Men of progress; biographical sketches and portraits of leaders in business and professional life in and of the state of Maine, Part 4

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 4

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MEN OF PROGRESS.

. sil Church of Ipswich, Massachusetts. Hıs wther was a daughter of Matthew Bridge, M. D., a long practitioner at Petersham, Massachusetts. Hh early education was received at Marblehead Valemy and by private instruction in the study ! hi- father, who was a graduate of Harvard. Taking up the study of medicine, he entered Harvard Medical School and graduated with the degree of M. D. in 1850. After taking his degree he spent two years in post-graduate study abroad, mostly in Paris, and was for three months Resi- dent Assistant Physician in the Rotunda Lying in Hospital at Dublin, Ireland. Since June 1852 he has been engaged in the active practice of medi- . ine in Portland, and in the instruction of medical students, and still continues the work. Dr. Dana was for two years Professor of Materia-Medica and Therapeutics in the Medical School of Maine, and for the last twenty years has served as professor of Pathology and Practice in that institution (the Medical Department of Bowdoin College). He was one of the founders of the Maine General Hospital, of which he was for twenty years Senior Attending Physician and is now Consulting Phy- sician. In 1862 he was for a short time Volun- teer Assistant Surgeon in the Armory Square Hos- pital in Washington. He has been President of the Maine Medical Association, is an original member and was the first President of the Portland Clinical Society, and is a member of the American Medical Association and the Association of American Physicians. He is also a member of the Portland Natural History Society, and has been an active member of the State-street Orthodox Congrega- tional Church of Portland since 1852, the year of its formation. Dr. Dana has always believed that no mission of life is higher than that of the physi- cian devoted to his calling, and consequently has given himself up to the work of his profession, avoiding as much as possible all conflicting inter- ests. In politics he has been always an earnest Republican, but never a holder nor seeker of polit- ical office. He received in 1389 the honorary de- gree of A. M. from Bowdoin College. He was married September 28, 1854, to Caroline Jane Starr, by whom he had nine children : Anna Harrington, Alice DeWolfe, Samuel Bridge, William Lawrence, Israel Thorndike, Jr., Carrie Starr, Matthew Bridge, Henrietta Bridge and Francis William Dana. In 1876 he was a second time married, to Caroline Beck Lyman. They have one son : Ripley Lyman Dana.

DAVIS, WILLIAM GOODWIN, Merchant, with a record over half-a-century of extraordinary activity and success in business life in Portland, was born in Limington, York county, Maine, June 16, 1825, son of William and Mary ( Waterhouse) Davis. His grandfather, Nicholas Davis, came to Limington from Salem, Massachusetts, prior to the Revolution, and was a pioneer of that section, reaching his new home in the wilderness with his wife and children by following "spotted " trees on horseback. The subject of this sketch enjoyed no other educational advantages than were afforded by the country schools while he was a boy on his father's farm.

WM. G. DAVIS.

At the age of fourteen, in 1839, he came to Portland. with nothing but his boyish hands and brain where- with to make his fortune. For the first two years he was a clerk in a grocery store. Then he worked for two years in a bakery, at the end of which time he went into business for himself as a baker, with a partner, under the firm name of Davis & Water- house. But the confinement of the occupation so impaired his health that after two years he sold out to his partner and went home to recuperate upon the farm. He was restless there, however, and acting upon the advice of a physician he decided to adopt a vocation that, while affording opportunity for the exercise of his commercial inclinations and faculties, would keep him in the open air. Accord-

MEN OF PROGRESS.

ingly, at twenty years of age, he became the proprietor of a peddler's cart, and entered upon a successful career as a dealer in Yankee notions, travelling over the state and supplying the stores in the towns and smaller cities. His route lay mostly along the coast. It was a pleasant occupation and restored his health, and his genius for trade soon developed. He had the faculty for perceiving what people would buy, as well as the personality that generally prepossesses and seldom offends. His business grew until he began to import goods from England, principally knives, scissors and other articles of cutlery. He used to go to New York and buy at a low price goods that were just going out of fashion, and bring them to Maine, where they sold rapidly at a good profit. He was the pioneer in this business in the state, and he continued in it from 1845 to 1858, during the latter years having two or three two-horse teams on the road. In 1859 Mr. Davis established himself in Portland as a wholesale dealer in general merchandise, and took in James P. Baxter, the present Mayor of the city, as a partner. They imported many of their goods from England, and in this way it came about that during the Rebellion the inception of the great Portland Packing Company occurred. Mr. Davis perceived that gold would be at a premium, and wrote to a friend in England, a former Bath boy, who had established himself in business there, asking what he should send in payment for the goods that they were importing. The friend re- plied, "Send canned lobsters." In a few years the Portland Packing Company was sending its pre- served-food products all over the civilized world, and its promoters were reaping a bountiful harvest of profits. For the last dozen years or more Mr. Davis has had no connection with the Portland Packing Company, his two sons and the son of his former partner, Mr. Baxter, now owning the busi- ness. But he is by no means idle, and his . connections with various other interests occupy all the time that at his age he cares to devote to business. He is President of the National Traders' Bank and a Director of the First National, Vice- President of the Maine Savings Bank, President of the Portland Trust Company and the West End Land Company, Director of the Maine Central Railroad, the Portland Street Railway Company and the Portland Paper Company, and was a Trustee of the Portland Lloyds until the business of that association was wound up in 1895. He ' represented Portland in the Maine House of

