- cil from Ward Seven. Although born in Boston, Mr. Stevens came with his parents to Portland in 1857, when he was but an infant of two years, and with the exception of the year-and-a-half spent in Boston in 1880-1 has always resided in the Forest City. He was married December 25, 1877, to Miss Martha Louise Waldron of Portland ; they have four children : John Howard, Caroline M., Margaret L. and Dorothy W. Stevens.

STROUT, SEWALL CUSHING, of Portland, Asso- ciate Justice of the Supreme Judicial Court of

S. C. STROUT.

Maine, was born in Wales, Androscoggin county, Maine, February 17, 1827, son of Ebenezer and Hannah (Cushing) Strout. His ancestors came originally from England and settled in Cape Eliza- beth, whence his grandfather removed to Wales and lived there the rest of his life. His father, Eben- ezer Strout, born in Wales, and a trader by occupa- tion, removed with his family in 1834 to Topsham, Maine, and in 1841 to Portland, where the son, then fourteen years of age, entered the Portland High

MEN OF PROGRESS.

School. At eighteen the state of his health made it necessary for him to discontinue his studies, and he entered the drygoods store of David J. True in Portland, where he remained a little more than a year. Having in the meantime decided to enter the legal profession and already begun a course of reading with that end in view, he then entered the law office of Howard & Shepley, both afterwards distinguished judges. In October 1843 he was admitted to the Bar, and a month later he com- menced practice in Bridgton, Maine. On April I, 1854, he removed to Portland, and after a year's practice alone, entered into partnership with Judge Howard, his late preceptor, who had retired from the Bench after one term. This connection was dissolved in June 1864, and Mr. Strout continued alone until June 1866, when he formed a partner- ship with Hanno W. Gage, under the firm name of Strout & Gage. In ISSo his son Frederick was admitted to the firm, which became Strout, Gage & Strout. On the death of the junior member, in 1888, Mr. Strout's second son, Charles A., took his late brother's place in the firm, which continued under the same name until the father took his seat upon the Bench of the Supreme Court, and since then Mr. Gage and Charles A. Strout have continued under the style of Gage & Strout. Maine, although strongly Republican, has adopted the policy of appointing one member of the Supreme Judicial Bench from the minority party. Its first appoint- ment of this kind wrs the late Artemas Libby, " whose character and ; bility alone entitled him to the position which he adorned for nearly twenty years," and upon his death, in March 1894, by almost unanimous voice, Mr. Strout succeeded to the vacancy. He was appointed April 12, 1894, and on April 24 began the duties of the office which he now fills. In an article upon the Supreme Court of Maine, published in The Green Bag during the current year, written by General Charles Hamlin, Reporter of Decisions of that court, it is said of Judge Strout : " His forty-five years at the Bar have been active, busy, successful. From the beginning he has had a large practice in the higher grades of business. He has taken part in important cases beyond the limits of the state, and thoroughly versed in all the legal literature of the day, has been favor- ably known as one of the leading lawyers of the Maine Bar. While at the Bar he was a Representa- tive lawyer both in the state and federal courts, and did not allow himself to deviate from his pro- fession by entering into politics or business enter-

prises and speculations. Adhering to general prac- tice, but never engaging in pension and patent cases, he never made any specialty, but was considered an all-round lawyer, preferring perhaps the civil to the criminal side of the courts. His jury arguments combined plausibility as well as intelligence of thought and clearness of statement. His perfect self-possession, freedom from temper and irritability, and agreeable and engaging manners, made him a difficult but never a disagreeable opponent." When Judge Lowell resigned from the United States Cir- cuit Court, the Bar of Maine almost unanimously recommended Mr. Strout to the vacancy ; and although the appointment went to another state, it was the ardent wish of all who knew his ability and fitness, that he might succeed to the position. At that time such testimony of the approval of those who knew him best was more gratifying than any other honor that could have been accorded him. In the mean time his associates of the Cumberland Bar elected him the President of their Association, which office he filled for ten years, 1884 to 1894. He also served one year as Alderman of Portland, and is a member of the Cumberland Club of that city. Judge Strout has been always a Democrat, but never active in politics. He was married Novem- ber 22, 1849, to Octavia J. P. Shaw, of Portland : they have had five children : Annie O., Louise B., Frederick S. (deceased), Joseph H. (deceased) and Charles A. Strout.

