USA > Maine > Men of progress; biographical sketches and portraits of leaders in business and professional life in and of the state of Maine > Part 51
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that he has refrained from devoting to a narrow profession those talents meant for the delight of mankind. Mr. Mitchell was married October 29, 1874, to Annie Sewall Welch, of Bath. The two have four children : Edward Sewall, Dana, Frank and Robert Mitchell. For the last fourteen years Mr. Mitchell has resided at Glen Ridge, New Jersey, in the neighborhood of New York city. There for the last three years, 1895-7, he has been President of the Board of Education. He is a member of the University Club and the Authors' Club, New York.
MITCHELL, GEORGE E., Proprietor and Founder of the Novelty Plaster Works, Lowell,
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GEORGE E MITCHELL.
Massachusetts, was born in Kennebunk, York county, Maine, August 25, 1837, son of William and Abigail (Hobbs) Mitchell. Both parents were natives of Maine. He began his active business life at a very early age, by exercising and cultivating his " Yankee " propensity for trading, which from child- hood was very strong. Commencing at the age of ten or earlier by " swapping " jackknives and other articles of boyish property and ownership, he was successively a trader in watches and horses, a dealer în produce, clerk in various stores, and cardgrinder
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in the cotton mills of the Laconia Company at Bid- deford, Maine. Following this period he was sec- ondhand for the Amoskeag Bag and Duck Company at Groveland, Massachusetts, in 1853-4; second- hand in the cardroom of the Amoskeag Mills at Manchester, New Hampshire, in 1855-6; and Overseer of the cardroom in the Atlantic Mills at Lawrence, Massachusetts, in 1856-7. From 1857 to 1864 he was engaged in the manufacture of hard- ware and in the photograph business. In 1864 he commenced the manufacture of ready-cut adhesive plasters, formerly known as Doctor Melvin's, but never perfected nor the industry developed until th enterprise came into the hands of the present proprietor. From this small beginning have grown the immense Novelty Plaster Works at Lowell, the pioneer works of their kind in America. Here are manufactured every kind of adhesive and medicinal plaster for family and surgical uses, and not only all the products, but all the machinery and methods employed, are the results of George E. Mitchell's untiring efforts. Plaster compounds, machinery designs, advertising labels, and in fact all the minu- tiæ of the establishment, were nursed from their birth in a little room, twelve by six feet, and devel- oped to maturity by Mr. Mitchell. The laboratory and works, situated in one of the most eligible local- ities in the City of Spindles, consist of a large four- story building, eighty by forty feet, with two-story ell, and a second building, or annex, two stories, forty by fifty feet. The lower story of the main building contair .. the engine room; the packing room, in which are stored the manufactured goods, and from which they are shipped to all parts of the world ; and the printing room, containing the presses, folders and cutters used for preparing the labels, circulars and wrappers, also a fireproof vault in which are stored the electrotype plates from which the labels are printed. The second and third floors are devoted to manufacturing purposes, and the fourth story is the finishing room, where the goods are put up in boxes and labelled, before going down to the packing room. In the ell are the set steam- kettles for mixing compounds, while the second story is used for the manufacture of kid and phar- maceutical plasters, and plaster compounds of all kinds. The second building is wholly devoted to the manufacture of porous plasters. In his estab- lishment Mr. Mitchell has adopted all the latest mechanical improvements throughout, including a large number of his original designing. All the rooms are heated by steam, special sanitary and
other provisions are made for the comfort and con- venience of the employes, and every department is a model of business system, which the proprietor takes much pride in showing to visiting friends and patrons. Mr. Mitchell resides in Medford, Massa- chusetts. He was married May 11, 1859, to Elmira Electa Currier, of Pelham, New Hampshire ; they have two children : Guy E. Mitchell and a daugh- ter, Nellie, both married.
MOSES, GALEN CLAPP, President of the First Na- tional Bank of Bath, was born in Bath August 30, 1835,
