USA > Maine > Men of progress; biographical sketches and portraits of leaders in business and professional life in and of the state of Maine > Part 3
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Cumberland county, Maine, March 3, 1837, son of Jonathan and Mary (Stuart) Cobb. His paternal ancestry is English, and on the maternal side he is of Scotch descent. The old homestead where he was born, situated on Riverside street, formerly known as "Cobb's Lane," he now occupies with his family as a summer home, and with some trifling exterior changes made to adapt it to modern requirements, the house now stands as originally built by his grandfather a hundred and fifty years ago. The death of his father occurred when he was. but five years old, and in his tender years of boyhood circumstances made it necessary for him
JOHN C. COBB.
to become dependent upon his own energies and resources. He educated himself in the public schools of his native town and at near-by academies, his only Alma Materq or the only one which he claims, being Westbrook Academy, although not a graduate of that institution, as his financial needs compelled him to leave before the completion of his full academic course. From the time of becoming his own master, at the age of twelve, he worked on the farm summers and attended school winters, earning the money himself wherewith to get his education and pursue the study of law. At sixteen he became a school-teacher, which profession he followed for several years, meanwhile reading law with Chadbourne & Miller (William G. Chadbourne
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syl Colonel James F. Miller ) of Portland. He was admitted to the Bar of Maine in 1860, at Belfast, and soon after located at Rockland, where he prak ticed for a year, until the breaking out of the Rebellion. In April 1861, in response to President Lincoln's call for seventy-five thousand men, Mr. Cobb enlisted in Company H, Fourth Maine Regi- ment of Volunteers, soon receiving a commission as Fara Lieutenant. After participating in the battle .1 Ball Run and other engagements of the early war, in August of that year, on account of ill health, he resigned and returned to Maine, and immediately commenced recruiting service. In December 1851, he accepted a First Lieutenant's commission in Company D, Ffteenth Maine, for three years, or for the war. His regiment was assigned to service in the Department of the Gulf, and formed a part of Butler's Expedition to Ship Island and up the Mississippi River. Lieutenant Cobb took part in the capture of New Orleans, and was then ordered by General Butler to Fort Pickens, Florida, in charge of the state prisoners Mayor Monroe, Ex- Mayor Smith, J. B. L. McKee and Captain Hawkins of New Orleans. At Fort Pickens, under Major Allen of the Second United States Artillery, he served successively as Post Adjutant, Acting Assistant-Quartermaster, Acting Assistant-Commis- sary and Post Treasurer. In the summer of 1863 he was on duty at Carrollton, Louisiana, as Acting Assistant Adjutant.General. While on this service, by order of Major General Banks, commanding the Department of the Gulf, he organized, equipped and mustered into the United States service the Sec- ond Regiment of Engineers, and on August 15 he was commissioned and mustered into service as Col- onel of that regiment. In the fall of the same year, as Colonel of Engineers, he constructed fortifica- tions at Brashear City, Louisiana, an exposed sta- tion about a hundred miles from the city of New Orleans, which had been the fighting grounds of the advanced posts of both armies. Colonel Cobb held this post with his regiment of raw recruits and soon made his position impregnable by throwing up strong earthworks. Before the forts at Brashear City were fully completed and equipped he received orders from department headquarters to report with his command at New Orleans and embark for the coast of Texas, and take charge of the different fortifications on that coast, reconstruct Fort Esperanza and construct other important works on Matagorda Island, making an enclosed camp which would accommodate ten thousand troops, to be
used as a base for future operations in Texas. Colonel Cobb was appointed Chief Engineer of the Coast of Texas, with headquarters at Matagorda Island. In the prosecution of his work there he employed a very large force from the Thirteenth Army Corps in addition to his own command. After the evacuation of Indianola by the Thirteenth Army Corps and its occupation of Matagorda Island, he was appointed to the command of a pro- visional brigade in the Thirteenth Corps, which command he held until the corps was ordered on the Red River Expedition. After the departure of the Thirteenth Corps, Colone! Cobb continued work on the fortifications until about June 1864, when he received orders to abandon the island and report with his command at New Orleans. It was with some regret that he found himself compelled to leave behind him the fruits of more than six months' hard labor and great care and solicitude, but military orders require unquestioned obedience, and dismantling the forts, spiking the guns and doing what general mischief he could to render useless to the enemy the fruits of his long winter's labor, he embarked his command on the steamer St. Mary for New Orleans and with it reported at department headquarters. By command of General Banks, through his Chief Engineer, Colonel Cobb was ordered to proceed to Port Hudson and take charge of the