USA > Maine > Men of progress; biographical sketches and portraits of leaders in business and professional life in and of the state of Maine > Part 61
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CURTIS, WILLIAM JOHN, Lawyer, New York, was born in Brunswick, Maine, August 28, 1854, son of Captain John and Letitia A. (Bammer) Cur- tis. His father was the son of Christopher S. Curtis of Damariscotta, Maine, whose father was William Curtis of Union, Maine. He received his early education in the public schools, graduating from the Brunswick High School in 1871, and entered Bowdoin College, irom which institution he gradu- ated in the class of 1875. After graduation he accepted the position of City Editor of the Bangor Whig and Courier, where he remained until October 1876. He then studied law with Wilson & Wood- ard of Bangor, and in 1878 was admitted to the Bar of the Supreme Court of Maine in Penobscot county. In May 1878 he moved to New York and entered the office of Frederick de l'eyster Foster, as a clerk. During 1878-9 he pursued a course at the Columbia Law School, and was admitted to practice in the Supreme Court of the State of New York in the latter year. Since admission to the New York
Bar he has been associated with the law firm of Sullivan & Cromwell, either as clerk or partner, with the exception of a few short intervals. At the present time he is a member of the firm, whose offices are in Wall street, New York. Mr. Curtis resides in Summit, New Jersey. He was actively engaged in the organization of the National Demo- cratic Party in the state of New Jersey in 1896, and was a Delegate-at-Large to the Indianapolis Con- vention, also the Member for New Jersey of the National Committee of that party. He is a mem- ber of the University, Lawyers' and City clubs oi New York, also of the Bar Association of the City
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W. J. CURTIS.
of New York and the " Down Town " Association. He was married June 13, 1881, at Augusta, Maine, to Miss Lena S. Riley, of Boston, Massachusetts ; they have five children ; Katherine R., Helen V., Lena R., Mildred and William J. Curtis, Jr.
FLINT, CHARLES RANLETT, Merchant and Fi- nancier, of Flint, Eddy & Company, commission merchants, New York, was born in Thomaston, Maine, January 24, 1850, son of Benjamin and Sarah (Tobey) Flint. He is descended from Thomas Flint, who came from Wales in 1642, and settled in the village of Saleni, now South Danvers,
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Massachusetts. His father was an extensive ship- owner, who lived and built his vessels in Thomaston during the early part of his career, and in 1858 moved to New York. Charles R. F'lint received his early education in the public schools of Thomaston and Brooklyn, and at the private school of Warren Johnson in Topsham, Maine, and graduated in 1868 from the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn, New York. An eager and popular student, he was made President of his class, and of the Polytechnic Alumni Association. He began his business career in New York City as a dock clerk, and later spent two years as a clerk in a shipping and commission house engaged in business with the West Coast of South America. In 1871 he entered into a co-part- nership of Gilchrist, Flint & Company, ship chand- lers, and in February 1872 he united with William R. Grace in forming the firm of W. R. Grace & Company. In 1874 he visited the different coun- tries of South America, and in 1876 he organized the firm of Grace Bros. & Company in the city of Callao, Peru. Mr. Flint remained on the west coast nearly a year. Upon his return he was appointed Consul of Chili at New York, and during the absence of the charge d'affaires was intrusted with the archives and correspondence of the Chilian Legation in the United States. In 1878 Mr. Flint organized the Export Lumber Company (Limited), now one of the most successful lumber concerns in the United States, with yards in Michigan, Ottawa, Montreal, Portland, Boston and New York, and handling over two hundred million feet of lumber a year. In ISSo he was elected President of the United States Elec- tric Lighting Company. In 1884 he visited Braziland established a large rubber exporting business on the River Amazon. About this time he was appointed Consul for Nicaragua, and represented that country in negotiations which resulted in concessions being granted to Americans to build the canal. He has also been in recent years the Consul-General of Costa Rica in this country. In 1885 Mr. Flint retired from W. R. Grace & Company and became a partner with his father, Benjamin, and his brother, Wallace B., in the well-known house of Flint & Company. This firm succeeded to the shipping business established by Benjamin Flint in 1840, and the lumber. rubber and general commission business created by Charles R. Flint. During ten years iol- lowing, the firm were importers of South American products and among the largest exporters of Ameri- can manufactures to Latin-America. In February 1895 Mr. Flint brought about the consolidation of
the export department of his firm with the Coombs, Crosby & Eddy Company, founded in 1858 by Hon. William J. Coombs. This consolidation, combining the energies and abilities of the most active and successful men engaged in the export trade, assumed the corporate name of Flint, Eddy & Company, and is to-day the largest house in the United States en- gaged in the purchase of American manufactured . goods for export. In the summer of 1896, upon the death of Woodruff Sutton, the firm of Flint & Com- pany, which had continued in the general banking . and shipping business, established the Flint & Com- pany Pacific Coast Clipper Line between New York
CHARLES R. FLINT.
