USA > Maine > Men of progress; biographical sketches and portraits of leaders in business and professional life in and of the state of Maine > Part 29
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93
KEITH, LUCIES LORING, President of the Machias Bank, and Treasurer of the Machias Savings Bank, Machias, was born in Bridgewater, Massachusetts, January 27, 1828, son of William and Roxana R. (Dickerman) Keith. He is a descendant of the Reverend James Keith, a Con- gregationalist minister, who came to this country from Scotland in 1664 and settled in West Bridge- water, Massachusetts, and from whom are descended the numerous families of Keiths that are scattered throughout that state. He was educated in the common schools, and at the age of nineteen, in 1847, commenced active life as a daguerreotype artist in various towns in Maine. From that his work merged into ambrotypes and photographs, in which business he continued for more than twenty year, the last eight years in Machias. Upon the establishment of the Machias Savings Bank, in 150g. he was chosen its first Treasurer, and has held that position continuously ever since. In ISSo the Machias Bank was established, for the purpose of doing a national-banking business, and Mr. Keith was elected Treasurer, which office he
held for thirteen years, and since that has been President to the present time. Although the busi- ness of both banks is done in the same building, the two institutions are entirely independent of each other. Mr. Keith has been a Notary Public since 1875, and a Trustee of Washington Academy at East Machias since 1883. He is a member of Warren Masonic Lodge of Machias, of which he was Treasurer 1866-71, and Master 1871-2. In poli- tics he is a Republican. He was married October
L. L. KEITH.
25, 1852, to Mary Foster Robbins, of East Machias ; they had a daughter, Amy Robbins Keith, who died young. Mr. Keith resides in East Machias.
NUTT, NOEL BYRON, Editor and Publisher of the Eastport Sentinel, was born in Perry, Washing- ton county, Maine, June 11, 1824, son of James and Sarah ( Brown) Nutt. His paternal ancestors came from Londonderry, Ireland, and settled in London- derry, New Hampshire, in 1719. On the maternal side he is of English descent. He attended the common schools and for two terms at St. Albans and Washington academies, until the age of sixteen, and then worked on a farm summers and taught school winters until 18448, from which time he was continuously engaged in teaching until 1861, when
-
------.
- -.
198
MEN OF PROGRESS.
he was appointed Special Deputy Collector of Cas- toms at Eastport. After serving in this capacity for thirteen years, until 1874, he was appointed Collec- tor of Customs for the District of Passamaquoddy, which position he held (excepting for a period from
-
N. B. NUTT.
April 1882 to July 1883, when he was Special Deputy Collector) for twelve years, until 1886. He has also been Treasurer of the Eastport Savings Bank since 1887, and editor and publisher of the Eastport Sentinel from 1855 to the present time - more than forty years. Mr. Nutt has been first a Whig and since always a Republican in politics, and has twice served as Chairman of the Board of Selectmen of Eastport, 1870-1 and 1888-9. He is prominent in Masonry, having been Secretary of Eastern Lodge from 186 t to the present time, High Priest of Eastern Royal Arch Chapter for five years, and for ten years Eminent Commander of St. Ber- nard Commandery Knights Templar. Mr. Nutt was married November 6, 1845, to Harriet Downes Todd, of Calais, Maine ; they have five children : Fred E., Noel B., Jr., Hattie S. (Nutt) Hunt, Jessie E. Nutt and Nellie S. (Nutt) Shea.
PATTANGALL, EZRA LINCOLN, of W. T. Hobart & Company, merchants and shipbuilders, Pembroke, was born in Perry, Maine, May 4, 1829, son of
Nathan and Frances (Lincoln) Pattangall. He is of English ancestry on the paternal side, and on the maternal side is of English and Scotch descent. He was educated in the common schools, and received his training for active life in hard work upon the farm and on the sea. In 1849 he was a miner in California, later running a packet from San Francisco to Stockton, and afterwards sailing to the West Indies and European ports. He was a sea-captain at twenty-two years of age. In August 1856 he settled at Pembroke and formed a partner- ship with W. T. Hobart, under the style of W. T. Hobart & Company, for general trade purposes and shipbuilding, which has continued to the present time, both partners still actively attending to the business of the firni. Mr. Pattangall has held the local offices of Selectman and Assessor for many years, has been a member of both branches of the Maine Legislature, also a Trustee of the Maine Insane Hospital and President of the Board for a number of years. In politics he is a radical Repub-
EZRA L. PATTANGALL.
lican. Formerly he was a Democrat ; but a winter spent in the South in 1854 converted him to Republican principles, and he has since been an active supporter of that party. Mr. Pattangall is a hater of shams, in things political or religious, and a believer in liberty of conscience for all men. He is a strong temperance man, practicing what he
1
£
199
MEN OF PROGRESS.
preaches, firmly believing that liquor-selling is " the crime of crimes," and that the use of strong drink is the greatest danger that threatens the English- speaking race.
