USA > Maine > Men of progress; biographical sketches and portraits of leaders in business and professional life in and of the state of Maine > Part 25
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SPINNEY, EPHRAIM C., Kittery Depot, was born in Kittery, under the roof which now shelters him, December 14, 1821, son of Nicholas and Patience (Cole) Spinney. His great-great-grand- father James Spinney, a son of wealthy parents in Manchester, England, when a young man visited the Bay of Fundy with a codfishing expedition, and being favorably impressed with the country and its virgin resources, his romantic spirit became fired with the purpose of starting in life here as a poor man and building up a fortune. Accordingly taking up a large tract of land in the town of Kittery, which then was an unbroken wilderness, he erected a sawmill on Sturgess Creek, which ran through his property, and was soon hard at work felling and manufacturing the timber that covered his land. When he had established a fairly comfortable home, after twenty years' absence, he sent word to his family in England, who up to that time had known nothing of his whereabouts. His brother Thomas at once started in search of him, and arriving at Eliot Point located there, being likewise. attracted by the novelty and excitement of pioneer life, and finding much pleasure in hunting and fishing. Hle spent a full year in futile search for his brother
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James, and then accidentally discovered his log- cabin. From these two brothers sprang the nunier- ous branches of the Spinney family in Maine. James married Mary Gouch and reared a number of children. His son Nicholas became a farmer in Kittery, and the eldest son of Nicholas, Caleb, also followed agriculture for a livelihood, locating nearly opposite the present Kittery depot. Caleb Spinney and his third wife Abigail (also a Spinney) were the grandparents of the subject of our sketch, having three children : Nicholas, Josiah and Rowena. Caleb Spinney was a Captain in the state militia, and held many offices of trust in the town.
EPHRAIM C. SPINNEY.
Nicholas Spinney, the father of our subject, learned the butcher's trade when quite young, and for some years carried on a successful business in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Subsequently he removed his business to Kittery, and purchased the house in which his son is now living - which, built about 1806, is a fine example of the comfortable country home of that period, substantial, roomy and hospi- table-appearing. He lived to the age of seventy- seven, and his wife, a daughter of John Cole, a native of Kittery, survived until a later period, passing away in her eighty-fourth year. They were the parents of seven children : Caleb S., Emily, Abigail, Ephraim C., Nicholas, Rowena and Alice,
of whom only Ephraim and the two last-named are now living. Ephraim C. Spinney received his early education in the district school, where both mind and muscle were trained, as it was in the days when the boys had to cut the wood to warm the school- room. At seventeen he began to learn the carpen- ters' trade, at which he worked some ten years. Then purchasing his father's homestead, he engaged in the purchase and sale of hay and produce, which he shipped to Boston. He also at this time began to deal in real-estate, and gradually enlarged the scope of his operations until he owned various farms and tenement-houses and became one of the largest real-estate owners of the place. Gifted with re- markable business ability and a faculty of winning success, Mr. Spinney has not only been successful in his private business, but has promoted and organ- ized a number of manufacturing companies and other enterprises. He was one of the corporators and is now a Trustee of the Piscataqua Savings Bank of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and was for several years Treasurer of the Rice Library of Kittery, finally resigning his position and accepting the less arduous one of Trustee, which he now holds. He is Coroner of the County of York, and has been a Justice of the Peace for forty-one years. In politics he is a staunch Democrat, and although Kittery is strongly Republican, he has served a number of times on the Board of Selectmen, was elected Representative to the Legislature in 1861, and has been three times nominated for State Senator, on each occasion running far ahead of his ticket in his own town. He is a member of St. John Masonic Lodge of Kittery. Mr. Spinney has a beautiful home, which it is likely he may live long to enjoy, as he is hale and active, and younger in appear- ance than many men whose senior he is by several years. He was married June 13, 1872, to Mary P. Paul, daughter of Stephen Paul of Newington, New Hampshire ; they had two children, who died in infancy. Being fond of children, and possessed of ample means, Mr. Spinney has reared, educated and given trades to several boys - Jefferson D. Cook, Daniel B. Cook and Woodbury L. Place - all of whom hold positions that do credit to his training and esteem him as their own father. He was also guardian of Charles R. Hanscom, and looked after „him until he started in life for himself. Mr. Hans- com is a well-known naval constructor in the employ of the government, having charge of the drafting of the government ships now being built at Bath, Maine.
