USA > Maine > Men of progress; biographical sketches and portraits of leaders in business and professional life in and of the state of Maine > Part 7
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93
41
MEN OF PROGRESS.
Hopkins & Company, the Hopkins of this firmi name being his son, Warren B .; and S. B. & W. B. Hopkins, consisting of father and son. Mr. llopkins has served for about fourteen years as a Director of the People's National Bank of Roxbury, and in August 1889 was elected President of that institution, which position he still holds. He has also been a Trustee, Vice-President and member of the Investing Committee of the Eliot Five-Cents Sav -. ings Bank of Boston Highlands for the last eighteen years, during which period its deposits have increased from $357,000 in 1869 to about four millions at the present time. Mr. Hopkins served as a member of the City Council of Boston, during 1868-9, and in the two following years ( 1870-1) was a Representative to the State Legislature ; from 1871 to 1877 he was a Director of the East Boston Ferry Corporation, and for two years or more he was one of the Board of Assessors of the City of Boston. Ile is a member of the Boston Art Club, also of the l'ine Tree State Club of Boston. In politics he is a Republican. Mr. Hopkins was married Novem- ber 21, 1850, to Rebecca M. Frasher ; they have had three children : Warren B. and Anna L. Hopkins, both deceased, and Addie L., now Mrs. Charles E. Meins of Brookline, Massachusetts.
HUNT, GEORGE SMITH, Merchant and Ship- owner, for nearly forty years a leader in the West India trade of Portland, was born in Derry, New Hampshire, February 8, 1829, son of Frederick E. and Eliza D. (Smith) Hunt, and died in Portland, March 9, 1896. His father was a native of North- field, Massachusetts, and spent the greater part of his brief life as a merchant in that state and New Hampshire. His mother was a daughter of Cap- tain Nathaniel Smith, an East Indian shipmaster, of Gloucester, Massachusetts. Both parents died in 1840, at the early age of thirty-eight, when the sub- ject of this sketch was a boy of eleven years. Just before their decease, George S. Hunt came to Port- land to spend the winter with a relative, William Allen, and remained for the rest of his life in that city. He attended the grammar and high schools until the age of eighteen, at which time, unaided pecuniarily, he started out for himself. For five years he was clerk in a jobbing fruit store. In 1835 he became clerk for P. F. Varnum, a jobber of flour and grain, where he remained four years. In 1857 he spent two months in the island of Cuba,
during which time he formed a large business acquaintance, and while there entered into arrange- ments with several Cuban merchants to export their products. On his return he opened an office on Commercial street and began a general commission business with Cuba, exporting lumber and general merchandise and receiving in return sugar and molasses. In that year a heavy financial crisis came upon the business interests of the country, yet so well were his plans made, that Mr. Hunt's first. year's business was carried through without loss, though with little profit. A second and third visit to Cuba in 1859-60 gave him increased oppor-
GEO. S. HUNT.
tunities for the development of the extensive busi- ness which he continued to the time of his death, and which ranked him among the most enterprising, active and successful business men of Portland. In 1859 he first interested himself in shipping, and soon acquired ownership in a great number of ves- sels registered in the Portland customs district. In 1874 Mr. Hunt took into partnership two of his clerks, and until his death the business was con- ducted under the firm name of Geo. S. Hunt & Company. He was a large owner in the Eagle Sugar Refinery and its commercial agent ; also an original stockholler in the Forest City Sugar Refinery, and succeeded the late T. C. Hersey as
42
MEN OF PROGRESS.
its Treasurer and Business Manager. He was also one of the pioneers in the beet-sugar enterprise which sought to establish that industry in Maine and served as President of the company. He also established later, with George O. K. Cram, the firm of George S. Hunt & Cram, sugar brokers, which business is still carried on. He was for thirty years a Director in the Merchants' National Bank, and its President during the last eight years of his life ; was President of the People's Ferry Company and the Central Wharf Corporation, a Director in the Portland Publishing Company, a leading member of the Board of Trade, and also was associated with various other business organizations and institutions. He was interested and actively connected with many outside local enterprises, and was always ready to render his aid and counsel for the further- ance of any projects calculated to enhance the busi- ness interests or extend the commercial prestige of Portland. Mr. Hunt was a public-spirited man, giving freely of his time and means for objects that he knew would benefit the city, but his life was devoted wholly to business, and he never sought a political or any other public office. He was mar- ried September 22, 1863, to Augusta Merrill Bars- tow, youngest daughter of George S. Barstow of Portland. Mrs. Hunt is widely known from her prominent connection with temperance and philan- thropic work. There are two children : Arthur Kinsman Hunt, who succeeds his father in business and as Director in the Merchants' Bank, and Philip Barstow Hunt, a resident of Minneapolis, Minnesota.
