USA > Maine > Men of progress; biographical sketches and portraits of leaders in business and professional life in and of the state of Maine > Part 83
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C. J. SPENCELEY.
the Boston City Hospital. While in the City Gov- ernment he was the first to agitate the plan of an annual vacation of the firemen of Boston, and the establishment of the patrol police-boat service in Boston Harbor. His name is especially identified however with two of the notable institutions of the Tremont Temple Baptist Church of Boston, of
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which he is a leading member. He was the origi- nator, and for seven years the leader, of the widely- known Tremont Temple Service of Song, a service held every Sunday afternoon in the Temple ; and he is the teacher of the C. J. Spenceley Young Men's Bible Class, instituted in 1885 with twelve members, and which under his leadership has grown to embrace a membership of over four hundred, being now the largest young men's Bible Class in New England. Of the Temple Service of Song, the Rev. Dr. Lorimer, Pastor of the church, has given this description : -
" It was commenced September 11, 1887, with five hundred people as a congregation, and with Mr. C. J. Spenceley as the leader, and $18.54 as a collection to defray expenses. The committee was exceedingly happy in the selection of a chief. Mr. Spenceley has presided, directed and managed from the beginning of the experiment until now. He is a man of the people, rugged, massive, magnetic, with a commanding pres. ence, and a voice of rich, persuasive quality and of fine carry- ing power. Ile has a large frame, large head, and a larger heart, and though not a creation of the schools, is singularly intelligent and well informed. While he is essentially a man of affairs, he is endued with a poetic temperament and with genuine and profound Christian sympathies and instincts. Hle must impress the people with the fact that he is in earnest, that he is not on the platform conducting the exercises to wile away an hour of a tedious Sabbath day. . . . While there are vast congregations, excellent music, attractive solos, and magnifi- cent congregational singing, with the great organ and stringed instruments, . . . there is manifest above all a settled and con- centrated purpose to bring souls to Christ. In my opinion it is this, rather than the orchestra and the singing, that accounts for the hold this service has on the popular heart. . . . To judge of the growth of this great service in public esteem, the following figures are helpful : There were present during the first four services ever held, twenty-three people; and the total collections amounted only to $63.32. Contrast with these four afternoons the four Sunday afternoons in February of the pres- ent year (1892), - the attendance aggregating twelve thou- sand, with collections amounting to $315.06. Upwards of one hundred thousand people have attended these mectings the past year, nearly five hundred have requested prayer, and the entire sum of money received during this period has been. $2,477.67, of which less than $1,000 has been necessary to defray actual running expenses, the surplus going into the treasury of the church. Last Sunday, ten minutes before the time for opening the service, the doors had to be closed against hundreds who could not be accommodated. This, then, is a notable success."
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In 1880 Mr. Spenceley with others originated the Golden Rule Alliance, a fraternal beneficiary asso- ciation, of which he has acted as General Manager and Secretary since its institution. He was for two years Grand Councillor of the United Friends of
Massachusetts, has been Supreme Councillor of Con- clave Knights and Ladies, and is a member of Mount Lebanon Masonic Lodge and of Mount Washington Lodge of Odd Fellows. He was married August 16, 1863, to Miss Rebecca J. Staples, of Truro, Nova Scotia ; they have three children : Joseph Winfred, Fred and Mineola Spenceley.
SINCLAIR, NAPOLEON B., Stevedore, New York, was born in Unity, Waldo county, Maine, Novem- ber 27, 1827, son of George Washington and Eliza-
N. B. SINCLAIR.
beth (Murch) Sinclair. His father was a farmer and a native of Maine. His education was received in the common schools, and for the first sixteen years of his active life he followed the sea. In 1855 he went to New York and established himself in business as a stevedore, in which he has continued to the present time. Captain Sinclair is a member of the Marine Society of the Port of New York, and in politics is a Republican. He was married July 4, 1849, to Elizabeth T. Hall ; they have six chil- (Iren : Robert S., Elizabeth, Henry H., Cornelia. Dora and Eugene Sinclair.
