USA > Maine > Men of progress; biographical sketches and portraits of leaders in business and professional life in and of the state of Maine > Part 80
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who was commissioned Captain of the Fourth Wells land, where he was born July 23, 1595 ; removed Company in Colonel Sayers' regiment, June 25, 1776, and was a Captain in Colonel Prime's York County Regiment from April 21, 1780, until dis- charged December 8, 1780. From Bourne's His- tory of Wells and Kennebunk he appears to have been a prominent man and active in town affairs. His son Samuel, grandfather of Charles L., who was born in Wells but .lived in Portland and for many years in the Danish West India Islands, and died in the former city, served on the staff of the Second: Brigade, Twelfth Division of Infantry, Massachusetts Militia, for the defence of Portland
CHAS. L. CLARKE.
in the War of 1812. He was subsequently com- missioned Ensign in the Portland Light Infantry, February 8, 1816, was promoted to Captain on November 27, 1818, and served in that capacity until he resigned and was discharged March 7, 1821. On the maternal side the subject of this sketch is des ended from Robert Clement ( 1 ) of Haverhill, Massachusetts, who came, it is said, from London, England; he landed in Salisbury in 1642, and was the first Deputy from Haverhill to the General Court, also was Associate Judge and County Commissioner. He is also descended from John Osgood (1), who landed at Ipswich, Massa- chusetts, from Wherwell, Hampshire county, Eng-
to Newbury and thence to Andover, Massachusetts, where he was the second settler, was one of the founders of the church in 1645 and first Repre- sentative of the town in 1651. From him came Captain John Osgood (2), born in England, Repre- sentative to the General Court, who was imprisoned by the notorious Governor Andros for resisting his tyranny, and whose wife was Mary Clements (2), noted as among those tried for witchcraft but not condemned. Another of his maternal ancestors was John Frye (1), who came from Basing, Eng- land, in 1638, and was the eighth settler of Andover, where .he was for many years prominent in all town affairs. Captain James Frye (2), son of the foregoing, married Lydia Osgood (3) ; he was active in military and public service, was Quarter- master and one of the twelve men drafted from Andover who made the terrible winter march and took part in the famous "Swamp Fight " with the Narragansett Indians, December 19, 1675. James Frye (3), who was killed by the Indians at Brad- ford, married Joanna Sprague of Malden ; he was a brother of the Jonathan Frye who was a Chaplain of Captain Lovewell's Company, and was mortally wounded at Lovewell's Fight at Fryeburg, May 8, 1725, and died in the wilderness. Colonel James Frye (4) was at the first capture of Louisburg in 1745, was Lieutenant-Colonel of Plaisted's Regi- ment in the Crown Point Expedition of 1756, Colonel of the Fourth Essex Regiment 1760, Colo- nel and field and staff officer 1775, and was wounded in the thigh at the Battle of Bunker Hill ; his daughter Molly Frye (5) married Ingalls Bragg (5), whose granddaughter was the mother of the subject of our sketch. Thomas Bragg (4), father of Ingalls, was son of Edward (3), and probably grandson of Timothy (2), and great-grandson of Edward Bragg (1) of Ipswich (1642), and was Deputy Sheriff of Essex county in 1770. Ingalls Bragg (5) was a minute man in Andover, enlisted January 31, 1775, marched on the Lexington Alarm in Captain Thomas Poor's Company in the regiment of Colonel James Frye (afterwards his father-in-law), and was in Captain Benjamin Farnum's Company at Bunker Hill. James Frye Bragg (6), grandfather of our subject, was born in Andover, Massachusetts, moved to Andover, Maine, and thence to Errol, New Hampshire, where he died ; he was a Sergeant in James Stevens' Company of Infantry (East Andover, Maine), First ( Hastings') Regiment Massachusetts Militia, in the War of 1812, serving
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MEN OF PROGRESS.
