USA > Maine > Men of progress; biographical sketches and portraits of leaders in business and professional life in and of the state of Maine > Part 71
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that part of the charter relating to the organization of the public schools of the city, and during 1 888-89-90 he was an honored and useful member of the Board of Education of the city. Mr. Carver now resides in Augusta, and devotes his entire time to the duties of his office and to the development of the free-library movement throughout the state. He is President of the Maine State Library Associa- tion, member of the American Library Association, and member of the Historical Society and State Genes'ogical Society of Portland and the Historical Society of Augusta. He is also a member of Seth Williar's Post Grand Army of the Republic, Augusta ; Havelock Lodge Knights of Pythias, and St. Omer Commandery Knights Templar, of Water- ville. He was married in 1877 to Mary Caffrey Low, daughter of Ira H. Low of Waterville ; they have two children : Ruby and Dwight Carver.
COGGAN, MARCELLUS, Lawyer, of Boston and Malden, Massachusetts, was born in Bristol, Lincoln county, Maine, September 6, 1847, son of Leonard C. and Betsey ( Martin) Coggan. He received his early education in the common schools, fitted for college at Lincoln Academy in Newcastle, Maine, and graduated from Bowdoin College in 1872 as orator of his class. After graduation he was elected Principal of Nichols Academy in Dudley, Massa- chusetts, and held that position until June 1879, moving in that year to Malden. Entering upon the study of law with Child & Powers of Boston, he was admitted to the Bar in 1881, and remained with the firm until 1886, when he formed a partnership with William Schofield under the name of Coggan & Schofield, with offices in Boston and Malden. This relation continued until the dissolution of the firm in 1895, since which time Mr. Coggan has practiced his profession alone. He was counsel for the defence in the famous case of the Common- wealth vs. James A. Tre'ethen and William H. Smith for the murder of Deltena J. Davis, which resulted at the first trial in the acquittal of Smith, and at the second trial in the acquittal of Trefethen .. While resident in Dudley, Mr. Coggan served for four years as a meniber of the School Board, and was active in town affairs. On beginning his legal studies in Boston, he established his residence in Malden, where he became an active member of the School Board and for one year was Chairman of that body.' In 1886 and 1887 he served as Mayor
of that city, receiving a practically unanimous vote at his second election, and declining to run for a third term. He was also Chairman of the Charter Committee to revise the city charter of Malden. In politics he has always been a Republican. Mr. Coggan is a member of Converse Lodge of Masons in Malden, also of Malden Lodge of Odd Fellows and F. E. Converse Lodge Knights of Pythias. He was married November 26, 1872, to Luella B.
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MARCELLUS COGGAN.
Robbins, daughter of C. C. Robbins of Bristol, Maine ; they have three children : Marcellus Sumner Linus Child and Florence Betsey Coggan.
DINGLEY, NELSON, JR., Governor of Maine 1874-5, and Member of Congress from the Second Congressional District of Maine since 1881, was born in Durham, Androscoggin county, Maine, in his grandfather Lambert's farmhouse on the banks of the Androscoggin River, February 15, 1832, son of Nelson and Jane ( Lambert) Dingley. The year following his birth his parents moved to Parkman, Piscataquis county, where they lived on a farm for a short time, and then took charge of the village tavern, with which a store was connected. In 18;s the family removed to Unity, Wako county, and
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thence in 1854 to Auburn, Androscoggin county. His father was a merchant and farmer, and is still living in Auburn at the ripe age of eighty-seven ; his mother died in 1871. The subject of this sketch was distinguished in the village school for his studious habits and good scholarship. In vaca- tions'he aided his father in the store and on the farm. When he was twelve years of age he attended high school in a distant part of the town, walking three miles morning and night. At the age of sixteen he was instrumental in organizing a se tion of Cadets of Temperance in the village where he resided, which proved a very efficient
NELSON DINGLEY, JR.