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TALBOT, LOWELL, Lumber Commission Mer- chant and Shipbroker, New York, was born in Tres- cott, Washington county, Maine, son of Samuel Hammond and Mary (Scott) Talbot. He is a descendant on his father's side of Peter and Lucy ( Hammond) Talbot, who were married at Stoughton, Massachusetts, in 1771 ; his paternal grandparents were Micah Jones and Betsey (Rich) Talbot, the former of whom was the sixth child and fourth son of Peter Talbot. Mr. Talbot's maternal great- grandfather was Samuel Scott, who married Susan Perry in Scarboro, Maine, in 1763. Soon after his marriage he, in company with Benjamin Berry, visited the region of Machias Bay, and their favor- able report of its natural advantages for a settlement, induced the colony of sixteen souls to locate there. The Scotts were sturdy pioneers, who made good progress under adverse circumstances, and several of them rendered valuable service to the cause of independence during the Revolutionary War. Daniel Scott, seventh son of Samuel and Susan (Perry) Scott, married Betsey Chase in 1790, and reared thirteen children, as follows : William C., born in 1792, married Sarah Mitchell ; Lavinia P., born in 1794, married -- Pickett ; Henry, born in 1796, married Hannah Danforth; Maria, born in 1798, married Columbus Bacon; Rebecca, born in 1800, married Henry S. Chase ; Lydia, born in 1802, married Samuel Jenkins ; Susan P, born in 1804, married Silas H. Chase; Betsey, born in 1806, married William Smith; Daniel F., born in 1808 ; Clara D., born in 1810, married Royal Boul- ter, and Joseph Warren, born in 1812, all of whom have bee. residents of the state of Florida since their youth ; Mary, born in 1814, married Samuel H. Talbot, and Almira, born in 1817, married Paran Moody, also a resident of Florida. Lowell Talbot passed his early boyhood in East Machias, his parents having removed from Trescott when he was an infant. His early education was acquired in the village school and at the Washington AAcademy in East Machias, and he later pursued a short course in trigonometry, navigation and surveying at the Thomaston (Maine) Academy. When fourteen years old he began to follow the sea as a sailorboy on board of a ship engaged in the cotton trade between the Southern ports of the United States and Europe. He advanced rapidly in seamanship and at the age of nineteen was given the command of a fine ship, making his first voyage as Master to Montevideo and Buenos Ayres, South America. He was subsequently engaged in the Mediterranean and
West India trades. About the year 1866 he began his business career in New York as a wholesale lumber merchant, shipbroker and marine insurance agent. Many interesting and exciting incidents attending his sea experience might be related, as it extended through the troublesome times of the Civil War, when Confederate privateers roamed about . the ocean at will, and on several occasions they were within uncomfortably close range of his vessel. He pluckily refused however to change his flag, as other shipmasters were accustomed to do, preferring to stick to the stars and stripes and work his way clear as best he could. Mr. Talbot has for over thirty
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LOWELL TALBOT.
years conducted business in New York, during which time he has witnessed the death or retire- ment of his former contemporaries, and their places are now filled by others. He is the " Dean," so to speak, of his particular branch of the lumber busi- ness in New York ; for although there are succes- sors to firms, there is not a single individual remain- ing that was in the business at the time he started. He is a life member of the New England Society of New York, is connected with various, business exchanges and associations, and although a resident of New York for thirty-six years, he has never severed his connection with Warren Masonic Lodge of East Machias. He was formerly a member of
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MEN OF PROGRESS.
several social clubs, but has withdrawn from most of them and spends his leisure time with his family. Politically he is a Democrat, and his first vote was cast in the first ward of New York city in 1861. Mr. Talbot was married in 1864 to Mary Caroline Hayden of Pembroke, Maine ; they have had six children : Kate H., Betsey Rich (deceased ), Mary Scott, Lowell, Hammond and Hayden Taltot.
TEAGUE, JUDAH DANA, late of Caribou, was born in Turner, Androscoggin county, Maine, July 18, 1821, son of Richard and Lydia ( Lombard) Teague ; died in Caribou, October 15, 1896. His early life was spent on a farm, and he received only the sparse advantages in the way of education