G. C. MOSES.
son of Oliver and Lydia Ham (Clapp) Moses. He received his early education in the public schools of his native city, and graduated at Bowdoin College in the class of 1856. While in college he gained more or less business experience in con- nection with the shipbuilding industry of Bath. After graduation he edited the Eastern Times for a few months during the Presidential campaign of 1856, and then became Secretary of the Bath Mutual Marine Insurance Company, in which service he continued until 1859, when he resigned, and spent the following year in Europe. On his return he went into the wholesale business in corn, flour and provisions, as partner in the firm of Mclellan &
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Moses, Bath. In this connection he continued Katil 1865, when the business was closed up and he became Treasurer of the Worumbo Manufactur- ing Company, operating woolen mills at Lisbon Falls, Maine. Mr. Moses has since continued in active charge of the interests of this manufacturing corporation to the present time, this being his principal business. But he has been and is still prominently connected with many other business enterprises and mstitutions. He is President of the First National Bank of Bath, the Androscoggin Waterpower Company, the Rumford Falls & Range- ley Lakes Railroad Company, the Bath Street Rail- w , Bath Gas and Electric Company and New England Shipbuilding Company ; was for some years President of the People's Twenty-five Cents Savings Institution of Bath, and is Treasurer of quite a number of other business corporations. He is also President of the Maine Missionary Society, the Young Men's Christian Association, and of the Patten Free Library, to which he gave the present Library Build .. ing ; is Vice-President of the Board of Overseers of Bowdoin College, member of the Board of Trustees of Bangor Theological Seminary, and member of the Finance Committee of both institutions. He was also President of the Old Ladies' Home in Bath for many years, but resigned a year or two since. Mr. Moses built the Young Men's Christian Association Building in Bath, which next to that of Bangor is the finest in the state, giving all the money that was rut into it except five thousand dollars given by .he late Charles E. Moody, who would very likely have contributed much more in its behalf but for his death before it was completed. In politics Mr. Moses is a Democrat, but he has never been active in political life. He has been twice married, first in 1860 to Susan T. Croswell, of Charlestown, Massachusetts, who died in 1882. His second marriage was in 1884, to Emma Hall McIlwain. There are no children.
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O'BRIEN, EDWARD K., of Burgess, O'Brien & Company, shipbuilders, lime manufacturers and general merchants, Thomaston, was born in Thomaston, February 3, 1833, son of John and Mary Ann (George) O'Brien. He is a grandson of John O'Brien, who came front Craig, Ireland, and settled in Warren, Knox county, Maine, where he became a prosperous farmer and a fanious school- teacher, compiling an arithmetic that was consid-
ered a valuable acquisition to the school books of the day. His father, Hon. John O'Brien, was a member of the Governor's Council, Inspector of the State Prison at Thomaston, twice Warden of the State Prison, and a manufacturer of "Thomaston marble." His maternal grandfather, Captain John George of Watertown, Massachusetts, participated in the Boston Tea Party, served in the army of the Revolution from the beginning to the close of the war, and was an original member of the Massachu- setts Society of the Cincinnati. Edward K. O'Brien was educated in the public schools of Thomaston, and when fifteen years old entered the store of
E. K. O'BRIEN.
O'Brien, Watts & Company in Thomaston as clerk. At the age of twenty-one he commenced business for himself, continuing alone for eighteen months, and then becoming a member of the firm of Bur- gess, O'Brien & Company, shipbuilders, lime manu facturers and dealers in general merchandise, in which he has since continued. Mr. O'Brien has been a Trustee of the Thomaston Savings Bank from its organization, and is Trustee of the Edward O'Brien Charity Fund, a fund created by his uncle, the late Hon. Edward O'Brien, the great ship- builder and shipowner, who was distinguished for his enterprise, integrity and philanthropy ; is Vice- President of the Commercial Union Telegraph