temperance educator in the neighborhood. In this organization he engaged in debates, and exhibited that deep interest in temperance which has distin- guished his maturer life. At seventeen he taught a winter school in tie town of China, fourteen miles from home, and he continued to teach win- ters while fitting for college. In 1850, at the age of eighteen, he entered Waterville (Maine) Acad- emy, of which the well-known Professor J. H. Hanson was Principal, and there completed his . preparation for college. Entering Waterville Col- lege (now Colby University) in 1851, he remained there a year and a half, and then became a student at Dartmouth College, from which institution he
graduated in 1855, with high rank as a scholar, debater and writer. After leaving college Mr. Dingley studied law in 1855-6 with Morrill & Fessenden of Auburn, to which city his parents had removed while he was in college, and in the latter year he was admitted to the Bar. Instead of entering upon the practice of law he decided to become a journalist, for which profession he had always manifested a decided taste. He began to write for public journals when eighteen years of age, and was a frequent contributor to the local press both during and after his collegiate course. In September 1856 he purchased the Lewiston Jour- nal, published in the adjoining city of Lewiston, of which he had been practically the editor while studying law, and to which in 1861 he added a daily edition. The paper rapidly increased in circulation and influence under his management, and soon became distinguished not only for its able and candid advocacy of Republican principles, but also for its decided temperance and moral tone. Mr. Dingley's active political career commenced at the same time with his journalistic life, although from a boy he had taken great interest in political questions. His first vote was cast in 1854 for Hon. Anson P. Morrill, the anti-slavery and temperance candidate for Governor, a political combination from which arose the Republican party of Maine during the following winter. He threw himself into the Fremont Campaign in 1856 with all the ardor of youth and ability of age, writing editorials for his paper in the day-time and speaking in. behalf of the Republican cause in the school-houses of adjoining towns in the evening ; and although only twenty- four years of age he was at once recognized as a young man of high promise and as a valuable advo- cate of the Republican cause. In 1861, at the age of twenty-nine, he was elected Representative from Auburn to the State Legislature, in which body he at once took high rank; was re-elected in 1862, and chosen Speaker of the House at the session of 1863. In 1863 he removed to Lewiston, where a few months after he was elected to the Legislature, and at the opening of the legislative session of 1864 was unanimously re-elected Speaker, the duties of which position he discharged with great ability and success. At the state election of 1864 he was elected to the House a fourth time, and at the ses- sion of 1865 was again tendered the position of Speaker, which he declined, preferring to take his place on the floor, in which position he was the recognized leader of the Republicans of the House.
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He was also a Representative to the Legislature from Lewiston in 186S and 1873. During his six terms in the State Legislature he took an active and leading part in the debates and business, serving on the Committees on Judiciary, Education, Railroads and Federal, Relations. During the dozen years 1861-73, when Mr. Dingley was taking so conspic- uous a part in the State Legislature and state poli- tics, he participated in every political campaign, delivered n 'merous addresses before educational, temperance 'and religious conventions, and many lectures before lyceums. In 1867-8 he was at the head of the State Lodge of Good Templars, an im- portant temperance organization, and was regarded as an ackno,. edged leader in the temperance and prohibitory movement in Maine. In 1873 Mr. Dingley was nominated as the Republican candi- date for Governor of Maine, by a vote of two to one against two popular opponents, and was elected by about ten thousand majority. In 1874 he was re-elected by over eleven thousand majority, declining a third nomination in 1875. His services in the gubernatorial chair in the promotion of economy, the equalization of taxation, and in secur- ing a revision of the State Constitution, were so valuable and acceptable as to win the approbation of even his political opponents. He was one of the delegates-at-large from Maine to the Republican National Convention in 1876, and served on the Committee on Resolutions, and was one of the sub- committee of five who drafted the platform. He actively participated in the Presidential campaign of 1876, and in the state campaigns of 1877-8-9 was regarded as one of the ablest speakers and writers in the state on the financial issues raised by the Greenbackers. In 1879-So he was Chairman ot the Republican Executive Committee, and in the Presidential election of 1880 he labored effectively for the Republican cause, both in his paper and on the platform. In 1881 Mr. Dingley was nominated by the Republicans of the Second Congressional District of Maine to fill the vacancy in Congress caused by the resignation of Hon. William P. Frye. He was elected by a majority of over five thousand, nearly twice as large as ever before given to any candidate in that district, and took his seat in the House at the opening of the first session of the Forty-seventh Congress, December ISSI. He served on the Committee on Banking and Currency and as a member of the Select Committee on Alco- holic Liquor Traffic, and during the session he pre- , sided several times over the House in Committee