JORDAN, EBEN DYER, founder of the Dry- goods house of Jordan, Marsh & Company, Boston, was born in that part of Danville now in the city of Auburn, Maine, October 13, 1822, son of Benjamin and Lydia (Wright) Jordan, and died in Boston, November 15, 1895. He was of the seventh gen- eration in descent from the Rev. Robert Jordan, who came to this country from England about 1640, and for a long period held a leading position among the settlers in the region about Cape Eliza- beth, having been, as the early history of the district now Maine shows, a man able to successfully conduct large enterprises and to administer impor- tant trusts in a new conimunity. Benjamin Jordan, father of the subject of this sketch, was a farmer, a native of Danville, born in 1788. Eben D. Jordan, one of a large family of children, was left fatherless
and penniless at the tender age of four years, and his mother being unable to maintain them all upon her slender resources, he was placed with a farmer's family in the neighborhood, to whom she was to pay a small sum toward his support until he was abie to make his services useful. As he was a bright, active, industrious boy, this period came quickly. The family of Dyers, with whom he lived, and who were among the first settlers and most respected inhabitants of the town, were people of more than ordinary intelligence and strong common- sense, and early impressed upon the boy's mind the importance of telling the truth, of working hard, improving his time, being economical, and of following the golden rule of doing unto others as he wished to be done by. That these principles, first instilled into his mind by his affectionate mother, who deeply lamented her inability to care wholly for him, and afterwards fostered and encouraged by the Dyers, became the controlling influence of his life, none familiar with the career of the merchant prince need be told. The boy as he grew up worked industriously upon the farm, meanwhile attending brief summer and winter terms at the district school. This limited schooling was the foundation of the remarkable fund of knowledge he afterwards acquired by hard experience, a wide range of reading, extensive travel, and by personal contact with active, able and successful men in all the walks of business and professional life. At the age of fourteen, the boy resolved to leave the country for the broader field of the city. By working for himself in spare hours, and by exercising his natural abilities for trade, he had at that time managed to save up something less than three dollars in silver. With this sum of money supplementing his deter- mination to work and push himself to the front, he came to Boston, the half-fare by boat from Portland having reduced his cash capital to one dollar and a quarter. Embracing the first opportunity for em- ployment that presented, he went to work on a farm in Roxbury, at four dollars a month and board. Here he remained for nearly two years, when the chance came for which he had been looking - a place in a drygoods store. It was a small store at the North End, and his work was that usually allotted to the new boy - building the fire and sweeping out before breakfast, running errands and carrying bundles during the day, and gradually beginning to wait upon customers as the months rolled on. But he gained an insight into the retail drygoods business, and after two years he transferred his
43
MEN OF PROGRESS.
services to a store on Hanover street at a salary of two hundred and seventy-five dollars a year. He remained here a year, and of his modest stipend he saved a part, thus early adopting a rule of living within his income, and aiming to possess independent resources for time of need. At the age of nineteen he formed a valuable friendship with Joshua Stetson, then a prominent drygoods merchant of Hanover street, whose attention had . been attracted by the young man's energy, assiduity and quick business perceptions. Through Mr. Stetson's aid he was enabled to start in business on his own account, in a little store which he stocked and opened at Hanover and Mechanic streets. At that time the steamers from " Downeast " and the Provinces arrived in the early morning; and to catch the trade from this quarter the enterprising young merchant was up and had his store open at four o'clock, doing quite a thriving trade before breakfast, and before many neighboring storekeepers realized that it was sunrise. From the first customer, an old lady who bought half a yard of calico for seven cents and which was about the sum total of his first day's sales, the trade increased steadily, amounting to eight thousand dollars the first year, and at the end of four years reaching a hundred thousand dollars per annum. When he had reached the age of twenty-five, being desirous of obtaining greater practical knowledge in the matter of buying goods, and of gaining a better understanding of the general and broader lines of trade, he sold out his store and took a position in the well-known and successful house of James M. Beebe & Company, where in two years' time, by hard work and diligent study, he acquired a thorough familiarity with the methods and principles of the drygoods business on a large scale, and of the system that Mr. Beebe had been a quarter of a century in developing. Thus equipped, Mr. Jordan entered upon a new career as a Boston merchant. In 1851 he formed a part- nership with Benjamin L. Marsh, under the firm name of Jordan, Marsh & Company, and began the upbuilding of the great business which resulted in the largest retail establishment in America, and through which his name has for many years been widely known. The new house first opened a small jobbing store on Milk street, with only five thousand dollars cash capital, but with individual reputations for integrity, industry and ability, and with a united determination to succeed in building up a permanent and profitable trade. Now it was that the self-reliance, quick intelligence, untiring industry
and indomitable will of Eben D. Jordan were strikingly manifested, in meeting the strong con- petition and larger resources of older and well- established houses. Mr. Jordan introduced the cash system into the jobbing business, instituted other reforms, and improved the methods of trade for the benefit of customers, and the firm made good progress, but felt the disadvantage of not being able to import goods direct. Large importers were few in those days, but the most active competitors of the new house enjoyed this facility, and had large credit abroad. Accordingly in 1853 Mr. Jordan sailed for Europe, and notwithstanding the firm's
EBEN D. JORDAN.