PATTANGALL, WILLIAM ROBINSON, Lawyer, Machias, was born in Pembroke, Washington county, Maine, June 29, 1865, son of Ezra L. and Arethusa B. (Longfellow) Pattangall The Pattangalls are of Scotch-Irish descent. His grandfather, Nathan B. Pattangall, lived in Perry and Pembroke, Maine, was a surveyor, teacher, farmer and merchant, and
W. R. PATTANGALL.
represented his town in the State Legislature. His father, Ezra L. Pattangall, has been a shipmaster and shipbuilder, merchant, manufacturer, and lead- ing business man of Pembroke, has represented the town in the Legislature, the county in the Senate, and is now a member of the Republican State Committee. His maternal ancestors, the Long- fellows, were early settlers of Machias, Maine ; his grandfather was Captain Daniel and his great- grandfather Colonel David Longfellow. He attended the common and high schools of Pembroke until the age of fifteen, and entered the Maine State College at Orono in the class of 1884, taking the
course in science and literature, but left at the close of his Junior year. After leaving college he read law for a year, and then owing to poor health went to sea for a time and worked at active pursuits until he was twenty-six, when he returned to Washington county and taught school and read law for three years. In May 1893 he was admitted to the Bar. After practicing for a year in Columbia Falls, Maine, he removed to Machias, where he has now been for three years an active member of the Washington County Bar, in whose thirty members he takes rank among the first six. While teaching in Machiasport, Mr. Pattangall held various town offices, and at the present time he is Supervisor of Schools of Machias, and represents the Machias district in the State Legislature. Politically he was born and bred a Republican, but voted for Cleve- land in 1892, and was the Democratic candidate for Judge of Probate of Washington county in that year. In 1893 he returned to the Republican party, and in the national campaign of 1896 was a strong gold advocate and stumped his county for McKinley. Mr. Pattangall was married June 7, 1884, to Jean M. Johnson, of Calais, Maine ; they had one child, a daughter : Katherine J. Pattangall. Mrs. Pattangall died August 10, 1887, and in 1892, September 27, he was again married, to Gertrude Mckenzie, of Machiasport ; they have two children: Edith G., born July 22, 1893, and Grace D. Pattan- gall, born April 27, 1896.
PHILBROOK, WARREN COFFIN, Judge of the Municipal Court of Waterville, was born in Sedg- wick, Maine, November 30, 1857, son of Luther G. and Angelia (Coffin) Philbrook. He received his early education in the village schools of Castine, Maine, to which town his parents removed when he was twelve years of age, and in the Eastern State Normal School at Castine and the Waterville Classi- cal Institute at Waterville, receiving a diploma from each of those institutions. At Colby University, Waterville, from which he graduated in ISS2, he won first prize in the Freshman and Sophomore exhibitions, and was Class Day orator at graduation. His legal education was acquired in the offices of E. F. Webb and Reuben Foster, both of Waterville, and both of whom were leaders in the Kennebec Bar. Soon after leaving college he was elected one of the teachers in the State Normal School at Farm- ington, Maine, where he taught for a year, and then
----
200
MEN OF PROGRESS.
took a year's course in law. Again engaging in the teaching profession, he was Principal of the Water- ville High School for three years. On resigning that position, he finished his legal education, was admitted to the Bar at Augusta, Kennebec county,
1
W. C. PHILBROOK.
October 21, 1884, and entered upon practice at Waterville in July 1887. In April 1892 he was appointed Judge of the Municipal Court of Water- ville, which office he at present holds, by reappoint- ment in April 1896. In September 1896 he was elected a Representative from Waterville to the Maine Legislature of 1897-8. Judge Philbrook has served for four years as a member of the Board of Education of the city of Waterville - one year being prior to his work as High School Principal - and during the last year has been Chairman of the Board. He is identified with the Masonic and Knights of Pythias orders, being a Past Master, Past High Priest and Past Commander in the former, and in the latter a Past Chancellor and for four years Adjutant of the First Maine Regiment of the Uniform Rank. In politics Judge Philbrook has always been a Republican, and was Chairman of the Republican City Committee in 1891 and again in 1896. He was married August 21, 1882, to Ada M. Foster, of Waterville.
