Men of progress; biographical sketches and portraits of leaders in business and professional life in and of the state of Maine, Part 36

Author: Herndon, Richard; McIntyre, Philip Willis, 1847- ed; Blanding, William F., joint ed
Publication date: 1897
Publisher: Boston, New England magazine
Number of Pages: 1268

USA > Maine > Men of progress; biographical sketches and portraits of leaders in business and professional life in and of the state of Maine > Part 36

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prominently identified with temperance work - was a member of the Sons of Temperance in 1853, and has since held memberships in all the leading tem- perance organizations wherever located. These in- clude the Sons of Temperance, Temple of Honor, British Templars and Independent Order of Good Templars, being in 1866 Grand Worthy Chief Tem- plar of New Brunswick. He has also been a mem- bet of the Masonic order since 1868, and of the Knights of Pythias since 1884. In New Brunswick Dr. Jonah was in 1852-4 in political accord with the Liberals, as represented by the Hons. L. A. Wilmot, S. L .. Tilley, W. H. Steeves, Charles Fisher

.. .

JOHN M. JONAH.

and others. In 1865-7, during the campaign agi- tating the confederation of the Provinces into a Dominion, he fully endorsed that policy and gave all his energies to its accomplishment. In American politics he was a firm believer in Abraham Lincoln and his policy and administration, but was nine years in the United States before he became a voter. He then voted the Republican ticket until Grover Cleveland was nominated for the Presi- dency, since when, not always indorsing the Repub- lican policy on several important national issues, he has exercised the right of voting for principles, not men. In religion he was born, educated and professed faith as a Baptist, was immersed by the

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Rev. Daniel C. Eddy in 1858 in the Harvard Street Baptist Church in Boston, and possesses an abiding faith in New Testament Baptist principles as im- pressed by internal promptings. Dr. Jonah is a member of the Maine, New Brunswick, Maritime and Canadian medical associations, and of the Har- vard Alumni Association of Boston. He was mar- ried November 14, 1861, to Charlotte Lovice Wood, of St. John, New Brunswick, a direct descendant of the English loyalists. They have had four sons and two daughters : Sylvester M., who died at the age of twenty years ; Horace V., a graduate of the Col- lege of Physicians and Surgeons in New York in 1891, and now a practicing physician in Eastport ; Minnie Agnes, married to Stanley E. Johnson of New Hampshire and now residing in Massachusetts ; Emma Maud L., William E. and Edwin B. Jonah. The two younger boys are now in college, William proposing to embrace the medical profession and Edwin that of the law.

LANE, JOHN HARRIDAN, Merchant, Searsport, was born in Freeport, Maine, July 28, 1828, son of Cornelius and Almira (Smith) Lane. His father was a native of that part of Gloucester, Massachu- setts, now known as Lanesville ; his mother was born in Belfast, Maine, her parents having moved there from Exeter, New Hampshire. Soon after his birth the family removed from Freeport to Bel- fast, where both father and mother died, leaving him an orphan at the age of six years. He was sent to Prospect (now Searsport) to be reared in the family of Amos H. Ellis, who were relatives on his mother's side. Here he grew up, receiving his education in the town schools and his training for active life in Mr. Ellis's grocery store as clerk. His independent business career began in 1848, when at the age of twenty he identified himself with the shipbuilding firm of McGilvery & Ross, which later became William McGilvery, with whom he continued until 1353. During this period he was also Agent for the first steamboat line touching at Searsport, and Agent for the first express com- pany doing business there. In 1853 the Searsport Bank was established, and Mr. Lane was elected its first Cashier, but resigned in 1854 to take up his residence in Portland, having associated himself with William and John W. McGilvery, under the firm name of William McGilvery & Company, for the purpose of doing a ship-chandlery and commi,-

sion business in that city. Returning to Searsport in 1857, he opened a ship-chandlery and grocery business, in connection with which he continued shipbuilding until 1882, since when he has been engaged in the coal business. From the very first of Mr. Lane's active business life he was always associated with the Hon. William McGilvery, the widely-known shipbuilder and shipowner. He has been prominently identified with all local improve- ments, and during his long residence in Searsport there has never been a movement in the line of public welfare in which he has not taken an active part. In 1863 he raised by subscription the funds for building Union Hall, the planning and construc-

J. H. LANE.

tion of which he personally superintended. In the same year, as Agent of the Village School District, he built the Union District School House, one of the finest school buildings in Waklo county ; and in 1865 he built a large store and Masonic Hall on Main street. Mr. Lane is also noted for the pride he takes in keeping up his wharf property and the water-front; and his handsome residence at the corner of Union and Roulston streets, and his cot- tage at Swan Lake, are models of taste and comfort. Mr. Lane is a Republican in politics and a Con- gregationalist in religious faith. He was married November 21, 1855, to Mary E. Carver, daughter of John Carver, one of Scarsport's greatest ship-

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MEN OF PROGRESS.

builders. By this marriage were born George R., who died in infancy, and Elizabeth Carver Lane, who was married October 14, 1891, to I. G. Paine of Hartford, Connecticut, and died August 11. 1895, leaving an infant daughter : Elizabeth Paine.