and San Francisco. Mr. Flint's financial ability has been conspicuously exhibited during the last few years by the consummation of several undertakings of great importance. In 1891 he united the manu- facturers of rubber boots and shoes in this country into one large concern, under the title of the United States Rubber Company, having a capital of forty millions of dollars, and of which corporation he became the Treasurer. In 1892 he brought about a union of five companies manufacturing rubber belting, packing and hose, under the title of the Mechanical Rubber Company, with a capital of fifteen millions, of which concern he is a Director. During the winter of 1889-90 Mr. Flint was
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appointed a delegate of the United States to the International Conference of American Republics, which was held in the city of Washington. His intimate knowledge of the South American conti- Chent enabled him to render important services as a member of that conference. I.1 a letter, the origi- nal of which is in the archives of the Republic of Brazil, bearing on the recognition of the new Republic by the United States, Secretary Blaine wrote Mr. Flint : " It is important that you return to Washington as soon as possible. Your services in the conference are so valuable that we need you every hour, though I am asking much of you to be here so constantly, for your large business demands a great deal of attention. But just now it must be patriotism first and business afterward." It was he who, as a member of the Committee on Banking, proposed the idea of an International American Bank, with its headquarters in the United States and branches in all the other republics. His recommendations were ratified by the conference, heartily indorsed by Secretary Blaine and President Harrison, and by the latter pressed upon the atten- tion of Congress. As a member of the Committee on Customs Regulations, he proposed the organiza- tion of a Bureau of American Republics to carry out the vote of the conference in favor of a uniform system of statistics and the extension of trade between the republics. The proposition was favor- ably received, and has since been carried out by the governments represented in the conference. After the adjournment of the conference, at the request of Secretary Blaine, Mr. Flint served as the confidential agent of the United States in negotiat- ing the reciprocity treaty with Brazil, the first one which was effected under the Aldrich amendment to the Mckinley bill. This work was successfully accomplished. It provided for the concession of tariff duties on American products in Brazil, lower than those imposed by that republic upon kindred products from all other countries. This treaty was the key to the reciprocity situation. It became at once the basis of other treaties with American republics. It proved of especial value in the nego- tiations with Spain. Our Spanish neighbor was reluctant to open Cuba and Porto Rico to American products, but was, by force of the free admission of sugar from Brazil to this country, finally com- pelled to agree to a treaty by which American manufactures, flour and provisions were admitted to those islands at greatly reduced and special rates of duty in consideration of our admitting their
sugar free. At the time of the trouble between Chili and the United States the large influence of Mr. Flint led Secretary Blaine to invite him to take part in the efforts for a friendly and peaceful adjustment of the questions at issue. In response to a telegram from Secretary Blaine Mr. Flint went to Washington. There he learned that the Chilian complication was drifting into a position where the relations of friendship and goodwill between two American republics, which had been so cordially expressed at the international conference, were in danger of being disrupted. Mr. Blaine said that while the United States would be able to force Chili into submission, yet he felt that it would be a more gracious action if the differences between the two countries could be arranged on the more advanced plane of arbitration. The whole matter was then in such a delicate position that it was not convenient for the Secretary of State to speak officially. Mr. Flint promptly called on the Brazil- ian minister, Mr. Mendonca, who said that if desired by the United States he would telegraph to his government, suggesting that Brazil offer her services as a mediator. Mr. Flint suggested that Dr. Mendonca might render even a more friendly service by making the suggestion to his government on his own responsibility. The result was that Dr. Mendonca cabled at once and advised that Brazil offer her services to Chili and the United States in a settlement of arbitration under American inter- national law. Brazil graciously complied with this suggestion and tendered her good offices. During the Da Gama rebellion in Brazil Mr. Flint became the agent of President Piexoto in the purchase of vessels and munitions of war. He discharged his duties in this crisis with characteristic energy. He purchased Ericsson's Destroyer, and the swift yachts Feiseen and Javelin, and caused the two latter to be converted promptly into torpedo boats. El Cid, a steel merchant steamer of forty-six hundred tons displacement, came into port October 26, 1893, was discharged, placed in dry dock and fitted out with a pneumatic dynamite gun, twenty- two rapid-fire guns and four torpedo launching tubes, and the ship changed so as to receive them. On November 18, christened anew as the Nicthe- roy, she dropped down the bay in commission. The Britannia, an iron steamer of twenty-six hun- dred tons displacement, came into port November 6, went into dry dock, and was fitted with sixteen rapid-fire guns, four launching tubes and the Sims- Edison dirigible torpedo, and, renamed America,