SABINE, HENRY, President of the Lewiston Board of Aldermen in 1895, was born in Wood- stock, Vermont, January 3, 1841, son of Elisha L. and Elizabeth Swan (Dana) Sabine. He is a de- scendant of William Sabine, a French Huguenot and silk merchant, and a man of wealth and culture, who came from Marseilles to America about 1640, and settled in Massachusetts, where he was twice married. He died in Boston in 1685, where he was buried in the Granary Burying Ground, and his will drawn by himself was recorded with the Pro- bate Register of Boston in 1687. The line of de- scent is : Benjamin (2), son of the foregoing, born May 3, 1646, moved to Pomfret, Connecticut, and died July 23, 1735. Ebenezer (3), son of Benja- min, born December 10, 1671, died September 18, 1739. Seth (4), son of Ebenezer, born October 21, 1714. Seth (5), son of Seth, born in 1742,
- ind
HENRY SABINE.
moved in April 1779 from Pomfret, Connecticut, to Windsor, Vermont, where he established a tannery on the brook south of the farmhouse now owned by his great-grandson. Dr. George K. Sabine, was re- puted to be a thrifty business man and wealthy for his day ; in the summer of 1811 he drove with his wife to Pomfret, Connecticut, where he died in the following autumn. William (6), son of the last named, born in Windsor, Vermont, January 22,
-
1
201
MEN OF PROGRESS.
1780, was married July 1, 1804, to Rachel Stevens, and died in Windsor, December 3, 1863. Elisha 1 .. (7), son of William, born in Hartland, Vermont, september 2, 1808, died September 7, 1850, and whose third son is the subject of this sketch. Henry Sabine attended the common schools, and at the age of fifteen, in September 1856, entered the store of Charles Dana in Woodstock. In April 1864 he went to Boston and entered the store of Sabine & Page, and in July 1880 he came to Lewis- ton and engaged in the shirt manufacturing business under the name of the Bates Street Shirt Company, in which he has successfully continued to the pres- ent time. Mr. Sabine is a Republican in politics, and in 1894-5 served as an Alderman of Lewiston, being Chairman of the Board in the latter year. He is a Past Grand Vice-Chancellor of the Knights of Pythias, also Past Adjutant of the First Maine Regiment Uniformed Rank of that body, and at present Aide-de-Camp with the rank of Colonel on the staff of the Commander-in-Chief, J R. Carna- han of Indianapolis. He was married November 25, 1875, to Mary Ellen Waite, of Claremont, New Hampshire ; they have no children.
SANBORN, JAMES SOLOMON, of the wholesale coffee and tea house of Chase & Sanborn, Boston, was born in Wales, Androscoggin county, Maine, March 29, 1835, son of Henry and Ann C. (Daly) Sanborn. His father was the eldest son of Moses Sanborn, who came to Wales from Epping, New Hampshire, married Nancy Fogg, and had four children. His mother was a daughter of Dr. Abial Daly, of Mon- month, Maine. He received his early education in the district schools of Monmouth, and at the age of seventeen went to Lewiston to work in a machine shop. In 1856 he was married, and located in Greene, Maine, where he retained his residence for seven years, although in 1858 he formed a connec- tion as travelling salesman with the noted seed house of A. II. Dunlap & Company, Nashua, New Hamp- shire, which continued nine years. At the end of that time he engaged in business for himself, in the coffee and spice trade, establishing an office in Boston. In 1878, in association with Caleb Chase, he founded the present firm of Chase & Sanborn, importers and wholesale dealers in tea and coffee. This widely-known house has reached a position in the commercial world rarely attained by a mercan- tile firmi in so short a period of existence. A note-
worthy episode of their career was their contract to supply all the tea and coffee used inside the World's Fair grounds at Chicago in 1893. Won as it was against the competition of all the leading grocery houses of the United States, the transaction at once made the firm famous throughout the country, and placed them on the highest commercial standing ; inasmuch as the awarding of the contract, which involved the sale of seven hundred thousand pounds of high-grade roasted coffee, was based " upon quality and uniformity of goods, and business stand- ing in point of integrity and financial ability to fulfil obligations honestly." In the prosecution of this
J. S. SANBORN.
business, Mr. Sanborn has travelled extensively in the United States, West Indies, Central America and Mexico. Outside of his commercial business, he is interested in the breeding and rearing of French coach-horses on the extensive farm known as The Elmwood at Poland, Maine, which he purchased in 1885 for a summer home. Mr. Sanborn has been a member of the Masonic frater- nity for thirty-four years, and for the last five years a member of the Central Club of Somerville, Massa- chusetts, of which city he is a resident. He was married November 6, 1856, to Harriet Newell Small, of Minot (now Auburn), Maine. They have four children : Helen Josephine, born October 6,
· 202
MEN OF PROGRESS.