Representatives in 1875-6 and in the Senate in 1877, and was one of the Maine State Commis- sioners to the World's Columbian Exposition at Chicago, appointed by President Harrison, at the recommendation of Governor Burleigh. The main points in Mr. Davis's character, and for which he has always been noted, are mental quickness to grasp, courage to act while others are thinking, genial manners, economic ways, easy command of mien, and an utter absence of pride or vanity. Nobody ever " bulldozed " him ; few ever played hint a trick of any kind. He was never tempted to buy a big house, to move " uptown," to put on style, o1 to " run " for office ; two or three times he has been elected to office, but rather by accident or popularity than by design on his part. Like his father before him he has always been a staunch Democrat, and influential in his party. For many years he has been a leading member of the New Jerusalem Church, having joined in his younger days, because the teachings of Swedenborg were more in harmony with his religious convictions than any other. Mr. Davis was married March 4, 1849, to Rhoda M. Neal, of Gardiner, Maine ; they have three children living.

EATON, WOODMAN SHAW, General Freight Agent of the Maine Central Railroad, Portland, was born in Portland, October 16, 1846, son of Stephen W. and Miranda B. ( Knox) Eaton. His ancestry is traceable to Francis Eaton, who came over in the Mayflower in 1620, the line of descent being through Tristam, John, Wyman, John, John, John, and John Eaton born in Seabrook, New Hampshire, April 2, 1748, who was the grandfather of the sub- ject of this sketch. Woodman S. Eaton's family moved to Gorham, Maine, in November 1854, where he attended school at Gorham Academy. In 1862, at the age of sixteen, he left school and entered the employ of the Berlin Mills Lumber Company. The year 1865 found him in New Orleans, as clerk in the office of the Provost Marshal, Parish of Orleans. In September 1866 he entered the railway service, in which he has since been continuously engaged, as Freight Checker at Portland for the Androscoggin Railroad. A year later he accepted a position as Freight Cashier of the Portland, Saco & Portsmouth Railroad at Pordand, and in May 1872 he was appointed Freight Agent of the Eastern Railroad at Portland.

MEN OF PROGRESS.

In June 1875 he became Freight Agent of the Finstern and Maine Central railroads at Portland, was appointed General Western Freight Agent of : . Maine Central Railroad in October 1882, and in May 1885 he received the appointment of General

W. S. EATON.

Freight Agent of the Maine Central, which position he has since held. Mr. Eaton has served as Secretary, .Treasurer and President of the New England Association of General Freight Agents, also as President of the Dodlin Granite Company of Norridgewock, Maine. He is a Thirty-second Degree Mason, a member of Bramhall League of Portland, and a member of the Cumberland and Portland clubs. He was married October 16, 1867, to Miss Judith Annette Colby of Gorham, Maine ; they have two children : William C. and Edward S. Eaton.

EMERY, GEORGE ADDISON, Lawyer, Saco, was born in Saco, November 14, 1839, son of Moses and Sarah Cutts ('Thornton) Emery. His paternal grandfather was the Rev. Moses Einery, son of Moses Emery, both oldtime and prominent resi- dents of Minot, Maine. On the maternal side he is a grandson of Dr. Thomas G. Thornton, United States Marshal 1813-24, for whom Thornton Academy of Saco is named ; and great-grandson of

Timothy Thornton of Ipswich, Massachusetts, and also of Colonel Thomas Cutts, who was among the principal business men and leading citizens of Saco in his time. He was educated in the Saco schools and at Hebron ( Maine) Academy, graduated from Bowdoin College in the class of 1863, taught school in Saco, Rockland and Alfred, Maine, studied law, was admitted to the Bar in May 1866, and entered upon the practice of his profession in Saco, in asso- ciation with his father under the firm name of Moses Emery & Son, until the death of the senior member May 12, 1881, since when he has continued practice alone, except a short time when he was a partner of Hampden Fairfield under the firm name of Fairfield & Emery. Mr. Emery was Judge of the Municipal Court of Saco 1867-71, and Recorder 1871-4 and from 1878 to the present time ; was City Solicitor 1890 and 1894, Park Commissioner 1888- 91 and again in 1896, and represented Saco in the State Legislature at the biennial sessions of 1881-2 and 1883-4. He has been a Director in the York National Bank since January 1882 ; a corporator of the Saco & Biddeford Savings Institution since

GEO. A. EMERY.