fortifications at that point, and reconstruct the works about that post, which he did. In the following August he was ordered with his command to join Major General Gordon Granger at Dauphine Island in Mobile Bay, to whom he reported and at once took the advance of the army and constructed the approaches to Fort Gaines, situated at the head of that island. On the following day, after Admiral Farragut had passed the forts, Fort Gaines capitulated, and Colonel Cobb was sent to conduct the approaches to Fort Morgan on Mobile Point. After a long siege he succeeded in getting his guns and mortars in position within range of the fort, and a few hours after opening fire the white flag was displayed upon the staff within Fort Morgan in token of surrender. Colonel Cobb then employed his command for a time in repairing the fort. In November 1864 he received an order from Major General Candy, commanding the Army and Division of West Mississippi, detailing him as a member of a military commission about to convene at New Orleans with Major DeWitt Clinton of General Candy's staff as Judge Advocate. He served on this commission nearly five months, dur-
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ing which time many very important cases involving large sums of money and the personal liberty of citizens, and in which many of the ablest counsel in the Southwest appeared in defence, were decided in favor of the Government. He was also at the same time in command of a brigade of five regiments with headquarters at New Orleans. In the spring of 1 865 he was relieved from duty at New Orleans and went with General Candy on the expedition to Mobile, where he was engaged with his command in the siege of Spanish Fort and other defences of Mobile, and in the taking of Mobile, and was placed in command of the Engineer Brigade of the Army and Division of West Mississippi. After the sur- render of Mobile his command was employed in reconstructing the rebel earthworks around that city and constructing the lines of defence up to June 1865, when, feeling that he had earned a little respite, after a continuous service of more than four years, Colonel Cobb obtained a sixty-days leave of absence to visit his family in Maine. At the expiration of his furlough, the Rebellion having collapsed and the war being ended, he tendered his resignation and was honorably discharged. His military career and brilliant record of services in defence of his country are of a character and importance that reflect honor upon his state, and in which he and his descendants may justly take pride. His name is prominently mentioned in the " Records of the War of the Rebellion," published by the War Department under act of Congress, and his portrait is in the " Album of Distinguished Officers of the Late War," in the War Department at Washington, by special request of the Adjutant-General of the Army. After the war Colonel Cobb returned to his law practice in Maine, locating in the fall of 1865 at Windham, where he remained for six years. In 1872 he removed to Portland and formed a law partnership with Hon. F. M. Ray, under the firm name of Cobb & Ray. This partnership lasted nearly five years, until dissolved January 1, 1876, since which time he has continued in active prac- tice, alone for the most part until 1886, when his son, Frederick H. Cobb, was admitted as a partner, under the firm name of John C. & F. H. Cobb, which has continued to the present time. Colonel Cobb's law practice has been a general one, in all the courts of the State and the United States Courts. He has conducted many important causes which have been adjudicated upon by the courts of last resort, and are among the decisions published in the Maine Reports. He has also been engaged in
many and large business enterprises outside of his profession, also, as the records at the Registry of Deeds testify, in a great many real estate deals and largely interested therein. While still conducting a large law practice in connection with his son, he is also carrying on various business operations in this country and the Dominion of Canada, and is man- aging some very important enterprises in the West. He has also been interested in educational matters, and has educated a family of seven children, to make in the best sense good citizens. His life has been a very busy one, but he has found time to devote a part of it to the public service. He has held various town offices and was on the School Board in his earlier years, and in 1871-2 he was a member of the State House of Representatives. He is a Mason, and a member of Presumpscot Lodge, Eagle Chapter and Portland Commandery ; also a member of Beacon Lodge of Odd Fellows, Ivanhoe Lodge Knights of Pythias and Bosworth Post Grand Army of the Republic. In politics Col- onel Cobb is a Democrat, but he has been too busy with his private affairs, and too much disinclined toward the methods known as "practical politics," to seek political office. In religion he is a Lib- eral, believing in the Religion of Humanity. He was married September 14, 1859, to Hannah M. Hawkes, daughter of Samuel M. Hawkes of Wind- ham. They have seven children : Albert Clifford, a lawyer of Minneapolis, Minnesota ; Frederick Her- bert, lawyer, associated with his father; Frank Welch, merchant, of the Milliken-Tomlinson Com- pany, Portland ; Mary Alice ; Grace Hawkes, now Mrs. William E. Bailey of Portland : Helen Marie, and John Clayton Cobb, now in his third year in the Portland High School, fitting for college.
