USA > Maine > Men of progress; biographical sketches and portraits of leaders in business and professional life in and of the state of Maine > Part 15
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United States and both Sweden and Norway. Mr. He is a member of the Maine Historical Society, Thomas was recalled from the Swedish and Norwe. the Swedish Geographical Society, His Majesty King Oscar's Shooting Club, the Royal Swedish Yacht Club, the Idun, a Swedish Literary Club, the Fraternity Club of Portland, and is one of the founders of the Portland Yacht Club. He is a lover of all out-door manly sports, and a keen follower of the chase. He has laid low the moose and bear in the backwoods of Maine and Canada, and the elk in the forests of Sweden. On one occasion, Sep- tember 29, 1893, when hunting in company with King Oscar and the Emperor of Germany on Hun- neburg Mountain in Sweden, he had the good for- tune to shoot four noble elk, as large and as grand as the American moose of his native state. During this hunt the German Emperor was exceedingly gracious towards the American Minister, chatting and jesting with him in the most unconventional and democratic manner, and soon after the Emperor's return to Berlin he sent Mr. Thomas his portrait, " as a token of special sympathy and a souvenir of the personal meeting with you on the Hunneberg hunt" (the emperor's own words). The painting is inscribed by the Emperor's hand, " Wilhelm, Im- perator Rex." Mr. Thomas was married October 11, 1887, to Dagmar Elizabeth Törnebladh, daughter of Ragnar Tornebladh, Knight and Nobleman, member of the Upper House of the Swedish Parlia- ment, and Manager of the National Bank of Sweden. They have had two children : William Widgery Thomas, 3d, died in infancy in Stockholm, and Oscar Percival Thomas, born in Stockholm, August 13, 1889. gian Mission by President Cleveland in 1894. At his farewell audience he was presented by King Oscar with his portrait, a magnificent life-size paint- ng, personally inscribed by the King. On his return to America in October he was welcomed back o his native land by a public reception and banquet given in his honor by the leading Swedish-Americans of the state of New York, at the house of the Swedish Engineers' Club in Brooklyn. During the vinter of 1894-5 he delivered addresses upon 'Sweden and the Swedes " in more than fifty cities and towns throughout sixteen different states, and was everywhere greeted by large and enthusiastic audiences, frequently numbering several thousands. In many cities he was honored by public receptions ind banquets ; Governors and United States Sen- tors presided at his meetings ; and his entire lec- ure tour from the Atlantic to the Rocky Mountains vas one continuous ovation. Mr Thomas is not only an attractive public speaker from the stump or ecture platform, in both the English and Swedish anguages, but is also widely known as an entertain- ng writer. He published in 1869 a translation of in historical novel. " The Last Athenian," from the Swedish of Victor Rydberg, for which he received he special thanks of the King of Sweden and Nor- vay, and has at intervals written many spirited arti- les for Harper's Monthly, the Cosmopolitan and ther magazines and periodicals. His greatest lit- rary work, however, (s " Sweden and the Swedes," richly-illustrated volume of seven hundred and fifty pages, published in 1892 in both America and Sweden, and in both the English and Swedish lan- quages. The book has met with a flattering recep- TRUE, SAMUEL AUGUSTUS, President of the S. A. & J. H. True Company, Grain and Flour Merchants, Portland, was born in Portland, July 23, 1837, son of Samuel and Mary J. (Haskell) True. Both parents were natives of New Gloucester, Maine. He was educated in the public schools, and entered upon a mercantile clerkship with Noyes & Weston, which continued until September 1858, when he embarked in business with F. A. Waldron, under the firm name of Waldron & True, which relation- ship continued for twenty-three years. For the last fifteen years he has been President of the S. A. & J. H. True Company. Mr. True served as a member of the State Legislature in 18So and 1881, but has been too busily occupied with his extensive mercan- tile interests to devote much time to political life or public office. His political affiliations are Repub- ion and large sale on both sides of the Atlantic, nd is characterized by the Swedish press as " the nost correct, and at the same time the most genial, lescription of Sweden and its people ever published n any language." Of Mr. Thomas it can be said hat no other American ever acquired so intimate a nowledge of Sweden and the Swedes, or ever ccomplished so much by both tongue and pen in naking them known and honored throughout Amer- ca, and no one is more widely known or more highly espected by the Swedes in both the Old World and he New. Mr. Thomas has led a life of many-sided ctivity and, although now but of middle age, of onorable achievement. He has been lawyer, legis- ator, founder of a community, consul, diplomat, rator and author- and in all has been a success.
