USA > Maine > Men of progress; biographical sketches and portraits of leaders in business and professional life in and of the state of Maine > Part 17
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BARTON, LLEWELLYN, Lawyer, Portland, was born in Naples, Cumberland county, Maine, Novem- ber 24, 1854. The Bartons are of English descent ; the name figures among the first settlers of Diamond Island, Casco Bay, and is not without reputation and standing in Maine and other states. The sub- ject of this sketch was reared upon the home farm in Naples. His immediate kindred were all people of small means, and his education depended entirely upon his own exertions, with what encouragement and moral support his people could give him. As a result, his training for active life was the best that it could have been to teach him self-reliance and a practical knowledge of the value of hard-earned dollars. Supplementing his experience at farm work, at fifteen years of age he was apprenticed to learn the carpenters' trade, which he followed as an occupation a part of the time nearly every year for twenty years, until he entered upon the practice of law. After attending at intervals various schools and academies, and graduating from Bridgton (Maine) Academy in 1880, in the meantime working at his trade to pay his way while preparing for col- lege, he entered Bowdoin College, where by means of a scholarship, and by teaching district schools winters and working at carpentering summers, he was enabled to pursue a classical course, graduating in 1884. In the fall of 1885 he commenced the study of law in the office of N. & H. B. (now Gov- ernor) Cleaves, Portland. After studying two years with this well-known firm, in August 1887 the pro- fessional career upon which he had entered was interrupted by his acceptance of the Principalship of Bridgton Academy, at North Bridgton. This position he held five years, resigning in 1892 to resume his law studies. He was admitted to the Cumberland Bar on May 5, 1893, and at once entered upon the practice of law in association with General C. P. Mattocks at 3116 Exchange street, Portland. Later he removed to 98 Exchange street, where he has since continued in practice alone. Mr. Barton enjoys the unique distinction of
having conducted a case in the Supreme Court before he was admitted to the Bar, permission having been granted him by the presiding Judge who afterwards examined him for admission. His first practice after being admitted was before the Law Court, where he argued two important cases, each involving questions which the court had never adjudicated. Mr. Barton in a very brief time won reputation and standing as an attorney by his suc- cessfui conduct of several notable legal contests, chief among them being the Cape Elizabeth Tax Case and the famous Naples School Controversy. In the latter, for several months in 1895, a dual
LLEWELLYN BARTON.
system of school officials and teachers was in active operation in the town of Naples, and the questions at issue involved the interpretation of the school law of 1894 for the first time, and were of such impor- tance that the decision of the court was awaited with great interest by the whole state. The position of Mr. Barton and his associate, A. F. Moulton, was sustained in every particular. Mr. Barton enjoys the satisfaction of having always carried out with reasonable success whatever projects he has undertaken, a result which he attributes mainly to the circumstances that have compelled him to rely upon himself. He naturally holds, therefore, that a boy's, preparation for the active duties of life
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should not be made too easy and smooth ; and with a child of his own, while he would if possible remove one half of the ordinary drudgery and struggle, he should consider it better for him to encounter the rest even if untold wealth were at his disposal. Mr. Barton has always been deeply interested in matters of education, as is attested by his years of successful experience as a teacher, and by his fre- quent participation in county and state educational conventions. During his five years as Principal of Bridgton Academy, the school was exceedingly prosperous ; the courses of study were extended and improved, the faculty was increased ; several of the school buildings were remodelled and ren- dered more commodious, and the grounds were enlarged and beautified. The repairing or practical rebuilding of the old academy, constructed in 1825, is an example of Mr. Barton's energetic methods and executive ability. Through his efforts as Prin- cipal, and by the generous contributions of two wealthy alumni, the old building was in 1890 thor- oughly rebuilt and modernized, the entire work being done in the eight-weeks midwinter vacation, from plans, specifications and labor all furnished by Mr. Barton, he being one of the contractors. The time allotted for the work was very brief, and every hour of favorable weather was precious ; therefore, when the public assembled in an adjoining school build- ing to attend the usual exercises that marked the close of the fall term, they were astonished to see the ancient edifice roofless and the work of recon- struction under way, as some of the final examina- tions for the term were held in the building that very morning. In August 1892, just after his resignation as Principal, Mr. Barton was elected a Trustee of the Academy. In the brief respites from his school work he found time to compile and publish several books for use in public schools, the most ambitious being an Algebraic Review, which is quite extensively used. Mr. Barton's active interest in politics and public affairs led to his entrance into public life at an early age. In 1884, immediately after his college graduation, he was elected to the State Legislature as Representative from the towns of Naples, Sebago and Raymond, for the years 1885-6, upon which occasion he received a congratulatory letter from President Chamberlain of Bowdoin, predicting for him a notable political future - which doubtless would have been realized had his lot been cast in a community less strongly opposed to the Democratic principles which he always maintained. In the
