USA > Maine > Men of progress; biographical sketches and portraits of leaders in business and professional life in and of the state of Maine > Part 66
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Colby University, from which he was graduated in the class of 1862. Enlisting as a private in Com- pany H, Fifth Maine Regiment of Volunteers, May 10, 1861, he was promoted to Second Sergeant, and soon after, in October 1861, was commissioned First Lieutenant of the same company ; in October 1862 he was commissioned Captain and Assistant Adju- tant-General of Volunteers, and served continuously until the close of the war, receiving the brevets of Major and Lieutenant-Colonel of Volunteers. Soon after the war Colonel Shannon went to Brazil and for several years was a resident of Rio de Janeiro, serving during that period as the correspondent of
R. C. SHANNON.
prominent New York journals. In 1871, he received from President Grant the appointment of Secretary of Legation at Rio de Janeiro and served in that capacity until March 1875, when he resigned. In 1876 he took charge of the Botanical Garden Rail- road Company, an American enterprise in Brazil, of which he subsequently became the Vice-President and General Manager, and finally President. Re- turning again to this country in 1883, he entered the Law School of Columbia University, was gradu- ated therefrom in 1885, admitted to the New York Bar in 1886, and became a member of the law firm of Purington & Shannon, with which he is still con- nected. In 1891 Colonel Shannon was appointed
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by President Harrison Envoy-Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to the Republics of Nica- ragua, Costa Rica and Salvador, and served until May 1893, when he was relieved by Hon. Lewis Baker, appointed by President Cleveland. In 1894 he was elected a Member of the Fifty-fourth Con- gress from the Thirteenth District of New York, and ir .896 was re-elected to the Fifty-fifth Congress in which body he is serving at the present time. Col nel Shannon is a Republican in politics, and has served as Delegate to the State Convention of his party.' He is a member of the University, Lawyers',
nited Service, Union League, D K E and Repub- lican clubs of New York city, the Metropolitan Club of Washington, and the New York Commandery cf the Military Order of the Loyal Legion. He is also an alumni Trustee of Colby University, which con- ferred upon him the degree of LL. D. in 1892. He was married September 19, 1887, at St. Paul's, Knightbridge, London, England, to Martha Ann Spaulding Greenough, of Brockport, New York.
SOULE, ALLEN PELATIAH, of Hingham, Massa- chusetts, was born in Waterville, Maine, August 14, 1855, son of Charles and Ardra Ellen (Wing) Soule. He is a descendant in direct line of George Soule, who came over in the Mayflower. George Soule was a close friend of Myles Standish, and when the latter went to Duxbury and settled on Captain's Hill, the former went with him and located at what was later called Powder Point. He was an influential citizen, and represented the town in the General Court of the colony eight different times. Jonathan Soule, who went from Duxbury about 1797, in a coasting vessel, up the Kennebec River as far as the place where the city of Water- ville now stands, where he located, was the great- grandfather of the subject of this sketch. His mother's people, the Wings, also came from Dux- bury. He worked on his father's farm until the age of sixteen, meanwhile attending the country schools. After fitting fo. college at Waterville (now Coburn) Classical Institute, he entered Colby University in 1875, and graduated therefrom in 1879. During his college course he taught district schools to defray his educational expenses. Subsequently he was Principal of the High Schools in Oakland and Dexter, Maine. At a later period he was Superin- tendent of Schools in Hingham, Massachusetts. In 1887 Mr. Soule became the New England Repre- sentative of the New York book publishing house of
Ivison, Blakeman & Company, with headquarters in Boston. A year later he similarly represented A. S. Barnes & Company, another New York publish- ing firm, and since the consolidation of these with other publishing houses in 1890 under the name of the American Book Company, has continued his position with the latter organization to the present time. Mr. Soule is a member of the various Masonic bodies, also of the Massachusetts School- masters' Club and other club organizations. In politics he has always been a Democrat. He was married December 31, 1887, to Harriet L. Seymour, et Hingham, Massachusetts; they have three chil-
A. P. SOULE.
dren : Harold W., Mabel Ardra and Seymour Soule. Mr. Soule resides in Hingham.