in the defence of Portland in 1814; was commis- sioned Lieutenant First Regiment, Second Brigade, Thirteenth Division Massachusetts Volunteer Militia, August 26, 1814, promoted to Captain July 8, 1817, and discharged March 1, 1820; his wife was Sarah Graham (3) of Concord, New Hampshire, daughter of Joshua Graham (2) and granddaughter of George Graham (1), and whose mother was Hannah Chand- ler (7). In the latter line Mr. Clarke descended from William Chandler (1), who settled in Roxbury in 1637 ; Captain Thomas Chandler (2), twenty- third settler in Andover, Massachusetts; Captain John Chandler (3) ; Ensign John Chandler (4), who married Hannah Frye (3), daughter of Samuel Frye (2) ; Captain John Chandler (5), who mar- ried Tabitha Abbot (3). daughter of Nathaniel Abbot (2) and granddaughter of George Abbot (1), and was one of the original settlers of Pennacook (Concord), New Hampshire, where he was promi- nent in affairs, and .. inr 1745 was leader of an expedi- tion against the French and Indians; Daniel Chandler (6), Captain in Colonel Bedel's Regiment at Fort Cedars in Canada 1776, in Gerrish's Regi- ment at Ticonderoga 1777, enlisted for three years; or for the War of the Revolution, whose daughter Hannah (7) was the mother of Mr. Clarke's grand- mother, Sarah (Graham) Bragg. Another ancestor was John Ayer (1), who settled in Salisbury in 1640, removed to Ipswich 1644 and to Haverhill 1647 ; John Aslett, the fourteenth settler at Andover, married Rebecca Ayer (2), their daughter Mary Aslett (2) married Samuel Frye (2), and their daughter Hannah Frye (3) married Ensign John Chandler (+). Thus it is that on the maternal side the subject of this sketch traces his ancestral lines to six original settlers of note : John Frye, 1638 ; Robert Clement, 1642 ; John Osgood, before 1639 ; John Ayer, 1640 ; William Chandler, 1637 ; George Abbot, who was at Andover in 1643 but had been in Roxbury for several years ; and probably Edward Bragg, before 1642. Charles L. Clarke received his early education in the public schools of his native city, graduating from the Portland High School in 1870, and winning the Brown Memorial Medal awarded for scholarship-standing highest in .ank among the boys for the four-years course. Soon after graduation he was articled to a civil engineer of that city, and spent a year in general surveying. Near the end of that period he was First Assistant-Engineer of the Portland Division of the Boston & Maine Railroad, now the Western Division of the consolidated road of that name.
But deeming a technical education necessary for one following the engineering profession, he gave up his position and took a four-years course in civil-engineering at Bowdoin College. From that institution he graduated in 1875, an honor man, and was made a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society. In college he was a member of the Psi Upsilon Fraternity, and at the time of graduation he received the degree of M. S., which in 1880 was supplemented by the post-graduate degree of C. E. After graduating he travelled abroad, to visit and study engineering works, such as docks, bridges, steel works, etc., in England, Wales, Ireland, France, Belgium and Germany, returning to Amer- ica in 1876, after an absence of nine months. For the next three years his time was devoted to studies and teaching. In February 1880 he entered the laboratory of Thomas A. Edison at Menlo Park, New Jersey, as one of his assistants. Mr. Edison had just invented the incandescent electric lamp, now in such universal use, and Mr. Clarke brought to bear his training as an engineer and mathematician in assisting Mr. Edison in his work of devising and practically perfecting a sys- tem of electrical generation and distribution which should render his new lamp generally available for domestic use in the same manner as gas, and which included dynamos, high-speed engines, underground system of conductors for distributing the electric current, etc. In 1881, it having been decided to begin the work of electric lighting, commercially, Mr. Edison moved to New York city, and in March of that year Mr. Clarke was appointed First Assistant and Acting Chief-Engineer of the Edison Electric Light Company, which position he held until February 1884. As Engineer he superintended the designing and construction of the electric-light station of the Edison Illuminating Company of New York at 257 Pearl street, which began opera- tions September 4, 1882, and was the first electric- light station in the world for general lighting purposes. In February 1884, Mr. Clarke left the Edison Company to become Manager and Superin- tendent of the Telemeter Company in New York, organized to exploit inventions of his own for electric apparatus for indicating and recording temperature, pressure, and height of water, etc., at any desired distant point. With this company he remained until 1887, when he became Electrical Engineer of the Gibson Electric Company in New York, manufacturers of electric storage batteries, and continued in that capacity for two years. In
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the fall of 1889 he started in his present business as Consulting Mechanical and Electrical Engineer, and Expert in Patent Causes. His business is almost exclusively as a patent expert in mechanical and electrical cases, comparatively few patent experts understanding the latter branch, which usually presents uncommon difficulties, and for which Mr. Clarke's training and experience especially qualify him. His place of business is in the National Bank of Commerce Building, 31 Nassau street. Mr. Clarke was a member of- the National Con- ference of Electricians held in Philadelphia in 1884, and was a member of the Board of Examiners at the International Electrical Exhibition in Philadel- phia in that year, in that capacity serving on the sections pertaining to dynamo-metrical measure- ments, steam-engines, electric conductors and underground-conduits. He