Legislature Mr. Barton proved himself a ready and effective debater, but being a young and inexperi- enced member, he was appointed to serve on two ordinarily unimportant committees - Mines and Mining, and the Joint-Temperance Committee. As a member of the last-named he drafted the original Druggists' Bill, so called, permitting drug- gists to sell intoxicating liquors for medicinal and mechanical purposes under stringent regulations, a measure which lacked only a few votes of passing the House, notwithstanding the bitter feeling of the dominant party against the enactment of any tem- perance legislation, on account of the St. John movement in the national campaign of 1884. At the close of the session Mr. Barton was chosen to present the customary vote of thanks to the Speaker on behalf of the minority. In 1888 he was the party candidate for Register of Deeds, and in 1890 candidate for Register of Probate, of the county of Cumberland ; and in 189t he was elected a member and made Chairman of the Board of Selectmen of Bridgton, which town had been continuously Republican by a large majority for the last thirty years. In 1892 he was a candidate for Representa- tive to the Legislature from Bridgton, and came within twenty-six votes of an election, running far ahead of his ticket At the opening of the Legis- lature of 1893 he was one of the Democratic candi- dates for State Assessor, the only office he ever sought, and lacked but eight votes of election. In that year he became Secretary of the Young Men's Democratic Club of Portland, to which office he declined a re-election on account of having been chosen a member of the Democratic State Com- mittee for Cumberland county. At present he holds the office of Treasurer of the State Com- mittee, and also serves as a member of the Execu- tive Committee. Mr. Barton takes an active part in all state and national campaigns, speaking on the platform in various parts of the state. His political methods, although aggressive, are always clean and dignified, and he commands both the attention and respect of his political opponents. He is a member of Cumberland Lodge of Odd Fellows, of Bridgton, and of various school and college societies, including the Phi Rhonian of Bath High School, and the Theta Delta Chi, Eta Chapter, of Bowdoin College. In college he par- ticipated actively in athletics and all literary and social matters ; was one of the founders and supporters of the Bowdoin Literary Association, President of his college fraternity, member of the
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College Jury, also of King Chapel Choir and the College Quartet, one of the editors of the Bowdoin Orient, and received several awards for oratorical and literary excellence in speaking and writing. Mr. Barton was married September 19, 1894, by Dr. J. L. Jenkins of State Street Church, to Miss Grace Inette Newman, of Portland ; they have one child : Lawrence Gould Barton, born December 15, 1895.
BERRY, JOHN T., of the Berry Brothers Hotel Company, Rockland, was born in Rockland, Feb- ruary 12, 1818, son of Jeremiah and Frances A. (Gregory) Berry. His paternal grandfather, Thomas Berry, was an officer in the Revolution, and married Abigail Coombs; and on the maternal side he is a grandson of Captain John and Elizabeth (Simonton) Gregory. His early education was acquired in the common schools. He lived on a farm until fourteen years old, and then learning the mason's trade with his father, he worked with him until the age of twenty- three, mostly engaged during that time in building government lighthouses on the coast. Afterwards he went into the hotel business with his brother, under the firm name of J. T. & W. Berry, as proprietors of the Commercial House, Rockland. At the same time he was connected with the livery business, and also ran a stage line between Rock- land and Bath, carrying the United States mails for twenty-four years, 1848-72, until the Knox & Lin- coln Railroad was built. In 1876 he was made a Director, and later became President of that corpo- ration, and continued in that office until the sale of the road to the Maine Central in 1890. In addition to these business connections Mr. Berry was for a long time interested with his brother, General Hiram G. Berry, in shipping and real estate, and also was associated with Captain Samuel Watts of Thomaston in shipbuilding from 1863 to 1890. He served as a Director of the Limerock Bank of Rockland for thirty-four years, 1855-89, and as its President twenty-six years, 1863-89 ; was for twenty years, 1868-88, a Director of the Rockland Savings Bank, and President nine years, 1875-88; has been a Director of the Camden & Rockland Water Com- pany and of the Limerock Railroad Company ever since their organization, and is also a Director of the Rockland Water Company and several other corporations. In politics Mr. Berry is a Democrat. He has held various city offices, always taking an especially active interest in the financial affairs of
the city and county, was one of the number who opposed repudiating the public debt of Rockland, and has always been in favor of public improvements for the whole city. He is one of the largest taxpayers in Rockland, and is a member of the Universalist Society and the various city clubs. He was married
JOHN T. BERRY.