TUCKER, LUTHER PIKE, Banker and Broker, New York city, was born in Norway, Oxford county, Maine, January 17, 1832, son of Benjamin and Mary (Pike) Tucker. He is a grandson of Ben- jamin Tucker, born in Milton, Massachusetts, in 1744; and great-grandson of Jeremiah Tucker, born in Milton in 1713, and a descendant of Robert Tucker, born in Weymouth, Massachusetts, in 1635. He was educated in the public schools of his native town and at Norway Liberal Institute, and for about five years following his school career
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was a clerk in the clothing and furnishing store of Ira P. Farrington in Portland, Maine. In Decem- ber 1853 he commenced business for himself in partnership with R. S. Webster, under the firm name of Tucker & Webster, at Middle and Tempie streets, Portland, where he continued until January 1864, when he entered as partner into the firm of Hatch, Johnson & Company, Boston, the firm being sole agents and liberal owners of the stock of the Gray's Patent Molded Collar Company, from which they realized a fortune. In 1866 he removed to N York, where the business was continued until 1872. For some years thereafter Mr. Tucker was not in active business. In 1893 he commenced
L. P. TUCKER.
business as a banker and broker, as partner in the firm of Buckhout, Davis & Company, at 71 Broad- way, New York. Mr. Buckhout is the board mem- ber of the firm, Having a seat in the New York Stock Exchange. The office of the firm, since May 1, 1897, is at 2 Wall street. Mr. Tucker's po- litical affiliations are with the Republican party. He was first married February 22, 1854, to Georgi- ana S. Manning of Norway, Maine, who died in June 1864; they had three children : Fred Man- ning Tucker, now living, and Mary Georgie and Charles Freeland, both now deceased. In 1885, August 5, Mr. Tucker was a second time married, to Marion E. Dick of New York city.
WHITTIER, CHARLES, President of the Whittier Machine Company, Boston, was born in Vienna, Kennebec county, Maine, November 26, 1829, son of John Brodhead and Lucy (Graham) Whittier. He is a descendant of Thomas and Ruth (Green) Whittier, the first of whom came from England to New England at the age of sixteen in 1638. From the same stock the poet Whittier descended. His father was a farmer of Vienna, born in that town in the year 1800. His mother was of an old Walpole, Massachusetts, family. He acquired his early ed- ucation in the public schools of Roxbury and Boston, and at the age of seventeen entered upon an appren- ticeship to the machinist trade, in the works of Cub- buck & Campbell, Roxbury, where steam engines, boilers and general machinery were made. During this term of service, which covered a period of three years, he made a systematic study of steam-engineer- ing, and also attended for two years the drawing- school of the Lowell Institute in Boston. After com- pleting his apprenticeship he continued with the firm as a journeyman, and for the next few years travelled extensively throughout the Eastern and Northern states, setting up and installing steam-engines and machinery. In 1859 he was made Superintendent of the works, and also admitted to partnership, the firm name becoming Campbell, Whittier & Company. This relation continued until 1874, when the business was incorporated as the Whittier Machine Company, of which Mr. Whittier has since been President to the present time. Mr. Whittier was one of the first to engage in the development of the freight and passenger elevator, and many of the noteworthy improvements in these machines, where- by their speed, capacity, safety and comfort have been marvellously increased, are the fruits of his inventive genius. He has been the recipient of numerous medals and awards from industrial exhibi- tions, including silver medal, " first degree of merit, special," from the International Exhibition at Sydney, Australia, in 1869, for his steam passenger-elevator and engine, the first of its kind shown in Australia ; from the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Asso- ciation, Boston, gold medal for his steam elevator exhibited at the Fourteenth Exhibition of this organ- ization in 1881, also gold medal for his new hydro- electric elevator at the Sixteenth Exhibition in 1887, and bronze medal for the improved hydro-electric elevator at the Seventeenth Exhibition in 1891 ; gold medal from the Middlesex Mechanics' Exhibition at Lowell, Massachusetts, in 1867, for the Miller patent elevator of Mr. Whittier's make ; and diploma
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from the Atlanta (Georgia) Exposition of 1891, for his direct-acting double-screw electric elevator. Previous to 1870 the company contracted to build the first locomotive for the railway to the summit of Mount Washington in the White Mountains. The
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CHARLES WHITTIER.
works of the Whittier Machine Company at South Boston are equipped with a complete and extensive plant for general machine building, their specialty being the manufacture of steam, hydraulic and electric elevators. Mr. Whittier's success in machine making and in inventions is attributed to his natural bent and enthusiasm for applied mechanics, supple- mented by close application. He has been for many years an active member of the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association, Boston, and of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, New York. Fe is a Trustee and Vice-President of the Eliot Savings Bank, Roxbury District, Boston ; a member of the Executive Committee of the Board of Trustees of Tufts College, and a Trustee of Dean Academy, Franklin, Massachusetts Mr. Whittier is a Republican in politics, and was a member of the State Senate in 1834, serving as Chairman of the Committee on Manufactures and member of the Committee on the Treasury. He has been a member of the First Universalist Society of Roxbury for over forty years. He was married
June 7, 1855, to Eliza Isabel Campbell, daughter of Benjamin F. Campbell of Roxbury. They have no children.