LEAVEFT, JUSTIN M., Register of Deeds for York County, was born in Limington, York County, Maine, April 7, 1846, son of Alvah and Margaret Mc.Arthur (Libby) Leavitt. His father was a farmer in Limington and Buxton, and he was

JUSTIN M. LEAVITT.

reared on a farm, meanwhile attending the public schools and latter Gorham (Maine) Seminary. At the age of seventeen, in 1864, he enlisted and served until near the close of the war in Company 1, First Maine Heavy Artillery - the famous regi- ment that lost more men in battle than any other in the Union army. He was severely wounded at Spottsylvania, Virginia, May 19, 1864, but contin- ted in the service until discharged April 4, 1865, "by reason of wounds received in battle." After his return from the war he attended several terms of school, and remained at home on the farm sum- mers, teaching winters, until in December 1871 he was appointed Mail Agent on the Portland &

Rochester Railroad. Continuing on this route and on the sanie route extended to Nashua, New Hamp- shire, and Worcester, Massachusetts, until January 1878, he was then transferred to the Boston & Troy Railway Post-Office (the Hoosac Tunnel route), and subsequently was promoted to Head Clerk on this line. From this position he resigned January 1, 1883, to assunie the duties of Register of Deeds for York County, at Alfred, to which office he was elected in September 1882, and which he still holds, having been successively re-elected for four years in 1886, 1890 and 1894. Mr. Leavitt lived in Liming- ton until seven years of age, when his parents moved to Buxton, of which place he has since been a resident with the exception of about two years in Nashua, New Hampshire. He is a member of Buxton Masonic Lodge of West Buxton, Temple Chapter Royal Arch Masons of Rochester, New Hampshire, and Maine Council Royal and Select Masters of Saco, Maine ; also of John H. Came Grand Army post of Buxton, Society of the Army of the Potomac, and Third Army Corps Union. Mr. Leavitt is also a member of the Home Market Club of Boston. He has always been a Republican in politics and active in political matters. He was married November 23, 1875, to Ella S. Greenfield, daughter of Charles Greenfield of Rochester, New Hampshire ; they have no children.

McDONALD, JOHN ANGUS, M. D., East Machias, was born in Machias, Maine, August 28, 1866, son of Daniel and Elizabeth (Calligan) McDonald. His grandparents on the paternal side came to Nova Scotia from Scotland, and his maternal grand- parents came from Ireland and settled in East Machias. He received his early education in the public schools and at Machias High School, from which he graduated in April IS83. The following year he entered Jefferson Medical College in Phila- delphia, and graduated in 1886, receiving one of nine prizes for scholarship in surgery, in a class numbering two hundred and fifty-six members. Entering at once upon the practice of medicine at Machias, he continued in that place until ISS9, when he moved to East Machias, where he has since resided. He was Town Physician of Machias for two years, 1888-9, and since 1883 has been a member of the United States Pension Examining Board at Machias, in which he is now serving as Secretary. Besides having a large and lucrative

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practice, Dr. McDonald is interested in the breed- ing of trotting horses - being the owner of the fast trotting stallion Trombone (2.27}) and the fast mare Nellie Mac. He is also interested in agricul- tural pursuits, and is a Trustee of the Central Wash-

JOHN A. McDONALD.

ington Agricultural Society. He has served as Sup- ervisor of Schools in East Machias, and in 1895 was elected Chairman of the School Board, to which office he was re-elected in 1896. Dr. McDonald is

not a society or club man, and belongs to no organ- Democrat in politics, but was never a candidate for able companionships. He has always been a strong izations, finding in his own family his most enjoy-

any political office, other than in local affairs. He was married January 12, 1889, to Effie M. Harmon,

step-daughter by this marriage : Lillian A. Thurlow. to Mrs. Sarah Thurlow, of East Machias ; he has a Donald. In 1895, May 25, he was again married, leaving two children : Sarah E. and Effie H. Mc- of Machiasport, Maine, who died February 2, 1892,