April 25, 1841, to Catherine C. Crockett, whose death occurred May 4, 1873. In 1875, January 18, he was again married, to Evelyn Crockett, who died October 7, 1895. There are three children : Fred H., Clara C. and Charles H. Berry.
COX, HENRY PACKARD, President and General Manager of the A. F. Cox & Son corporation, wholesale dealers in boots and shoes, Portland, was born in Brunswick, Maine, October 5, 1849, son of Augustus F. and Tryphena (Jones) Cox. He is a grandson of James Cox, born in Topsham, Maine, in 1793 ; and a great-grandson of Eli Cox, who was born in Massachusetts in 1740, son of Elisha Cox of Weston, Massachusetts, born in 1719. His mother was a daughter of James Jones of China, Maine, a noted minister in the Society of Friends, and came from a long line of ministers in that society. His father was a pioneer shoe manufact- urer and farmer, commencing the manufacture of
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shoes at Brunswick, Maine, in 1842, and there founding the present business, which is now the oldest of its kind in the state, as well as one of the largest. The lad, while receiving a common school and academic education, had no idle moments.
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HENRY P. COX.
He was taught all the tarm knowledge that his father could impart, and at the same time the fac- tory possessed a fascination ior him and found him there at every available opportunity. When he was eighteen, in 1867, the factory was moved to Port- land and a wholesale store was added. His busi- ness training was had in this store. Here he began at the bottom, and his close application to every detail soon gave him a thorough knowledge of the business. At the age of twenty-six he was admitted to an equal partnership with his father, under the firm name of A. F. Cox & Son, with himself as General Manager, and which continued until the death of the senior partner, his father, Augustus F. Cox, in 1891. The business, which had expanded enormously under his management, was then incor- porated under the old firm name of A. F. Cox & Son, of which he is President and General Manager. From 1868 to 1893, a period of twenty-five years, Mr. Cox gave the business his constant and undi- vided attention, without a vacation or illness of a single week. Such devotion to business manifestly left no time for any other duties. He is now, how-
ever, a Director in the Portland National Bank, Union Safe Deposit and Trust Company and Casco Bay Steamboat Company of Portland, Treasurer of the Portland Theatre Corporation, and Treasurer of the Joliet Railway Company of Joliet, Illinois. He is also President of the Portland Club; a Director of the Athletic Club ; member and past officer of Unity Lodge and Eastern Star Encampment of Odd Fellows, also Past Grand Master, and Past Grand Representative to the Sovereign Grand Lodge ; is a Mason and member of all the different branches up to and including the Scottish Rite, Thirty-second Degree ; and member of Pine Tree Lodge Knights of Pythias, and Past Grand Vice-Commander of the Grand Lodge of Maine. Mr. Cox was married December 11, 1872, to Almira C. Hussey, of Vassal- boro, Maine'; they have no children.
WILSON, GEORGE ADAM, South Paris, Judge of Probate of Oxford county, was born in Turner, An- droscoggin county, Maine, July 31, 1842, son of
GEO. A. WILSON.
Reverend Adam and Sarah H. (Ricker) Wilson. His father, Reverend Adam Wilson, D. D., was the founder of Zion's Advocate, the established organ of the Baptists of Maine, and was one of the most prominent divines of that denomination. His mother was a sister of Reverend Joseph Ricker, D. D., another Baptist clergyman of prominence.