VANCE, JOHN BELL, Shaker Elder, was born in Baileyville, Washington county, Maine, May 9, 1833, eldest son of Shubael B. and Elizabeth Moshier ( Mor- rill) Vance. He was the grandson of Hon. William Vance, a large landholder in the eastern part of the state, and a member of the convention which framed the Constitution of Maine after its separation from Massachusetts. In 1838 his father became a con- vert to the faith of the United Society of Believers, commonly known as Shakers, and joined the Family at Alfred, Maine, September 14 of that year, taking John, then five years of age, with him. In that pious and kindly community the future Elder was reared and educated, and to its service and that of God devoted his long, laborious and useful life. At a very early age he began to manifest a strong pre-
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JOHN B. VANCE.
disposition for learning and love for books, improv- ing every leisure moment. The strength and beauty of his character and his' manifest fitness for high religious station soon attracted the attention of the wise leaders of the community, and at the age of sixteen he began teaching in the district school of the Society ; and taught the winter term more than
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half the years up to the time of his death. Pos- sessing a fine spiritual nature and deep religious instincts, he became a profound student of the Shaker faith and one of its ablest exponents. He was early an able debater and firm defender of the faith in the second manifestation of Christ, as held by the United Society of Believers, and in later years was their principal public speaker in Maine, delivering discourses notable for soundness of rea- soning and clearness and vigor of expression. At the singu'srly early age of twenty he was appointed Elder in the Novitiate Order, and in January 1872, at the reorganization of the Society, was appointed Senior Trustee and Elder of the Church Family. For financial and executive ability he ranked among the best officers the Society ever had. In 1886, on the death of Elder Otis Sawyer, he was appointed First Trustee and Presiding Minister of both the Alfred and New Gloucester communities, a position designated in some of the Western families as Pre- siding Bishop. This position he held until he died. In 1864 he was joined at Alfred by his sister, Mary P. Vance, who became Senior Sister of the Board of Elders. On the thirteenth of March 1896, Elder Vance passed to the other life, after a brief and painful illness, the result of disease brought on by his unremitting labors in behalf of the Society. To that Society he gave his heart, the utmost resources of hand and intellect, and trained skill and wide knowledge. He was bound up in its wel- fare. Having a faculty for almost all kinds of busi- ness, he applied his skill to practical purposes. In order to help his people in their business relations he studied law ; in order to promote their bodily health he studied medicine; in order to promote the security of their landed property he studied surveying ; and in order to better cultivate their farms and guard their herds he studied scientific agriculture and stock-breeding and the dairy, being a conspicuous figi .e at the state agricultural meet- ings. During his later years he had general charge of all the farming interests of the Society. In his ardor he even went so far as to acquire the tailor- ing trade, and for a long time cut the garments worn by the brethren. From all these multifarious occupations he managed to save time for an intelli- gent study of literature, and for the perusal of books of weight and value. Though taking no part in political strife, he always evinced a strong and intelligent interest in state and national affairs, and was eminently a good citizen as well as an honor- able man. Such was John Bell Vance, a lofty spirit
who made better the world in which he lived ; a kindly nature who won the respect of all and the deep affection of those who knew him intimately. His acquaintance was wide throughout Maine, and he was everywhere welcome. In the town where he passed his life he leaves a tender and gracious memory.
BAKER, WILLIAM HENRY, Lawyer, Boston, was born in Cornville, Somerset county, Maine, July 22, 1865, son of Jarvis E. and Eliza Ann (Mckinney) Baker. His paternal grandfather,
