USA > Maine > Men of progress; biographical sketches and portraits of leaders in business and professional life in and of the state of Maine > Part 53
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September 11, 1874, and received his early educa- tion in the public schools, graduating from the Chelsea ( Massachusetts) High School. After a year abroad, spent mostly in study in Germany, he was elected Treasurer of the Franklin Steel Works, Boston, which position he at present holds. Like his brother, he is over six feet in height, is a Re- publican, and unmarried.
PENNELL, WILLIAM DWIGHT, Agent of the Hill Manufacturing Company, Lewiston, was born in Port- land, Maine, May 21, 1847, son of Richard C. and Cornelia (Barnes) Pennell, and until the removal of his parents to Lewiston, May 20, 1863, he was an industrious student in the schools of that city. His active life has been passed in and devoted to the moral, educational and business progress of Lewis- ton. He commenced his active labors in June 1863 as a bobbin-boy in the Porter (later Continental ) Mill, Lewiston, under Mr. Rhodes A. Budlong, who watched him carefully and attentively, and as he saw that he was more than ordinarily industrious, painstaking and methodical, never leaving any- thing intrusted to him neglected or unprovided for, he advanced him through various departments, in which energy, honesty and close attention to the interests of his employers marked his progress and evinced his ability to successfully fill higher po- sitions. After leaving the Porter Mill he served three years as a draughtsman in the office of the Franklin Company with Hon. A. D. Lockwood, and in 1869 was appointed Paymaster at the Lincoln Mill. In November 1872 he was appointed Super- intendent, and such favor did his administration of affairs find in the minds of the company, that in November 1879 he was selected as Agent, and re- tained the office until his appointment in Septem- ber 1886 as Manager of the Franklin Company. He was later made, in addition, Manager of the Union Water Power Company, which controlled the Rangeley Lakes and waterpower of Lewiston. In this latter capacity, especially in connection with the Franklin Company and its properties on lands about Lewiston and Auburn, Mr. Pennell mani- fested a very progressive and liberal spirit, and under his management the company steadily grew in popularity, and many improvements were made and new building sites opened to the public both in Lewiston and Auburn. After this flattering success he resigned these positions in February 1890 to
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accept that of Agent of the Hill Manufacturing Com- pzny on the resignation of Josiah (i. Coburn, after thirty-six years of careful management. Mr. l'en- nell was well equipped in technical skill, business training and intellectual strength for this responsi- bility, and he occupies a high position among the manufacturers and in the esteem of the people. As an active Republican he has been prominent in politics since becoming a voter. Bringing the in- dustry, accuracy and system of his business methods into the political field, he made himself master of the presented situations, and became an authority whose opinion carried weight. He has been a
WM. D. PENNELL.
frequent delegate to conventions, chairman of city, county and district committees, has always been in sympathy with the advanced element of his party, and by his zeal and fertility in resource has been a valuable worker in party lines. He was City Auditor of Lewiston in 1870-1 ; a member of the Common Council in 1874; in 18,5-6-7 President of the Board of Aldermen; and Jannary 15, 1878, the order which provided for the construction of the Lewiston Water Works was introduced by him. In 1880 he was elected Water Commissioner for six years, was re-elected in 1886 for an additional term of six years and again in March 1895 for another term of six years, twice serving as Chair-
man of the Board. His services in these offices were so efficient that he was elected in 1881 to fill the Legislative vacancy caused by the death of Hon. I. N. Parker, and in 1883-4-5 he was a member of the State Senate. In 1883 he introduced and with earnest efforts carried through the Legislature an act prohibiting the sale of the deadly toy-pistol that occasioned so many deaths among boys, and his interest in this matter was earnestly approved by all the newspapers. The Senate of ISS5 was one of more than usual ability, and with many members experienced in legislation, keen debaters, sound thinkers and earnest men, and it was complimen- tary in a marked degree to Mr. Pennell that, although the youngest member of the Senate, with one exception, he was chosen its President, receiv- ing every vote in that body. How he discharged his duties can best be learned from his associates. Mr. Libby of Orono, in introducing a resolution thanking Mr. Pennell for " the