1874; a Trustee since 1882 of the Thornton Academy, of which he is now Secretary and Treasurer ; General Agent of the Provident Asso- ciation of Saco since 1871 ; Librarian of the Saco Athenaum from 1866 and its clerk from 1868, until

MEN OF PROGRESS.

merged into the Dyer Library ; a corporator and member since 18SI of the Dyer Library Association ; has been Treasurer and Collector of the Unitarian Society of Saco ; was an original member and is now Secretary of the York Institute, and for several years, until 1891, was Director and Secretary of the Hardy Machine Company of Biddeford. He is also a member and since 1874 has served as Secretary of Saco Masonic Lodge. Mr. Emery is a Republican in politics, and is unmarried.

EMERY, MARK P., Merchant, and leading busi- ness man of Portland for more than fifty years, was born in Buxton, Maine, February 11, 1817, son of

MARK P. EMERY.

Thomas and Mary P. (Woodman) Emery. He is a descendant of Anthony Emery, who was born in Hants, England, and came to America in the ship James, landing at Boston, June 3, 1635, was (prob- ably) in Ipswich the following August, and soon after settled in Newbury, Massachusetts, where he lived until about 1640. Anthony Emery was a man of mark among the settlers of New England, but from the meagerness of the records his descendants have found it difficult to fully estimate his character. It appears that he was one who had decided opinions and did not hesitate to express then,

although on one occasion at least his boldness might have savored of "mutinous courage." From the little that is known of him it is inferred that he was a capable business man, energetic, independent, resolute in purpose, bold in action, severe in speech, jealous of his rights and willing to suffer for his con- science's sake. He recognized a higher than statute law, and with the courage of his convictions, pre- ferred to suffer the penalty of the latter rather than disobey the former and violate the dictates of his conscience and manhood. In entertaining Quakers at a time when they were proscribed by law and by the practice of his neighbors, he followed the Divine commandment, "Thou shalt love thy neigh- bor as thyself." Mark P. Emery acquired his early education in the town schools of Buxton and at Gorham (Maine) Academy, graduating from the latter institution in 1836. In 1837, at the age of twenty, he came to Portland and entered upon a clerkship with Smith & Brown, in the lumber and grocery business. He served in that capacity four years, and was then a clerk with J. B. Brown until 1845, when he became a partner with Mr. Brown and Jedediah Jewett, under the firm name of J. B. Brown & Company. In 1848 the firm was dissolved, and he was in business alone until 1852. In 1855 he formed a partnership with Henry Fox, under the name of Emery & Fox, and continued in the West India trade and lumber business until 1876, when this firm was dissolved. Since then Mr. Emery has carried on a lumber commission business by himself, and has also been engaged quite largely in real estate operations in Vermont and New Hampshire. He has been for many years a Director in the First National Bank of Portland, a Trustee of the Maine State Savings Bank and of the Portland Trust Com- pany, Trustee and Treasurer of the State Reform School, and Director and Vice-President of the Portland & New York Steamship Company. He represented the Fifth Ward of the city in the Board of Aldermen for two terms, 1888-9, during which time, as Chairman of the Committee on Fire Depart- ment, he participated in the purchase from the Amoskeag Company of the steamer Machigonne, the first steam fire-engine used in Portland. In all local matters Mr. Emery has always felt a deep interest, and he has taken an active part in the promotion of all enterprises tending to the good of society. For fifty years he has taken great interest in the First Parish Church and Society of Portland, has been for many years Vice-President of the Bible Society of Maine, and Treasurer of the Maine Uni-

MEN OF PROGRESS.

turi.in AAssociation, and is also President of the min- wiry at large of that denomination. In politics Mr. Emery is a Republican. He was married January 1. 1846, to Mary S. Smith, daughter of Ezra Smith ul Hanover, Maine ; they have no children.