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CLARKSON, FRANK THOMAS, Postmaster at Kittery Point, was born in Kittery, December 17, 1859, son of Thomas and Martha ( Frisbee) Clark- son, and grandson of William and Ann ( Hannes) Clarkson. He was educated in the public schools
FRANK T. CLARKSON.
of his native town, and after leaving school worked for several years in the grocery store of Safford & Clarkson at Kittery Point. In 879 he bought Mr. Safford's interest and formed a partnership with his fat inder the name of T. Clarkson & Son, which has since continued. On October 27, 1893, he was appointed Postmaster at Kittery Point, which office he at present holds. Mr. Clarkson is a prominent Freemason, being a member of Naval Lodge of Kittery, Unity Chapter of South Berwick, Maine Council of Royal and Select Masters, and Bradford Commandery Knights Templar of Bidde- iord. He is also a member of Constitution Lodge Knights of Pythias, and the Maine Society of Sons of the American Revolution. He is a Democrat in politics, and is unmarried.
WILSON, FRANK, Lawyer, Sanford, Register of Probate for York county, was born in Orleans, Cape Cod, Massachusetts, September 1, 1849, son of Dr. Tunothy and Mary B. (Kimball) Wilson. He
acquired his early education in the common schools, graduated from the Harvard Law School in 1877, was admitted to the Bar of York county, Maine, at Saco, in January 1878, and since the latter year has been engaged in the practice of law at Sanford. In 1885 he was elected Register of Probate of York County for four years, and has been three times re-elected, his present term expiring in 1901. Mr. Wilson was one of the organizers of the Sanford Loan and Building Association in 1890, of which he has always been a Director and for the past two years has served as Secretary. He was Chairman of the Board of Selectmen of Sanford in 1888-9 and 1892, and has served as Chairman of the Republi- can Town Committee, except for a two-years interval, for the last ten years. He is a member and was for four years Master of Preble Masonic Lodge of Sanford, was a charter member and High Priest of White Rose Royal Arch Chapter of San- ford for two years, and is a member of Bradford Commandery Knights Templar of Biddeford. He was married at Somersworth, New Hampshire, November 16, 1880, to Abby J. Hobbs, who died
FRANK WILSON.
September 15, 1891. He was a second time mar- ried, November 17, 1892, to Alice L. Pike, of Shapleigh, Maine. Mr. Wilson has had three chil- dren : Ida Belle, Gillie May and Marie F. Wilson, of whom only the second is now living.
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CLOUGH, GEORGE. ALBERT, Architect, Boston, was born in Bluehill, Maine, May 27, 1843, son of Asa and Louise (Ray) Clough. He is descended on the paternal side from the Andover, Massachu- setts, branch of the family. His mother was of' Scotch descent. His father was a prominent ship- builder, learning his trade at Castine, Maine, although born and always residing in Bluehill, where he died in 1861, having built and launched many vessels. The subject of this sketch may be said to have been brought up in his father's shipyard, where in boyhood he worked in various capacities between school terms, and at an early age he became fami-
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GEO. A. CLOUGH.
liar with the principles of draughtsmanship by assisting his father in the drawing of the sweeps upon the floor and in forming the moulds for the ship's frame. In 1863, at which time, owing to the Civil War, the shipbuilding interest in Maine had about ceased, he went to Boston and entered upon the study of architecture with George Snell, of the architectural firm of Snell & Gregerson, continuing in this relation until 1869, when he opened an office for himself. His long and thorough training, com- bined with his natural aptitude for the profession, niade him successful from the start. He soon established a reputation, and in May 1874 he was elected City Architect of Boston, being the first to hold that position. Mr. Clough thoroughly organ-
ized the department, and during his successive terms of office, which covered a period of ten years, he planned and erected for the city many notable buildings. Prominent among them are the English and Latin High School, in which large and handsome structure he was the first to introduce the German system for schoolhouses, which provides for open interior courts, thus affording ample light and ventilation to all parts ; and the Prince School, completed in 1875, which fulfils the German plan for smaller school buildings. In this line of archi- tecture Mr. Clough has manifested especial skill, and since 1875 upwards of eighty-five school' edi- fices have been built under his plans and direction. An especially noteworthy example of his work is the Durfee Memoria! Building at Fall River, Massa- chusetts, which is one of the finest school edifices in the world. Another is the Suffolk County Court House in Pemberton Square, Boston, which, al- though cut down from his original plans by the building commission, from motives of economy, and thus deprived of the dome and other of its most distinguishing features, is nevertheless one of the finest public buildings in Boston, and cost $2,750,000. Mr. Clough also designed the Mar- cella Street Home and the Lyman School for Boys, in Boston ; the Pumping Station, the Westboro Insane Hospital, and Dana Hail at Wellesley Col- lege, Massachusetts ; the Fogg Memorial Building at South Berwick, and Bridge Academy at Dresden, Maine ; and various public and private buildings of note throughout New England and in New York and Pennsylvania. The new Methodist Church of Brookline, the new Gate of Heaven Church (Cath- olic) in South Boston, and the reconstruction of the Lunatic Hospital at Northampton, are included in his later work in Massachusetts. While he has won and maintained a position of eminence in the field of general architecture, it is especially recognized that his work has exerted a widespread and bene- ficial influence upon American school architecture, the evolution of which in recent years has been one of the striking external features of the progress of Massachusetts and New England. Mr. Clough resides in Brookline, and is a member of the Masonic order to the Knights Templar degree, also of the Odd Fellows fraternity and the Pine Tree State Club of Boston. In politics he is a Repub- lican. He was married in 1876 to Amelia M. Hinckley, daughter of Lyman Hinckley of Thetford, Vermont : they have three children living : Charles Henry, Annie Louisa and Pamelia Morrill Clough.