dignity, ability and entire impartiality which has characterized his official intercourse with the members," said : " The uniform kindness and courtesy of our President has endeared him to each and all of us." Mr. Lebroke of Fox- croft, in speaking on the resolution, said : " In our work we have been aided largely by the President, whose ever ready perspicuity was equal to any and every emergency, one whose rulings have been en- tirely impartial, one to whom we have always looked with faith and confidence, and not with disappoint- ment, for direction in all our multifarious duties. Our work has undoubtedly been not only facilitated. but largely expedited, by the manner in which this body has been presided over during the present session. I must say that he has done honor to him- self and a good service to the State, for which we who know of his important labors in this branch feel highly grateful to him and for which the State is indebted to his great abilities." One of the lead- ing newspapers of the State in one of its issues after the Senate had been in session nearly a month said : " After a fair and thorough trial, it must be admitted that the Senate of Maine never had a better or more popular presiding officer." The Bangor Commer- cial, an opposition paper, said : " Mr. Pennell is a very pleasant gentleman, thirty-eight years of age. He is self-made, cultured, and has rare conversa- tional powers. He has a mild and pleasant eye, an intelligent and very winsome countenance, a full and well-rounded forehead indicating a large and well-developed brain, and a sufficiently strong melo- dious voice. His speech and accent are a pure New
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England vernacular. His suavity seems prompted by a kind and genial heart. While differing from him radically on some points, we are glad the cor- poration interests are represented by so good and worthy a gentleman." The Portland Argus, Demo- cratic, said : " Political friends and enemies must speak alike that Mr. Pennell is a very honorable, able and vigorous gentleman, well worthy of the honors repeatedly bestowed upon him." Mr. Pen- nell's sympathies and vote have always been on the side of temperance and in favor of good law. While President of the Senate he was called upon to give the decisive vote on the question of refer- ring the amend. . nts to the prohibitory law to the next Legislature. Without a moment's hesitation there was a clear and strong "No!" His action was so decided that the Somerset Reporter said : " Every temperance organization in the State should give President Pennell a vote of thanks." Rev. C. D). Crane of Newcastle said, while addressing the General Conference of Congregationalists in Lewis- ton, June 18, ISS5 : " All honor to the President ! It was not the first time when, in a critical moment in the history of Maine, a Congregationalist in the State House at Augusta proved to be the right man in the right place." Mr. Pennell was on the com- mittee, organized in 1SS4, that arranged for the Leg- islative Reunion held at the State House in Augusta in January 1886, his fellow-members being J. Man- chester Haynes of Augusta, William G. Davis of l'ortland, William H. Strickland of Bangor and Fred Atwood of Winterport, and much of the success at- tending it was awarded him. Mr. Pennell has done good service in other circles of activity and useful- ness. He is a Trustee of the Manufacturers' and Mechanics' Library Association ; has been identi- fied with the State Agricultural Society as an officer ; was for ten years Trustee of the Androscoggin County Agricultural Society ; and the conspicuous success of the Centennial Celebration of Lewiston and Auburn in 1876 was largely due to his manage- ment. He has been for nearly a quarter of a cen- tury a member of the Pine Street Congregational Church, is Chairman of the Prudential Committee of the parish, and a participant in the wa ious activ- ities of the church and parish, and in Y. M. C. A. work. He has been a Free Mason since 187;, and has taken thirty-two Masonic degrees. The steady upward progress of Mr. Pennell from bobbin-boy to a leading manufacturer and to high political honors, shows what can be accomplished by brains and industry dominated by integrity and uprightness.
Mr. Penneil was married June 22, 1869, to Jennie A. Linscott, daughter of Wingate and Eliza W. (Foss) Linsectt. Mr. Linscott, a native of Ches- terville, Maine. becane a resident of Boston, where Mrs. Pennell was born. Both Mr. and Mrs. Pennell take high rank in social circles, Mrs. Pennell being President of the Literary Union of Lewiston and Aubarn, which is composed of nearly seven hundred ladies. Three children enliven their home circle : Dwight R., Fannie C. and Maude Robie Pennell.
PERKINS, HOWARD EUGENE, Postmaster of San- ford, was born in Sanford, July 5, 1869, son of
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HOWARD E. PERKINS.