was also a member of the International Electrical Congress of 1893, held at Chicago in connection with the World's Colum- bian Exposition. He is domestic in his tastes, and clubs and club-life are not to his liking, but is a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, the Phi Beta Kappa Alumni Association of New York and the New York Historical Society. He also holds membership in the Evangelical Lutheran Church. In politics Mr. Clarke has always been a Republican, but has never been publicly active or held a political office. He was first married September 14, 1881, to Helen Elizabeth Sparrow, daughter of John and Helen (Stoddard) Sparrow of Portland, Maine, by whom he has a son : John Curtis Clarke, born August 4, 1886. His second marriage was September 20, 1894, to Henriette Mary Augusta Willatowski, of Sioux Falls, South Dakota. She was born in Kiel, the principal naval station first of Prussia and then of the German Empire. Her father, Robert Julius Willatowski, born in Putzig-bei-Danzig in 1834, deceased 1884, was a graduate of the Naval Academy at Danzig, rose rapidly to the rank of Chief Engineer, and in twenty-eight years of active service in the Royal Prussian and Imperial German navies made two voyages round the world, served in the Danish and Franco-Prussian wars, and received many decora- tions for distinguished services. Her mother, Marie Heynsohn, comes from ancestry who have lived for many generations in Cuxhaven, Germany, where she also was born. The fruit of this marriage is a daughter: Mary Willatowski Clarke, born September 1, 1896.
CHICKERING, REVEREND JOHN WHITE, Profes- sor of Natural Science in Gallaudet College, Wash- ington, District of Columbia, was born in Bolton, Massachusetts, September 11, 1831, son of Reverend John White Chickering, D. D., and Frances Evelina Knowlton. His family records run back to Jeffrey de Chickering of Chickering Hall, Parish of Hoxne, Suffolk county, England. The name is Cornish- British-Chi, a house, and cairne, a rock : " A House on a Rock." Nathaniel Chickering, of the fifth generation from Jeffrey, came to Dedham, Massa- chusetts, about 1660. Professor Chickering's Ameri-
J. W. CHICKERING.
can ancestors on both sides lived in Eastern New England, and among them have been Congregational ministers for five generations. He received his early education in private and public schools of Portland, Maine, and was graduated at Bowdoin Col- lege as A. B. in 1852. Following graduation he taught school at Merry Hill, North Carolina ; Foxcroft, Corinna, Bucksport and Portland, Maine ; and Ovid, New York. He also for a time edited the North Adams (Massachusetts) Transcript. Graduating at Bangor Theological Seminary in 1860, he was settled for three years following as Congregational minister over the church in Springfiekl, Vermont. From 1863 to 1865 he was Secretary of the Vermont Bible
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Society, and from 1865 to 1870 be was Pastor of the Second Congregational Church of Exeter, New Hampshire. In the latter year he was called to the chair ot Professor of Natural Science in Gallaudet College, Washington, District of Columbia, in which capacity he has continued to the present time, supplying in the meantime various churches. Pro- fessor Chickering's life has been principally devoted to teaching, preaching, lecturing and writing, always maintaining an active interest in all matters pertain- ing to the public welfare ; morals, patriotism, science, music, sanitary progress, and every sort of Christian activity. He is a great lover of natural scenery, and has explored sections all over America, from Nova Scotia to Alaska, especially in the states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and North Carolina, and has made one trip to Europe. He is a member of the Philosophical, Biological, Geographical, An- thropological and Choral societies, the Pilgrim Club and the Sons of the American Revolution, all of Washington ; also of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity. Professor Chickering was mar- ried in 1856 to Luciana Jameson of Gorham, Maine ; they have had three children : John J., Frances F .. and Luciana Chickering.
COLLINS, BEN S., Lawyer, Anson, was born in Anson, Somerset County, Maine, March 3, 1857, son of Eugene F. and Frances (Bickford) Collins. His paternal grandfather, James Collins, was one of the organizers of the first State Government of Maine. On the maternal side his grandfather was Samuel Bickford, a clergyman of the Christian Church. He attended the town schools of Anson until eleven years old, then for five years the Eaton Family School for Boys at Norridgewock, Maine, and one year at Phillips Andover (Massachusetts). Academy. After reading law for two years with Hon. J. J. Parlin of North Anson, he entered the Albany (New York) Law School and graduated therefrom in May 1878. In the meantime, August 7, 1877, he was admitted to the Bar at Augusta, Maine, and immediately after graduation from law school he opened an office in his native town, where he has ever since practiced and resided. Mr. Col- lins has served as Town Agent of Anson for several years, and was Town Clerk and First Selectman for the two years 1895-6, being unanimously re-elected the latter year. In 1894-6 he was County Attorney
of Somerset county. In 1890, the town having a fine waterpower which was not utilized, Mr. Collins organized a corporation under the name of the North Anson Improvement & Waterpower Com- pany, of which he was elected President, and still holds that office. A dam was erected by the com- pany at the head of the falls, and no one coming to utilize the power, he formed a co-partnership with Mark Emery and son, under the name of Emery, Collins & Company, and the next year they erected a fine sawmill on the privilege, giving employment to about twenty men. In early life Mr. Collins was a Democrat in politics. In 1880 he ran for Clerk
BEN S. COLLINS.