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He received his early education at Hebron and Paris Hill (Maine) Academies and Waterville (Maine) Classical Institute, and graduated from Waterville College, now Colby University, in 1862. Immediately after graduation from college he en- listed in Company B, Twenty-first Maine Regiment, and served out his term of enlistment, participating in the siege of Port Hudson under General Banks, and as a member of the famous " Forlorn Hope " when the fort was assaulted, May 27, 1863. On his return from the army he entered the law office of Hon. Reuben Foster at Waterville, remaining there until June 1865, when he opened a law office at South Paris, where he has since continued in the active practice of his profession. He was admitted to the Kennebec Bar in 1864. When the South Paris Savings Bank was organized, in 1873, Mr. Wil- son was chosen Treasurer, and has held this posi- tion ever since. He was also instrumental in the organization of the Paris Manufacturing Company, a large concern, employing a hundred and fifty hands, and has always been President of the com- pany. He has in fact been actively and prominently identified with every enterprise started to increase the prosperity and advance the interests of the vil- lage, since he settled there thirty years ago. He has also been industrious in other directions outside of his law practice, and has in the hands of the printer a work of eight hundred pages, embodying the Probate Law and Practice of Maine. Mr. Wil- son served as a member of the Maine Legislature in 1883-4, and resigned to accept the appointment of Judge of Probate for Oxford County, which office he still holds, having been three times renominated without opposition. He has been a Twistee of Colby University since 1887 ; was Master of Paris Masonic Lodge in 1878-9 ; was Noble Grand of Mount Mica Lodge of Odd Fellows in 18So, and Chief Patriarch of Aurora Encampment in 1881 ; served as Chan- cellor Commander of Hamlin Lodge Knights of Pythias in 1894, and is a member of Portland Com- mandery Knights Templar and William K. Kimball Post Grand Army of the Republic. In politics Judge Wilson is a Republican. He was married August 24, 1865, to Annie L. Blake, daughter of David Blake of Belgrade, Maine; they have two children : Madge Shirley and George Adam Wil- son, Jr.
FERGUSON, WILLARD BIXBY, Street-Railway Promoter, Contractor and Operator, of Boston and Malden, Massachusetts, was born in Troy, Waldo
county, Maine, December 20, 1844, son of Nahum and Betsey ('Tasker) Ferguson. His paternal an- cestors came from Scotland in 1780 and settled in Eliot, Maine, where they engaged in farming. On the maternal side he is of English descent. His early education was acquired in the public schools. Although but eighteen years old when the Civil War broke out, he enlisted in the Fourteenth Maine In- fantry, and was in active service for three years, par- ticipating in the Battle of New Orleans with General Butler, also at Baton Rouge, and in two engagements at Port Hudson. Upon the restoration of the Union he returned to the home farm. But farm life not
W. B. FERGUSON.
being to his liking, he removed in 1874 to Salem, Massachusetts, where he became interested in the street-railroad business, and remained for about fif- teen years. When electricity began to come to the front as a motive-power, he went to Boston and con- nected himself with the office of the Thomson-Hous- ton Electric Company, where he gave his attention to the especial study of electricity in its application to street-railways. In this line of business he has been signally successful, and in recent years has come to be known among business men as the "King of Street-Railway Magnates." Re-entering his old business under the new conditions, he soon became associated with numerous enterprises. He
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was manager of the street railway in Salem, and later he built the road from Salem to Danvers and Mar- blehead, afterwards equipping it with electricity. It was this, one of the earlier of the trolley roads, that the late Oliver Wendell Holmes had in mind when he wrote "The Broomstick Train." Later he built the Waterville & Fairfield and Augusta & Gardiner electric roads in Maine, and in Massachusetts the Gloucester, the Rockport, the Milford, Holliston & South Framingham and the Milford & Hopedale street-railways. Mr. Ferguson makes a business of contracting for the building and equipment of elec .. tric-street roads. He is actively interested in a dozen or more street-railway systems, and is Presi- dent of the Suburban, the South Middlesex, the Gloucester, the Rockport, the Athol & Orange, the Gloucester, Essex & Beverly, the Milford, Holliston & South Framingham and the Milford & Hopedale street-railway companies. He is also President of the Malden Loan and Trust Company and of the new Water Tube Trust Company, and is a member of the Masonic and Odd Fellows fraternities, the Grand Army of the Republic, and the Kernwood Club of Malden. Mr. Ferguson's home is in the beautiful suburb of Malden known as the West End. In politics he is a staunch Republican, and in Salem was a member of the City Council for two years. He was married September 2, 1871, to Miss E. Janette Coffin ; they have two daughters : Anna L. and Lila G. Ferguson.