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was ready for her voyage November 24. This fleet, capable of discharging forty-five hundred pounds of dynamite simultaneously, arrived in time to strengthen the Republicans so that they were enabled to defeat the Monarchists in their attempt to re-establish the empire in Brazil. Mr. Flint has proved a useful associate in the management of financial institutions in the metropolis. He is a Director of the National Bank of the Republic, the State Trust Company, the Knickerbocker Trust Company and the Produce Exchange Bank. He is also Treasurer of the Hastings Pavement Company, the Manaos Electric Lighting Company, and was Chairman of the Reorganization Committee which has recently consolidated the street railroads of Syracuse under the name of the Syracuse Rapid Transit Railway Company. He is also one of the Council of the University of the City of New York. An active, stirring, hard-working business man, Mr. Flint maintains his vigor for the work which is pressing upon him by entering with zest into out- door recreations. He spends one day in every week with either the gun or rod. He has hunted in South America, the Rocky Mountains and Can- ada, and has shot moose, elk, caribou, bear and nearly all other big game found on the two conti- nents. He is fond of yachting, and was the owner of the Gracie, which has probably taken more prizes than any other yacht in the United States. He was one of the patriotic syndicate which built and raced the Vigilant, which successfully defended the America's Cup against the Valkyrie. He is a member of several clubs, including the Union, Century, Riding and Metropolitan, also of the New York, Seawanhaka and Larchmont Yacht and South Side Sportsmen's clubs. He is also a member of the New England Society. Mr. Flint was married in 1883 to E. Kate Simmons, daughter of Joseph F. Simmons of Troy, New York. Mrs. Flint is noted for her musical ability. She has devoted the receipts from her musical compositions to charity, and from the sale of the " Racquet Galop" endowed a permanent bed in St. Luke's Hospital, New York.
FOSS, VARNUM RICHARD, late General Agent of the New England Life Insurance Company ior Maine, was born in Leeds, Androscoggin county, Maine, January 3, 1857, son of Thomas C. and Eliz- abeth L. (Cobb) Foss; died in Portland, March 3, 1896. The name of Foss is of Norwegian origin,
signifying "waterfall"; but the ancestors of the sub- ject of this sketch came from England. His great- grandfather, Reverend Walter Foss, was a Baptist clergyman for fifty years ; and his great-grandfather, Levi Foss, of Saco ( Pepperellboro), Maine, was a Revolutionary soldier. His great-great-grandfather Charles Kent, for whom Kent's Hill (Maine) was named, was an ancestor of Edward Kent, twice Gov- ernor of Maine ( 18;5-40). On the maternal side his great-great-grandfather, Thomas Millett of Glou- cester, Massachusetts, was also a soldier of the Revo- lution. V. Richard Foss received his rudimentary education in the schools of his native town, mainly
V. RICHARD FOSS.
at the "little red schoolhouse " in North Leeds, and subsequently attended Wilton (Maine) Academy and the Lewiston (Maine) High School. At the age of eighteen he became a reporter on the staff of the Lewiston Journal, also Lewiston correspondent for the Eastern Argus and Boston Globe. In 18So he entered the insurance business in Lewiston, and in 1883 came to Portland, where he ever since re- sided, as General Agent for Maine of the New Eng- land Life Insurance Company of Boston. Mr. Foss was an energetic business man, always making a suc- cess of whatever he undertook. Through his agency since 1882, up to the time of his death, about twenty- three hundred policies in his company were issued
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through his instrumentality, amounting to nearly four millions of dollars. He was President in 1894, and was for ten years a Director, of the Maine Life Underwriters' Association, was a member of the Pogland Board of Trade, and in 1890 was President of the City Council of Portland. In church and re- ligious work Mr. Foss was very active and promi- nent, having spoken on religious themes in over one hundred churches of Maine. He was a leading member of the First Baptist Church of Portland, and had served as Superintendent of its Sunday School, where he was greatly respected and beloved. He took great interest in the Young People's Society of Christian Endeavor, and organized the Maine State Union of that body, serving as its first President. He was President of the Portland Young Men's Christian Association in 1890-1, was President of the State Young Men's Christian Association three years, mem- ber of the Executive Committee for eight years, and Treasurer of that committee at the time of his death. In 1893 he officiated as a member of the Advisory Committee of the World's Congress of Religions at the World's Fair. , Mr. Foss had made several trips abroad, having crossed the ocean six times. He was a member of Portland Lodge of Masons, Hadattah Lodge of Odd Fellows and Trinity Lodge Knights of Pythias, and in politics was a Republican. He had been again elected to the Common Council of Portland the day before his death, which occurred suddenly, from acute congestion of the lungs, and came as a shock to the social and business com- munity of Portland. Few men of the city were better known or had a larger circle of warm friends. Mr. Foss was married December 18, 1878, to Alice F. Pillsbury, of Pownal, Maine. He leaves four children : Helen A., Marian E., Harold R. and Esther A. Foss.