COCHRANE, JASPER DUNCAN, M. D., Saco, was born in East Corinth, Maine, December 2, 1851, son of Chauncey and Maria (Gay) Cochrane. His American ancestors on the paternal side were originally from Ayr, in Ayrshire, Scotland, and were early settlers of Pembroke, New Hampshire, and prominent in the history of that town. His great- grandfather, James Cochrane, served as Captain of a company in the Revolution, and was afterwards made Major ; both he and his father were signers of the " Association T'est " in Pembroke in 1776 (see " History of Pembroke, " Vol. II., page 119), which meant death if the colonies failed, and it was signed
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, every adult male member of the Cochrane fami- .e. in Pembroke. The grandparents of the subject of this sketch were James and Lettice (Duncan) Ci rane, of Pembroke, born respectively in 1768 an ! 1;64 : James's parents were Major James
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JASPER D. COCHRANE.
Cochrane, born 1743, and Mary McDaniel, born 1744, also of Pembroke; his father was James ('ochrane, who settled in Pembroke about 1750; and his father was Deacon John Cochrane, who came to Londonderry, New Hampshire, about 1725. Jasper Duncan Cochrane was educated at the East Corinth Academy, the East Maine Conference Seminary at Bucksport 1868-70, the Maine Wes- leyan Seminary at Kent's Hill in the fall and spring of 1872-3-4-5, and Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, where he entered in August 1876 and was graduated A. B. in 1880, and from which institution he received the de- gree of .\. M. in 1883. He attended medical school at the College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York city in 1881-2, 1884-5 and 1885-6, graduating with the degree of M. D. in May of the latter year. From June 1886 to March 1888 he practiced medicine at East Corinth, his native place, removing then to Saco, where he has re- mained to the present time. Dr. Cochrane is a member of the Saco and Biddeford Medical Club and was its President in 1884, member and now
President of the York County Medical Society, also member of the Maine Medical Association and American Academy of Medicine. He is a member of Saco Masonic Lodge, York Royal Arch Chapter, Bradford Commandery Knights Templar of Bidde- ford, Mystic Tie Lodge Knights of Pythias of Saco, and Corinthian Lodge of Odd Fellows, East Cor- inth. He is also a member of the York Club of Biddeford and the Society of the Sons of the American Revolution. In politics he is a Repub- lican, and has served as Alderman, 1883-5, also as Chairman of the Republican City Committee of Saco in 1886. He is unmarried.
CUNNINGHAM, JAMES, Mason and Builder, Portland, was born in Manorhamilton, County Lei- trim, Ireland, May 8, 1839, son of Francis and Mary Jane (Meehan) Cunningham. His father and grandfather were masons and builders, and both were with General Humbert at the battle of Ballinamuck. He received a grammar-school edu- cation, and having adopted the trade of his fore-
JAMES CUNNINGHAM.
fathers, came to this country in 1863, landing at Boston and arriving in Portland a few days later, where he worked with Charles Stuart as journeyman a year and as foreman for T. E. Stuart five years, and in 1870 commenced business for himself. Mr.
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Cunningham has built many of the largest and finest business blocks and public and private edifices in the city of Portland, and he conducts a business of extensive proportions. He attributes his success to the start given him by Judge Putnam and Payson Tucker, through whose instrumentality he procured his first large contract, for building the Boston & Maine engine-house. He claims the honor of having been the first Irishman that was allowed to lay bricks in Portland. He also takes pride and satisfaction in never having lost a cus- tomer or friend, nor five hundred dollars in bad bills, in his twenty-five years of business. Mr. Cunningham has served seven years in the City Council of Portland, was three years Overseer of the Poor, and was appointed by Governor Cleaves to audit the State Treasurer's accounts. He has been actively interested in military affairs, and helped to organize the Montgomery Guards and Sheridan Rifles of Portland, of both of which com- panies he is an honorary member. He is also a member of Lodge 188 Benevolent Protective Order of Elks, the Athletic and Lincoln clubs, the Irish- American Relief Association, Ancient Order of Hibernians, Knights of Columbus, and a Trustee. of St .. Elizabeth's Catholic Orphan Asylum. In politics he is a Republican, and a believer in Pro- tection for everything American. He was married February 14, 1871, by Bishop Bacon, to Miss Catherine Mullen of Portland. They have had six children : Francis W. (deceased), Gertrude A., Jennie C., Helen C., William J. and Lawrence J. (deceased) Cunningham.