BIRD, SIDNEY MORSE, President of the John Bird Company, wholesale grocers, Rockland, was born in Rockland, March 11, 1840, son of John and Clarissa (Gregory) Bird. His father was a native of Framingham, Massachusetts, and his mother was born in Camden, Maine. He attended the common schools until the age of eighteen, and then entered upon his practical training for business life in a country store. From 1858 to 1862 he served as a clerk for his father's firm of John Bird & Company, and was then admitted to partnership. This business, established- in 1832, has grown from a small country store to one of the largest wholesale grocery and specialty houses in Maine, and in 1891 was incorporated, under the name of John Bird Company. Mr. Bird is also President of the North National Bank of Rockland, of which he was elected a Director in 1868, and is a Director of the Cobb Lime Company, Camden & Rockland Water Com- pany, Limerock Railroad Company, Rockland,
Thomaston & Camden Street-Railway, Knox Gas and Electric Company, the Georges Valley Rail- road Company, and is closely connected with the management of several other corporations. Mr. Bird has served as a member of the City Govern- ment of Rockland, and in 1870-1 and 1881 repre- sented his city in the Forty-ninth, Fiftieth and Sixtieth Legislatures, respectively. In 1895 he was appointed by Governor Cleaves a member of the Eastern Maine Insane Hospital Commission, which has under its supervision the construction of the new insane hospital at Bangor. Mr. Bird is a Republican in politics, and was a Delegate to the
S. M. BIRD.
Republican National Convention of 1892 at Minne- apolis. He is a member of the Central Club of Rockland. He was married September 25, 1859, to Anna E. Heard ; they have five children : New- bury Alvin, Elmer Sidney, Maynard Sumner, Henry Borstel and Alan Lawrence Bird.
BLISS, CHARLES EDMUND, Postmaster of Bangor, was born in Bradford, Vermont, July 23, 1833, son of Dr. Hiram and Polly (Hale) Bliss. He received a common school education, and when seventeen years old learned telegraphy at Waldoboro, Maine. After serving four years as an operator in Boston and at Cleveland and Toledo, Ohio, he came to
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Bangor in 1855 and entered the service of the Western Union Telegraph Company. In 1865 he was appointed Manager of their Bangor office, con- tinuing in that capacity until 1894, when he was appointed Postmaster of Bangor by President Cleve-
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CHAS E. BLISS.
land, which position he at present holds. In poli- tics Mr. Bliss has been always a Democrat. He was married April 2, 1855, to Louise Alden Tyler, of Thomaston, Maine ; they have three children : Harry C., Marcia Fessenden and Alfred Veazie Bliss.
BROWN, CHARLES FREEMAN, of Wright, Brown & Quinby, Solicitors of Patents, Boston, was born in Hampden, Penobscot county, Maine, October 21, 1848, son of John and Deborah (Freeman) Brown. His great-grandfather John Brown was one of the Scotch-Irish colonists from Londonderry, Ire- land, who settled in Londonderry, New Hampshire, about 1750. He became one of the founders of Belfast, Maine, and a member of its first Board of Selectmen. He with two others refused to take the oath of allegiance to the British Crown at the time of the Revolution - all the other voters of the town taking the oath - and for this reason was com- pelled to abandon his home and land in Belfast until after the war. The records say that he was a
man of great uprightness and strength of character. John Brown, Jr., son of the foregoing, lived and died in Belfast. His son, John Brown 2d, father of the subject of this sketch, was born in Belfast and died in Hampden, where he removed in carly life and became a prominent citizen, being for many years a neighbor, friend and political sup- porter of the late Hannibal Hamlin. Charles F. Brown was educated in the common schools and academy of his native town, and received his training for professional life in the patent-law offices of Hill & Ellsworth at Washington, District of Co- lumbia, and Carroll D. Wright in Boston. In 1875 he entered into partnership with Colonel Wright, his preceptor, now United States Commissioner of Labor, under the firm name of Wright & Brown, patent attorneys and solicitors. Colonel Wright retiring in 1878 to devote all of his time to statistical work, Mr. Brown continued the business alone under the same firm name until 1885, when he took in A. W. Crossley of Washington as a partner. Later Mr. Crossley retired and was succeeded by William Quinby of Washington, and the firm became Wright,
CHARLES F. BROWN.
Brown & Quinby, its present style. Mr. Brown served.in the Massachusetts Legislature in 1881 as a member of the House, representing the towns of Reading, North Reading and Wilmington, and in 1892-3 as a member of the Senate for the Sixth
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