USA > Maine > Men of progress; biographical sketches and portraits of leaders in business and professional life in and of the state of Maine > Part 2
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MEN OF PROGRESS.
Butler's Department of the Gulf, under the imme- diate command of General Godfrey Weitzel, in the Nineteenth Army Corps, commanded by General William B. Franklin and subsequently by General Emery, and was constantly in the field. At the approaching expiration of their three-years term of service Colonel Bradbury re-enlisted his entire com- mand. (the only instance in that department, and perhaps in the army), and in the winter of 1863-4 came home to Maine and to Augusta to recruit. After thirty days he was ordered to join Burnside, but was ordered by that General to the artillery camp near Washington for guns, horses and equip- ment. He had command for a time of Fort Lin- coln on the Bladensburg Road, with a battalion of hundred-days men, then of Fort C. F. Smith and Fort Strong, on the south side of the Potomac, with two battalions of hundred-days men, reporting to General DeRussey at Arlington Heights; and July 4, 1864, was ordered to Washington for Harper's Ferry, but his route was changed to Fort Stevens, beyond Crystal Springs, where he had command of a long line of fortifications, and where Jubal Early made his demonstration against Washington. Soon after this, General Emery with the Nineteenth Army Corps was transferred from the Department of the Gulf, and made application for Colonel Bradbury to be ordered to his command. The request being granted, he went into the Shenandoah Valley, in Sheridan's army, and participated in all the battles of that brilliant and successful campaign, was made Chief of Artillery of the Nineteenth Army Corps, and later appointed by General Sheridan, in general orders, Chief of Artillery of the Army of the Shen- andoah. He was mustered out of the United States service at Augusta, Maine, July 24, 1865. After the close of his army career Colonel Bradbury read law in the office of his father, Hon. Bion Bradbury, who had removed to Portland, and after admission to the Bar in 1867, became associated in co-partnership with his father as Bradbury & Bradbury, under which firm name was established an extensive practice, and which continued until the death of the senior member in 1887. Colonel Bradbury was for some time associated in practice with George F. Mc- Quillan, as senior member of the firm of Bradbury & McQuillan. He was appointed by President Cleveland, May 28, 1894, United States District Attorney for the District of Maine, which position he now holds. He has served as City Solicitor of Portland, and has always taken an active interest in public affairs, having been a prominent speaker on
the Democratic side in political campaigns in Maine and other states, besides delivering addresses upon many important occasions in various parts of the country. He is unmarried.
BRIDGHAM, PRESCOTT CORYDON, head of the woolen jobbing firm of Bridgham & Company, Boston, was born in Buckfield, Maine, January 31, 1824, son of George and Anna (Nickelis) Bridgham. He is of old New England ancestry, and his Grandfather Bridgham was a well-known physician of Maine, having removed from Middleboro, Massachusetts,
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PRESCOTT C. BRIDGHAM.
to New Gloucester in the former state about the middle of the last century. He was educated in the common schools and at Hebron (Maine) Acad- emy, graduating from the latter institution about 1837, when General O. O. Howard was Master. At the age of nineteen, in 1843, he went to Boston and engaged in the jobbing drygoods business with Parsons, Denison & Company, continuing as sales- man for this firm a year and a half or more. From 1846 he was a partner with J. N. Denison & Company three years. He then formed a partnership with Albert Little and Seth Chamberlin under the firm name of Little, Bridgham & Company, after the dissolution of which in 1855 or 1856 he organized a firm under the name of Bridgham, Beals & Com-
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MEN OF PROGRESS.
fany, which continued until the breaking out of the civil War in 1860, when it was dissolved. The next firm with which Mr. Bridgham was associated w. Kendall, Bridgham & Barrows, dating from 1861. In 1868 the firm of Bridgham, Jones & Com- pony was formed, and continued under that name .nul the death of Mr. Jones in 1873, just after the seat Boston fire, since which time the business has been continued under the present firm name of Bridgham & Company. The house is now one of the oldest in the woolen jobbing trade in Boston. since the war they have dealt only in fine woolens. Mr. Bridgham's home is in Newtonville, one of the most enterprising and attractive of Boston's many beautiful suburbs, where he is a Director in the West Newton National Bank and West Newton Savings Bank. He was a member of the Newton City Council for three years, 1880-83, and is a member of the Newton Club and of the Pine Tree State Club of Boston. In politics he is a Democrat. He was married June 20, 1850, to Miss Lucy A. Foster of Boston; they have had four children : Robert C., Charles Prescott (deceased), Frederick C. and Gertrude F. Bridgham.