Eugene C. and Marilla F. (Davis) Perkins. He is a descendant of John Perkins, born in Newent, England, in 1590, and died in Ipswich, Massachu- setts, in 1654, who with his brother William, a minister of the gospel, came to America and settled in Ipswich in 1628. Of his three sons, the young- est, Jacob, was born in England in 1624, came to Ipswich in 1628, and died in 1700. Jacob second, son of the last named, born 1662 and died 1705, also had a son Jacob, who was born in 1685, and who moved to Wells, York county, Maine. Josiah, eldest son of the third Jacob, had eleven children, of whom the fourth son was Jacob, the fourth of
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that name. The latter was the father of Abner F. Perkins, who was born in Wells in [So4 and died in Sanford in 18;6, and whose youngest son was Eugene C., now living in Sanford, father of the subject of this sketch. Eugene C. Perkins was born in 1848 and was educated in the public schools of Sanford. He followed farming as an occupation during his early life, but for the last few years has been employed in the mercantile establishment of Nowell & Libby, general merchants of Sanford. He mar- ried Marilla F. Davis of Sanford, by whom he had fourteen children : Howard E., Allan A., Nellie M., Bertha E., Alice M., Arthur L., Raymond V., Mabel, Eva, Clyde :. , Leland R., William S., Homer E. and William E. Perkins, the last named now deceased. Howard E. Perkins, the eldest of this large family, received his early education in the common schools of his native town, where he resided at home until he was twenty-one. At the age of fifteen he became a weaver in a woolen mill, and followed that calling until 1891, when he took up the study of telegraphy at Cliftondale, Massachusetts, where for a year and a half he was employed in the office of the Eastern Division of the Boston & Maine Railroad. Subse- quently, he took a position in the Western Union Telegraph Company's office at Sanford, where he continued until appointed Postmaster of Sanford by President Cleveland in March 1894, which position he now holds. He is a member and has served as President of the Young Men's Debating Club of Sanford, and is a member and Past Sachem of Saga- more Tribe, Improved Order of Red Men. In politics Mr. Perkins is a Democrat, like his father, but he never thought of public office until the Post- mastership of Sanford was tendered him. He is unmarried.
STEVENS, GREENLIEF THURLOW, of Augusta, Judge of Probate and Insolvency for Kennebec County, was born in Belgrade, Kennebec county, Maine, August 20, 1831, youngest son of Daniel and Mahala (Smith) Stevens. His grandfather William Stevens came from Lebanon in York county and settled in Kennebec coun ; in the year 1796, and on the farm, then a wilderness, where the subject of this sketch was born. He vas edu- cated in the public schools of his native town and at Titcomb Belgrade Academy and Litchfield (Maine) Liberal Institute. He taught school with marked success several years, atter which he read law with Hon. Samuel Titcomb of Augusta, and was
admitted to the Bar in Cumberland county in 1860. Subsequently he entered the Senior class in the Law Department of Harvard University, where he graduated in July 1861, receiving the degree of Bachelor of Laws. While at Harvard he was a pupil of the eminent jurists Washburn, Parker and Parsons. After graduation he returned to Maine and on December 14, 1861, was commissioned First Lieutenant in the Fifth Battery of Mounted
G. T. STEVENS.
Artillery, Maine Volunteers. In May 1862 he took the field, having spent the previous winter in drill and the study of military tactics, and served succes- sively under Generals McDowell, Pope, Mcclellan, Burnside, Hooker, Meade, Grant and Sheridan. He commanded the battery at Fredericksburg, in the absence of Captain George F. Leppien, acting Chief of Artillery of the Division, and at the Battle of Chancellorsville, May 3, 1863, was wounded by a fragment of a shell. On June 21, he was promoted to Captain of the battery, to succeed Captain Leppien, an accomplished officer who had been promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel of the First Regi- ment of Maine light Artillery. At Gettysburg, July 2, 1863, Captain Stevens was again wounded, a musket ball passing through both legs below the knees. In the fall of 1863, he returned to his com- mand, before his wounds were fully healed, and participated in the operations of the Army of the
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Potomac at Mine Run. In 1864 he was under General Grant in the battles of the Wilderness, Spottsylvania Court House, Cold Harbor and Petersburg. On July 10, 1863, he was detached with his battery from the Army of the Potomac with the Sixth Corps under General Wright, and proceeded to Washington by transports, for its defence ; it being threatened by the Confederate army under Early. On February 14, 1865, he was appointed Major by brevet, "for gallant and meri- torious conduct " at the battles of Cold Harbor on June 3, Winchester September 10, and Cedar Creek October 19, to take rank from October 19, 1864. A little ' noll, a spur of Culp's Hill, on the battlefield of Gettysburg, where Captain Stevens posted his battery by direction of General Hancock in person, on July 1, 1863, after the repulse of the First and Eleventh corps, and which was so gal- lantly held by Captain Stevens and the officers and men of his command, preventing the enemy's further approach in that direction, has been christened and is known in history as "Stevens' Knoll" or " Hill." (See Plate XCV, Atlas to accompany the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies.) "The Cannoneer," in de- scribing the Battle of Cedar Creek, October 19, 1864, under Sheridan, said :--
" At the time when Getty's division was fighting in its second position, Stevens, who apparently had been retiring in the interval between the right of Getty and the left of Wheaton, formed his battery on the knoll opposite the right flank of Warner. These must have been Kershaw's troops, but there was another rebel division coming up still beyond Kershaw, over the ground vacated by the first division. This according to Early's account was Gordon's division, and one brigade of it started to charge Stevens' battery. According to the best information immediately after the battle, or sincc, there was no infantry of the First Division within supporting distance of Stevens at that moment, as that Division was then forming at from one-third to one-half a mile in his rear. But he stood his ground and repulsed the charge of Gordon's troops, who did not get more than halfway up the acclivity of the knoll he was holding, and who according to General Early's account recoiled in considerable confusion."