limited means, secured by the magnetism of his personal presence all the credit needed. With the ability to import goods in large quantities, the house steadily progressed and increased its resources, within a few years enlarging its salesrooms and manufacturing departments, and through its spirit of enterprise constantly maintained, continually strengthening its name and increasing its profits. The panic year of 1857 was successfully weathered, and the firm, solvent in the midst of old and strong houses that had tottered and fallen, full of re- newed pluck and ambition, was ready for a new career of prosperity and mercantile success. In 1861 they bought the store at Washington and
44
- MEN OF PROGRESS.
Avon streets and launched out in the retail trade where now stands their magnificent establishment, with its many acres of salesrooms and its thousands of employes in the various departments. in 1883 the wholesale department was moved to the Wash- ington-street building, and additional quarters for the retail business were taken ; and in 1884, thirteen thousand feet of floor space was added to the already great retail establishment, making it the largest dry- goods store in the country and one of the three largest in the world. During all these years of his ' active business career, while building the fortunes of his house, Mr. Jordan was one of the most public- spirited of citizens, always ready to forward and promote every movement that commended itself to his judgment for the welfare of the city, although persistently refusing all suggestions of political honors. In the period of the Civil War he was among the foremost in promoting the fires of patriotism and in furnishing substantial aid to the government. At the breaking out of the struggle Jordan, Marsh & Company raised the first flag in the city, in the presence of an immense concourse of people in Winthrop Square, and upon the first call for troops, Mr. Jordan informed his employes that the firm would provide the outfits of all of them who desired to enlist, continue their salaries during absence, and retain their situations until their return. Forty five men enlisted under these terms. He also took a deep interest in the work of the Sanitary Commission, and contributed liberally to its funds. When Chicago was swept by fire in 1872 he became a member of the Boston Relief Committee, and took an active part in despatching the relief trains to the suffering city; and when later in the same year occurred the great Boston fire, he made a liberal contribution of ten thousand dollars, for the aid especially of the injured firemen. Mr. Jordan was especially interested in art, music and theatricals, a constant buyer of pictures of great intrinsic value, assisted in many ways in spreading the knowledge and love of music, and aided worthy artists in many lines wherever the opportunity offered. He was a generous promoter and supporter of the great World's Peace Jubilees held in Boston in 1869 and 1872, was a liberal patron of the New England Conservatory of Music, and many a struggling student of that institution has experienced the direct benefits of his sympathy and means. Mr. Jordan also did much for the comfort and well- being of his small army of more than three thou- sand employes, and the most kindly and affection-
ate relations always existed between them. In 1386 he established a free evening school for such of them as chose to avail themselves of this privi- lege to broaden their education ; and two years before that, he invited twenty-five of them to accompany him on a seven-weeks visit to England and France at his expense. The exhibit made before Europeans of the intelligence and capacity of our American working-people of both sexes, and their reception by President Grevy, John Bright and many other famous men, made of this unique trip one of the most notable episodes of Mr. Jor- dan's career. During the later years of his life he was an extensive traveller, and made frequent trips across the Atlantic. On one of these occasions, when starting on a trip abroad for business and relaxation, the ocean steamer that carried him was escorted down the harbor by the excursion steamer Empire State, bearing more than a thousand of his employcs and devoted friends, and by a number of smaller craft, all thronged with those who were eager to give their parting greeting. It would be hard to eclipse the spirit of the scene when, amid the sounds of music and cheers from young and old of both sexes, and the waving of handkerchiefs and flags, his steamer sailed out