mor, Raynham, Massachusetts ; Tyrrel Gillmor, Attleboro (or Franklin), Massachusetts ; Samuel Gillmor (or Gilmore), East Brewer, Maine ; David Gilmore, Holden, Maine ; Tyrrel Gilmore, Dedham, Maine ; Pascal Pearl Gilmore, Bucksport, Maine. Pascal's great-grandfather Samuel was a soldier of the Revolution, and his discharge shows that his name was spelled Gillmor while in the army, but was changed to Gilmore soon after the war. Pas- cal's father, Tyrrel Gilmore, was born in Holden, Maine, July 12, 1815, and his mother, Mary Wood Pearl, was born in West Boxford, Essex county, Massachusetts, July 10, 1815. In early life Tyrrel
PASCAL P. GILMORE.
GILMORE, PASCAL PEARL., of Bucksport, was born in Dedham, Hancock county, Maine, June 24, 1845, son of Tyrrel and Mary Wood ( Pearl) Gilmore. He is of the seventh generation in descent from John Gillmor, the head of this line in America, who settled in Weymouth, Massachusetts, about the year 1700. The Gillmors were of Scotch origin. The paternal grandmother of Pascal was descended from the Huguenots in France ; his maternal ancestors were English. The line of his paternal descent in this country is as follows : John Gillmor of Weymouth, Massachusetts; James Gilly proving too much for his system he came home.
was a successful schoolteacher, and in 1840 he bought the farm in Dedham where he resided until his death in 1890. Mrs. Gilmore died in 1888. Both Mr and Mrs. Gilmore took a deep interest in educational matters, also in the leading issues of the day ; and both were active and consistent members of the Congregational Church at Dedham. Pascal P. Gilmore received his education in the town schools of Dedham, and at the East Maine Conference Seminary in Bucksport. In the autumn `of 1861 he joined the army of the Potomac, spend- ing the winter in Washington, and was in the Peninsula campaign of 1862, but the unusual strain
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Later he returned as a recruit to the Sixteenth Regiment Maine Volunteers - then in the Fifth Corps commanded by General Governeur K. War- ren - and was in every battle in which it partici- pated from that "ime ; never off duty a single day during his term of service, and was present at the surrender of General Lee at Appomattox. He remembers with interest the fact that President Lincoln reveiwed his Corps a few hours after the attack on Fort Stedman, Virginia. After the war Mr. Gilmore resumed his studies at Bucksport, teaching in winter. Between three and four years were spent in the West, mostly in Michigan, where he was engaged in surveying or "inspecting " lumber, work at which he gained considerable knowledge during his minority. His health giving way on account of the climate, he returned to the East, and since 1873 has carried on the old home- stead farm in Dedham, living there until 1891. During these years he did quite a business in making legal conveyances, settling estates, etc., and for several years has been engaged in the manufacture of a line of goods which have had an extensive sale. Mr. Gilmore is a Director of the Bucksport National Bank, the Mexico Bridge Com- . pany and the Bucksport Water Company, of which latter corporation he is also the President. He has held many positions of trust, having been on the Board of Selectmen in Dedham for many years, serving nine years as Chairman, and for fifteen years as Supervisor of Schools. He was a Repre- sentative to the Legislature in 1875 and in 1883, and State Senator from Hancock county in 1891. During the latter year he was appointed State Liquor Commissioner by Governor Burleigh ; and that he conducted this trying and peculiar office with discreetness and efficiency, is shown by reports of the various cities and towns, and by the fact that ' the Governor and Council allowed him to hold over for quite a period after his regular term had expired. Mr. Gilmore's personal acquaintance is exceptionally large ; he has visited every town in Maine, and most of them frequently. He is an enthusiastic admirer of New England, and espe- cially of his native state. In religion he is of the Congregational faith; in politics, a Republican. He is a member of the Grand Army of the Repub- lic, and was the first Commander of Walter L. Parker Post, of Dedham. He was married in 1881 to Alma Maria Hart, daughter of the late Henry Thomas Hart of Holden, Maine. A daughter, Madge Gilmore, is their only child.