of the Whole. Mr. Dingley's first speech in Con- gress was made April 25, 1882, on "Protection to American Shipping," the House being in Com- mittee of the Whole on the bill to create a tariff commission. This speech was listened to with unusual attention, and was pronounced by the Washington Star "a speech of much ability and force, giving promise of a successful career in Con- gress," and by the Washington correspondent of the New York Tribune "one of the best speeches ever made by a new member." His speech in the House on the bill to extend the corporate existence of national banks, May 17, 1882, was regarded as so able and satisfactory a discussion of the national banking system, that it was reprinted by the Republican Congressional Committee and widely circulated as a campaign document. In June 1882 he made a report from the Bank- ing and Currency Committee on the "Silver Ques- tion," which attracted much attention, and was pronounced by Abram S. Hewitt of New York, one of the ablest presentations of the silver ques- tion ever made to Congress. On June 26, 1882, he made a speech on " Reduction of Taxation," which was reprinted and circulated as a campaign document by the Republican Congressional Com- mittee. Under a joint resolution introduced into the House by Mr. Dingley and passed August 7, 1882, he was appointed a member of a joint com- mittee to investigate the condition and wants of American shipbuilding and shipowning interests. The report of the committee, drawn up by Mr. Dingley and unanimously agreed to by the commit- tee, was regarded as a very able and valuable docu- ment. The committee reported a bill to remove certain burdens on American shipping, framed by Mr. Dingley, which passed the House, but there was not time to reconcile disagreeing amendments between the two houses before the Forty-Seventh Congress expired. While this bill was under con- sideration in the House, he made a speech on the " Revival of American Shipping," in reply to Con- gressman Cox, which placed him at once in the front rank of Congressmen, and gave him a national reputation. In 1882 he was re-elected as a Con- gressinan-at-Large for the Forty-eighth Congress. At the opening of Congress in December 1884, Speaker Carlisle appointed him at the head of the Republican minority on both the Banking and Cur- rency committees and the Select Committee on American Shipbuilding and Shipowning Interests. Mr. Dingley at once re-introduced his shipping
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bill, which was passed by the House, after a dis- cussion in which he took the leading part, and sent to the Senate. The latter body amended it by adding a provision for the encouragement of American postal steamship lines, but subsequently the difference was adjusted in conference, and the bill was approved by the President on June 24, 1884. As this was the first step that had been taken by Congress for half a century to encourage American shipping, the measure attracted much a tention, and gave Mr. Dingley a merited reputa- tion as the leading friend of the American merchant marine in Congress. On February 7, 1884, Mr. Dingley reported from the Shipping Committee his ""] to constitute a Bureau of Navigation in the Treasury Department, and later in the month it was passed in the House under a suspension of the rules. Subsequently the Senate concurred, and the first Bureau was organized in the Executive Depart- ments at Washington to promote the interests of the American merchant marine. Mr. Dingley was re-elected to the Forty-ninth Congress from the Second Maine District in 1884, and at the opening of the session in December 1885 was appointed by Speaker Carlisle to the same committee positions that he had held in the Forty-eighth Congress. He presented a new shipping bill, abolishing certain fees for services to American vessels, and otherwise promoting our shipping interests, which was unanimously approved by the Ship- ping Committee, and passed by the House under his lead. Subsequently the Senate concurred, and the bill became a law. In March 1886 Mr. Dingley made a minority report from the Shipping Committee against the free ship bill, and later made an elaborate speech in the House against the bill, in reply to Mr. Dunn of Arkansas. The speech probably defeated the bill, as it was not subsequently brought up for action. In the second session of the Forty-ninth Congress Mr. Dingley spoke again on the " Fishery Question," and subsequently spoke on the same subject at the dinner of the Merchants' Club of Boston. His speech was published in all the Boston papers, and was commended as a " very able and clear statement of the justice of the American position." At the annual meeting of the Congres- sional Temperance Society in February 1887, Mr. Dingley was elected President, and at the anniver- sary a few days later he made the principal speech. He was re-elected President of the Society each year during his service in Congress. During his entire Congressional service, he made frequent tem-