On a request for promotion written without Captain Stevens' knowledge, General Wright, commanding the Sixth Corps, indorsed : " The gallant and important services rendered by Captain Stevens, of which I was personally cognizant, make it my duty to bring his merits before the authorities of his state and ask for him at their hands such acknowl- edgment in the way of promotion as it is in their power to bestow." General Sheridan indorsed on
the recommendation of General Wright, "Highly approved. P. H. Sheridan." Describing the great crisis in the Battle of Winchester, under Sheri- dan, the New York World's field-correspondent said : -
"The moment was a fearful one. Such a sight rarely occurs more than once in any battle, as was presented on the open space between two pieces of woodland into which the cheering enemy poured. The whole line, reckless of bullets, even of the shells of our batteries, constantly advanced. Captain Stevens' battery, the Fifth Maine, posted immediately in their front, poured its fire unflinchingly into their columns to the last. A staff officer riding up warned it to the rear to save it from capture. It did not move, the men of the battery loading and firing with the regularity and precision of a field day. The foe advanced to a point within two hundred yards of the muzzles of Captain Stevens' guns."
General George W. Getty, commanding the Second Division, Sixth Corps, in describing this affair in his official report said : -
" At this moment the unexpected giving away of a portion of the troops on my right, checked the further advance of the (his) division. The enemy pressing forward in the gap thus formed, obtained a flink and reverse fire on the Second and First brigades, which compelled a partial change in their front. This was promptly and handsomely executed under the direction of Brigadier General Wheaton commanding First Brigade. The success of the enemy, however, was but momentary. He was promptly met, held in check, and finally repulsed by several batteries prominent among which was Stevens' (Maine) Battery of light twelve- pounders, of the corps and troop of the First Division." [Rebellion Records, Part 1, Volume 43, page 192.]
General Wheaton in describing the closing hour in this engagement, after the enemy had been re- pulsed and driven back in the earlier part of the day, reported : -
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" With little difficulty we advanced to the brick house on the north side of the pike and at the foot of the slope east of Winchester. A severe artillery fire was here encountered, and here some of the enemy's infantry seemed inclined to delay . for a short time our advance. Sending to (icneral Getty for a battery to confront the one that was giving us so destruc. tive a fire, [ soon had Captain Stevens' (Fifth Maine) Battery trotting up to our support. From the moment it opened our forward movement was without opposition, and the encmy could be seen in the distance running, routed, to the rcar in the direction of the Winchester and Strasburg Pike. Our men were wild with delight at this evidence of their glorious success, and could be hardly restrained and kept in the ranks." [ Re- bellion Records, Part I, Volume 43, page 198.]
General C. H. Tompkins, Chief of Artillery of the Sixth Army Corps, said : " However trying the circumstances, Captain Stevens has always been
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found equal to the occasion." At the close of the war Major Stevens was mustered out of the United States service, with his battery, July 6, 1865, having served three years and five months. This battery lost more men in killed and wounded in the three great battles of Chancellorsville, Gettysburg and Cedar Creek, than any other battery in a like num- ber of battles in the War of the Rebellion, either volunteer or regular. (See “ Regimental Losses in the American Civil War," by William H. Fox, pages 463, 464.) After the war Major Stevens turned to his profession and opened a law office at West Waterville, now Oakland, where he had a lucrative practice, being engaged in nearly every case in that v inity. In 1874 he was appointed Assistant Judge-Advocate General on the Gover- nor's Staff, which position he held during Governor Dingley's administration. In 1875 he represented Waterville and West Waterville in the Maine Legis- lature, serving on the Judiciary Committee. In 1877 he was promoted to the State Senate, serving as Chairman of the Committee on Legal Affairs, and was also a member of the committees on Rail- roads and Military Affairs. Re-elected to the Senate in 1878, he was appointed Chairman of the Committee on the Judiciary, on the part of the Senate. In 1882 he was re-commissioned Colonel and assigned to duty as Chief-of-Staff, First Divis- ion, Maine Militia, under Major-General Joshua L. Chamberlain. Colonel Stevens is a member of the Maine Gettysburg Commission, and Treasurer and Secretary of the Executive Committee of that Com- mission, taking an active part in procuring and locating the Maine monuments on that historic field. In 1888 he was elected to the office of Sheriff of Kennebec County, and was re-elected to the same office in 1890. The administration of the affairs of that important office and his management of the criminal department was characterized by econ- omy, efficiency and good judgment. In September 1892 he was elected Judge of the Probate and Insolvency Court for Kennebec County, and was re-elected to the same office in 1896, a position which he now holds. Judge Stevens was married on March 25, 1856, to Mary Ann Yeaton, a school- mate of his youth, and daughter of Richard Yea- ton, second, an enterprising citizen of his native town. They have had four children : Jessie, Don Carlos, Ala and Rupert, only one of whom, Don Carlos, is now living; he is now Librarian of Millicent Library, located at Fairhaven, Massa chusetts.