W. H. BAKER.
William Baker, was a farmer of New Brunswick, residing just over the Aroostook border, about twelve miles from Houlton. His maternal grand- father, Henry Mckinney, of Madison, Somerset county, Maine, who was also a farmer, came origi- nally from near Portland, Maine, and was of Scotch- Irish descent. William H. Baker was reared on the home farm, and received his early education in the common schools, and at the Eaton School in Norridgewock. Somerset county, Maine - to which town his parents moved in 1873 - then well known through the country as a family school for boys, from which he graduated June 22, 1883. The next two years he spent as a bookkeeper in Boston,
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reading law evenings during a part of this time. In October 1885 he entered Boston University Law School, from which he graduated with the degree of I.L B. in June 1887, and was admitted to the Suffolk Bar in Boston in August following. /In September succeeding he was admitted to the Somerset County Bar in Maine. On October 16, 1ยบ37, he commenced the practice of law in Boston, in which he has since continued, having established an extensive and lucrative business. Mr. Baker's practice is chiefly confined to the courts, where he has been employed as chief counsel in many impor- Int trials. Among his notable cases were the conspiracy suit of the Rev. W. W. Downs against Joseph Story and others, in which as counsel for the plaintiff he obtained a verdict of ten thousand dollars for his client, before a jury; the suit of Whelton against the West End Railway Company, tried in 1895, for personal injuries, in which the jury awarded him seventy-one hundred dollars; also in 1895, the State of Connecticut against Dr. George E. Whitten, charged with murder in the second degree, in which as counsel for the defence he succeeded in getting his client released on a writ of habeas corpus in the United States Circuit Court, in a writ directed to the Sheriff of the County Court at New Haven claiming that the defendant was deprived of his liberty "without due process of law and in violation of the Constitution of the United States." The latter case was a noted one from having attracted the attention of both states. He has been engaged in many cases chiefly as counsel against corporations. Mr. Baker in the summer of 1896, believing that the declarations of the Democratic party as enunciated in its Chicago platform were for the best interests of all the people, quickly espoused the policy of the free and unlimited coinage of both gold and silver, and became an ardent supporter of William J. Bryan. On October 5, 1896, Mr. Baker received unani- mously the nor ination for Congress from the Dem- ocratic party, in the Eleventh Congressional District of Massachusetts, and immediately began a cam- paign throughout his district, speaking upon the party issues in every section. In the race for Congress however he was defeated by a Republi- can, in what proved to be a great Republican year. Mr. Baker is Vice-President of the Massa- chusetts Democratic Club, the party organization of the state. He resides in Newton, Massachusetts. He was married October 11, 1893, to Miss Lottie E. Stevens, of Oakland, Maine.
DAVIS, SAMUEL GRANVILLE, of Washington, Dis- trict of Columbia, was born in Denmark, Oxford county, Maine, July 30, 1842, son of William Far- rington and Pamelia Goodwin (Travis) Davis. He. is descended from English ancestors, who settled in Massachusetts in early Colonial times. Two of his paternal progenitors and two on the maternal side served in the War of the Revolution, and another of his mother's ancestors was in the French and Indian War and took part in the expedition against Crown Point. His two grandfathers were in the War of 1812. He received his early education in the common schools of his native town, prepared
SAMUEL G. DAVIS.
for college at Bridgton Academy in North Bridgton, Maine, and was a member of the class of 1865 in Bowdoin College. He studied law in the offices of Charles E. Holt of Denmark, Maine, and Fessen- den & Butler, Portland, Maine, and was admitted to the Bar of Maine in September 1867. Since then he has been engaged in the practice of law, diversified by school teaching and farming, except when in government employ. In his native town he has served as Auditor, Town Agent, Town Clerk, Selectman and Supervisor of Schools, holding each of these offices several years. He has been a Jus- tice of the Peace and Quorum most of the time since January 1868, and Dedimus Justice since
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February 1877. From September 1882 to Septem- ber 1886 he was a Clerk in the United States Pen- sion Bureau at Washington, and was detailed as a Special Examiner during that time. Since January 11, 1893, he has served as a Clerk in the office of the Conimissioner of Internal Revenue, in the Treasury Department. Mr. Davis is prominently identified with the Masonic fraternity, in which he has held many offices, including those of Worshipful Master in the Lodge, High Priest in the Chapter, District Deputy Grand Master and Junior Grand War ) of the Grand Lodge of Maine. He holds membership in Mount Moriah Lodge of Denmark, Oriental Royal Arch Chapter of Bridgton, St. Albans Commandery Knights Templar of Portland, the Grand Lodge of Maine, and the Order of the Eastern Star, Denmark. He is a member of the Washington Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, also of the Sons and Daughters of Maine in Washington, and is President of the Exec- utive Board of the latter organization. Mr. Davis was married January 29, 1873, to Parriezina M. Bennett, of Nashua, New Hampshire. They have had six children : Blanche P., Norman C., Mollie P., Bertram G. and Webster B. Davis, now living, and Rupert G. Davis, deceased.