of Courts of his county, receiving the largest vote given any candidate on the ticket, but was beaten by three votes. In 1888 he voted for Harrison in the Presidential election, and since that time has been a Republican. Up to 1888 the town of Anson had always been Democratic, but in that year it swung into the opposite column and has since been strongly Republican. Mr. Collins is now a member of the Republican Town Committee. In the Masonic fraternity he has served as Master of Northern Star Lodge of Anson for several years, and is a member of Somerset Chapter Royal Arch Masons and De Molay Commandery Knights Templar of Skowhegan. He is also a member and
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MEN OF PROGRESS.
has officiated as Vice-Grand of Table Rock Lodge of Oddfellows, of Anson. He was married May 1, 1879, to Flora G. Collins; they have had four children, of whom two are living : Nellie F., aged seventeen, and Ben S. Collins, Jr., aged six years.
COTTON, JOHN BRADBURY, Lawyer, Assistant 'Attorney-General of the United States 1889-93, was born in Woodstock, Connecticut, August 3, 1841, son of Benjamin Robinson and Abby ( Pike) Cotton. His father, a master mechanic and ironworker by
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J. B. COTTON.
profession, was a native of Saco, Maine, and the subject of this sketch was named for John Cotton Bradbury, who for many years was Cashier of the York Bank in that city. His father's family, it is supposed, came from the Cottons of Boston, Massa- chusetts. He attended the common schools of Clinton, Massachusetts, until eighteen years of age, when his parents removed to. Lewiston, Maine. He prepared for college at the Lewiston Falls Academy in the adjoining city of Auburn, and was graduated at Bowdoin College in the class of 1865. Mr. Cotton has always been pleased to relate the fact that he owes his collegiate education to the kindness of his namesake, John Cotton Bradbury, whose life was
filled with a succession of good deeds. Prior to graduation he became a student in the law office of Hon. T. A. D. Fessenden and Hon. William P. Frye at Lewiston, and after graduation continued in their office, being admitted to the Bar in 1866. On the death of Mr. Fessenden in 1868, he became asso- ciated with Mr. Frye, under the name of Frye & Cotton. The firm afterwards became Frye, Cotton & White, and was continued under this name until June 1889, when it was dissolved by Mr. Cotton's acceptance of an official position under the United States in Washington. During the period of his business career at Lewiston, Mr. Cotton's attention was devoted exclusively to the practice of law, and largely related to corporation and water rights. In May 1889 he was appointed by President Harrison an Assistant Attorney-General of the United States, having special charge of the defences of the govern- ment in the Court of Claims at Washington. From this position he retired in June 1893, and entered into the practice of law at Washington, in which he is still engaged. Mr. Cotton has always been a Republican in politics, but has held no distinctively political office. He served a single term in the Common Council of Lewiston, and once as a mem- ber of the School Board of that city. He is a Knight Templar and a Scottish Rite Mason, and is a mem- ber of Kappa Chapter of the Psi Upsilon Fraternity of Bowdoin College. He was married in 1866 to Amanda Gorham Lowell, of Lewiston, Maine ; they have one child : Ethel Bradbury Cotton.