STEVENS, WILLIAM H., head of the mercantile house of Stevens & Company, Portland, was born in Stroudwater village, Westbrook, Cumberland county, Maine, October 15, 1840, son of Tristam and Jerusha B. (Goss) Stevens. His father was a native of Westbrook, and his mother was born in Danville, now Auburn, Maine. He is of English descent, and his people were among the early settlers of Portland and vicinity. He was educated in the public schools, and at the age of twenty-two, in 1862, left home for the West. For the next eighteen years he was engaged in railroading and in the oil business in the oil fields of Pennsylvania,
WILLIAM H. STEVENS.
making his home at Meadville. In 1866 he estab- lished the firm of Stevens & Company, importers and manufacturers of dairy salt, later on adding grain to the business, of which his father took charge. In 1 880, having lost his first wife, Mr. Stevens returned to Portland and assumed personal charge of the business. Mr. Stevens was always a Democrat in politics, taking a deep interest in political affairs, and in 1892 was elected an Allerman of Portland, being the first and only Democratic Alderman ever elected in that ward, and served as Chairman of the Board. He is a Mason and a Knight Templar, a member of the Odd Fellows Encampment, and has been through the chairs in the order of Knights
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, of Pythias. He was also President of the Falmouth Club and a member of the Athletic Club of Port- land. Mr Stevens has been twice married, first in 1865, at Franklin, Pennsylvania, to Mary E. Ballett of that place, by whom he has a son : Charles S. Stevens, born December 25, 1868, now in the com- mission and manufacturing business at Leaven- worth, Kansas. His second marriage was in 1880, at Owego, New York, to Mary Virginia Miller, daughter of Thomas L. and .Almira Miller of Owego ; they have two children : Harold Miller, born in May 1881, and William Clifford Stevens, born April 8, 1883.
CARLL, CURTIS SMITH, late of Waterboro, was born in Waterboro, February 12, 1861, son of Seth S. and Joanna (Roberts) Caril ; and died November 17, 1895. He was a descendant of Samuel Carli of Scarboro, Maine, who died May 13, 1785, and his wife Esther, who died May 17, 1785. Their son, Nathaniel Carll, born in York, Maine, March 11, 1747, served as a private in the Continental army during the Revolutionary War, and was a participant in the Battle of Bunker Hill. Some of his war ac- coutrements are still in the family. Soon after the close of the struggle for independence he settled in Waterboro, upon a large tract of wild land, which he cleared for agricultural purposes, and where he spent the rest of his life. He married, September 12, 1771, Sarah Burbank of Scarboro. Of their seven . children, the fourth born and the third son was Samuel, who married as his second wife, Rhoda Huntress of Waterboro. They were the parents of nine children, of whom the oldest was Seth. Seth Carll, who learned the trade of bricklayer and worked at that occupation from 1841 to 1353, married, No- vember 20, 1853, Joanna Roberts, daughter of Ben- jamin F. Roberts of Waterboro. Their third child was Curtis S., the subject of this sketch. Seth Carll has been the owner of a farm in Waterboro for many years, which he has cultivated with success and profit. He is known as one of the worthy and reliable citizens of that place, but has held no pub- lic office other than those of a local character. Curtis S. Carll's early education was acquired in the common schools of his native town, supplemented by an attendance of one year at school in Portland. From early youth he evinced a great interest in business and in politics ; was a constant and studi- ous reader of the newspapers and books of history and biography, caring but little for works of fiction,
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