BURBANK, HORACE HARMON, Judge of the Municipal Court of Saco, was born in Limerick, York county, Maine, October 27, 1837, son of Abner and Eliza Adams ( Harmon) Burbank. His grandfather, Samuel Burbank, was a son of Abner, who was a son of Eleazer, who was a son of John, whose father, John Burbank, was made a freeman in 1640, in Rowley, Massachusetts. His mother was a daughter of Daniel and Sarah Harmon, the latter a granddaughter of Thomas Gilpatrick, one of the original proprietors of the town of Limerick. He received his early education in the common schools, attended the Limerick and Yarmouth academies, and entered Bowdoin College, from which he was graduated August 1, 1860. For two years succeeding his college course he taught school and read law. In 1862 he enlisted as a private in the Twenty-seventh Regiment Maine Volunteers, and soon was promoted to Quartermaster-Sergeant. Upon the muster-out of this reginient he resumed his legal studies at Harvard Law School, but after six months he re-enlisted in the Thirty-second Maine Regiment, and served until the close of the war. Upon his second enlistment in the army, in 1864, Mr. Burbank was commissioned Lieutenant
of Company A in the Thirty-second Maine, and with his regiment entered upon the Potomac cam- paign of :864. In May he was promoted to Cantain, and participated in the battles of Spottsyl- vania, North Anna, Cold Harbor and numerous engagements in front of Petersburg, until July 30, when at the " Battis of the Crater" he was taken prisoner. He was in Rebel prisons at Danville, Virginia, and Columbia, South Carolina, for nearly seven months, when with others he escaped and joined Sherman's army. On reaching Washington he was given thirty days' furlough, before the expir- ation of which came Lee's surrender. By the
HORACE H. BURBANK.
consolidation of the Thirty-first and Thirty-second Maine Regiments, Captain Burbank was assigned to the command of Company B, Thirty-first Maine, and was mustered out May 15, 1865. He was admitted to the York Bar in January 1864, and in September 1865 began practice in Limerick, his native town, where he remained ten years, until his removal to Saco, September 1, 1875. He served as Town Clerk and School Supervisor in Limerick, and represented that town and Limington in the Legislature of 1866. He also served the county as Register of Probate eight years, from 1869 to 1877. He has been one of the Bail Commissioners of the county since 1873, and served as City Solicitor of Saco five years, in 1877-8 and 1833-4-5. In 1878,
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MEN OF PROGRESS.
he was appointed County Attorney by Governor Connor, and in 1882 by the Court; and in IS86 he was elected by the people and held the office until December 4, 1890. On December 5, 1890, he was appointed Judge of the Municipal Court of Saco by Governor Burleigh, which position he still fills. In 1876 he was appointed Judge Advocate on the staff of Governor Connor, in which capacity he served three years, with rank of Colonel. In the Grand Army of the Republic he has been Post Commander of Fred S. Gurney Post of Saco, and is now serving his twelfth year as Quartermaster,; and in the Department of Maine he was Junior Vice Department Commander in 1879, Judge Advocate two years, 1884-5, and in 1888 was chosen Depart- ment Commander. He is a prominent Mason, having served as Grand High Priest of the Grand Chapter of Royal Arch Masons of Maine in 1873-4, Grand Master of the Grand Council of Maine in 1884-5, Grand Commander of Knights Templar of Maine in 1893, and Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Maine from 1893 to 1895. He was also Grand Treasurer of the Good Templars of Maine from 1878 to 1882. In politics he was a Democrat until 1861, but has been a Republican since. Colonel Burbank was married June 11, 1872, to Miss Elizabeth Porter Thompson, daughter of Captain Nathaniel L. Thompson of Kennebunk, Maine ; they have four children : Ralph Harmon, born - in Alfred, September 15, 1875; Grace Thompson, born in Saco, June 12, 1877 ; Francis Lord, born in Saco, July 23, 1879, and Jane Lord Burbank, born in Saco, April 15, 1882.
