USA > Maine > Men of progress; biographical sketches and portraits of leaders in business and professional life in and of the state of Maine > Part 82
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MITCHELL, ALBERT ELIPHALET, Superintendent of Motive Power, Machinery and Rolling Stock of the Erie Railroad, was born in Madison, Somerset county, Maine, February . 3, 1855, son of Thomas Gilmore and Laura Ann (Packard) Mitchell. His American ancestor emigrated about the year 1690. His great-grandfather was Robert Mitchell, born January 18, 1775, married Sarah Lunt, October 2, 1794, and had one son : Joshua. Joshua Mitchell was born July 6, 1796, married Mehitable Gilmore, April 30, 1818. and of his eight children, Thomas Gilmore was the fifth born. Thomas Gilmore
Mitchell was born November 19, 1820, and on Feb- ruary 4, 1849, married Lanra Ann Packard, who bore him six children, of whom Albert Eliphalet was the fourth born. On the maternal side Mr. Mitchell is of the eighth generation from Samuel Packard, a native of Windham. near Hingham, England, who took passage on board the ship Dilli- gent, John Martin, master, and settled in Hingham, Massachusetts, in: 1658. He later moved to West Bridgewater, Massachusetts, and was the father of twelve children His third son, Zaccheus, married
A. E. MITCHELL.
Sarah, daughter of John Howard, about the year 1678. Zaccheus Packard had nine children, and the line of descent continues through his fourth born, David. In 1712 David Packard married Hannah, daughter of John Ames, who bore him nine children, and in 1746 his sixth child, Ebenezer, married Sarah, daughter of Mark Perkins. By this union there were twelve children. The sixth child of Ebenezer and Sarah Packard was Matthew, Mr. Mitchell's maternal great-grandfather, who married Keziah, daughter of Luke Perkins, in 1781 ; and of his four children, the second born, Eliphalet, was Mr. Mitchell's grandfather. Eliphalet Packard, who was the first of the family to settle in Maine, was in 1814 joined in marriage with Abigail Snell, daughter of Nathan Snell; and Laura Ann, Mr. Mitchell's
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mother was the third born of four children. She was a descendant in the seventh generation froni Thomas Snell, who emigrated from England and became a large landowner in West Bridgewater, Massachusetts. From him the line is traced directly through Josiah first, Josiah second, Josiah third to Nathan Snell, who in 1770 married Betty Howard, daughter of James Howard, and had ten children, of whom Abigail was the eighth born. The subject of this sketch aequired his early education in the public sehools and by private instruction, and was graduated from the University of Maine (formerly the Maine State College), Orono, in 1875, as a mechanical engineer. He began his apprenticeship to the machinist's trade at the Baldwin Locomotive Works, Philadelphia, and completed it in the shops of the Pennsylvania Railroad at Altoona, Pennsy !- vania. He entered the test department in 1879 and a year later was made Assistant Engineer of Signals. Resigning that position, in July 18SI he entered the employ of the Vale & Towne Manufae- turing Company of Stamford, Connecticut, as ma- ehine designer, and in August ISS2 was appointed Engineer of Tests for the New York & New England Railroad in Boston. In November 1882 he was advaneed to the position of Mechanical Engineer, and continued in that eapaeity until January 31, 1884, when he aceepted the position of Mechanical Engineer of the French Furnace Company of Bos- ton, and Cleveland, Ohio. In September of that year his services as Mechanical Engineer and S perintendent were secured by the Aretie lee Machine Manufacturing Company of Cleveland, Ohio, where he remained until November 1886, when he entered the service of the New York, Lake Erie & Western Railroad, being assigned special duty in the motive-power department. On June 1, 1887, he was appointed Engineer of Signals for the entire road, including its leased lines ; was made Engineer of Tests, June 1, 1889 ; a year later be- eame Mechanical Engineer, and on April 23, 1892, was advanced to the position of Superintendent of Motive Power and Machinery, including the rolling stoek. In 1895, when this system was re-organized under the name of the Erie Railroad Company, he was retained by the new management, and at the present time not only has full charge of the machin- ery and car departments, but designs new equip- ment. Asa skilful mechanical engineer Mr. Mitehell has acquired a wide reputation, and he is in touch with all organizations having for their object the advancement of mechanical science. He is an
active member of the American Society of Mechan- ical Engineers, has been President of the Railroad Club since October 1896, is a member of the Elli- cott Club of Buffalo, New York, and the Passaic Club of Passaic, New Jersey, where he resides. Mr. Mitenell was married March 27, 1884, to Nellie Vernon Knapp, of Stamford, Connectieut, daughter of Charles William Knapp, and a descendant of William Bradford, the first Governor of the Plymouth Colony. They have a daughter : Hazel Vernon Mitchell, born February 16, 1887.