J. D. TEAGUE.
that were afforded by the common district school of the early days, having to travel two miles to the little school-house where for a few weeks in the year the school was taught. After his school days were over he went on a wild lot in his native town and commenced clearing it up and making a farm for himself. In 1855 he changed his occupation, and purchasing a stock of goods he opened a general store which he successfully conducted for five years. In 1861 he went to Aroostook county and opened a general store in the town of Caribou, where he re-
mained in trade five or six years, being Postmaster during nearly all of this time. He then sold out his stock of goods and moved on to a farm near the village, where he resided until his death. He dealt quite extensively in real estate, and owned consider- able valuable property in the village. Mr. Teague had been in town office a great deal, having held the position of Town Clerk, Treasurer, Selectman, etc. He represented the Fort Fairfield class in the Leg- islature in 1867-8-9, and the Caribou class during :895-6, and was re-elected as a member of that body at the election of :896. He was always an earnest and enthusiastic Republican. In 1860, when the law was passed creating the office of Trial Justice, he was appointed to that office and held it continuously during life. Mr. Teague always had the confidence and respect of his townsmen in the highest degree, as is evidenced by the unanimity with which he was elected to the various positions of honor and trust that he occupied. He had always taken a most lively interest in the growth and prosperity of his town and county, and had the good of the commu- nity deeply at heart. Among his public-spirited acts was the giving of a tract of land comprising nearly six acres to the village for a public park. Mr. Teague was first married April 5, 1846, in Turner, Maine, to Evelina F. Morse. This union was a happy one, lasting until the death of the wife in November 1868. They had two sons and five daughters, all of whom are useful citizens to-day, except the eldest son, Milton D., who died in Cali- fornia in August 1893. Mr. Teague was again mar- ried May 30, 1869, in Caribou, to Ann E. Small, who survives him, with three of their children : Mrs. Electra Teague Briggs, Dana L. Teague and Donald - S. Teague.
WESTON, LEVI WYMAN, Lumber Manufacturer. Skowhegan, was born in Bloomfield (now a part of Skowhegan), Somerset county, Maine, October 9, 1824, son of John Whitney and Sally Parker (Walker) Weston. His grandfather Samuel Weston was the second son of Joseph Weston, one of the first settlers of the town of Canaan, of which both Bloomfield and Skowhegan were formerly a part. Peter Haywood or Hayward (afterwards called Howard), Joseph Weston and Isaac Smith were the pioneer settlers of Canaan. Peter married Joseph Weston's sister, and Smith married the daughter of Peter Hayward. They came from Groton, near Concord, Massachusetts, in the fall of 1771, accom-
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panied by some of their boys and bringing some young cattle. They cut some hay on the adjoining islands that had been cleared by the Indians, built a camp, and left two boys, Isaac Smith aged fifteen and. Eli Weston aged eleven years, to spend the winter and take care of the cattle. The location was eighteen miles above Winslow, the nearest settlement, to which place the boys made one visit during the winter. Haywood, Weston and Smith returned with their families in the spring of 1772, as soon as the Kennebec River was open so they could come up with boats, and settled about two and a half miles below Skowhegan Falls, near the islands, so that by cultivating the lands on the islands and cutting, burning and clearing small tracts on the shore, they had land enough to make their first crop. In the fall of 1775, when Arnold went up the Kennebec on his expedition to Quebec, Joseph Weston with two of his sons, John and William, assisted the expedition up over Skowhegan Falls and Norridgewock Falls. Joseph, through great hardships and exposure, took a violent cold and returned home, where the cold developed into a fever and he died October 16, 1775. He had seven sons, all of whom settled in town or near by, and all of whom had large families, so the country was soon peopled with Westons. In 1806 William Weston, son of Joseph, bought of James Bridge, the original proprietor, the mill-lot and water-privilege on the upper end of Skowhegan Island. Subse- quently he sold the property to his sons Cyrus and William, and the former sold his half to John W. Weston, father of the subject of our sketch, to whom William's half also came by various convey- ances, so that he is now the sole owner of the original lot and privilege, except a small part used to run a gristmill. The property in whole or part has therefore been in the Weston name since 1806. John Whitney Weston married Sally Parker Walker, daughter of William Walker, who came from Man- chester (formerly Derry), New Hampshire, and settled in the adjoining town of Madison : he was of Scotch-Irish descent, his parents coming from the North of Ireland. Levi Wyman Weston, third son of John W. and Sally P. Weston, was born on Skowhegan Island in the old mill-house on the mill-lot within thirty yards of the mill he now owns. When four years old he attended his first school, taught by his cousin the late Ex-Governor Abner Coburn. He received his education at the public schools and at Bloomfield Academy, at various times as circumstance woukl admit, until twenty
years of age. One of his teachers in the Academy was Daniel Dole of Skowhegan, afterwards a missionary to the Sandwich Islands, and father of Sanford Ballard Dole, President of the Hawaiian Republic. Emily Ballard, wife of Daniel Dole, was also a teacher in the town. Growing up about the mill, the logs and the river, he natu- rally took to the lumber business, and in the spring of 1841, at the age of seventeen, went to Moosehead Lake to drive logs out of Spencer Stream into the lake. He continued to drive logs every spring until 1847, having charge of crews and sections of the main-river drive. In 1844 he as-
L, W. WESTON.