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lican. He is a member of the Portland and Athletic clubs, also of the Masonic Lodge, Chapter, Council and Commandery, and of the Free-street Baptist Church. He was married January 6, 1859, to Miss . Ellen A. Hart; they have two' children : Charles
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SAMUEL A. TRUE.
A. True, and Ellen Hart, now Mrs. Edward C. Robinson of Brookline, Massachusetts.
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TUCKER, PAYSON, Vice-President and General Manager of the Maine Central Railroad Company, was born in Lowell, Massachusetts, February 14, 1840, son of Ansel and Mary Miles (Beveridge) Tucker. He was educated in the public schools of Portland, Maine, and. the New Hampshire Confer- · ence Seminary at Tilton, New Hampshire, and entered the railway service November 14, 1853, as clerk in the Superintendent's and Treasurer's office of the Portland, Saco & Portsmouth Railroad. He held this position until 1860, when he was made General Ticket Agent and Paymaster, which dual office he filled for ten years. In 1870-2 he served as passenger-train conductor on the same road, and in 1872-5 he was General Agent of the Boston & Maine Railroad at Portland. In 1875 he was called to the Maine Central Railroad, of which Governor Abner Coburn was then President, and served as
Superintendent until 1882, and since then has been Vice-President and General Manager to the present time. In 1883-5, during the period when the inter- ests of the Maine Central and the Eastern railroads were very closely related, Mr. Tucker was also Gen- eral Manager of the latter road. In ISS9 he was elected a Director of the Maine Central, and has been re-elected at every annual meeting since. He has been General Manager of the Portland, Mount Desert & Machias Steamboat Company since the Maine Central assumed control of that transportation line in 1884, and from November 1891 to November 1893 he was a Director and General Manager of the Phillips & Rangeley Railroad. He was a lead- ing promoter and has served continually as a Di- rector of the company that built the Union Station .in Portland, and was prominent among the projectors of the Cantilever Bridge at St. John, New Brunswick, the connecting link between the railway systems of the United States and the Maritime Provinces. When Mr. Tucker assumed charge of the Maine Central, it had a mileage of only about three hun- dred and fifty miles, and gross receipts of but little
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PAYSON TUCKER.
over a million and a half dollars yearly. To-day it operates over eight hundred miles of railroad, besides two hundred miles of steamboat lines, and its traffic has assumed very extensive proportions. That this development is not altogether a result of the natural
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increase in the general business of the state, but is in a very large degree due to Mr. Tucker's sagacity, enterprise aral ability as a railroad manager, is a fact well-known to the citizens of Maine. Supple- menting his thorough practical knowledge of the railroad business in all its details, gained by many years' experience, he'early adopted and has contin- ually maintained a policy of encouragement and stimulation to the establishment of new industries and enterprises, and the opening of new resorts in all parts of the state wherever the lines of the road extended, and also inaugurated a system of extensive and effective advertising of Maine's advantages and resources and the facilities for reaching them. Many a prosperous manufacturing industry or thriving business community is indebted for its growth, if not its inception, mainly to the fostering aid extended by the Maine Central Railroad ; while the development of the resort interests of Maine to their present magnitude is due almost wholly to the spirit of enterprise exhibited by this corporation, in providing adequate transportation facilities, and distributing its attractive resort literature to even remotest parts of the country. There is no other institution with which the welfare, the prosperity, the very life of Maine are so closely identified ; and the state's rapidadvancement in all its material interests within the last few years is in no small measure owing to the liberal, enlightened and progressive policy which has characterized the present management of its great railroad, the Maine Central. Mr. Tucker's peculiar abilities as a rail- road man have been made manifest in no less a degree in the internal operations of the road. As Superintendent he introduced many valuable train rules which have since been generally adopted by other roads, and as General Manager he gave the first tests to many notable improvements in track material and train equipment, the Maine Central being the first railroad to adopt the now well-known and generally-used Sewall System of heating cars by steam from the locomotive. He personally superintended the building of the Mount Desert Branch of the Maine Central in 1884, and the extension of the Mountain Division from Fabyan's to Scott's Junction in 1889. Mr. Tucker resides in Portland, and is a Director of the Casco National Bank of Portland, also President of the Maine Eye and Ear Infirmary, and a Director of the Maine Mutual Benefit Association. He was mar- ried in September 1862 to Hattie 1 .. Brazier of Portland.