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Company of Maine ; Director in the Knox Gas and Electric Company, and the Rockland, Thomaston & Camden Street Railway Company, and for many years was a Director in the Knox & Lincoln Rail- road. In politics actively identified with the Dem- ocratic party, he has been prominent in public life, and has been the candidate of his party for various important political offices. He served as a mem- ber of the Democratic State Committee for several years ; was Delegate-at-Large to the National Con- vention at Baltimore in 1872 ; was the Democratic candidate for Congress from the Third District of Maine in 1874 and again in 1876, in the latter campaign running against James G. Blaine, and a.tended the Democratic National Convention at Chicago in 1885. In 1868-9 he represented Knox county in the Maine Senate, and from 1887 to 1891 he was a member of the Maine House of Representatives, serving on the Ways and Means, Finance and Railroads committees. He was twice the candidate of his party for Speaker of the House, and served on the Committee of the Maine Legis- lature appointed to attend the Centennial of the Inauguration of President Washington, celebrated at New York in 1889. In 1878 he served the pub- lic interest as a member of the "Third House" oi the Maine Legislature, representing his constituents in a bridge case, which resulted successfully, and as was intended, making the toll-bridges from Thom- aston to Cushing, and from Thomaston to Warren, free bridges forever to all. Mr. O'Brien is a mem- ber of the Massachusetts Society of the Cincinnati, having in 1880 succeeded to the membership of his grandfather, Captain John George. He was married April 2, 1856, to Elvira Owen Masters, of Thomaston, who died June 6, 1881, leaving no children
PHILLIPS, GEORGE A., M. D., Ellsworth, was born in Orland, Hancock county, Maine, April 18, 1853, son of Luther Ames and Livonia (Noise) Phillips. His first American ancestor was Andrew Phillips, a cousin of Sir William Pepperell. The sister of Colonel and hun. William Pepperell, father of Sir William, married Mr. Phillips of Tavistock parish, near Plymouth, England. On one of lion. William Pepperell's revisits to his native town he brought back with him to Maine three of his nephews : John, William and Andrew Phillips. John settled at Saco, and his posterity live there at the present day. William was married in Kittery and
settled in Central Maine. Andrew settled at Kit- tery Point about the year 1700, and was " boss " or manager of his uncle William Pepperell's wharf there. He married Marian Mitchell, January 1, 1727, by whom he had six daughters, and one son : Andrew. The latter, who was the youngest child, was born February 24, 1748, married March 19, 1771, Lettie Fernald, of the same family of Fernalds from which the Rev. O. H. Fernald, now of Sears- port, is descended, and served with distinction during the Revolutionary War. The children of Andrew and Lettie were five : Andrew, born June 16, 1773 ; Lettie, born September 10, 1776 ; john,
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GEO, A. PHILLIPS.
born January 31, 1779; Thomas, born March 5, 1781, and Josiah, born September 7, 1783. From Andrew Phillips, the eldest of this family, the subject of this sketch is descended. His grandfather Phillips moved when a child with his parents to Castine, Maine, where he lived until he became a young man. His father, Luther A. Phillips, was born in Islesboro, Maine, May 3, 18or, and died in 1885, at the age of eighty-four years. His mother, Li- vonia Noise, who was born in Norridgewock, Maine, April 20, 1819, was a granddaughter of George Noyes and Prudence Jewett, of Falmouth (now Portland), Maine ; and when very young came with her parents to Ellsworth, where she resided until her marriage ; she died in December 1891, at the great
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age of ninety-three years and six months. George A. / Phillips acquired his early education in the public and high schools, and fitted for college at the East- ern State Norma School in Castine, Maine. His early training for active life was received in hard work on the farm, and later on the sea for several years. Entering upon the study of medicine, he graduated from the Medical Department of the University of the City of New York in 1882, and shortly after graduation began his professional career in Ellsworth, where he has since practiced and resided. Dr. Phillips early established a reputation as a skillful practitioner, and he has attained a high -anding in his profession. He is President of the Penobscot Medical Association and Vice-President of the Maine Medical Association, and is Consulting Physician to the Bangor General Hospital. In the Masonic order he is a member of Lygonia Lodge, Acadia Royal Arch Chapter and Blanquefort Coni- mandery, of Ellsworth ; and he is also a member of Lejok Lodge of Odd Fellows, and the Abanaquis and Nicolin clubs of that city. Dr. Phillips has acquired much prominence outside of his profession as a public speaker, having delivered numerous addresses before social, fraternal and various public gatherings ; and some of his printed medical papers and ad- dresses, notably his address before the Maine Medicai Association in June 1896, have attracted widespread attention and commendation. In politics Dr. Phil- lips is a Republican. He was married to his present wife, Helen M. Grant, of Ellsworth, in May 1894.