CUSHING, CHARLES AUGUSTUS, President and General Manager of the C. A. Cushing Shoe Com- pany, Freeport, was born in Freeport, Maine, Feb- ruary 7, 1850, son of Charles and Martha Campbell (Brewer) Cushing. His father was of the old and widely-known firm of Briggs & Cushing, who for over forty years built ships in Freeport. He was educated in the common schools of Freeport and at Westbrook (Maine) Seminary, graduating from the last-named institution in 1869. In the fall of that year he commenced business as a boy with A. H. Coe, retail hats and caps, Portland. After three years he went on the road for a time with straw goods, travelling in Eastern Maine. In 1873 he bought a retail clothing, shoe and hat store in South Framingham, Massachusetts, which he ran until January 18So, when he sold out and returned
to Portland, where he succeeded J. Y. Hodsdon in the firm of Caldwell & Hodsdon, manufacturers of ladies' boots and shoes, as Caldwell & Cushing. In ISSI he bought out Mr. Caldwell and carried on the business alone until the spring of 1882, when James Webb became associated with him under the firm name of Webb & Cushing. These rela- tions continued for seven years, when Mr. Cushing bought out his partner and continued alone until August 19, 1891, when he put the business into a stock company, incorporated as the C. A. Cushing Shoe Company. In September following, the fac- tory was removed to Freeport, where the business
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CHAS. A CUSHING.
has since been carried on, with Mr. Cushing as President and General Manager. Mr. Cushing is also prominently identified with various other business enterprises, being President of the Dummer Paper Feeder Company of Boston, Director in the Portsmouth Wrench Company of Boston, and a Director in the Falmouth Loan and Building Asso- ciation of Portland, the Maine Eye and Far Infir- mary and the Deering Board of Trade. He is a member of Atlantic Lodge, Greenleaf Chapter and St. Albans Commandery in the Masonic fraternity, is a member and past officer of Framingham Lodge and Encampment of Odd Fellows, and is also a member of the Cumberland, Falmouth and Young Men's Democratic clubs of Portland and of the
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Portland Board of Trade. Mr. Cushing has never held public office, although he has been nominated for every office in the city government of Portland, the last time for Mayor in 1894. He is a Demo- crat in politics, and at present resides at Woodfords, in the city of Deering. He was married February 28, 1872, to Hattie I. Sawyer of Portland, who died in 1893 ; they had two daughters (deceased), and one son : Charles E. Cushing, born in June 1875. In May 1895 Mr. Cushing was married a second time, in Woodfords, Maine, to Mrs. Helen E. (Gibson) Chenery of Woodfords.
DALTON, REVEREND ASA, D. D., Rector of St. Stephen's Parish ( Protestant Episcopal), Portland, was born in Westbrook, Maine, October 30, 1824, son of Samuel and Mary Ann (Huckins) Dalton. Ilis father was a merchant, born in Parsonsfield, Maine, November 25, 1797, married October 12, 1819, and died in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Jan- nary 1, 1840; his mother, daughter of Joseph and Mary (Jenness) Huckins, was born in Effingham, New Hampshire, May 1, 1798, and died in Boston, February 20, IS81. His paternal ancestor (1) was Philemon Dalton, born in England about 1590, one of the founders of Dedham, Massachusetts, and subsequently of Hampton, New Hampshire, where he died in May 1662. He was prominent in public affairs, being Selectman and holding various town offices, and was first Deacon of the church in Hampton, of which his brother, Rev. Timothy Dalton, a graduate of St. John's College, Cambridge, England, was the first teacher. His wife survived him, and married, second, Godfrey Dearborn, the patriarch of the Dearborn family in this country. From Philemon Dalton was descended (2) Samuel Dalton, born in England in 1629, came with his father to Dedham, Massachusetts, and died in Hampton, New Hampshire, August 22, 1681. He was a very influential man, holding many offices of trust and transacting a great amount of business ; was many years Representative to the General Court, Associate Judge in Norfolk County courts, Treasurer of Norfolk county, and at the time of his death was one of the Councillors of the Province of New Hampshire, under the Royal Commission of Presi- dent Cutts. Is is stated that "he always bore a high character as a public man, and his popularity was never lessened during life." He married Ilrury 6, 1650, Mehitable, daughter of Henry l'aliner of Haverhill, who survived him, and mar-
ried, second, Rev. Zachariah Symmes of Bradford, Massachusetts. Philemon Dalton (3), son of Samuel, was born in Hampton, December 16, 1664, and died there April 5, 1721 ; he was Deacon of the church, Selectman, farmer and teacher, and married September 25, 1590, Abigail, daughter of Edward and Hannah (Titcomb) Gove. Samuel Dalton (4), son of the foregoing, was born in Hampton, July 22, 1694, and died there December 26, 1755 ; he was a farmier and teacher, and married April 28, 1720, Mary, daughter of Moses (third from Thomas ot Exeter) and Mary (Car) Leavitt. Samuel Dalton (5), son of Samuel, born in Hampton,
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A. DALTON.