ESTES, DANA, head of the publishing house of Isten & Lauriat, Boston, was born in Gorham, Maine, March 4, 1840, son of Joseph and Maria (I'dwards) Estes. His American ancestor on the paternal side was Richard Estes (son of Robert Estes of Dover, England), who came to this country in 1684, landing at Boston on September 27, and arriving at Piscataqua on October 11 following, where he settled. The line of descent is through Benjamin Estes, son of the foregoing, born in Lynn, Massachusetts, died in Berwick, Maine ; Henry, son of Benjamin, a miller of Berwick, died there July 28, 1792, having had eighteen children ; Samuel, of Poland, Maine, son of Henry, born in Berwick, December 8, 1751, died in May 1818; Robert, of Windham, Maine, son of Samuel, born April 27, 1777, died in Gorham, July 16, 1872 ; and Joseph Estes, son of Robert, born in Windham, February 3, 1805, died May 30, 1892, conimanded a company of infantry in the Arcostook War, and was the father of the subject of this sketch. On the maternal side he is fourth in descent from Hugh McLellan of Gorham, who came in 1733 from Londonderry, Ireland, and was a descendant of Sir Hugh McLellan of Argyle, Scotland. Dana Estes received his early education in the schools of his native town, and at the age of fifteen, in 1855, went to Augusta, Maine, where he had his first business experience and training as a clerk in a wholesale and retail general store. While resident in Augusta he had a pleasant acquaintance with many men who afterwards became notable in the annals of the country, among them James G. Blaine, then junior editor of the Kennebec Journal ; the present Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, Melville W. Fuller, at that time a sub-editor on the rival newspaper, the .Augusta Age, then the Democratic party organ ; Lot M. Morrill, and the veteran Ex-Senator James W. Bradbury, who is now a hale and well-preserved man of ninety-four years. In 1859 he canie to Boston and engaged in the book business with Henry D. Degen & Son. Two years later occurred the outbreak.of the Rebellion, and the young man,

whose patriotism and pugnacions Scotch-Irish blood were at once fired, enlisted on the very day in which Fort Sumter was fired on, in the Fourth Battalion Rifles, which afterwards was the nucleus of the Thirteenth Massachusetts Regiment, and was in active service until disabled by being three times wounded in the second battle of Bull Run, August 31, 1862, in which engagement his only brother, Albert S. Estes, was killed. After recovery from his wounds he took a position temporarily with the bookselling house of William H. Hill, Jr., where he remained until the return from the war of his former employer, Henry D. Degen, with whom

DANA ESTES.

he formed a copartnership under the name of Degen, Estes & Company and carried on a small publishing and bookselling business on Cornhill. The firm made a specialty of children's toy-books, and after some years' experience, not finding the field broad enough for two, Mr. Estes sold out to his partner and took a position as salesman with the large publishing and wholesale house of Lee & Shepard, remaining with them until he formed the partnership of which he was and still remains the head. Believing in the idea of connecting the miscellaneous bookselling business with the publish- ing business, Mr. Estes cast about to find the most able man connected with the retail book business,

MEN OF PROGRESS.

and succeeded in inducing Charles E. Launat to join him in his new enterprise, with the under- standing that Mr. Lauriat was to have, what he has always continued to have, sole charge of the mis- cellaneous bookselling department, while Mr. Estes was to manage the publishing business of the firm. The great Boston fire occurred within three months from the starting of the new house, and although their store just escaped destruction, their stock was considerably damaged by the blowing out of the front of the building in the efforts to stop the progress of the fire, and in the removal of a large part of the fine stock to a place of safety. Notwithstanding the discouragement occasioned by this calamity, the firm proceeded to carry out their projects, the first of their large publishing enterprises being that of Guizot's History of France, which proved the foundation stone of Estes & Lauriat's great success and subsequent prosperity. In the year following the fire the new firm was con- fronted by the panic of 1873, and the senior partner had also the misfortune to meet with an accident which compelled him to take a complete rest from business for several months ; but despite these untoward events the business moved on steadily and prosperously, and has continued to grow until the present time. After the death of Samuel Walker, the veteran subscription- book publisher, Estes & Lauriat purchased the pub- lishing plant connected with that business. They have always made the publication of a high grade of subscription books an important factor in their publishing business, such as standard histories like Guizot's Histories of France and England, Martin's History of France and Durny's Histories of Greece and Rome ; editions de luxe of standard novelists, including Scott, Dickens, Thackeray, Bulwer Lytton, George Eliot, Victor Hugo and Alexander Dumas ; and the works of John Ruskin. Among other notable publications issued by this house during the last twenty years of their business life may be mentioned the Zigzag Journey Series, books of travel for the young, of which Mr. Estes originated the title and plan, and which under the editorship of Hezekiah Butterworth have been among the most popular books of their class ever issued ; the Vassar-Girl Series, by Lizzie Champney, a similar set of books for girls ; and the Knockabout Club, books of sporting and adventure, by C. A. Stephens Among their most . popular books of the present time, by American authors, are the Cookbooks of Miss Maria Parloa, of which about a