1857, a graduate of Wellesley College, author of " A Winter in Central America and Mexico," and for some years a member of the School Board of Somer- ville ; Charles Edgar, born April 29, 1860, and Oren Cheney, born October 6, 1866, both now in business with their father; and Georgie Dunlap Sanborn, born December 20, 1868.
SMITH, JOHN B., of John B. Smith & Company, plumbers, steam and hot-water heaters, Lewiston, was born in Lowell, Massachusetts, in 1851, son of
JOHN B. SMITH
Andrew and Catherine (Boyle) Smith. He was educated in the public schools of Lowell, and at the age of sixteen commenced to learn the plumbing trade with H. H. Wilder & Company of that city, one of the niost reliable plumbing firms of Massa- chusetts. In 1874 he came to Lewiston, being one of the first practical plumbers to locate in that city, where by energy and enterprise he has built up one of the largest plumbing, steam and hot-water heat- ing concerns in the state. The firm also do a large amount of mill work, in the line of automatic sprink- lers and other appliances and equipments for man- ufacturing establishments, and their business ex- tends all over the state. Mr. Smith is President of
the Maine State Plumbers' Association, also State Vice-President of the National Association of Master Plumbers of the United States. He has served as Alderman of Lewiston two years, member of the Water Board six years, and fourteen years as a member of the School Committee. Mr. Smith is for sound money in politics, and is a member of the society of Knights of Columbus. He was mar- ried in 1878 to Emma C. Boland, of Lewiston ; they have no children.
SHEPHERD, RUSSELL BENJAMIN, President of the Second National Bank of Skowhegan, was born in Fairfield, Somerset county, Maine, September 14, 1829, son of Job D. and Betsey (Richmond) Shep- herd. His parents were members of the Society of Friends, or Quakers. He received his early educa- tion in the common schools of his native town, fitted for college at Bloomfield Academy, Skow- hegan, and then spent two years in the mines of California, after which he returned home and entered Waterville College, now Colby University, where he was graduated in the class of 1857. For the next five years he was engaged in teaching, as Principal of Bloomfield Academy and Principal of the Girls' High School of Bangor. In August 1862 he volunteered his services in aid of the suppression of the Rebellion, and was commissioned First Lieu- tenant and Adjutant of the Eighteenth Regiment Maine Volunteers, which later was transferred to the First Maine Heavy Artillery. He served in the defence of Washington, and in the Army of the Potomac, Second Army Corps, until mustered out in September 1865, participating in all the battles in which his regiment was engaged - a regiment which had the distinction of losing more men killed during the war than any other in the service - and being successively promoted to Major, Lieutenant- Colonel, Colonel, and brevet Brigadier-General. For the ten years succeeding the ciose of the war General Shepherd was a planter and cotton dealer in Georgia, returning north in 1872 to Skowhegan, which has since been his home, and where he has been actively engaged in banking, woolen manufac- turing and general business. In 1876 he was elected President of the Second National Bank of Skowhegan, which office he still fills. He is also a Trustee of the Maine State College at Orono, the Maine Insane Hospital at Augusta, and Colby Uni- versity at Waterville. He is a Republican in poli-
203
MEN OF PROGRESS.
tics, and has served as Representative to the State Legislature, State Senator, and Member of the Executive Council. General Shepherd is held in high esteem by the people of Maine as an enter- prising and sagacious business man and as one of
5
R. B. SHEPHERD.
the state's distinguished citizens. In the town of his residence he has always taken a leading part in all matters projected for the good of the com- munity, and his counsel and moral support in mat- ters of business and finance are much sought and highly valued. He has been especially active in promoting the manufacturing business of Skow- hegan, through his large interests in the waterpower and pulp and woolen mills of the place, thus con- tributing to the prosperity and growth of the town by furnishing desirable employment to labor ; was an energetic worker in bringing the school system up to a high standard of efficiency ; and in public affairs has been always on the side of progress and advancement, favoring liberal appropriations for worthy objects, although himself a heavy tax-payer. General Shepherd was also the promoter and builder of the electric railroad from Skowhegan to Madison, a distance of twelve miles, and is now President of the Somerset Traction Company. He was married January 23, 1865, to Helen M. Rowell ; they have no children.