April 5, 1726, married Sarah Scott, November 17, 1757, was one of the first settlers of Parsonsfield, Maine, and died there soon after the incorporation of the town. Samuel Dalton (6), son of the last named, and grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was born in Hampton, August 7, 1771, married in 1795 Mary, daughter of Joel and Lydia (Perkins) Bennett of York, Maine, and died in Westbrook, March 19, 1821. Dr. Asa Dalton acquired his early education in the grammar and high schools of Cambridge, Massachusetts. Hle was graduated at Harvard College in the class of 1848, and received his theological instruction at Harvard Divinity School and other institutions. After graduation he taught school in Newport,
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Rhode Island ; edited the Protestant Churchman in New York for a time ; was Assistant Minister of the Church of the Ascension in New York City, Rector six years of St. John's Parish in Bangor, Maine, and since 1863 has been Rector of St. Stephen's in Portland. The degree of A. M. was conferred upon him by Harvard in 1851, and in 1885 he received the degree of D. D. from Colby Univer- sity. Dr. Dalton's life has been more studious than active ; theology, philosophy, history and gen- eral literature are the subjects to which he has given most attention. . Is a clergyman, he has sought throughout his ministry to soften the as- perity of sects, and bring them into more fra- ternal relations, believing that many of our antag- onisms are more apparent than real. His aim, therefore, has been to promote true Christian unity on the practical lines of a common Chris- tian work, in the belief that the more Christians know, the better they will like, each other. He has had through life a profound sense of the evils inci- dent to the numerous and quite unnecessary divisions which in the country towns have made it almost impossible to maintain public worship in an effective manner. In the Protestant Episcopal Church, to which he belongs, his sympathies are entirely with the Broad Church -Party, of which the late Phillips Brooks was the best representative. Whether in or out of the church the most of his work has been done in Portland and Maine. In Portland he has given fifteen courses of free lectures, mostly on liter- ary, philosophical and historical subjects, besides many occasional lectures, addresses and sermons. He has also been actively connected with the lead- ing benevolent and charitable organizations of the city. As a writer, he has contributed more or less throughout his ministry to the local press, and largely to the papers and reviews of his own denom- ination ; also a volume entitled " Epochs of Church History " ( 1894) has received general commenda- tion. He counts Maine a state and Portland a city to be proud of, and as fortunate, he who has been at all identified with the growth of either, and whose lot has been cast in such pleasant places. Dr. Dalton for many years has been Secretary of the Maine Bible Society, Director of the Portland Fra- ternity and the Young Men's Christian Association, and Trustee of the Portland Benevolent Society and various charitable organizations. He has also been Vice-President of the Harvard Club of Maine from its formation, and is a member of the Clericus Club of Portland, the Maine Ministers' Association, the
Fraternity Club of Portland, Maine Historical Society, New England Historical and Genealogical Society, the Phi Beta Kappa of Harvard College, various educational societies of New York, and other organizations. He was married November 20, 1851, to Maria Jackson, daughter of Rev. William and Mary Brown Jackson (Cole) Leverett of Boston ; they have two children : Mary Leverett and Edith Leverett Dalton. '
DANA, ISRAEL, THORNDIKE, M. D., Portland, was born in Marblehead, Massachusetts, June 6, 1827, son of Reverend Samuel and Henrietta
ISRAEL T. DANA.
(Bridge) Dana. He is descended, in common with most of the Danas of New England, from Richard Dana, who came to this country from England and settled in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1640. His father. Reverend Samnel Dana, was pastor of the First Church in Marblehead for nearly forty years ; his uncle, Reverend Daniel Dana, D. D., was for fifty years a settled pastor in Newburyport, Massachusetts ; and his grand- father, Reverend Joseph Dana, D. D., was for more than sixty years Pastor of the Orthodox Congrega-
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