MORSE, LYMAN D., of the Lyman D. Morse Advertising Agency, New York, was born in South Faris, Oxford County, Maine, son of Phineas and Ann (Daniels) Morse. Phineas Morse came to Maine from Hopkinton, Massachusetts. The sub- jeet of this sketeh is a worthy member of a family which has given to this country many citizens of ae- tivity and prominence in seience and invention, and of distinction in law, the ministry, journalism and statesmanship; and his own career gives striking evidenees of inherited characteristies derived from the line of Samuel Morse, who left England in 1635 and became a prominent leader among the early Puritan fathers in America. He received his early education in the common schools and at the Ox- ford Normal Institute in his native town, and soon after graduating from the latter institution moved to Boston, Massachusetts, where he entered the em- ploy of Joseph Burnett & Company, a firm whose produets are known all over the world. In his fourteen-years experience with this firm, during which he travelled widely over the United States, he acquired the basis of the intimate knowledge of and acquaintanceship with the newspapers and peri- odieals of this country which have sinee eharaeter- ized him as one of the foremost specialists in his line of business. To this extensive knowledge and experience is added a natural faculty of making friends quickly and of impressing his individuality strongly on those whom 'he meets, which has re- sulted in bringing him a most extended and valu- able acquaintance with merchants and business men in all parts of the country. In 1872 Mr. Morse went to London, England, where he estab- lished business headquarters, and spent three years in advertising and introducing American products in several countries of Europe. On his return to this country after his European experience, the
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value of which proved great in his after-career, he located in New York, connecting himself with the advertising agency of J. H. Bates. During his asso- ciation with Mr. Bates, the business increased in magnitude, influence and reputation until it stood foremost among advertising agencies in America. In the course of time Mr. Morse became the Man- ager of the business, in which capacity he found full scope for his energy and abilities. Gradually Mr. Bates withdrew from active labor, soon realizing that in his new manager he had one whose integrity, ability and experience were such that the vast in- terests entrusted to his hands would be judiciously managed and steadily augmented. And when after- wards Mr. Bates solidified his interests by taking Mr. Morse into partnership, the latter found him- self the executive head of a house whose name had become a synonym for integrity, straightforwardness and good business methods. Some of the largest firms in this country and abroad, who expend their millions to make the names of their goods house- hold words, placed their confidential interests in his hands, and he directed this enormous stream of money, seeing to it that none went to waste, but that every penny was spent in a painstaking, judi- cious and profitable manner. The agency in Mr. Morse's hands maintained and extended the reputa. tion of the firm, and the next important step taken by the partners was the permanent retirement of Mr. Bates, leaving Mr. Morse the sole owner of the business, which as the Lyman D. Morse Agency is now kno' n as one of the leading institutions of its kind on either side of the Atlantic. Mr. Morse's chief characteristics in business life are energy, thoroughness of purpose, shrewdness and quick- wittedness, together with the faculty of instant de- cision, an important business instinct where large interests are concerned, and to which may be attrib- uted a large measure of his success in life. Both in business and in social life he is genial, warm- hearted and generous, a fact testified to by many a less fortunate "brother," as well as by those who know him in his domestic relations in his handsome Brooklyn home or at his delightful country resi- dence at Twilight Park. He is a member of the Union League and Lincoln clubs of Brooklyn, and the Press and Hardware clubs of New York. He is also a member of the New England Society of Brooklyn, and a Trustee of the Morse Society of America. Mr. Morse married Clara Meacham, (laughter of George L. Meacham ; they have one child : Lila Curtis Morse.
PENNEY, F. I .. , Manufacturer of Stencils, Stamps and Dies, Boston, is a native of Maine, and came to Boston in 1849. In 1857 he founded his present business, in Washington street, and since the great fire of 1872 has occupied quarters at High and Federal streets. Mr. Penney is an expert designer and die sinker, and makes a specialty of supplying shoe manufacturers with steel stamps and stencils, brass stamps for gilding boot-tops, etc., also rubber stamps and inks, and rolls for embossing and pebbling leather and wall-paper. His estab- lishment is fitted with every modern convenience and facility for conducting all operations in his line
F. L. PENNEY.
to the best advantage. A large part of his trade is with leading shoe and leather houses of Massachu- setts and other states, extending over the West and to the Pacific Coast. Mr. Penney finds his chief pastime in angling for trout, of which art he is a skillful and enthusiastic devotee.