sisted in building the starch mill at Skowhegan, and superintended the making of starch for three sea- sons, until the potato rot destroyed the business. In May 1847 the young man left home to see the world and seek a fortune. He visited various towns and cities in Massachusetts, then went to New York and as far south as Philadelphia. Returning by sailing vessel to Boston in July, he went to Lowell, Massachusetts, and found work in a machine shop, where he remained for two years. In May 1849 he returned to Skowhegan and established a machine shop, the first permanent shop of the kind in town. After running the machine shop for six years he bought the foundry of Lemuel Fletcher, and uniting
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the two branches of business, rebuilt and enlarged the plant. In 1855 he sold one half of the business to Amos H. Fletcher, and continued under the firm name of Weston & Fletcher till the spring of 1858, when he sold out his remaining interest. On Feb-
ruary 15, 1853, he married Sophia Wyman Walker,
who died after five and a half years of very happy
wedded life, June 13, 1858, leaving no children. Having disposed of his business, and being consid- erably broken up by the loss of his wife, in Novem- ber 1858 he went to New Orleans by way of Portland,
rivers, and visited Logtown, Mississippi, where he Montreal, Cincinnati, the Ohio and Mississippi assisted his brother Henry to rebuild his steam saw-
mill which had been burned. He returned to Skowhegan in June 1859, by way of Mobile, Savan-
nah, and steamboat to New York. In December 1860, after spending a year and a half in settling up some old matters and engaging in some minor enterprises, he bought out his younger brother, the Hon. A. S. Weston of Leadville, Colorado, business at Skowhegan in company with his father, who owned one half of the sawmill and lumber
of 1. W. & L. W. Weston. In July 1866, the and continued the business under the firm name business in the meantime having been constantly improved and enlarged, the senior member sold his interest to Colonel William F. Baker of Mos-
cow, Maine, and the firm became Weston & Baker. During all these years, from 1849, he did a large amount of land surveying, running out farm and lot boundaries, having been ap- pointed by the court to run disputed lines, and settling many controversies. In November 1871
Mr. Weston bought out his partner's interest, and continued alone until November 1880, when he took into partnership his step-son, Charles M. Brainard, under the firm name of Weston & Brain- ard. In December 1884 they bought the carding and cloth-dressing` mill of Benjamin and Calvin Stinchfield, which brought into their possession all rights and interests of the island water-power except one half of the old gristmill property, and continued to enlarge and improve their business until the death of Mr. Brainard, which occurred December 25, 1893. In April 1894 he bought of Mr. Brain- ard's estate his late partner's interest, and has since continued the business under the name of L. W. Weston & Company, his daughter Gertrude being the "company " and having charge of the office and financial matters and business statistics. Dur- ing later years he has been a large owner of timber-
lands, which he has operated to quite an extent to supply logs for his mill. Mr. Weston has always been active and prominent in local affairs, and has filled many offices of public trust and respon- sibility. He served for two years on the School Board and two years as Selectman of Bloomfield, and when the towns of Bloomfield and Skow- hegan were re-united, he was elected the first School Agent for the united District Number One, having financial charge and management of seven schools. He served altogether, on the School Committee for both towns, about twenty years. For over thirty years he has been one of the Trustees of Bloomfield Academy, and as the gift of a Free Public Library by Ex-Governor Coburn was made to that official body, the building and main-
tenance of the library has fallen to their charge. He has served on the building committees for erect-
ing a large number of public buildings in Skowhegan, including the engine hall for the Fire Department, the Congregational Church and Vestry, Coburn
Hall, Leavitt-street School-house, High School build- ing, Coburn Woolen Mill, the Bloomfield Shoe Fac- tory, one of the largest and finest in the state, and various others. He has officiated as President of many corporations, among them the Skowhegan Hall Association (Coburn Hall) and Skowhegan Manufacturing Company (Bloomfield Shoe Factory) ; was the first President of the Skowhegan Electric Light Company and the Somerset Loan and Build- ing Association ; is a Director of the First National Bank and the Savings Bank of Skowhegan, the Skowhegan Waterworks Company, the Kennebec Log Driving Company, and the Moose River Log Driving Company ; was an Executor of the wills of the late Ex-Governor Abner Coburn, I. S. Weston of Bunker Hill, Illinois, and Rev. C. F. Weston of Springfield, Nebraska, and has been at several times an Assessor of the Skowhegan Village Corporation. Mr. Weston has always been an active worker in the temperance cause, and is an attendant of the Orthodox Church with his wife, although confessing to a leaning toward the Univer- salist faith. In politics he was originally a Whig. and has been a Republican of the " sound money " kind from the formation of the party. He was married November 19, 1861, to Clementine Allen (Houghton) Brainard, widow of the late Benjamin Marcellus Brainard, who died at Columbia, Califor- nia, in 1856, leaving two children : Charles Mar- cellus, born January 28, 1855, and Frances Amelia Brainard, born August 23, 1856, now Mrs. James 1.