RICE, ALBERT SMITH, Lawyer, Rockland, was born in Augusta, Maine, April 4, 1837, son of Richard Drury and Anne R. (Smith) Rice. Ed- mund Rice (1), the American progenitor of the numerous family of that name, came from Bark- hampstead, Hertfordshire, England, and settled in Sudbury, Massachusetts, in 1638 or 1639. He was of Welsh descent, was a prosperous and prominent man, and father of eleven children. His wife's name was Tamazine. He died May 3, 1663. His eldest chikl, Henry Kice (2), was the father of ten children, and died February 10, 1710. His son Jonathan (3), born July 3, 1654, also a resident of Sudbury, and who became the father of fourteen children, died April 12, 1725. His ninth chikdl, Ezekiel (4), was born October 14, 1700, married January 23, 1722, was the father of nine children, and died at Natick, Massachusetts. His son
Richard Rice (5), born October 20, 1730, married Sarah Drury, January 16, 1755, and died at Natick, January 24. 1793 ; his widow removed to Union, Maine. They had two children, of whom James (6), born June 24, 1758, married Sarah Perry of Natick, and had two children there, and then moved to Union, Maine, about 1806, where he was a member of the church, and in 1808 was elected to office in that town ; he died April 3, 1829, in his seventy-first year. His son Nathan D. Rice (7), was born August 29, 1784, was married to Deborah Banniste:, February 10, 1806, and moved to Union the same year, where he became, after a hard struggle with poverty in a new country, one of the most substantial farmers in that section of the state ; he was the father of eleven children, and died in May 1860. His third child, Richard D. Rice (8), father of the subject of this sketch, was born April If, 18:0. He was apprenticed to a printer in Thomaston, and was employed in that business at Thomaston, at Exeter, New Hampshire, and in Boston. After working several years at his trade he pursued a course of classical studies at the China (Maine) Academy, under John B. Pitkin, and soon after, with the Hon. Henry K. Baker of Hallowell, he printed the Maine Free Press, which they published for several years. He then removed to Augusta and kept a bookstore on Market square in 1836, which he sold in 1839 to the late Daniel C. Stanwood. He then read law with Hon. James W. Bradbury, was admitted to practice in 1840, and entered into partnership with Mr. Bradbury under the name of Bradbury & Rice. They did a very large and lucrative business at the Bar until 1848. From 1844 to 1848 he was the editor of The Age, the leading Democratic paper in the state. Upon the resignation of Judge Redington in 1848 he was appointed by Governor Dana to the Bench of the Court of Common Pleas, which office he held until May 11, 1852, when he was made Associate Justice on the Bench of the Supreme Judicial Court. This office he retained for eleven years, until his resigna- tion December 1, 1863, when he became President of the Portland & Kennebec Railroad Company. This company was afterwards consolidated with the Maine Central Railroad Company, of which he became President. Meantime he had become very much interested in, and was an active promoter and organizer of, the Northern Pacific Railroad Com- pany, of which he was a large stockholder, and became its Vice-President, which office he held until the time of his death. He made many trips
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+3 the Pacific Coast on the business of this road, and located and established the Western Terminus at Tacoma on Commencement Bay, at the head of Puget Sound. 'he labors resulting from his con- nection with these two roads were too much for him to carry, and his health gradually failing under the constant strain, he eventually gave way entirely, and was compelled to render his resignation, and after a long contest with his disease, he died May 22, 1882. This brief record of his life speaks for itself. A young man without means or education, by the mere force of his will, aided by correct habits of life and a powerful native mind, he forced his way from the porest condition of life in a small unknown town- ship in Maine, to the control of great enterprises which embraced the continent in their extent. The want of early education he frequently deplored ; when upon the Bench particularly he felt the greatest need of it; but careful study, and a remarkable adaptability of mind, restored in as great a measure as possible the deficiency, and he acquired and retained a position of honor and respect among the judges and lawyers of his native state. The true broadness and capacity of his intellect became manifest in the management of the closing business of his life. His acquaintance with the first business men of the country was a necessary consequence of his vast undertakings. He was a very tall man (six feet four inches) and of commanding presence ; was genial and courteous in manner, always main- taining a certa n dignity of aspect and proper politeness in his treatment of all men, careful of the feelings of every man in a subordinate position, and in every relation of life, so far as could be perceived, was a true gentleman. He married Anna R. Smith, daughter of Stevens Smith of Hallowell, Maine, April 12, 1836 ; she chied June 15, 1838. He was married again November 18, 1840, to Almira E. Robinson, widow of George Robinson of Augusta. Two children, one by each wife, survived : Albert S. Rice, the subject of this sketch ; and Abby E Rice, born May 8, 1842, who married Samuel Dana of the United States Army, and died leaving two children. Albert S. Rice received his early education in the common schools and the Augusta High School, and graduated from Bowdoin College in the class of 1856. Adopting the profession of law, he was admitted to the Bar of Kennebec County on August 16, 1859, and at once began practice in Rockland, where excepting for two years spent in Union, Maine, he has since resided. He was admitted to the Bar of the United States District Court on July
29, 1867, to the United States Circuit Court on April 23, 1872, and to the United States Supreme Court on January 26, 1880. In August 1871 he entered into a law partnership with Hon. O. G. Hall, and continued in that relation very successfully until 1882, when the settlement of his father's estate compelled his retirement from active practice, which he has never resumed. Mr. Rice was Register of Probate for Knox County from 1861 to 1865, Master in Chancery 1862-7, County Attorney 1869- 75, and was a Representative from Rockland in the Fifty-eighth Legislature. He served as a member. of the School Board of Rockland in 1874-7 and again 1889-93, and has been a member of the
ALBERT S. RICE.