McKUSICK, MARSHALL, NOAH, Calais, was born in Baring, Washington county, Maine, March 7, 1841, son of Levi E. and Fannie A. ( Marshall) McKusick. His paternal grandparents, Noah and Mary E. (Estes) MeKusick, were of Scotch descent.

the Army of the Potomac, was three times wounded, nearly all the great battles of the Peninsula and and served nearly four years. He participated in enlisted as a private in the Sixth Maine Battery, in autumns and winters for five years. In 1861 he Commencing at the age of fifteen, he taught school emy, from which institution he graduated in 1860. schools, and at Milltown (New Brunswick) Acad- He received his early education in the common

the war he followed various occupations for a time, and was mustered out as First Lieutenant. After

Creamery and the lumber industry, and has been Cotton Mills, the Calais Shoe Factory, the Calais the courts. He is also interested in the St. Croix large practice, having great success with juries and high standing in his profession, and enjoys a very the present time. Mr. McKusick has attained a Calais, where he has continued in active practice to mission to the Bar in 1870, established himself in meanwhile taking up the study of law, and after ad-

MARSHALL N. McKUSICK

connected with most of the important business en- terprises on the St. Croix River. He has always been a Republican in politics, and has taken an active part in political matters in Calais and throughout

the county and state. He was a Representative to the Legislature in 1880-1-2, and was one of the leaders of the House and Speaker pro tem. during

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most of the session of ISSI. In the " count-out," so called by the Republicans, when the combination held the State House, he was the first member to enter the Representative Hall. and took a very active part in getting and holding the possession until the court decided in favor of the Republicans. While in the House he served on the Judiciary Committee, and was a member of the Committee that revised the statutes of the state. From 1882 to 1886 Mr. McKusick was Postmaster of Calais, was Mayor of the city in 1886-7-8, was Deputy Collector of Customs for five years, and at present holds the office of City Solicitor. He has been twice married -first, in December 1861, to Mary Henry, who died in November 1867, leaving one child : Ada, now the wife of Hobart Allen of Dennysville, Maine. His second marriage was in January 1872, to Lucy J. Bassford, daughter of Asher and Jane Bassford of Calais; they have six children : Mina G., Edith H., Marshall N., Jr, Maud, Ethel and James G. Blaine McKusick.

MURRAY, BENJAMIN BIXBY, of Pembroke, was bom in Norway, Oxford county, Maine, son of Rev. Beniamin B. Murray, who was born in Hartland, Vermont, and whose father, John Murray, was born in Dundee, Scotland. John Murray married Rachael Bixby, of Topsfield, Massachusetts. Benjamin B., father of the subject of this sketch, married Deb- orah Hooper, of Freeport, Maine. Her father was David Hooper, who was born in Manchester, Mas- achusetts, and her mother was Deborah Rogers of Bath, Maine. His early years were passed mainly in Turner, Androscoggin county, Mainc, and his general education was received in the common and high schools of that town. Entering upon the study of law, he was admitted to the Bar in 1857, and was engaged in practice at Pembroke, Maine, until the commencement of the Civil War. In April 1861, while holding the position of Judge Ad- vocate with the rank of Major on the staff of Major- Gencral Butler, of the First Division of Militia of Maine, he was ordered to report for duty at Bangor, to assist in organizing the regiments raised in East. ern Maine under the first call of the President for troops. Later he recruited a company for the Fif- teenth Regiment of Maine Volunteers and was commissioned Captain of Company A of that regi- ment, which was ordered South to join the New

England division in the expedition against Ncw Orleans. The regiment landed at Ship Island near the mouth of the Mississippi, in April 1862, and a few weeks later proceeded up the river to New Or- leans. Its history during that period is well-known. In August 1862 Captain Murray was commissioned Lieutenant-Colonel, and in the autumn following was placed in command. He served in Louisiana, Florida and Texas, being at the capture of Forts Semmes and Esperanza, in Texas, and participating in all the battles of the Red River campaign of 1864, including Mansfield, Pleasant Hill, Mansura and Cane River Crossing, in Louisiana. In July

B. B. MURRAY.

1864 he came North and assisted in driving General Early's army from the vicinity of Washington, and also took part in the campaign in the Shenandoah Valley. In the fall and winter of 1864-5 he was stationed at Kearneysville, in command of the troops on the linc of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad between Harper's Ferry and Martinsburg. After the surrender of Lee, Colonel Murray was again sent South with his regiment, on service for a time at Savannah, Georgia, and then being transferred to South Carolina. Subsequently he was appointed Provost Marshal General of the Department, on the staff of Major-General Q. A. Gilmore, with head- quarters at Hilton Head, and later held the same