perance speeches in Washington, as well as at temperance gatherings in Maine. He also fre- quently spoke in various states in political cam- paigns in behalf of the Republican cause. In June 1886 Mr. Dingley was re-elected to the Fiftieth Congress from the Second Maine District, and at the opening of the session in December 1887 was appointed by Speaker Carlisle at the head of the Republican minority on Banking and Currency, and also on the new Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries, a standing committee of the House, created at the instance of Mr. Dingley. During the first session of this centennial Congress - memor- able as being the longest ever known in the history of the government - Mr. Dingley took a very prom- inent part in the proceedings of the House, especially in the great tariff debate, making two elaborate speeches which were reprinted and extensively cir- culated in the campaign. During this long session of the Fiftieth Congress he made several strong speeches on other subjects. Mr. Dingley partici- pated actively in the campaign in Maine in 1888, and later spoke in behalf of the Republican ticket in Pennsylvania, Virginia, New York city, Rhode Island and New Hampshire. At the state election in Maine in September 1888, he was re-elected to the Fifty-first Congress, in which he was a prominent member of the Committee on Ways and Means, and took an active part in framing the tariff act of 1890. His speech on the bill was widely circulated. Mr. Dingley was re-elected to the Fifty-second Congress in 1890, the Fifty-third in 1892, the Fifty-fourth in 1894, and to the Fifty-fifth in 1896, by large and increased majorities. In the Fifty-second and Fifty- third Congresses he was an active member of the Committee on Appropriations, and his speech in 1894 in opposition to the Wilson tariff bill com- manded the attention of the country. When the Fifty-fourth Congress met in December 1895, he was made Chairman of the Ways and Means Com- mittee and leader of the House, by Speaker Reed. Under his lead the House in December promptly passed an exigency tariff bill to increase the revenue, also a bill to protect the gold reserve. His speeches on both of these bills, and his speech on the Senate free-silver substitute, have been largely circulated. In formning his cabinet prior to entering upon the duties of Chief Executive March 4, 1897, President Mckinley tendered the position of Secretary of the Treasury to Mr. Dingley, but he declined the flatter- ing offer, preferring to remain in his position as Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee and
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floor leader of the Republican Majority of the House. Under his lead, the House of Representatives, with- in sixteen days after the Fifty-fifth Congress was convened in extraordinary session, on the fifteenth of March 1897, by President Mckinley, passed a bill revising the tariff with a view of providing ade- ¿quate revenue to carry on the government and to encouragé the industries of the United States. Mr. Dingley is a Congregationalist in religion, and was Moderator of the National Congregational Council which met at Syracuse, New York, in 1894. He was married Jui : 11, 1857, to Miss Salome McKenney of Auburn, Maine ; they have had six children : Henry M., Charlas L. (deceased), Edward N., Arthur H., Albert G. and Edith Dingley.
FERNALD, REV. OLIVER HALEY, D. D., Sears- port, was born in Tremont, Hancock county, Maine, January 19, 1835. His father, Ebenezer Fernald, was a man of prominence in his native town, and his mother, Sophronia Wasgatt, daughter of Davis Wasgatt, Jr., and his wife, Sally Hadlock, was a suc- cessful teacher of youth. The ancestry of this branch of the Fernalde reckons back three hundred years to Dr. Renald Fernald, a Surgeon in the English Navy, who resigned his position and came to Kittery to the then infant colony where he arrived in July 1631. He held various offices of trust, was Surgeon, Commissioner, Surveyor, and for a long time Clerk of the colony. Mr. Fernald's pedigree is traced from this distinguished gentleman in the following line by generations : (1) Dr. Renald Fernald, who mar- ried Johanna --; (2) Captain William Fernald, married Elizabeth Langdon ; (3) Nathaniel Fernald, married Margaret Trip ; (4) Tobias Fernald, mar- ried Lucy Lewis ; (5) Tobias Fernald, Jr., married Comfort Tarr of Mount Desert, and (6) Ebenezer Fernald, father of the subject of this sketch. Dr. Renald Fernald w. s a man of great force of char- acter, who could be placid as the sunshine, or stern to rule the storm. His son William was noted for his business tact, executive ability and versatile genius ; he was a large shipbuilder, owned and operated several farms, was captain of his company in time of war, was wise in counsel, and clear in judgment. A line of patriotism has shown itself in all the generations of this notable family. Conspic- nous among the Rev. Mr. Fernald's ancestors for patriotism and daring were Captain William Fernald of Indian War fame, Captain John Fernald at the , taking of Louisburg, Ensign Joshua Fernald, Lieu-
tenant William Fernald, Colonel Tobias Fernald and General Andrew P. Fernald among the Revo- lutionary heroes, with scores in the later wars. Oliver H. Fernald's early education was acquired under great difficulties in the common schools at Mount Desert, and much of his preparatory work was done after the close of the hours of labor, studying by burning pitch knots or tallow dips. He spent a term at Ellsworth Academy, and three years at the Maine Wesleyan Seminary at Kent's Hill, under the supervision of that illustrious educator, Rev. H. P. Torsey, D. D., LL. D., in his final prep- aration for college. Obliged to educate himself, he