Rockland Public Library since its foundation in 1893. Mr. Rice has also been politically active and prominent. Born a Democrat, he has "stuck " to Democratic principles and policy to the present time. He presided over the Maine Democratic State Convention in 1871, and has always been noted as a prominent member of that party in the state and county. He has also identified himself with the social life of his city, was a member of the Star Club of Rockland from its formation to the end of its career, and is now a member of the Central Club of that city, also of the Providence Athletic Association, of Providence, Rhode Island. Mr. Rice was married May 30, 1861, to Frances Weston
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1 Baker, daughter of Hon. H. K. Baker of Hallowell. They have had six children : Richard H., born Jan- uary 9, 1863, mechanical engineer, and member of the firm of Rice & Sargent, Providence, Rhode Island ; Margaret, born April 9, 1865, died October 4, 1865 ; Mervyn Ap, born November 8, 1867, a lawyer in Rockland ; Thomas B. G., born May 25, 1871, died August 24, 1872 ; Anne Frances, born June 15, 1874, and Ellen Adela Rice, born April 18, 1876.
SEWALL, RUFUS KING, Lawyer and Historian, "iscasset, was born in Edgecomb, Lincoln county,
RUFUS K. SEWALL.
Maine, January 22, 1814, son of Rufus and Phoebe (Merrill) Sewall. He comes of Colonial ancestry, the founder of the Sewall family in America being Henry Sewall, who came from England in 1635 and settled at Ipswich, Massachusetts. His line- age is traced directly from the emigrant ancestor, and among other men of note who sprang from the same source are Samuel Sewall, formerly Chief Justice of Massachusetts, and Hon. Arthur Sewall of Bath, the recent Democratic candidate for Vice- President. Various members of the family were also prominently identified with the cause of indepen- dence during the Revolution. The first of the fam- ily to settle in Maine was Samuel Sewall, who resided
in York. His two younger sons, Dummer and Henry, founded the Sewall family in Bath. The grandfather of Rufus King Sewall was the Rev. Sam- uel Sewall, who was ordained Pastor of the Con- gregational Church at Edgecomb in 1807, afterwards occupied pulpits in various places, was missionary at the Isles of Shoals, and died March 16, 1826, in Rye, New Hampshire. His son Rufus, father of the subject of this sketch, was born December 10, 1797, at Farmington, Maine, was educated at Lincoln Academy in Newcastle, Maine, and after .serving with honor in the War of 1812, as Lieutenant and Captain of his company, declining a Colonel's com- mission thereafter, engaged in agricultural pursuits in Edgecomb; he became prominent in civic affairs, held various important town offices, repre- sented the town in the State Legislature for a number of years, and was for over fifty years a Deacon of the Congregational Church ; he died in Edgecomb, . April 30, ISSo, having survived his wife Phoebe (a daughter of Stephen Merrill of Edgecomb), who died in 1874. Their children were seven ; Rufus King, Lydia Maria (deceased,) the late Captain Merrill Sewall, Caroline Matilda, Captain Samuel Johnson Mills Sewall, Mrs. Emeline E. Knight of Wiscasset, and Captain Egbert Thatcher Sewall, who was lost at sea. Rufus K. Sewall received his early education in the common schools and at the old Gardiner (Maine) Lyceum, prepared for college at Prof. Greene's Academy in Farmington, Maine, and gratuated at Bowdoin in the class of 1837. He then entered Bangor Theological Seminary, but the con- dition of his health compelled him after a time to relinquish his purpose of continuing the ministry, although he was invited to a pastorate in Plymouth and to that of the Presbyterian Church in the city of St. Augustine, Florida. After his first marriage he went to St. Augustine, Florida, where he remained for four or five years ; and then returning North with restored health, settled in Wiscasset, and en- tered upon the study of law with his uncle, Kiah B. Sewall. In 1859 he was admitted to the Bar in Lincoln county, and at once entered upon the prac- tice of his professson in Wiscasset, in which he has continued to the present time. Mr. Sewall very early established a high reputation as an able and conscientious attorney, and his law business has been large and profitable. Most of his practice has been before the United States courts and in its Supreme Court, where he has contested and won some very important suits, and in which, although now well past the fourscore span of life, he still has a nuni-
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