SCRIBNER, FRANK LAMSON, Chief of Division of Agrostology in the United States Department of Agriculture, was born in Cambridgeport, Massa- chusetts, April 19, 1851, son of Joseph and Ellen E. (Winslow) Lamson. His father, whose family were among the earliest settlers of Exeter, New
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Hampshire, died when the subject of this sketch was but three years old, and he was adopted by a family living near Augusta, Maine, whose name he bears. Frank Lamson-Scribner received his early education in the common schools, the Hebron (Maine) Academy, the Maine Wesleyan Seminary at Kent's Hill and Waterville ( Maine) Classical Institute, and in the spring of 1870 entered the Maine State College of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts, from which institution he graduated with the degree of B. S. in 1873. During vacation he taught school to aid in defraying the expenses of his college course. After leaving college he
F. LAMSON SCRIBNER.
continued to teach in public schools in Maine, and for two winters was clerk to the Secretary of the Maine State Board of Agriculture, Hon. S. L. Goodale. He was also employed two seasons at the fish hatching and propagating works of the United States Fish Commission, under the Super- intendency of Charles G. Atkins, at Bucksport and Grand Lake Stream. Mr. Scribner began to interest himself in botany when fifteen years old, analyzing his first flower - the trailing arbutns, or may- flower - April 19, 1866 ; and from that time until- his connection with the Department of Agriculture at Washington in 1885, the greater share of his leisure moments was devoted to this, his favorite
pursuit. His first botanical collections, made in 1866-7, were acquired by Bowdoin College. While at Orono he spent much time in collecting plants ior the college. In the summer of 1876 he taught botany to private classes, chiefly composed of teachers in the public schools, in Bangor, Maine. In the same year he conducted the classes in botany in the Bowdoin College Summer School of Science. In 1876 he became associated with Girard College, Philadelphia, and remained there eight years, during which time he became a member of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, and for several years was Secretary of the Botanical Section of that society. In the summer of 1883 he was con- nected with the Transcontinental Survey, in the Department of Economic Botany, and passed several months in Central Montana, making general collections, but paying special attention to the forage plants. He had previously, while at Phila- delphia, given much time to the study of grasses, and soon became one of the recognized authorities in this difficult but important order of plants ; a new genus of grasses - Scribneria - being named for him by Professor E. Hackel, the celebrated Austrian botanist. He has been a frequent con- tributor to leading botanical journals and other scientific publications, and has published many new species of plants which he has often illustrated with his own hand. In 1883-4 he wrote two extended chapters for the American Supplement to the Ency- clopædia Britannica published in Philadelphia, one on " Cereals " under Agriculture, and the other under Forage Plants, the title being "Grasses of the United States." In the spring of 1885 he was appointed Assistant Botanist in the United States Department of Agriculture, and in July 1886 he was made Special Agent to have charge of the Mycolog- ical Section of the Botanical Division, a specialty being made of the study of diseases of plants. . \ year later he was appointed Chief of the Section of Vegetable Pathology, in continuance of his former duties, but then officially recognized by Congress. In November 1888 he removed to Knoxville, Ten- nessee, to assume the duties of Professor of Botany and Horticulture at the University of Tennessee and State Agricultural and Mechanical College, and as Botanist and Horticulturist of the Tennessee Agricultural Experiment Station, of which he became Director in 1890. He remained in Ten- nessce until 1894 when he was appointed Agrostol- ogist of the United States Department of Agriculture and Chief of Division of Agrostology, with head-
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quarters in Washington, District of Columbia, which position he still holds. At the age of eighteen, while yet on the farm, he prepared a treatise on the "Weeds of Maine " for the report of the State Board of Agriculture, and in 1874 he prepared for the same report a similar paper entitled " Orna- mental and Useful Plants of Maine ; " both of them have been published as separate pamphlets, one of sixty-two pages and the other of eighty-five. He has at different times written valuable papers to be read before the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, the Society for the Promotion of Agricultural Science and the Kansas Academy of Sciences, which have been published in the official proceedings