WALKER, NATHANIEL BROOKS, Lawyer, Biddeford, was born in Biddeford, February 26, 1851, son of Eliphalet and Eunice ( Butler) Walker. His ances- tors were among the earliest settlers of this section of the country, and many of the family records and traditions of the early times have been preserved ; one ancestor fought at Bunker Hill, and another was captured by the British at sea and died in Dart- moor prison. He acquired his early education in the public schools of Biddeford and Kennebunkport, and fitted for college at Limington (Maine) Acade- my, and in the Saco (Maine) High School. After two years at Cornell University he left to devote
N. B. WALKER.
himself to the study of law, was admitted to the York County Bar in May 1875, and then entered Yale University Law School from which he gradu- ated with the degree of I.L. B. in the class of 1877. His early training and studies were especially designed to fit him for the profession of a civil engineer. in which he was for a time engaged ; but circumstances and inclination led him to the adop- tion of a legal career, and he began the practice of law in Biddeford in January 1878, in which he has since been actively engaged. Mr. Walker has been counsel in some of the most important cases that have arisen in York county. He has served as City Solicitor of Biddeford, 1883-4-5, and as a member of the Board of Examiners for Admission to the
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Bar from 1893 to the present time. He was Super- visor of Schools in 1879-81, Alderman in 1887, and has been a member of the Board of Registration since 1891. He is a Mason, a member of Dunlap Lodge and Bradford Commandery Knights Templar, of Biddeford. In politics Mr. Walker is a Demo- crat. He was married September 4, 1872, to Miss Pauline V. Gilpatrick, of Kennebunkport ; they have two children : Florence E. and Thomas B. Walker.
WARREN, JOHN EBENEZER, Agent and Resident Manager of the Cumberland Paper Mills of S. D.
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JOHN E. WARREN.
Warren & Company, Cumberland Mills, Westbrook, was born in Grafton, Massachusetts, October 6, 1840, son of Joseph A. and Sarah H (Potter) Warren, of New England ancestry for several generations. His early life was spent on a farm in the town of Wau- watosa (adjoining Milwaukee ), Wisconsin, where he attended the common schools and two or three terms of select school previous to reaching the age of eighteen. He taught school for a time in Rosen- dale and Wauwatosa, and in 1861 enlisted in the War for the Union, serving in the First Regiment Wisconsin Volunteers from May until August in that year, and in the Seventh Wisconsin Battery from September 1861 to the close of the war in July 1865. He came to Maine in the winter of 1866-7
and went to work in the paper mills owned by S. D. Warren & Company of Boston at Cumberland Mills, in which employment he has remained to the present time, since 1884 as Agent and Resident Manager. Mr. Warren has served as a member of the Maine House of Representatives from West- brook for two terms, 1873-4, as Treasurer of the town of Westbrook 1870-4, member of the Westbrook City Council 1891-2 and 1894 and President of that body in 1892. He is a Trustee of the West- brook Memorial Library, also of the Maine Mission- ary Society and the Bangor Theological Seminary, and a member of Cloudman Post Grand Army of the Republic. In politics Mr. Warren has been always a Republican. He was married November 18, 1879, to Miss Hattie Brown of Wauwatosa, Wis- consin. They have had four children : Joseph A, born September 10, 1870 ; John B., born March 10, 1872, died March 10, 1882 ; Mortimer, born Decem- ber 17, 1873, and Lois Warren, born September 5, 1884.
WEBB, LINDLEY MURRAY, Lawyer, Portland, was born in Windham, Maine, March 7, 1849, son of
LINDLEY M. WEBB.
John and Martha Maria (Mayberry) Webb. His father was a farmer and Justice of the Peace, doing business as a Conveyancer and before the Probate Court, and was a member of the Executive Council
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of the state for several years. He received his early education in the public schools, fitted for college at Gorhanı Seminary, and was graduated from Bates College, Lewiston, in the class of 1870. He stud- ied law with Woodbury Davis and Josiah H. Drum- mond of Portland, was admitted to the Cum- berland Bar in 1872, and at once commenced practice in Portland. Mr. Webb has been actively engaged in the practice of his profession in Wind- ham and Portland from October 1872 to the present time. He was a member of the State Legislature of 1878, and served as a member of the City Coun- cil of Portland in 1892 and 1893. He has been President of' the Ocean Park Association since 1894, and is a member of Portland Lodge of Masons, also of Hadattah Lodge and Una Encampment of Odd Fellows. In politics he has been always a Repub- lican. He was married September 15, 1874, to Miss Clara L. Cobb, of Gray, Maine ; they have five children : Everett H., Edith M., John C., Josephine D. and Philip R. Webb.