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Fields of Alameda, California. Of Mr. Weston's second marriage were born five children : Agnes Augusta, boin December 21, 1862, died May 4, 1877; Gertrude Sophia, born March 20, 1866; Ernest Gustavus, born November 7, 1867, died January 2, 1869 ; Ethel Houghton, born May 30, 1869. died January 17, 1870, and Margaret Hath- away, born September 1, 1873, died August 23, 1875.
BABSON, JOHN WALKER, Chief of the Issue and Gazette Division of the United States Patent Office, Washington, was born in Brooksville, Hancock county, Maine, August 15, 1835, son of Samuel B. and Nancy (Tapley) Babson. He received his early education in the public schools, and the Maine Wesleyan at Kent's Hill, in which institu- tion he was for a time a tutor. He was appointed Postmaster of Brooksville, but in 1861 resigned and went to Washington, District of Columbia, with Hon. Hannibal Hamlin, under whom he held a con- fidential position during the term of Mr. Hamlin's Vice-Presidency. He was an official in the United States Senate until 1866, when he resigned to accept a position in the Pension Office, where he was successively promoted to Chief of the Finance Division and Deputy Commissioner of Pensions. Subsequently he was transferred to the Patent Office, and in October 1878 was assigned to the charge of the Official Gazette. By consolidation, the Issue Division was in ISSo added to this branch of the office, and Mr. Babson was appointed Chief of the Issue and Gazette Division, which position de still holds. Of the seventy-nine vol- umes of the Official Gazette, sixty-six have been prepared and published under his direction ; and of the five hundred and eighty-five thousand patents issued by the United States Patent Office, over three hundred and eighty-five thousand have been prepared for issue under his supervision. Mr. Babson was one of the originators and active participators in the Patent Centennial, celebrated in Washington in April 1896, and also in the Cen- tennial Celebration of the laying of the corner- stone of the National Capitol, September 18, 1893. Ile is a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and of the Anthropo- logical Society of Washington. He has taken an active interest in all local movements to enlarge, improve and beautify the Capital City, and for the last five years has been successively elected Presi-
dent of the East Washington Citizens' Association, a body representing the interests of one half of the territory of the District of Columbia and one third of the inhabitants. During the thirty-six years he has lived in Washington he has unbrokenly retained his residence in his native town, where the family homestead, now owned by him, is yearly the summer home of himself and family. He has ever retained his interest in and love for the old state of Maine, and looks forward to spending the evening of his days in his peaceful home there. Mr. Babson has been twice married. His present wife was Miss Eliza A. Tibbetts, of his native town. Mrs. Bab-
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J. W. BABSON.
son has been actively and prominently engaged for many years with official and unofficial charity organizations in the city of Washington.
BROWN, AUSTIN PETERS, of Washington, District of Columbia, was born in North Bluehill, Hancock county, Maine, December 5, 1843, son of Samuel Peters and Charlotte Metcalf (Mason) Brown. Both the Browns and Masons are of English de- scent. His grandfather Samuel Brown was a native of Danvers, Massachusetts. He moved to
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MEN OF PROGRESS.
Orland, Maine, and was engaged in farming and stock raising until a short time before his death, which occurred at the age of seventy-nine. He performed temporary military service at the time Castine was occupied by the British during the war of 1812. He married Ruth Horton of Danvers, who died in Portland at the age of ninety-three. Samuel Peters Brown, father of Austin Peters Brown, was born in North Bluehill, December 9, 1816. He resided in Orland some years and rep- resented that District in the Maine Legislature. He has lived in Washington since 1860 and has held several important official positions. Charlotte Met-
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