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SAVAGE, HENRY HARRISON, President of the Boston Land Improvement and the New England Land Improvement Company, Boston, was born in North Bridgton, Cumberland county, Maine, Sep- tember 12, 1839, son of Abram M. and Mary ( Hay- ward) Savage. His father was a farmer and music teacher in Maine for fifty years. His great-grand- father on the maternal side, John Hayward, born in Acton, Massachusetts, in 1740, was a galiant soldier and officer in the Revolution. At the breaking out of the war he was a Lieutenant in the Acton Com- pany, commanded by Captain Isaac Davis. At daybreak on the memorable day of April 19, 1775:
HENRY H. SAVAGE.
when the startling news reached Acton that the British Regulars were . on their way to Concord, Captain Davis aroused his men and rendezvoused the troops at the old North Bridge in Concord, where they found the British on the other side of the river, guarding the bridge to prevent the Pro- vincials from entering the town. The British dis- charged a volley and Captain Davis fell dead. Lieutenant Hayward promptly took the command, and waving his sword, sprang upon the bridge and led his excited men against the foe, who tock pre- cipitate flight, Hayward and his company pressing them in flank and rear, driving them on towards Juston. So daring was his act in springing fore-
mest upon the bridge, the British officers, it is said, confessed that it awed them into admiration of his bravery, and thus saved his life. Afterwards, Lieu- tenant Hayward led his Acton men up the slopes of Bunker Hill, and later he fought with conspicuous valor at White Plains, Trenton, Monmouth and other notable battles of the war. Six years after the battie at Concord Bridge, on August 1, 1781, Lieutenant Hayward received a commission as Cap- tain, signed by John Hancock, Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The subject of this sketch attended the common schools, and worked on the farm until he was twenty-one, when he went to South Waterford, Maine, where he was employed in a grocery store for about three years. In 1865 he removed to Massachusetts, and afte working as clerk in a merchandise broker's office for about twelve years in Boston, he engaged in merchandise brokerage for himself, under the firm name of Henry H Savage & Company, which busi- ness he still runs, with the help of his two sons. In recent years Mr. Savage has become largely inter- ested in real estate matters. He has been President since their organization of the Boston Land Im- provement Company and the New England Land Improvement Company, the former with one hun- dred thousand dollars capital, and the latter capital- ized at two hundred thousand. The two companies are operating in eight states, opening and improving large tracts of land, and erecting houses and other buildings thereon. In 1866 he took up his resi- dence in Greenwood, the southern village in the town of Wakefield, in which he saw elements of large prospective growth and opportunities for prof- itable development. Its subsequent prosperity has been in no small measure due to his enterprise and sagacity. It was largely through his influence that the property known as Greenwood Park was opened up and developed as a residence section. This park, in the past six years, had added about seventy-five houses to the village, besides giving an impetus to the erection of dwellings in other near-by sections. He is also engaged in developing unproductive lands outside of the town limits of Wakefield. Mr. Savage is an exceedingly active business man and a public-spirited citizen, alive to all matters of interest to his adopted town and village, and giving liberally of his time and money to promote all movements .for the good of the community. He has served the town two years on the Board of Assessors, and for two years as Chairman of the Board of Selectmen. From the formation of the First Congregational
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Society of Greenwood in 1873 he has been a mem- ber of the Standing Committee, and for sixteen years was its Chairman. He is a Mason in high standing, a member of the Wakefield Lodge of Odd Fellows, a charter member of Wakefield Lodge Knights of Honor, and member and patron of vari- ous other organizations. Mr. Savage was married April 30, 1863, to Abbie F. Young, daughter of Moses Young of South Waterford, Maine. They have three children : Harry Walter, born August 4, 1864, married April 10, 1889, to Jennie M. Lee, daughter of William H. Lee of Greenwood ; Eugene Wilford, born March 17, 1866, married October 11, 1893, to Mary Perkins, of Wakefield ; and Cora Frances, born May 23, 1873, married October 3, 1894, to C. Ernest Sanford of Fall River, Massa- chusetts.