of those societies. As Assistant Bot- anist of the United States Department of Agricul- ture, he made reports on the " Fungous Diseases of Plants," and " Fungous Diseases of the Grape Vine," which appeared in the published reports of the department, while his report as Mycologist, also published in the annual report, embraced a dis- cussion of a number of fungous diseases of plants and their remedies. His " Fungous Diseases of the Grape and other Plants: Their Treatment," pub- lished by J. T. Lovett & Company, Little Silver, New Jersey, is an illustrated work of one hundred and thirty-four pages, which has received many favorable notices. In 1890 he prepared, in con- junction with Miss Effie A. Southworth, a transla- tion from "Die Naturlichen Pflanzenfamilien " of Edward : 'ackel's contribution entitled " The True Grasses." This is an illustrated work of two hun- dred and twenty-eight pages, published by Henry Holt & Company, New York. As Director of the Agricultural Experiment Station of Tennessee, Pro- fessor Scribner published a number of bulletins and reports upon subjects connected with the work of the Station. The most important of these pub- lications was one on the Grasses of Tennessee, in which all the grasses known to occur within the state are illustrated and fully described. Since assuming the duties of Chief of the Division of Agrostology in the United States Department of Agriculture, Professor Scribner has published vari- ous reports and papers on grasses and forage plants, that upon the "Ornamental and Useful Grasses," an illustrated bulletin of 118 pages, and one entitled " American Grasses, Illustrated," con- taining 331 pages and 302 figures, being the most important. In January 1889 the Croix de Cheva- lier du Mérite Agricole was conferred upon him by the French Minister of Agriculture for his services
to the French Government in matters pertaining to viticulture and the diseases of the vine. Professor Scribner in many departments of botany is one of the leading authorities, but his great specialty is the Grasses and Forage Plants, in which he stands foremost in this country to-day. Fungous diseases have also received a great deal of his attention and study. He was the first in this country to recom- niend and use the Bordeaux mixture and other sulphate of copper compounds in their treatment, and to successfully combat black rot of grapes with these preparations. Professor Scribner is a member of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia ; a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science ; a corresponding member of the Buffalo Academy of Science and of the Torrey Botanical Club ; a member of the New Jersey Horticultural Society and of the Pennsyl- vania State Horticultural Society. In politics he is a Republican. He was married December 24, 1877, to Miss Ella A. Newmarch of Bangor, Maine ; they have living three children : Frank Lamson- Scribner, Jr., Allen and Louise Scribner,
SNOW, REVEREND HENRY FRANCIS, late of Cornish, was born in Effingham, New Hampshire, November 25, 1831, son of Henry and Mary (Frost) Snow. His four brothers and one sister all died in child- hood, and when he was nine years of age his father died, leaving him as the only surviving child. His mother, a woman of marked ability, devoted her- self to his early training, and later sent him to the Effingham Academy, at that time a popular educa- tional institution of the state. At the age of sixteen he taught his first school with great success, in the town of Wakefield, New Hampshire ; and in follow- ing years he taught more than forty terms in all, in different towns, gaining a high rank as a teacher. He attended Phillips Exeter Academy and the New Hampton (New Hampshire) Literary and Biblical Institution, and in June 1858 was settled as Pastor of the Merrimack Street Free Baptist Church in Manchester, New Hampshire. In 1859 he became Pastor of the Free Baptist Church at Cornishville, Maine, where he remained until he enlisted for the Civil War in 1862, in which he served as Captain of Company H, Twenty-seventh Maine Regiment. By exposure in the service he lost his health, which he has never regained ; but by his will and persever- ance he has done a great amount of professional work. After filling several pastorates in New Hamp-
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shire, he returned in June 1873 to Cornish, Maine, where he has since resided until 1897, when he sold his pleasant home in that place and removed 10 Tallapoosa, Georgia. Rev. Mr. Snow has been one of the most notable figures in the Ossipee Valley. As teacher, pastor and pulpit orator, citizen and soldier, lecturer and poet, he has held a unique position. He has done more for sound teaching, and developed newer and better methods in the region he has served, than any other pedagogue who has ever taught there. A man of marked originality he stands firmly by what he thinks is
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HENRY F. SNOW.