WEEKS, ANDREW GRAY, President of the Weeks & Potter Company, wholesale druggists, Boston, was born in North Yarmouth, Maine, June 11, 1823, son of Ezra and Hannah (Merrill) Weeks. Ezra Weeks was the son of William Weeks. The genealogy of the Weeks family, which has been published, is traced back to Wales, England, the American progenitor having first landed in this country in 1637. Andrew G. Weeks received his early education in public and private schools of Portland, Maine, and went to Boston in 1840, at the age of seventeen, entering the drug store of Frederick Brown. In 1842 he transferred his ser- vices to Smith & Fowle, retail and wholesale drug- gists, with whom he remained until 1851, when he formed a copartnership with Warren B. Potter of New Bedford, under the firm name of Weeks & Potter. This firm continued until the death of Mr. Potter in 1889, its business meanwhile acquiring extensive proportions, ranking for years as one of the largest and most widely-known wholesale drug houses of Boston. On the death of his partner Mr. Weeks took the whole business and formed it into a stock company, under the style of the Weeks & Potter Company, which continues at the present time, Mr. Weeks being President, and his son, A. G. Weeks, Jr., Treasurer and General Manager. He is also Treasurer of the Potter Drug & Chemical Company, and a Director in the Lincoln National
Bank of Boston and the Equitable Fire and Marine Insurance Company of Providence, Rhode Island. Mr. Weeks is one of Boston's honored merchants and wealthiest citizens. During his long and active business career, he has been frequently urged to accept positions of honor and trust, his well-known qualifications making his active co-operation eagerly sought by those interested in the promotion and welfare of various enterprises, institutions and asso- ciations. But his time and energies have been dedicated to· his chosen field of work, and he is rarely found absent from the daily oversight of his private business. He never took an active interest
ANDREW G. WEEKS.
in politics, and has never held any political office. He is a member of the Algonquin and Country clubs of Boston, also of the Boston Art Club, Pine Tree State Club and several other societies and organizations. He is also a member of Massa- chusetts Lodge and Royal Arch Chapter of Masons. In church matters he is a prominent Episcopalian, and is interested in many charitable works. In his childhood days he sat under the preaching of Rev. Dr. Vail and Rev. Dr. Condit in the Second Parish Church in Portland. He has been for many years a Warden of Emmanuel Church, Boston, and is a Director in the General Theological Library of Boston. Mr. Weeks was married in 18.47 to Harriet Pitts, daughter of Charles and Harriet ( Pitts)
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Pierce. They have had four children : Harriet Emma, died in infancy ; W. B. Potter ; Andrew G. Potter, Jr. ; and Hattie P., now the wife of S. R. Anthony, of the firm of Tucker, Anthony & Com- ,pany, bankers, Boston.
WEEKS, STEPHEN HOLMES, A. M., M. D., Pro- fessor of Surgery in the Maine Medical School, Bowdoin College, was born in Cornich, Maine, Oc- tober 6, 1835, son of John and Mehitable ( Holmes) Weeks. After attending the common schools and receiving an academical education at Fryeburg
STEPHEN H. WEEKS.
(Maine) Academy, he studied medicine at the Portland School for Medical Instruction, attended lectures at the Medical School of Maine ( Bowdoin College) and at the Medical Department of the University of Pennsylvania, receiving his degree of M. D. from the latter institution in March 1864. Upon graduation Dr. Weeks established himself in Portland, where he has since remained, gaining a widely-extended reputation and winning especial distinction in the practice of surgery. In 1880 he spent ten months in visiting the hospitals of Europe, principally in London, Edinburgh, Paris, Berlin and Vienna. In 1890 he attended the International Medical Congress held in Berlin, and then spent
three months in. German hospitals, also devoting some time to the hospitals of London and Paris. In 1889 he received the honorary degree of A. M. from Bowdoin College. Dr. Weeks is a member and has served as President of the Maine Med- ical Association, is a member of the American Medical Association, and a fellow of the American Surgical Association. In 1876 he was appointed to the Chair of Anatomy in the Medical School of Maine, which position he held until the death of Professor William Warren Greene in 18SI, when he was transferred to the Chair of Surgery, which he still occupies. He has been Surgeon to the Maine General Hospital ever since its doors were opened, in 1874. In the early part of his professional life he was engaged in the general practice of medicine, but for the last twenty years or more has devoted himself chiefly to surgical work, which has covered almost the entire field of operative surgery. He was the first surgeon to use absorbable drainage tubes made of arteries, and made this the subject of his paper at the time he was admitted to mem- bership in the American Surgical Association. Some of the original drainage tubes may be seen in the Army Medical Museum at Washington. These tubes were also presented to the surgical section of the Tenth International Medical Congress, held in Berlin in 1890. Dr. Weeks' contributions to med- ical literature have been published in the Transac- tions of the Maine Medical Association ; the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal ; Transactions of the American Surgical Association ; Transactions of the Ninth International Congress, held in Washington in 1887 ; and in the Transactions of the Tenth International Medical Congress, Berlin 1890. He was married in March 1864 to Mary A. Richmond, daughter of Rev. P. C. Richmond of Fryeburg, Maine ; they have a daughter, Marion Richmond - Weeks.