SWAN, FRANCIS KEYES, late of Swan & Barrett, bankers, Portland, was born in Winslow, Maine, October 20, 1820, son of Francis and Hannah (Child) Swan, and died in Portland, May 28, 1896. He was a descendant in the seventh generation from Henry Swan, the progenitor of the family in New England, who came from Kent county, England, in July 1638, and settled in Salem, Massachusetts. Henry Swan's only son, Thomas, was a practicing physician in Boston, and he in turn had a son Thomas, who after graduating from Harvard College in 1689, and studying medicine, practiced in Boston, and at Castle William in Boston Harbor. The first record of the family in Maine is in 1794, when William Swan, grandfather of the subject of this sketch, came to the state from Massachusetts. He had been an officer of the Sixth Massachusetts Regiment in the Revolutionary War, and later held a com- mission as Justice of the Peace and Trial Justice. Francis Swan, father of Francis Keyes, spent the

MEN OF PROGRESS.

early years of his business life in Winslow, and moved from there to Calais, Maine, in 1834, where he died in 1862 at the age of seventy-seven. The mother of our subject, Hannah Child, was the daughter of James Child, a well-known citizen of Augusta, Maine. Francis Keyes Swan received his early education in the common schools, prepared for college at Waterville (Maine) Academy, and entered Waterville College, now Colby University. After two years he was obliged to leave college on account of impaired health, and entered into busi- ness with his father, who was interested in the lumber industry at Calais, in which he continued

FRANCIS K. SWAN,

until 1848. In 1849-50 he was Cashier of the Bank in Gardiner, Maine, and in 1852-3 he held a similar position in the Calais Bank, which office he resigned to take charge of the Calais & Baring Railroad, now the St. Croix & Penobscot, as Treas- urer and Manager. From 1853 to 1867 he was engaged in fire and marine insurance, and from 1861 to 1866 was also Bank Examiner for Maine. In the autumn of 1865 MIr. Swan established him- self in Portland, and early in 1867 formed a partnership with George P. Barrett, under the firm name of Swan & Barrett, as bankers, and for the sale of investment securities, in which he continued for nearly nineteen years, until his retirement from active business in July 1885. These bare statements

relating to Mr. Swan's long and useful life convey facts of general interest and public importance, but they do not convey the feeling of regret and loss at the demise of a man whom everybody in Portland loved. Mr. Swan was deeply interested in the various benevolent and philanthropic institutions of his city, and up to the time of his death was a Di- rector in the Portland Benevolent Society and the Portland Provident Association. At Calais he was a member of the Congregational Church and most active in every work connected with it ; was Treas- urer of the Society for many years, and always connected with the Sunday School, either as teacher or Superintendent, and was unsparing of his time and strength in everything pertaining to the parish. On coming to Portland he became a member of the State-street Congregational Church, and for about twenty years was teacher of a Bible class in its Sunday School. Mr. Swan's activity outside of his private business was not, however, confined to the church in which he was so vitally interested, as he was ever most public spirited and ready to forward all projects for the improvement of the community in which he lived. He was married in September IS43 to Emily Bradbury, daughter of Jeremiah Bradbury, lawyer, who had moved from Alfred, Maine, to Calais a few years previously. Mrs. Swan died December 4, 1877. Their children are : Henry Storer, a practicing physician in Middleboro, Massachusetts ; Emily Manning, wife of Dr. Fred- eric Henry Gerrish of Portland ; Marcia Bradbury and Florence Wainwright Swan.

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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 13

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