BURNHAM, EDWARD PAYSON, President of the Saco and Biddeford Savings Institution, and Mayor of Saco for two terms, 1872-74, was born in Kenne- bunkport, December 3, 1827, son of Rev. Owen and Eliza (Smith) Burnham. Both parents were born in Arundel, now Kennebunkport. His Amer- ican ancestor, James Burnham of Wells, was clerk of Capt. Samuel Wheelwright's company in the Indian war in 1725; his widow, Elizabeth, married Peter Rich of Wells, who died in 1760. Jamies, son of James and Elizabeth Burnham, was born Sep- tember 24, 1710, married to Grace Daizel, January 5, 1737, and died at Arundel, November 5, 1787; his widow died July 3, 1868, aged ninety-two. Seth, son of James and Grace ( Dalzeb) Burnham, was born March 9, 1760, married in 1780 Lydia Lassel, and
died November 17, 1846 ; his wife died May 1, 1832. Owen, son of Seth and Lydia Burnham, born May 22, 1796, married September 30, 1822, Eliza, daughter of Capt. Robert Smith, died June 2, 1836, and whose wife died December IS, 1847, was the father of the subject of this sketch. Edward P. Burnham received his early education mainly at Bridgton ( Maine) Academy. For a few seasons he worked in a country store at Kennebunk Landing. in the palmy days of ship-building, when the Landing was a busy place. He studied law with William B. Sewall and Edward E. Bourne of Kenne- bunk, and was admitted to the Maine Bar at Alfred,
EDWARD P. BURNHAM
April 4, 1849. He was Deputy Collector of Customs .at Kennebunkport from 1851 to 1853, when he removed to Saco, and in April 1853 became Secre- tary and Treasurer of the Saco Mutual Fire Insur- ance Company, and Secretary and Treasurer of the Saco and Biddeford Savings Institution, the duties of which offices he discharged for an uninterrupted period of thirty-two years, until May 1885. From 1884 he has been a Trustee and from 1888 Presi- dent of the Savings Institution, to the present time. He has also been a director of the Kennebunk & Kennebunkport Railroad from 1882, and since May 18844 its President. Mr. Burnham was Mayor of Saco two years, from March 1872 to March 1874, having served as Alderman five years and as City
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MEN OF PROGRESS.
In itor one year. He has been an Odd Fellow since 1850 and a Free Mason since 1852, and has served as Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of both Innles. He has been a member of the New Eng- Lind Genealogical Society from 1868 ; of the Maine Historical Society from 1870; Webster Historical Swicty from 1884; York Institute, Saco, from J''5. and now Treasurer ; Pine Tree State Associ- ation from 1885 ; Sons of the American Revolution trom 1891, and President in 1894; and Maine Genealogical Society. In politics he is a Repub- lean. Before the formation of that party he was a Whig, and in 1848 he distributed ballots for Taylor and Fillmore, but was too young to vote. Mr. Burnham was married September 5, 1854, to Miss Mary Ann, daughter of James and Lydia ( Burnham ) Osborne of Kennebunk ; they have no children.
CLARK, DENNIS WOODRUFF, President of the D. W. Clark Ice Company, Portland, was born in Farmington, Connecticut, May 27, 1819, son of Abraham and Milicent (Washburn) Clark. He is of the sixth generation from John Clark on the paternal side, and of the eighth generation from John Washburn on the mother's side. John Clark was probably one of the forty-two men to whom land was assigned in Newtown, now Cambridge, Massachusetts; he removed with Rev. Mr. Hooker's Company to Hartford, Connec- ticut, where his name is on the monument erected to the first settlers ; was in Hartford as early as 1637, was a soldier in the Pequot War, and probably removed to Farmington previous to 1655 ; the names of John Clark and his wife are in the list of members of the church in Farmington made out March 1, 1679-80, but when they joined is not stated ; he was one of the eighty-four proprietors of Farmington, and died November 22, 1712, "at great age." The line of descent is as follows : John Clark, emigrant ancestor ; Matthew Clark, married Ruth Judd ; John Clark, married Elizabeth Newell ; Mervin Clark, married Sarah Woodruff ; Abraham Clark, married Milicent Washburn ; and Dennis Woodruff Clark, the subject of this sketch. On the maternal side the line de- scends through. John Washburn, emigrant ances- tor, from Eversham, Stratford-on-Avon, Worcester county, England ; John Washburn, married Eliza- beth Mitchell ; Joseph Washburn, married Hannah Latham ; Joseph Washburn, married Hannah
Johnson ; Joseph Washburn, married Lucy Board- man; Joseph Washburn, married Ruth Wetmore ; Milicent Washburn, married Abraham Clark. Mr. Clark received only a common-school education. In 1831 his father moved to Illinois with his family, where the boy, then twelve years old, found meager opportunities for education, there being at that time in the West but few schools. Upon his father's removal west in the fall of 1831 the family goods were shipped from New Haven via Albany and Buffalo to " Chicago." The captain of the vessel that transported them left the household effects at Michigan City, saying that he could not find
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D. W. CLARK.