HEATH, HERBERT MILTON, Lawyer, Augusta, was born in Gardiner, Kennebec county, Maine, August 27, 1853, son of Alvan M. C. and Sarah H. ( Phil- brook) Heath. He is a grandson of Asa Heath, physician, born September 7, 1804, died November 26, 1881 ; and great-grandson of Asa Heath, born July 31, 1876, died September 1, 1860, who was dis- tinguished as a powerful preacher of the Methodist denomination, and was a nephew of General William Heath of the Revolutionary War. His father, A. M. C. Heath, in whose honor the Grand Army Post at Gardiner was named, was a journalist, Editor of the Gardiner Home Journal, and a gallant soldier,
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HERBERT M. HEATH.
who entered the ranks of the Sixteenth Maine Regi- ment and was killed at the Battle of Fredericksburg in the Civil War. His mother, whose ancestors, the Kendalls, founded Kendall's Mills (now Fairfield), Maine, was a descendant of General Kendall. She is universally recognized as a woman of remarkable force, and after the death of her husband, which occurred when Herbert was but nine years old, kept her little family together and largely assisted in their education. The other children are Willis K. Heath, with the Plymouth ( Massachusetts) Cordage Com- pany, a thorough business man ; Dr. Fred C. Heath, of Indianapolis, one of the leading eye and ear sur- geons in the West ; and Dr. Gertrude E. Heath, of
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Gardiner, homeopathic physician, and of marked literary talent as well, having done some very credit- able magazine work in the Youth's Companion, St. Nicholas and other periodicals. Herbert M. Heath acquired his early education in the public schools of Ga: finer and at the Dirigo Business College in Augusta, and entering Bowdoin College in 1868, graduated therefrom in July 1872, as Valedictorian of his class. During the year of his graduation he taught one term of country school in West Bath, Maine, and from September to December was Prin- cipal of Limerick (Maine) Academy. From March 1873 to July 1876 he was Principal of Washington Academy at East Machias, Maine. In the mean- time he studied law with Judge Charles Danforth of the Supreme Court, upon whose recommendation he was admitted to the Bar of Kennebec County at the August term of the Supreme Judicial Court in 1876. Since 1876 he has been engaged in active practice of his profession in Augusta. In 1878 he was elected City Solicitor of Augusta, and in 1879 was elected County Attorney of Kennebec County, in which office he served for the years 1880-1-2. As a lawyer Mr. Heath ranks among the foremost at the Maine Bar, and few men of his age have dealt with and won as many important and intricate cases as he has successfully handled in his official positions and his private practice. Among his notable crimi- nal cases have been the prosecution of Charles Mer- rill for murder in 1880; defences in the murder trials of Daniel Wilkinson in 1883, Hopkins and Turner in 1883, John Baker in 1884, Harry Burns in 1884 and Clara Emma Getchell in 1894; and the Burns "Original Package Liquor Case," which he argued and won in 1887. Prominent civil trials in which he officiated as counsel successfully include the will case of Horatio Foster, an uneducated deaf mute (will made by pantomime), Washington county, 1881 ; various malpractice cases, defending surgeons ; pauper cases for towns, notably Fayette against Chesterville ; a large number of personal damage cases against the Maine Central Railroad ; the peculiar illegitimacy case of Grant against Mit- chell, in Washington county ; and the will of John F. Harmon, Washington county, 1894. Mr. Heath's specialties are jury trials in all counties, legislative counsel before committees, settlement of estates and trusts, and as corporation counsel. As an advocate he has few equals in the state, and his power to . Maine woods with trout-rod or rifle in the proper sway a jury by his eloquent words is a faculty which seasons. He was married August 27, 1876, to Laura S. Gardner, of East Machias. They have had four children, all now living : Marion, born November rarely fails to win success. He is enthusiastically devoted to his profession, and claims no ambition
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