million volumes have been sold ; and the popular stories by Laura F. Richards of Gardiner, Maine, the well-known daughter of Julia Ward Howe. Of a single one of the last mentioned (Captain Jan- uary), the firm have sold nearly one hundred thousand copies, and the sale continues unabated. One of their noteworthy specialties has been the publishing of works in Natural History, by Dr. Elliott Cones, Prof. J. S. Kingsley, Prof. . I. S. Packard, Jr., and others; and another popular series is their sei of works on Italian Cities, by Clara Erskine Clement and other authors. In 1890 finding that their publishing business had outgrown the offices on Washington street in which it was conducted, Mr. Estes erected two large buildings on the Summer-street extension, extending nearly through to Congress street. These buildings, known as the Estes Press Buildings, and fitted with every modern improvement and convenience for the purpose, accommodate some of the largest printing and book-binding establishments in the country, and afford headquarters for the firm's own publishing, book manufacturing and subscription departments. Here too is domiciled the Joseph Knight Publishing Company, which is owned and managed by three step-sons of Mr. Estes - L. Coues Page, Charles F. Page and George A. Page - as shareholders and officers ; and the Grollier Pub- lishing Society of which Frederick Reid Estes, the oldest son of Mr. Estes, is the Treasurer and General Manager. Since the removal of their publishing business to Summer street, the miscellaneous de- partment has occupied the whole of the premises " Opposite the Old South," and the business there conducted is one of the largest of the kind done by any house in the United States. Mr. Lauriat continues in charge of this department, and has made special features of the importation of the finest grades of rare and standard literature, the supplying of public and private libraries, and the catering for the very best class of the book-buy- ing public. An interesting episode of the firm's publishing enterprise was their purchase of the right to publish the popular annual juvenile, Chatterbox ; and the establishment of an interna- tional trademark on the name of the book, in a series of eight or ten cases against infringers in the various United States Courts of the country. They were finally triumphant, after litigation last- ing nearly ten years, and involving an outlay of nearly thirty thousand dollars of expense on their part and fully an equal sum on the part of the de-

MEN OF PROGRESS.

fendants; thus establishing the principle that an appropriate trademark on a book, if good in Eng- land, can be protected in the courts of this country. Mr. Estes' experience in this litigation brought him prominently forward in organizing the movement to give foreign authors their rights by an international copyright law, and he acted as chief organizer and Secretary of the International Copyright Associa- tion, of which President Eliot of Harvard Univer- sity, James Russell Lowell, Francis Parkman, Alexander H. Rice and General Francis A. Walker were also executive officers. His connection with this and other literary matters has brought him into pleasant associations with many of the most prom- inent literary men of this country and Europe. He has had the honor of enjoying the personal friend- ships of George William Curtis, James Russell Lowell and many other noted authors of our country ; has been the guest of the late Lord Tenny- son at his home in Farringford in the Isle of Wight, and on another occasion at his inland home, Ald- worth, in the county of Surrey ; and has had the pleasure of enjoying friendly intercourse with Thomas Hughes, the late Lord Lytton and Robert Browning. His enthusiastic admiration for the works of the last-named led him to become an active executive officer of the Boston Browning Society, in which capacity he has served for many years. Mr. Estes has devoted himself very largely to various matters of public and private interest out- side of his publishing business. He is President of the Beacon Publishing Company and the Shipman Engine Company ; Secretary of the International Copyright Association ; a Director of the Aldine Publishing Company, Shipman Engine Company, Publishers' Copyright League and Boston Memorial Association ; Vice-President of the Brookline Inde- pendent Club and of the Brookline Union, and first Vice-President of the Playgoers' Club; is a life member of the Bostonian Society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Amer- ican Archaeological Institute and Maine Historical Society ; associate member of the Cecilia and Apollo (musical) clubs of Boston; and member of the Exchange Club and the Massachusetts and the New York Reform clubs. He is also an enthusiastic amateur yachtsman, a member of the Eastern Yacht ('lub, and owner of a sailing-yacht, the Tourmaline, and the steam-yacht Viola. He was a charter member of the Pine Tree State Club of Boston, was #: ~ cretary 1887-91, Vice-President 1891-4, and President 1894-6. Mr. Estes has been too busily

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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 4

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