WAKEFIELD, JOHN MORSE, M. D., Warren, was born in Lewiston, Maine, December 9, 1852, son of Ezekiel and Mary A. (Morse) Wakefield. His early education was obtained in the public
J. M. WAKEFIELD.
schools and the Maine State Seminary at Lewiston. He attended the Lewiston School for Medical In- struction four years, and graduated from Dartmouth Medical College as M. D. in November 1874. After spending the winter of 1874-5 in New York
city, he came to Warren and located in March of the latter year, where he has since remained in the active practice of his profession. Dr. Wakefield is Vice President of the Knox County Medical Society, and member of the Maine Medical Asso- ciation and the Maine Academy of Medicine and Science ; was a member of the School Board of Warren from 1876 to 1885, and served as Town Clerk. in 1884. He is a member of various Masonic bodies, including St. George Lodge of Warren, Henry Knox Chapter of Thomaston, King Hiram Council and' Claremont Commandery Knights Templar of Rockland, and Kara Temple of Lewis- ton, Ancient Arabic Order of the Mystic Shrine ; also of the Odd Fellows, Knights of Honor and Knights of Pythias, and a member of the Standard Club of Warren. In politics he has been a Demo- crat until 1896. He was married May 9, 1875, to Flora A. Emerson, of Lewiston, Maine.
HELLIER, CHARLES EDWARD, Lawyer, Boston, was born in Bangor, Maine, July 8, 1864, son of Walter Schermerhorn and Eunice (Bixby) Hellier. On the paternal side he is a grandson of John Hellier, who came from a Devonshire, England, family of that name, and Mary (Daggett) Hellier. His maternal grandparents were Rufus Bixby, whose father, Deacon Solomon Bixby, moved fromn Worcester county, Massachusetts, to Norridgewock, Maine, and Betsey (Weston) Bixby. The Daggetts and Westons are old and well-known New England families. He received his preliminary education in the public schools of Bangor, and graduated from Yale College as A. B. in 1886. In the fall of the same year he matriculated at the Berlin ( Prussia) University. He began the study of law in the office of Wilson & Woodard, Bangor. In 1889 he was admitted to the Suffolk, Massachusetts, Bar, and became associated in practice with Hon. Robert M. Morse of Boston, which connection still continues. Since his establishment in Boston he has been engaged in active practice in corporate law and in civil cases before the United States and State courts. In 1890 he received the degree of LL. B. from the Boston University School of Law. Mr. Hellier is Treasurer and Director of the Elk- horn Coal and Coke Company, which owns a hun- dred thousand acres of coal lands in Kentucky and Virginia, and Director of the Ohio River & Charleston Railway of Kentucky. He is a member of the Examining Committee of the Boston Public
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Library, also a member of the University Club of Boston, and Secretary of the Yale Alumni Associa- tion of Boston. In politics Mr. Hellier is a Repub- lican. He was married July 8, 1886, to Mary L. Harmon of New Haven, Connecticut. They have
CHAS. E. HELLIER.
three children : Mary Louise, born February 20, 1888; Walter Harmon, born August 5, 1893 ; and Edward Whittier Hellier, born December 11, 1895. Mrs. Hellier is a lineal descendant of Roger Williams.
ADAMS, FORREST LEE, M. D., Skowhegan, was born in Dead River Plantation, Somerset county, Maine, May 18, 1868, son of Winfield Scott and Helen Marr (Wing) Adams. He comes from one of the oldest families in that section of the state. His great-great-grandfather, James Adams, was born in Groton, Massachusetts, about 1730 ; his great-grand- father, Abram Adams, was born in Groton, Massa- chusetts, in 1769 ; his grandfather, Abram Adams, in Hallowell, Maine, in 1807 ; and his father, Win- field Scott Adams, in Bloomfield in 1845. His early education was acquired in the public schools of Maine, and he commenced the study of medi- cine with Dr. Abby M. Fulton of Ellsworth, Maine. He also studied pharmacy, and passed the examina- tion for registry before the State Board of Pharmacy in 1890., After attending two courses of lectures at
the Harvard Medical School, he entered the Eclectic Medical School of Wisconsin, from which he grad- uated in 1894, and commenced practice in Skowhe- gan, where he has since resided, giving special attention to diseases of the eye, nose and throat. Dr. Adams was Hospital Steward on the staff of the Second Regiment Maine Volunter Militia in 1889, and in 1891 was appointed to the ambulance corps, in which he served until 1894, being the first Steward of the Ambulance service in the state. He is a member of the Milburn Club of Skowhe-
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FORREST LEE ADAMS.
gan, also of Seaside Lodge of Masons, Boothbay Harbor. He is unmarried.