into the bay, and his whole family of employes gave the final salute. Another scene of a kindred character was that of a later date, when in the midst of his great emporium of trade, he gave in conjunction with his employes a partin , reception to the English lady reformer, Mrs. Laura Ormiston Chant, who was about to sail for Europe. The plaudits that greeted her were hearty, but when Mr. Jordan himself arose, his countenance beaming, and spoke to his employes as a father surrounded by his children, the lavish enthusiasm on every side made it manifest that his paternal kindliness was fully reciprocated with filial regard. It was such episodes as these that, not- withstanding his naturally strong pride in his mer- cantile success, gave him more real gratification than any mere commercial triumphs. In the con- duct of his immense business Mr. Jordan was alert and thorough to the close of his life. But while his great interests were in Boston, and his home in Massachusetts, he never lost his affection and admi- ration for his native state of Maine, and always manifested a great interest in her advancement and prosperity. He used to delight to visit his native place and talk over old times with the farmers of the neighborhood, often taking them to dinner with him, even when he did not know them personally,
45
MEN OF PROGRESS.
and no small share of his liberal means has been expended in improving the quality of stock on Maine farms. Politically Mr. Jordan was a Demo- «rat : but he was not an active party man, and never could be induced to accept public office. He was married January 13, 1847, to Miss Julia M. Clark, daughter of James Clark of Boston. They
active practice in the State and United States courts. Mr. Norton was counsel in the suits of Norton vs. Sickenesset and eighteen others, Eaton vs. Corson, and State vs. Hayden, all notable cases, and has been engaged in others equally important. In 1872 his son, William J. Knowlton, was admitted to partnership, since when the business of the firm had five children : Walter, now deceased; James , has been conducted under the name of H. & W. J. Clark : Julia Maria, now Mrs Dumaresq ; Eben ' Dver, Jr., the present head of the house of Jordan, March & Company ; and Alice, now Mrs. Arthur W. Finster, residing in England.
KNOWLTON, HIRAM, of the Law firm of H. & W. 1. Knowlton, Portland, was born in New Port- Lund, Somerset county. Maine, August 17, 1823, son of William and Mary (Chapman) Knowlton. He a grandson of Joseph Knowlton, and on the internal side of Nathaniel Chapman, who served in the War of the Revolution about four-and-a-half weare, was honorably discharged, and received a pension for the loss of a limb. He received his curly education in the common and high schools of West and North New Portland, and at Farmington (Maine) Academy, and later pursued a course of studies under private instruction. He studied law, was admitted to the Bar on January 31, 1861, and has ever since been engaged in active practice, ewept for an interval of five years when serving as Clerk of Courts. Mr. Knowlton has been a Select- man and member of the School Committee of Starks and Mercer ; was county Treasurer of Somerset county for two terms, 1858-9, and for two terms 1863-8, was Clerk of Courts in the same county ; was 'a member of the Executive Council under Governor Perham in 18;1 ; was Representative to the legislature from Skowhegan 1873-4, serving on the Judiciary, Railroad. Education and other com- inittees, and in the latter year as Chairman on the part of the House of the first two committees named ; and was a member of the State Valuation Commission for Cumberland County in ISSo and 1890, being Chairman of the Commission in the latter year. Mr. Knowlton commenced the practice of law in Mercer. In December 1862 he moved to Norridgewock and entered upon the duties of Clerk of Courts of Somerset County, January 1, 1863. In April 1868 he moved to Skowhegan and was in practice there until June 1874, when he removed to Portland, where he has since been engaged in
Knowlton. They have had an especially large commercial practice. Mr. Knowlton is a member of the Board of Trustees of Bates College and of the Maine Central Institute. He is also a member of the Masonic fraternity. In politics he is a
HIRAM KNOWLTON.
Republican, and has served several terms as a member of the County and State Republican com- mittees. He was married March 11, 1846, to Sabrina W. Chapman of Starks ; they have had three children : Amos Angier (deceased), William J., and Fred H. (deceased) Knowlton.