right and just, at whatever cost, and has ever been the firm friend of the needy and suffering, without regard to color or condition. It is said of him that he has attended more funerals, and given more lectures, for the last twenty years, than any other man in the section of the State where he has resided. Mr. Snow is now engaged in preparing two books for publication, one a collection of poems under the title of "Snowflakes Amid Sunbeams," the other, a work entitled " The Eternity of Mem- ory," which from the nature and treatment of .its subject will surely command the attention of the religious world. He is universally popular in Talla- poosa, Georgia, where he now resides, and his services as preacher and lecturer are constantly
sought. Of his Memorial sermon delivered at the Christian Church in Tallapoosa, May 23, 1897, un- der the direction of J. B. Steadman Post, Grand Army of the Republic, the Journal of that city said : " Dr. Snow's sermon on 'Christian Patriotism the Remedy for all National Difficulties,' was worthy of the occasion. We are happy to give it a place in our columns, as we know all our readers will appre- ciate it, and it can but stimulate every heart to renewed patriotism and devotion to labor more earnestly for the country's welfare." He was mar- ried July 15, 1857, to M. Augusta Cox, daughter of Daniel H. and Charlotte Cox of Holderness, New Hampshire. a woman of superior attainments and fortitude.
SPEAR, ELLIS, Attorney at Law, Washington, District of Columbia, was born in Warren, Knox county, Maine, October 15, 1834. His father, James M. Spear, was a farmer, of Scotch-Irish descent, The family being one of those which emigrated from the North of Ireland after the siege of Londonderry, to Massachusetts, whence early in the eighteenth cen- tury one branch moved to Maine and settled on the Georges River in what afterwards became the town of Warren. His mother, Nancy (Cushman) Spear, was of the family of Cushmans descended from Robert Cushman, who was one of the founders of the Leyden Colony and Purser of the Speedwell. He fitted for college at the Warren Academy and was graduated from Bowdoin in 1858. He followed teaching after his graduation until 1862, when he raised a company of infantry, was mustered into the service of the United States in August 1862 as Captain of Company G, Twentieth Maine Volun- teers, and served in the Third Brigade, First Divis- ion, Fifth Army Corps, until the close of the war, taking part in all the principal battles of the Army of the Potomac, from Antietam to Appomattox Court House. He was promoted to be Major, and suc- ceeded to the command of the regiment in August of 1863; was subsequently commissioned Lieuten- ant-Colonel and Colonel, and was three times brevetted, the last commission being that of Briga- dier-General. He was in command of the Third Brigade at the close of the war and was mustered out in July 1865. In November 1865 he received an appointment in the Examining Corps of the United States Patent Office ; was made Principal Examiner in 1868, Examiner-in-Chief in 1872, and Assistant Commissioner of Patents in 1874. He resigned that office in 1876 to enter the law firm of
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Hill & Ellsworth, making a specialty of Patent Law, but was in a few months appointed Commissioner of Patents, which office he held for about two years, when he resigned the position and has since been engaged in the practice of his profession in Wash-
ELLIS SPEAR.
ing.on. General Spear has always been a Repub- lican in, politics, and is a member of the Grand Army . f the Republic and of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Washington Board of Trade, also a Director of the Washington Loan and Trust Com- pany and of the Equitable.Building Association. He is a Congregationalist in religion, and President of the Society of the Mount Pleasant Congregational Church of Washington. He is a member also of the Cosmos Club, the Anthropological and the Geo graphical societies of the District of Columbia, and of the Civil Service Reform Association, and Presi- dent of the Patent Law Association of Washington. He was first married to Miss Susie M. Wilde, daughter of Kev. John Wikle ; she died in 1872, leaving two children : Julia M. and James M. Spear. In 1875 he married Mrs. Sarah F. Keene, the widow of his comrade Major Samuel T. Keene, who was killed by his side at Petersburg in 1864, leaving one daughter, Marion P. Keene. To General Spear and wife Sarah F. were born two sons : Edwin Ellis, born in 1877, and Arthur Prince, born in 1879.
SPENCELEY, CHRISTOPHER JACKSON, General Manager of the Golden Rule Alliance, Boston, was born in Wiscasset, Maine, August 16, 1840, son of Christopher and Catherine (Colby) Spenceley. His father was born in London, England, where he lived until 1824, when he came to America and settled in Boston. His mother was a native of Westport, Lincoln county, Maine, of English ancestry. He received a common school education, making excel lent use of such advantages as were afforded him by the public schools of his native town, and at the age of seventeen went to Boston, where he learned the trade of carpenter and builder. Six years later, in 1863, he engaged in the general building business on his own account, and subsequently became largely concerned in building and selling operations in the South End and Roxbury districts of Boston. Mr. Spenceley served as a member of the Boston Com- mon Council for three years, 1875-7, representing Ward Nineteen, and was for two years a Trustee of
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