PLAISTED, GEORGE FRANCIS, Postmaster at York Corner, was born at York Corner, June 13, 1840, son of Francis and Susan (Grant) Plaisted. He traces his ancestry back for seven generations, through Francis (his father), Francis (grandfather), John, Joseph and James to Roger Plaisted, who, with two other brothers, came from England in the seventeenth century. He acquired his education in the district schools of York, his school instruction terminating at the age of seventeen, when he entered his father's store as clerk. He worked in the store and on the farm until he was twenty-two, and in 1863 engaged in the painting business, in
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which he continued until October 1867, when he opened the store in which he is doing business at the present time, and which he has enlarged to four times its former dimensions. From small begin- nings he has developed his business to extensive
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GEORGE F. PLAISTED
proportions, carrying an immense stock of every- thing found in a well-equipped country store. In 1863 Mr. Plaisted was appointed Deputy Sheriff of York County, under Sheriff James M. Burbank, being the youngest Deputy ever appointed in the county, if not in the state. In the same year he was chosen Constable, and has been chosen or appointed every year since, with the single excep- tion of 1868. He served as Coroner two terms of four years each ; as Justice of the l'eace seven years; was Assistant Postmaster under President Buchanan in 1859; Postmaster under Cleveland's first administration ; managed the Postoffice as assistant to Postmaster Charles H. Junkins under Harrison, and was reappointed Postmaster under Cleveland in May 1893, which office he now holds. In September 1891 Mr. Plaisted established the bright local paper called the York Courant, which, together with his large job-printing establishment has proved a great success. In connection with his store and newspaper, he does a little law and col- lection business, and is agent for various accident,
life and fire insurance companies. He is a charter member and present Secretary of St. Aspinquid Masonic Lodge, and is also a charter member of Old York Lodge Knights of Pythias, of which he was for three years Keeper of the Records and Seal. In politics he is a staunch Democrat. He was married June 13, 1863, to Dorcas Jane Merri- field, of York, who died in February 1874. They had four children, of whom only two are living : John A., born August 1, 1865, now a machinist and electrician, doing business for himself in Chicago ; and James Purcell Plaisted, born June 21, 1873, now foreman in the York Courant office.
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STETSON, EDWIN FLYE, M. D., Damariscotta, was born in Damariscotta, December 21, 1853, son of Abner and Betsey Merry (Riggs) Stetson. He is a direct descendant of Cornet Robert Stetson, one of the most noted and prominent men of the Plymouth colony. He received his early education in the common schools of Damariscotta and at Lin-
E. F. STETSON.
coln Academy in the adjoining town of Newcastle, and entered Bowdoin College in the class of 1878, but left in the middle of his Sophomore year to prepare for entering the Harvard Medical School. While pursuing his studies he taught school, first at
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Walpole in Bristol, in 1869 : then in the Glidden- street School, Newcastle, the following fall and winter ; and the next year on " Round Top" in Damariscotta, all in Lincoln county. He took a full medical course at Harvard University, graduat- ing as M. D. in June 1879, and directly went West, locating in Terre Haute, Indiana, where he prac- ticed until the fall of 1885. Owing to the i !! health of himself and wife, resulting from malaria, he then returned East and established himself in his native town, where he has since continued in active prac- tice. Dr. Stetson while in the West was a member of the Tri-state and . Esculapian societies, and also member of the Virgo County (Indiana) and Indi- ana State Medical societies. He served for four years as a member of the United States Board of Examining Surgeons at Damariscotta, under Presi- dent Harrison's administration, and has been Sup- ervisor of Schools of Damariscotta, also a Trustee of Lincoln Academy since 1889. He is a Free- mason and a Knight of Pythias, and in politics is &. Republican. He was married October 3, 1883, to Mary P. Chapman, daughter of Rufus C. Chapman of Newcastle, Maine. They have four children : Helen C., born September 6, 1884; Rufus E., born August 10, 1886 ; Grace L., born July 4, 1891, and Mary E. Stetson, born July 15, 1894.
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