DAVIS, HERRICK C., Judge of the Municipal Court of Norway, was born in Woodstock, Oxford county, Maine, November 5, 1833, son of Benjamin and Ruhanna (Chase) Davis. His grandfather, Aaron Davis, a Revolutionary soldier, came from Massachusetts to Poland, Androscoggin county, Maine, and bought a tract of land there, but subse- quently moved to Woodstock, where he became the possessor of four hundred acres and was known as one of the most progressive men of that region. His wife was Thankful, daughter of Stephen Streak, farmer and Baptist minister, first Town Clerk of Woodstock, and later a settler in Penobscot county, where he died. Benjamin Davis, father of the sub- ject of this sketch, was an extensive landowner and farmer in Woodstock, where he cleared his own farm, served as Selectman and was otherwise promi- nent in town affairs. He and his wife Ruhanna
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were the parents of ten children : Richard L., who died at nine years, Emeline, Herrick C., Benjamin. Stephen, Ruhanna, Nehemiah, Cyrus, Emma J. and Henry Davis. Herrick C. Davis acquired his early education in the common schools of Woodstock and at Norway (Maine) Literary Institute, and his first training for active life was received in working at the trade of carpenter, and in teaching ten winter terms of school. Subsequently he read law with General John J. Perry of Oxford, Maine, was admitted to the Bar in Androscoggin county in 1862, and com- menced practice at Bryant's Pond, Oxford county. While located there he established quite a large business in supplying the Grand Trunk Railway with wood, and bought a fine residence with the purpose of making that place his permanent home. Ten years later, however, having been elected Regis- trar of Probate for Oxford county, he closed his successful business career at Bryant's Pond, and removed to Paris Hill in Paris, the county seat, where he discharged the duties of his office ac- ceptably for a continuous period of twenty years. Subsequently he was appointed Judge of the Muni- cipal Court of Norway, where he has since resided, and in which town he is noted as one of its most prominent and public-spirited citizens. While res- ident in Woodstock Mr. Davis served in various town and county offices, officiating respectively as Selectman, Assessor, Overseer of the Poor, member of the School Board, and Town Treasurer. In 1864 .he was a Representative to the State Legislature. He has also acted as Pension Agent, settling the claims of many soldiers of the late war. In politics Judge Davis is a staunch Republican. In the Ma- sonic order he is a member of Jefferson Lodge of Bryant's Pond, and in the Odd Fellows fraternity he is Past Grand Master of Mount Mica Lodge of Paris and Past Chief Patriarch of Norway Encampment. He married Lucy M. Felt, daughter of Jeremiah Felt of Woodstock, Maine. They have two chil- dren : Samuel F., who resides in South Paris, and Carrie Davis, living at home with her parents.
received his early education in the public schools of Gardiner, Maine, and at the age of seventeen, in May 1849, went to New York city and entered the shipping business as a clerk with Hicks & Bailey. 'Subsequently he became a partner in the business, in which he has since continued. Mr. Dearborn is a member of the New York Chamber of Commerce, and of the Maritime and Produce exchanges of that city. In: politics he is a Republican. He was mar- ried December 25, 1856, to Ellen A. Nickels, who died February 25, 1894. Their children are : Antoinette, wife of Lewis H. Lapham of New York city ; Ellen A. ; George S., of Dearborn & Company, New York city, and David B. Dearborn, Jr., in busi- ness with his father.
FILES, CHARLES OLIN, M. D., Portland, was born in Portland, February 12, 1847, son of Went- worth P. and Anna ( Lombard) Files. His parents were natives of Gorham, Maine, which was the home of the Files family for many generations. His mother was a direct descendant of Francis Cooke, and his father was a direct descendant of Thomas Rogers, both of whom were among the passengers of the Mayflower in 1620. One of his maternal ancestors, Solomon Lombard, was graduated from Harvard College in 1723. His early education was received in the public schools of Portland and Boston, in which latter city his parents resided in 1858-9, returning to Portland in the latter year. Graduating from the Portland High School in 1863, he entered Harvard College in the fall of that year, but was compelled to abandon his course at the close of his Freshman year, on account of ill health. He then began the study of medicine, which he pursued for a year, when his health was so much improved that he determined to re-enter college, which he did in the class of 1868. Just at this time the Principal of Portland Academy, Dr. Hanson, having received an offer to return to Waterville and assume charge of the Coburn Classical Institute, urged the young college student to take his place as Principal of the Portland institution. Although scarcely more than eighteen years of age, he ac- cepted the position and discharged its duties for nearly two years. In the meantime he kept up in his studies with his college class, and again entering in its Senior year, graduated in the regular course in 1868. He immediately entered the Portland School for Medical Instruction, matriculated in the
DEARBORN, DAVID B., Shipping Merchant, New York, was born in Pittston, Kennebec county, Maine, April 5, 1832, son of Henry and Pamelia (Bailey) Dearborn. His father, Henry Dearborn, a native of New Hampshire, was a school teacher and farmer, a Representative to the Maine Legis- lature, and was a friend of James G. Blaine. He is a grand-nephew of General Henry Dearborn. He fall of that year in the Medical Department of the
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