O. H. FERNALD.
taught winters to get money to pay his school bills later on, and graduated at the Maine Wesleyan Seminary in June 1859. In September 1859 he entered the Wesleyan University at Middletown, Connecticut, and took the regular classical course, graduating with honors in 1863, receiving his Bach- elor's degree. The Master's degree was given him in June 1866, and his degree of Doctor of Divinity was conferred by Dacota University in August 1888. His training for active life commenced early. He was dedicated to the Lord for the work of the min- istry by a devoted and pious mother from the hour of his birth, and through all his early life everything else was made to conform to this purpose. Ilis
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early Christian training, selection of books and methods of study, his choice of youthful companions, were all matters of solicitude to his ever attentive and thoughtful mother. In fact, he has often said that he did not remember the time that he preached his first sermon, but must have been very young. He often harangued his schoolmates on themes which at the time seemed ill-chosen but have since proved "good theology and among the grandest in the Bible. He was a minister from birth, and was educated an ' trained to his calling. On leaving college he was offered the Principalship of the High School in Charlestown, Ohio, and Warren, Rhode Island, and elected Professor of Latin in the East Maine Con- f nce Seminary at Bucksport, all of which he declined for the more congenial position of Professor of Higher English and Languages in Scholfield's Commercial College, Providence, Rhode Island, where he taught from September 1863 to April 1870. In April 1870 he joined the (old) Providence Con- ference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and has since received the following appointments : In 1870-1, stationed at Portsmouth, Rhode Island ; 1872-3-4, at Somerset, Massachusetts; 1875-6-7, Central Church, Taunton, Massachusetts ; 1878-9, Thames street, Newport, Rhode Island ; 1880-1-2, Portland, Connecticut ; 1883-4, Rockville, Con- necticut ; 1884, elected President of New England Southern Conference Seminary ; 1886-7, transferred to East Maine Conference, and stationed at South- west Harbor, Mount Desert ; 1888-9, Bucksport, Maine ; 1890-1-2-3-4 at Castine, Maine ; 1895-6-7 at Searsport, Maine, where he still resides. In his early manhood Mr. Fernald served on the Board of Superintending School Committee in his native town, and in March 1887 was elected Supervisor. In 1889 he was on the School Board in Bucksport, Maine, and on his removal to Castine, the seat of the Eastern Normal School, served as Supervisor from March 1893 to March 1895, during which time he raised the grave of the High School to that of a first class Latin High School, and transformed the gram- mar school to a model grammar school adjunct to the Eastern Normal School. This gave Castine schools rank among the first in the state. He was elected Trustee of his alma mater, Wesleyan Univer- sity, in April 1888, and continued in that relation GREENLEAF, LUTHER CARROLL, Architect, Boston, was born in Abbot, Piscatagnis county, Maine, December 27, 1866, son of Joseph Warren and Melissa Elizabeth ( Morton) Greenleaf. Ile is a descendant in the ninth generation front (1) until May 1895 ; and was elected Trustee of East Maine Conference Seminary in June 1888, which office he still retains. In the temperance reform he figured as an old Washingtonian, a Temperance Watchman, a Son of Temperance, a Good Templar, < Edmund Greenleaf, the common ancestor of the
serving as Grand Chaplain of the Grand Lodge of Rhode Island from May 1871 for one year, and a Temple of Honor member. His voice and vote were always for temperance. In the " Mystic Tie " he has held a place. He was made a Master Mason in Tremont (Maine) Lodge, September 23, 1886, and was appointed Grand Chaplain of the Grand Lodge of Maine in May 1890 and May 1891. He took the Royal Arch degree in Hancock (Maine) Royal Arch Chapter, October 16, 1889, and was appointed and installed Grand Chaplain of the Grand Royal Arch Chapter of Maine by G. H. P. Geo. W. Goulding, February 19, 1890, at Emery Hall, Bucksport. Mr. Fernald is a good lecturer on historical masonry. He became a member of the Odd Fellows April 23, 1897. In literary circles he was always active. He joined the Alpha Delta Phi fraternity, Middletown Chapter, in 1859, and remains a loyal member ; and was elected to the Phi Beta Kappa fraternity in June 1863. He is also an active member of the Maine Genealogical Society, of the Patriotic Sons of America, and of the Society of Sons of American Revolution. In politics he has always been allied to the Republican party. He was hand in hand with them in the war, voted with them along the line of reconstruction, believes with them in the protection of our industries and on the basis of sound money, and proposes to continue a Republican on principle. Mr. Fernald was married March 6, 1859, to Miss Hannah A. Lopans of Tremont, Maine, who died October 29, 1864 ; they had a daughter : Flora Arnette, born August 3, 1861, and who died April 3, 1832, a student in Wesleyan University in the class of 1884. His second marriage was July 31, 1866, with Miss Ruth A. Lawton of Leverett, Massachusetts, by whom he has one daughter : Louisa Lawton, born January 30, 1873, graduated from Bucksport Seminary, Latin Scientific Course, in June 1891, and from the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, June 26, 1895 ; she pursued postgraduate work, and taught in the same institution a year, and is now (1897) Director of Music in Chamberlain Institute, Ran- dolph, New York.
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