SMALL, ADDISON, Cashier of the Manufacturers' National Bank, Lewiston, was born in Lewiston, October 16, 1841, son of John Nevens and Sarah ( Hamilton) Small. He is descended from Francis Small, who was born in England in 1620, came to Maine about 1632 with his kinsman Captain Francis Champernowne, and in after life purchased from the Indians large tracts of land at Capisic, Ossipee and other places, for which purchases he came to be known as "the great landowner." His father, Jolin N. Small, was born in Minot (now Auburn), Maine, in 1806, was engaged in the lumber busi- ness at Lewiston for many years, as a member of the firm of Read, Small & Company, and died in 1878. Among his maternal ancestors was John Nevens, one of the first settlers of Bakerstown (Poland), Maine, and for many years prominent in the affairs of that town. He received his early education in the public schools of Lewiston, fitted for college at the Maine State Seminary in Lewiston, and entered Waterville College (now Colby Univer-
1
-
ADDISON SMALL.
sity), where he studied for three years, but gradu- ated at Bates College in 1869. For a year prior to entering the Maine State Seminary he was a clerk in the Lewiston Postoffice. His best training for active life, however, was in teaching country schools and academies - in which he had consid- erable experience - and in serving as Paymaster in
204
MEN OF PROGRESS.
the office of the Lewiston Falls Manufacturing Company, under the late Colonel John M. Frye. From 1870 to 1874 he was engaged in the whole- sale fancy goods business in Portland. In May of the latter year he was elected Superintendent of Schools for the city of Auburn, in which capacity he served for a year, resigning in May 1875 to accept the position of Treasurer of the People's Savings Bank in Lewiston. In this office he continued until Jan- uary 1, 1881, when he was elected Cashier of the Manufacturers' National Bank of Lewiston, which position he still holds. Mr. Small was also Treasurer of Bates College from July 1885 to November 1893, was Secretary of the college from 1891 to 1893, and has been a Trustee of that institution since 1885. He served in the Common Council of Lewiston in 1880-1, and as President of that body in the latter year. He is a member of the Maine Historical Society, and is somewhat widely known as a writer, having contributed many articles to various news- papers and periodicals. He is now preparing for publication a work upon a branch of Economics, of which he has made a special study. Mr. Small was married November 29, 1862, to Florence Sabrina Wilder, of Manchester, Maine; they have two children : William Bryant and Roscoe Addison Small.
TRUE, DOCTOR JOHN FOGG, Auburn, was born in Deerfield, New Hampshire, October 13, 1817, son of Abraham and Sarah (Fogg) True. His father and grandfather True both served in the War of 1812. Few men in Maine, perhaps none outside of public life, are better known throughout the state and among all classes of the people than Dr. John F. True, the subject of this sketch. His wide pub- licity and unquestioned popularity are due to his having been for many years one of the largest news- paper advertisers in Maine ; to the fact of his being the discoverer and dispenser of a popular household remedy : and to his own unique and remarkable personality. When he was four years old his par- ents moved to Garland, Maine, where he was reared on a farm and attended the common schools. His early advantages for education were extremely limited, but his persistence and energy in overcom- ing this disadvantage knew no bounds. While other boys more favored by fortune and surround- ings were at play or idling away their time, he was working hard by day and poring over the midnight oil by night. His especial fondness was for botany
and natural history, and in both of these branches of study he became in youth and after years thor- oughly proficient. He worked at farming in Gar- land until the age of twenty-one, and then for a year in a paper mill at Hampden, Maine. In 1842 he went to Boston and secured employment in a hardware store, where he continued until 1845. Then, in company with William S. Baxter, he went into the hardware business for himself, carrying on the same until 1848. Failing health at this period, and a suspicion as to the nature of his malady, led to his determination to study medicine, making the parasites which infest the human system a subject
J. F. TRUE.
of especial research and investigation. This resulted in the discovery of True's Pin Worm Elixir, which has since made his name a household word, and in 1851 at Exeter, Maine. he began in a small way its manufacture and sale. In 1853 he came to Auburn and continued the business, intro- ducing his elixir by travelling from house to house, medicine-case in hand. Next a team was required, and a few years later several salesmen, well equipped with advertising wagons, were sent through Maine and the rest of New England. From this small beginning the business steadily grew until it has assumed its present great proportions. occupying a large and finely equipped laboratory and business
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.