Chicago. The present Western metropolis was then known only as Fort Dearborn. Mr. Clark commenced active business life as clerk in a book- store in New Haven. After his removal West he occupied similar positions in Naples and Jackson- ville, Illinois, and St. Louis, Missouri. He first went into business for himself at Rockingham, Iowa, but in 1840 he removed to Platteville, Wisconsin, where he was engaged in mining and mercantile pursuits until 1852, when he joined his brother, Dr. J. W. Clark, and his brother-in-law, Elias Gill, in a California venture, and spent two years in trade in San Francisco and Sacramento under the firm name of Gill, Clark & Company. In 1854 he
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MEN OF PROGRESS.
came to Portland, Maine, where he has been eu- gaged in the ice business since that time. In ISS2 the Clark & Chaplin Ice Company was organized as a joint stock company and Mr. Clark was made its President. He was Treasurer of the Leeds & Farmington Railroad Company until that road was sold to the Maine Central in 1871, and in 1872 he was elected a Director of the Portland & Ogdens- burg Railroad. After the latter road was com- pleted, through the Crawford Notch of the White Mountains, and the cars were running to the Fabyan House, in 1879, he resigned his director- ship. He has been President of the Portland Water Company since 1873, President of the Biddeford & Saco Water Company since 1885 when the company was first organized, and Presi- dent of the Standish Water and Construction Com- pany from its organization .in 1893. He has also served as Director and President of a number of other business corporations, and while interested in these companies, at the same time keeps up an active interest in the ice business, being the President of The D. W. Clark Ice Company, a corpo. ration organized under the laws of the state of Maine. Mr. Clark when living in the West, in 1844, united with the Presbyterian Church in Platteville, Wis- consin; and is now a member of the State-street Congregational Church in Portland. In politics he has been successively a Whig, Freesoiler and Repub- lican, but has never had any taste or desire for public life or political office. After travelling exten- sively in the United States, in 1872 he spent five months with Mrs. Clark in European travel During Mr. Clark's long residence of more than forty years in Portland he has endeared himself to the people of that city by the urbanity of his manners, by his public spirit, by the many enterprises he has under- taken for the good of the town, and by the things he has done for the common weal. Probably no man walks its streets to-day held in more loving estimation. A memory like that is a rich legacy to leave to one's descendants. He was married .August 22, 1850, to Mary Caroline, daughter of Capt. Alex- ander and Mary (Lowell) Hubbs; they have had five children : Mary Milicent, born July 19, 1851, died September 1, 1854; Alexander Hubbs, born February 26, 1853, died August 2, 1853 ; Emma W., born March 26, 1855, married December 29, 1881, to George Washington Percy, architect, of San Francisco, California : Isabelle Tyler, born Novem- ber 26, 1857 ; and Mervin Washburn, born July 27, 1861, who married, in Bangor, Maine, November
12, 1899, Antoinette Langdon Paine [born August 28. 1864, in Farmington, Connecticut, daughter of Professor Levi Leonard Paine of Bangor Theological Seminary and Jeanette (Holmes) Paine]; he has one child. Langdon Washburn Clark, born January 9, 1894.
CARTER, GEORGE ALBERT, Mayor of Saco in I874-5, was born in Wakefield, New Hampshire, December 12, 1830, son of Daniel R and Mehitable (Dodge) Carter. His parents moved to Rochester, New Hampshire, when he was but two years old,
G. A. CARTER.
hence he has always spoken of Rochester as his native place. His paternal progenitors were among the early residents of Dover, New Hampshire, where his father was born and spent his early years. He attended the town schools and acad- emy of Rochester, but being obliged to assume the active duties of life at the age of seventeen, his early education was necessarily limited. It was the intention of his father to give him a college edu- cation and fit him for a profession, but the death of the parent when the son was but twelve years old changed the whole career of the latter's life. He commenced his business career in 1851 as an employe of Longley & Company's Portland & Boston Express. The year 1852 he spent in their
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MEN OF PROGRESS.