EATON, BRADLEY LLEWELLYN, Lumber Merchant, New York, was born in St. Stephen, New Bruns- wick, December 5, 1850, son of Joseph Emerson and Jane (Wright) Eaton. Although born on the Canadian side of the St. Croix River, his family has long been prominently identified with the business interests of Eastern Maine, his father being for many years at the head of an extensive lumber manufacturing industry in the city of Calais. His father was a native of Groton, Massachusetts, mov- ing in early life to the St. Croix region, where he engaged with others of the family in the lumber business. He is der sended from a line of hale and upright ancestors who reach back to the earliest days of the settlement of the New World, and from whom he inherited the vigorous nature and upright character with which it was his good fortune to commence life. His early education, obtained in the common schools of his native town and in five years' attendance at the public schools of Boston, was made very thorough by diligent study, supple- mented by his alert observation and retentive memory. He entered upon business life at the early age . of sixteen, at the time of his father's
death ; and from that time was actively engaged in manufacturing and shipping lumber on the St. Croix River until 1887, when he sold out and moved to New York city. In 18Sg he became a partner in the firm of Church E. Gates & Company, lumber mer- chants - one of the leading firms in their line in New York - in which relation he still continues. Mr. Eaton is a member of the Masonic fraternity, also of the Harlem Social and Harlem Republican clubs. He was married October 10, 1872, to Vashti Gates, daughter of E. C. Gates of Calais, Maine. This union brought them six children : Jane Vashti, born May 28, 1874 ; Church Gates, born December 18, 1876, died December 2, 1878; F. Emerson,
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BRADLEY L. EATON.
born November 13, 1878, died October 31, 1881 ; Grace Llewellyn, born January 21, 1883 ; Ruth Lois, born October 20, 1884, and Walter Bradley Eaton, born July 9, 1888.
FRYE, WILLIAM PIERCE, United States Senator, was born in Lewiston, Maine, September 2, 1831, son of John M. and Alice M. Frye. His father, Colonel John M. Frye, was one of the early settlers of Lewiston, was largely instrumental in developing its manufacturing industries, and until his death was one of its most prominent citizens. His grand- father, General Joseph Frye, originally a Colonel in
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the English army, was a General in the American army during the Revolutionary War, and received for his military services a grant of the town after- wards known as Fryeburg, Maine. William P. Frye received his early education in the public schools, and at the age of nineteen graduated from Bowdoin College, in the class of 1850. After studying law with Hon. William Pitt Fessenden of Portland, he was admitted to the Bar in 1853, and commenced the practice of his profession in Rockland, Maine. Soon removing to his native town, Lewiston, he formed a co-partnership with Thomas A. D. Fes- : iden, which continued until the latter's death.
WM. P. FRYE.
with which he met every new phase of its develop- ment, are still subjects of comment in the Bar of the county, of which he was the acknowledged leader. In the examinations of witnesses he partic- ularly excelled. The Supreme Court room of Androscoggin county was the arena of many a famous trial, and, as is usual in New England shire towns, these trials often called out a great number of listeners. This was especially true when Mr. Frye was counsel. Such occasions were anticipated and discussed as opportunities not to be neglected for the enjoyment of true eloquence. His abilities were recognized as a lawyer in 1867 by his election as Attorney-General of the State, an office which he held for three years. As such he conducted a number of trials for capital offences which are cele- brated in the criminal annals. But he was not allowed to devote himself exclusively to the practice of his profession. He was chosen in 1861, 1862, and 1867 as the representative of Lewiston in the State Legislature ; in 1864 he served as a Presiden- tial Elector, and in 1866 he was elected Mayor of Lewiston, and re-elected in 1867 - thus holding at one time no less than three public offices. He was a member of the National Republican Executive Committee in 1872, was re-elected in 1876 and again in 1880. He was a Delegate to the Republi- can National Conventions in 1872, 1876 and 1880, and in 1881 was elected Chairman of the Republican State Committee, in the place of James G. Blaine. He was chosen a Trustee of Bowdoin College in 1880; and received the degree of LL. D. from Bates College in July 1881 and from Bowdoin in 1889. In 1871 he was elected a Representative to the Forty-second Congress, and he continued to hold a seat in that body until elected in 1889 to the United States Senate, to fill the vacancy occa- sioned by the resignation of Mr. Blaine. He was re-elected to the Senate in 1883, and again in 1888 and 1893. While a member of the House of Representatives he was Chairman of the Library Committee, served for several terms on the Judi- ciary and the Ways and Means, and for two or three Congresses he was Chairman of the Execu- tive Committee. It was generally conceded that he would have been elected Speaker of the House in the Forty-seventh Congress, had he not resigned before the meeting of that Congress, on account of his election to the Senate. In the House he was prominent as a debater, especially on politi- cal questions, for he was ever a zealous partisan, and
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