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position on the staff of General Charles Devens, who succeeded General Gilmore as Department Commander. In October of that year he received his commission as Colonel, but depleted ranks pre- vented muster. He was twice breveted by the President, the second time as Brigadier-General, dating from March 13, 1865, and remained in the service until July 1866, when he was honorably dis- charged, having served nearly five years. After leaving the volunteer service, he was appointed Captain in the regular army and ordered to New Orleans for duty, but in consequence of impaired health the appointment was declined. In 1868 General Murray was appointed Deputy Collector of Internal Revenue for the Fifth District of Maine. In 1869 he was State Senator from Washington county, and in the following year was renominated for a second term, but declined, having been ap- pointed to succeed General John C. Caldwell as Adjutant-General of Maine, in which office he served until 1876. In the summer of the Centennial year he was appointed Special Agent of the United States Treasury Department, and soon after was appointed Assistant Financial Agent of the United States at London, England. In this capacity he went to England in charge of ten millions in United States bonds, and remained there until 1877, in connection with the refunding of the national debt. While in London he assisted in the sale of bonds amounting to over a hundred million dollars, occu- pying for office purposes rooms in the banking house of N. M. Rothschild & Sons, with whom large transactions took place. Upon his return to Maine, General Murray was elected to the Legislature from Pembroke, and in March 1878 he was appointed United States Marshal for Maine, to succeed the Hon. S. S. Marble, which office he heid for four years, when he resumed the practice of law at Pem- broke. In March 1889 he was appointed one of the Valuation Commissioners of the State, by Gov- ernor Burleigh, and served until the work of that Board was completed, in the month of March, 1891, after which he was engaged in the practice of law until the fall of 1896, when he was again elected to the House of Representatives of Maine for the pe- riod of two years. In the summer of 1896 Bowdoin College conferred upon him the honorary degree of Master of Arts. General Murray was married March 28, 1853, to Fanny G. Farnsworth, of Pem- broke, who died February 20, 1894; they had one son : Elmer F. Murray, born April 10, 1857, died August 26, 1861.

PERRY, HENRY Ons, American Express Agent at Fort Fairfield, was born in Richmond, Kennebec county, Maine, February 2, 1831, son of David and Martha ( Robinson ) Perry. His early life was spent on a farm. After attending the common schools he fitted for college at Litchfield (Maine) Academy, and became a clerk for a time in a drygoods store at Gardiner, Maine. In 1857 he went to Minnesota, where he worked at carpentering for two or three years, and then returning to Maine, came to Aroos- took county and settled at Mars Hill in 1861. In the fall of 1863 he enlisted in the Thirty-first Maine Regiment, was promoted rapidly from Orderly Ser-

HENRY O. PERRY.

geant to First Lieutenant of Company E, and later to Captain of the same company, and served with distinction to the end of the war. From 1870 to 1876 he was engaged in the insurance business in Blaine, Aroostook county. In the latter year he came to Fort Fairfield, where he has since resided : his insurance agency having now been twenty-six years established. In 1895 he was appointed Agent of the American Express Company, in connection with the Bangor & Aroostook Railroad, which posi- tion he now holds. He has also held a commission as Trial Justice for twenty-eight years. Mr. Perry is and always has been a Republican in politics. Although never an office-seeker, he has held various

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MEN OF PROGRESS.

town offices, and for six years served on the Board of County Commissioners. In 1867-8 he repre- sented Mars Hill in the State Legislature, and in the latter year was also one of the Presidential Electors of Maine in the national campaign that resulted in the election of Grant for President. During the administrations of Garfield and Arthur, and also under Harrison, he was Deputy Collector of Customs at Fort Fairfield, his terfhs covering eight years in all. Mr. Perry was married May I, 1853, to Susan Ellen Blanchard, of Richmond, Maine, who died December 22, 1859, leaving one child, Mary L., now Mrs. George P. Witham of Caribou, Maine. He was again married November 4, 1860, to Mary Ellen Preble, of Richmond, Maine, by whom he had three children : Martha Alice, now married and residing in Fort Fairfield ; Maria Olive, married, residing in Woburn, Massa- chusetts ; and Henry Warren Perry, married and residing in Fort Fairfield. His second wife died January 7, 1870, and in 1871, March 11, he was a third time married, to Hattie Ruby Witham, of Easton, Maine. They have four children : Charles Augustus, married, a resident of Fitchburg, Massa- chusetts ; David Frank, unmarried ; Chadbourne Whitmore, unmarried, and in the office with his father, and Elsie Louise, unmarried and residing at home.