office in Portland, and in IS53 he came to Saco as Agent of the Eastern and subsequently the American Express and Western Union Telegraph Companies for Saco and Biddeford. Since February 1853 the express business of the two cities has been in his charge, and it is a somewhat remarkable fact that in this period of forty-three years, covering his busi- new career, Mr. Carter has never failed to make out personally the required monthly statements of business transacted, each and every month. Mr. Carter gave up the telegraph part of the business in 1882. For several years, in addition to the duties of his position as American Express Agent for Saco and Biddeford, he has been doing an insurance business under the firm name of G. A. Carter & Company, representing a large number of leading fire and marine companies, his partner being H. A. McNeally, for a long time his chief clerk in the ex- press office. Mr. Carter is also a Trustee of the Saco Savings Bank. In 1872 he was elected to the City Council of Saco, in the following year he was elected Alderman, and in 1874 he was elected Mayor, to which office he was re-elected in 1875- Subsequently he served again as Alderman, and also for several years as a member of the School Board. lle is President of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, Vice-President of the York Institute, Secretary of the Wardwell Home for Old Ladies, and a Trustee of Thornton Academy. In politics he is a Republican, of sound-money and high-tariff principles. This brief sketch is a simple record of an uneventful, but albeit very busy, life. Filling positions of slight emolument mostly for the public good, Mr. Carter has found his compensation in the satisfaction derived from rendering good and faithful service, with the feeling of assurance that sometime and somehow it is certain of being re- warded. He was married at Rochester, New Hamp- shire, October 15, 1852, to Miss Rosa H. Otis ; they have had two children : Bella O. and Mary E. Carter.
CLEAVES, HENRY BRADSTREET, Governor of Maine for two terms, 1893-97, was born in Bridg- ton, Maine, February 6, 1840, son of Thomas and Sophia (Bradstreet) Cleaves. His father was a native of Bridgton, by occupation a farmer, and was a man of great energy and rigid integrity ; his mother was a daughter of Daniel Bradstreet, who came from Rowley, Massachusetts, in the early days of Bridgton's settlement. His early education was acquired in the common schools of his native town
and the Lewiston Falls and Bridgton academies. In 1861, at the age of twenty-two, he enlisted as private in Company B, Twenty-third Maine Volun- teers, and served with honor until the regiment was discharged, earning the chevron of Orderly Sergeant. Upon the expiration of the regiment's term of service, Sergeant Cleaves immediately re-enlisted for three years under General. Francis Fessenden, who was recruiting a veteran regiment for active service at the front, and was appointed First Lieutenant of Company F, Thirtieth Maine Veterans. Serving in the Department of the Gulf, he participated in
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HENRY B. CLEAVES.
various engagements under General Banks on the Red River expedition, and with General Fessenden at Mansfield, Pleasant Hill and Cane Crossing. After the close of the campaign in Louisiana the regiment was ordered to Virginia, where Lieutenant Cleaves served during the remainder of the war in the Army of the Potomac and under General Sheridan in the Shenandoah Valley. When mus- tered out at the close of the war he was offered by Secretary Stanton a commission in the regular army, which he declined, and returned to his home in Bridgton, occupying himself on the farm, in the lumber business, and in the study of law. In September 1868 he was admitted to the Bar, and removing to Portland, formed a law partner- ship with his brother, Judge Nathan Cleaves, the
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firm becoming extensively and widely known throughout Maine and New England. Judge Cleaves died in 1892, having occupied many posi- tions of honor and public trust and attained emi- nence in his profession. Governor Cieaves and Stephen C. Perry are the surviving partners. Mr." Cleaves was elected a Representative from Port- land to the State Legislature in 1876, and re-elected in 1877, serving during both terms as Chairman of the Judiciary Committee. In 1877 he was elected City Solicitor of Portland, and conducted many important cases for the city during his two years of office. In ISSo he was made Attorney-General of the State, to which office he was twice re elected, and in which capacity he was engaged in the pros- ecution of a great number of prominent criminal cases and of important state-tax cases against the railroads. In June 1892 Mr. Cleaves received the unanimous nomination of the Republicans for Governor. He was elected in the following Sep- tember and re-elected in 1894, receiving the biggest majority ever cast for a Governor in Maine. Gov- ernor Cleaves has been always a Republican, having cast his first Presidential vote for Abraham Lincoln in 1864. While Governor Cleaves has made a memorable mark in everything he has so far attempted - particularly distinguishing himself as Attorney-General - it is as Governor of the State that he has most endeared himself to the people of Maine In that high office he has displayed mod- eration and sagacity. He has been singularly careful as to the appointments coming within his province ; thus earning the respect of his political opponents as well as the plaudits of his party friends. An able, an honest and a magnanimous magistrate, he has put his name high on the hon- orable roll of the governors of Maine. He is a prominent member of the Grand Army" of the Re- public and the Maine Veteran Association, and in his professional practice, as well as in matters of charity, has always shown a warm friendship for the soldier. His successful defence of William T. Best, a disabled veteran, in the extradition proceed- ings brought against him by the Province of New Brunswick, excited great public interest at the time and was one of the noteworthy events of his professional career. He is unmarried.
COBB, JOHN CLIFFORD, of the law firm of John C. & F. H. Cobb, Portland, was born in that part of Westbrook now included in the city of Deering,
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