LARRABEE, McIvAn, of Wilson, Larrabee & Company, wholesale drygoods, Boston, was born in Limington, York county, Maine, September 4, 18.43, son of Ezekiel and Mary (Davis) Larrabee. He is of old New England ancestry. He was educated in the public schools of Limington and at
1
46
- MEN OF PROGRESS.
Limington Academy, was clerk for two years in the store of Colonel Henry Small at East Limington, then for the two years 1860-1 was a salesman in the drygoods store of F. A. Day at Biddeford, and in 1862 he went to Boston, where he filled clerkships in the retail drygoods stores of O. T. Taylor and R. H. White for a period of five years. In 1867 he entered the wholesale drygoods house of Morse, Shepard & Company. Upon the death of Mr. Shepard in 188o he was admitted to the succeeding firm of Morse, Wilson & Company, which upon Mr. Morse's decease in 1885 became the present house of Wilson, Larrabee & Company, carrying on an extensive wholesale drygoods business, selling goods in all the New England, Middle and Western States. Mr. Larrabee is a member of the Boston Art Club, and of Adoniram Masonic Lodge of Limington. In politics he is a Republican. He
1
MCIVAH LARRABEE.
was married in Boston in 1870 to Miss Abbie J. Glover ; they have four children : Ralph C., Charles M., Katherine G. and Mattie J. Larrabee.
LARRABEE, SETH LEONARD, Lawyer, Port- land, was born in Scarboro, Maine, January 22, 1855, son of Jordan L. and Caroline F. ( Beals) Larrabee. He comes of the well-known Scar-
borough Larrabees, of historic renown as Indian fighters from a period as early as 1660. He was reared on the paternal farm, acquired his early education in the district schools of his native town, was fitted for college at Westbrook (Maine) Seminary, graduating in 1870, and in 1871 entered Bowdoin College, from which he graduated in 1875. During his collegiate course he taught several terms in common schools, and after graduation he was for
SETH L. LARRABEE.
a year Professor of Languages in Goddard Seminary, Barre, Vermont. He studied law with the well- known Portland firm of Strout & Gage, was ad- mitted to the Cumberland Bar in 1878, and at once established himself in Portland, where he has since remained, having built up a large and lucrative practice and attained a leading position among the lawyers of Maine. In 1880 Mr. Larrabee was elected Register of Probate and Insolvency Courts for Cumberland County, and served in that office nine consecutive years. He was City Solicitor of Portland in 1891 and 1893, and was Representative from Portland to the Legislature of 1895. He has been always prominent in political matters, an ardent Republican, was one of the leaders of the last Maine House of Representatives, and is mentioned as the probable Speaker of the next House. In the volunteer militia he served as Captain of the First
'
MEN OF PROGRESS.
47
Maine Artillery in ISS1-3. Mr. Larrabee has been prominently identified with the Portland Board of Trade, as one of the Directors for many years, and as a member of the Board of Managers for the past six years. Possessing fine executive abilities, he has served on many important committees with great acceptance. As legal adviser of the Board in ' unportant matters he has rendered valuable aid in it> legislative work, as also in the investigation of industries seeking the 'assistance of the Board, and in the promotion and formation of new corporations during his long and efficient services as a member of the Board of Manufactures, where his work has been conspicuous and always satisfactory. Probably no man in Portland has taken a greater interest, or given more time and money, in organizing and ¡ romoting small manufactures in Portland and vomity the past few years than Mr. Larrabee, in why It he has shown untiring public spirit, sacrificing m'a h valnable time to answer the calls of his com- mittee. He was one of the originators of the Belknap Motor Company; the Casco and Port- lund buikling and loan associations, of which he is Treasurer and Attorney; also of the Evening Ex- pre> Newspaper Company, and is a Director in all of these successful institutions. Mr. Larrabee was one of the originators and chief promoters of the Daimond Island Association, of which he was President, and is connected with other important lind and resort development companies. He has recently assisted in the establishment of the Chap- man National Bank in Portland, of which he is a Director. Aside from all these enterprises, Mr. Larrabee has a large and growing law practice, and huis conducted many important legal cases before the courts with signal tact and ability. He was married October 21, ISSo, to Miss Lulu B. Sturte- vant, daughter of Dr. Joseph Sturtevant of Scarboro ; they have two children : Sydney B., aged fourteen, and Leon S. Larrabee, aged twelve years.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.