POWERS, LLEWELLYN, Governor of Maine, was born in Pittsfield, Somerset county, Maine, in 1838, son of Arba and Naomi ( Mathews) Powers. Many of his father's relations and ancestors have been clergymen and college graduates, and one was a graduate of Harvard. His mother was a school- teacher before marriage. His father was a farmer and lumberman -- not rich, but in comfortable cir- cumstances - who had settled in Pittsfield as a pioneer, and there built a log house in which I.lewellyn, the eldest of ten children, was born. Of the eight boys, six became successful practitioners of the law, and the youngest, Frederick A. Powers of Houlton, is the present Attorney-General of Maine. Llewellyn was eight years of age when the family moved out of the primitive dwelling into a more pretentious home. Although the parents had acquired by hard work and earnest effort the fair competence and independence that comes to the successful farmer, yet they had a large family to rear and maintain, and the eldest son left home to make luis way in the world at a time when he had little

else than his birthright of brains, pluck and splen- did physique to aid him in starting upon his career. After attending the common schools of Pittsfield, he fitted for college at the Maine academies of St. Albans and Waterville, the latter now Coburn Classical Institute, and entered Colby University in the class of 1861, but left in his second year to enter the Albany University Law School, where he graduated in December 1860. In 1860 he was ad- mitted to the New York Bar in Albany, and in De- cember of that year was admitted to the Somerset County Bar of Maine, at Norridgewock. Subse- quently he was admitted to practice in the District

LLEWELLYN POWERS.

and Circuit Courts of the United States, and also to the Suffolk Bar at Boston, Massachusetts. In January 1861 he settled in Houlton, Aroostook county, where he has since been actively engaged in law practice until within the past few years, with the exception of a four-years period when he resided in Brookline, Massachusetts, practic-

ing his profession in Boston. The young lawyer soon built up a large and lucrative practice in Aroostook county. In 1864 he was elected County Attorney, and served in that office six years. In 1869 he was appointed Collector of Customs for the District of Aroostook, and served four years, declining a re-appointment tendered him in 1873.

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MEN OF PROGRESS.

In 1873-4, 1874-5, 1875-6 and 1883 he repre- sented Houlton in the State Legislature, where his services were of a character and importance that showed him to be a sagacious political leader and gave promise of a more brilliant future. During his Legislative service he reported, from an evenly divided Judiciary Committee of which he was Chairman, advocated, and carried through the bill abolishing capital punishment. In 1876 he was elected Representative to Congress from the Fourth District, and in 1878 was re-nominated by acclama- tion, but owing to the Greenback craze that swept the state in that year, he was among the Republi- can Congressional candidates, including the present United States Senator Hale, who failed of an elec- tion. Mr. Powers then determined to give up poli- tics and, aside from taking an active part in politi- cal campaigns, give his attention to his private in- terests, which had become very extensive, including the ownership and management of large tracts of timber land, including some of the finest in the state. In 1892, however, his friends prevailed upon him to re-enter public life, and he was again elected to the Legislature in that year, where his wise counsels, wide experience and leadership qualities were at once recognized, and his influence in shaping legis- lation resulted in some of the best measures which passed that body. On the assembling of the Legis- Iature of 1895, to which he was re-elected, he was unanimously chosen, by the Republican members, Speaker of the House. In 1896 he was nominated for Governor of Maine without opposition, and was elected in September by the largest majority ever given a Maine gubernatorial candidate. Governor Powers' strong personality is impressed upon one at sight, his face and figure being cast in the mould of those who are leaders of men. A swarthy complex- ion, keen but kindly eyes, and hair worn quite long -- the exceeding blackness of which is unrelieved by a single touch of the nearly sixty years of his active life - enhance the dominant characteristics of his features. He is the most approachable of men, frank and open in his opposition as well as loyal and whole-hearted in his favor. He is a fine public speaker, persuasive and eloquent, and very effective in his appeals to reason. As an opponent he is. worthy of any man's steel, and he fights as fearlessly as he champions. "Lew," as he has long been familiarly called, though one of the shrewdest of political generals, has always had the reputation of doing as he agrees, and his promise of support is conceded to be as good as a written contract. He

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Men of progress; biographical sketches and portraits of leaders in business and professional life in and of the state of Maine, Part 36

Author: Herndon, Richard; McIntyre, Philip Willis, 1847- ed; Blanding, William F., joint ed Publication date: 1897 Publisher: Boston, New England magazine Number of Pages: 1268

Author: Herndon, Richard; McIntyre, Philip Willis, 1847- ed; Blanding, William F., joint ed
Publication date: 1897
Publisher: Boston, New England magazine
Number of Pages: 1268