WENTWORTH, EDWIN PARSONS, Assistant Su- perintendent of the State Reform School, South Portland, was born in Buxton, Maine, January 1, 1854, son of Eben and Priscilla L. ( Hill) Wentworth. The Wentworth family is one of the oldest in Eng- land, dating back to the time of the Norman con- quest, 1066. Elder William Wentworth, ancestor of nearly all the Wentworths in this country, came to America as early as 1639, and settled in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. His grandson John was appointed Lieutenant-Governor of New Hampshire in 1717,
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and from that time to the Revolution, more than fifty years, ail the Royal Governors of New Hamp- shire were Wentworths. Elder Williani's great great- grandson Ebenezer settled in Narragansett Township Number One, now Buxton, Maine, about 1767, and it was on the old home place at Buxton, still in possession of the family, that the subject of this sketch was born. His father, the late Eben Went- worth, was for many years a public school teacher in Portland, and during the last five years of his life was Superintendent of the State Reform School. His mother, Priscilla L Hill of Buxton, was a de- scendant of Peter Hill, who came to this country
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EDWIN P. WENTWORTH.
from Plymouth, England, about 1636, and settled at Richmond's Island, Maine. His early education was acquired in the public schools of Portland, his father and mother removing to that city from Buxton when he was about two years old. In 1869, at the age of fifteen, he became a clerk in the book store of his brother Daniel Wentworth, in Portland. While engaged in the book business he learned the art of stenography, and from 1875 to 1878 did con- siderable reporting in the courts, and also taught shorthand. In February 1878 he was elected Assis- tant Superintendent of the State Reform School, but resigned November 1, 1879. In March ISSo he was again elected Assistant Superintendent, in which office he has continued to the present time. Mr.
Wentworth is a member of the National Conference of Charities and Corrections ; member of the Maine Chautauqua Union, of which he was Treasurer in 1892, President in 1893, and has served on the Executive Committee since 1890; corresponding member of the Agassiz Association, and member of the State-street Congregational Church of Portland. He is also a member of Beacon Lodge and Portland Encampment of Odd Fellows. In politics he is a Republican. Mr. Wentworth has always taken a deep interest in all efforts and movements for the uplifting of mankind - prison reform, temperance, religious work, etc. In 1887 he read " Progress and Poverty," by Henry George, and ever since has been an earnest and enthusiastic advocate of the Single Tax. He has made an especial study of criminal youth and their reformation, and believes that much good work in this field may be accomplished by suit- able physical, industrial, mental and moral training, aided by kindly sympathy and gentle but firm disci- pline. He is an occasional contributor to the news- papers and other periodicals, upon this and various subjects. He was married July 24, 1888, to Della F. Wharff of Newcastle, Maine. Mr. and Mrs. Wentworth are much interested in natural history, especially in the collection and study of mollusks ; they have an excellent collection of the land, fresh- water and marine shells of Maine, and their re- searches have added to the number of mollusks known to live in Maine several species never before found in the state. Microscopy and botany are also among Mr. Wentworth's favorite pastimes.
WEYMOUTH, HARRY ATWOOD, M. D., Physi- cian and Druggist, Saco, was born in Saco, March II, 1858, son of Luther and Esther L. (Anderson) Weymouth. He is a direct descendant of William Weymouth, who came from Dartmouth, England, and settled at Kittery, Maine, in 1652. His mother is a native of Pennsylvania. He was educated in the public schools of his native city, graduating from the high school in 1875, after which he taught district school three winters, studied medicine with Dr. John Allen and Dr. S. C. Libby of Saco, and received his degree of M. D. at the Medical School of Bowdoin College in 1882. In August 1879 he entered Dr. Libby's pharmacy in Saco as clerk, and has remained there to the present time, purchasing a half interest in the business in April 1887 and the balance in 1889. In July 1882 he opened an office in connection with the pharmacy, and has been en-
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