USA > Maine > Men of progress; biographical sketches and portraits of leaders in business and professional life in and of the state of Maine > Part 85
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state, in Aroostook and other eastern and northern counties. His wife, Nancy Davis, the mother of William, was a daughter of Joseph Davis of Stan- dish, and sister of the late Judge Woodbury Davis, a Justice of the Supreme Court of Maine for ten years, and subsequently Postmaster of Portland. Thus it was that the subject of this sketch received through a series of generations the elements of character and training which prepared him for the useful citizen he always was. Reared on the farm, his early education was limited to that which was afforded by the public schools of his native town. But his home training and his own indomitable
WILLIAM FROST.
character were enough to insure that his opportu- nities should receive an attention and be supple- mented by an effort before which there could be no impossibilities. Before he was "out of his teens," in 1840-1, he was a successful teacher in public schools, in a section where the district school has turned out governors, legislators, mayors, aldermen, college professors, educators and distinguished business men for half a score of the states and leading cities of the union. Upon attaining his majority he spent two years with a party of men who surveyed Aroostook county in the interests of the lumber business of that region, in which his uncle, Oliver Frost of Bangor (afterwards of Boston, where
he became Alderman and held many important public positions), was engaged. In 1845 he went to Boston and entered the employ of the New Bedford & Taunton Railroad, then operated in connection with the Boston and Providence, and subsequently a part of the Old Colony system. After five years of service in various capacities, mostly in the freight department, in which he won the respect and con- fidence of all with whom he had to do, he purchased in July 1850 an interest in the firm of Pollard & Frost, Forwarding Agents for the Boston & Provi- dence Railroad Company and engaged in a general forwarding and trucking business ; the Frost of this firm, Thomas P., being another Maine man, but in no way related to him. Three years later Mr. Pollard sold his interest to the Messrs. Frost, and the firm name became Frost & Company. In 1862 Francis M. Baker of Dedham became a member of the firm. In 1869 Thomas P. Frost retired, dis- posing of his interest to his partners, and William Frost became the senior and head of the business in which he continued actively engaged up to the time of his death, which occurred April 20, 1896. In all his business transactions, as in his personal relations, Mr. Frost was a man of the most strict integrity. Honest and straightforward in all his dealings, he held the warmest esteen of all who knew him. He was always most careful to see that full justice was done in considering the rights of others, even if it were at his own expense; and more than once has the writer known him to make concessions that were to his disadvantage, rather than have some one feel that he had been wronged. This profound respect for the right was thoroughly inwrought into his being, and was as conspicuous in his public as in his private life. Thoroughly inter- ested in all public matters, and intensely loyal to his political principles, he could not endure anything which savored of meanness or trickery in political work. He was an active Republican from the for- mation of the party. He served his ward with great acceptance in the Boston Common Council in 1869 and 1870, was a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1873, 1874 and 1875, and of the Board of Aldermen of Boston in 1881 and 1882. He was also a prominent member of the Republican State Central Committee in 1882 and 1883, and was an active and influential participant `in many party councils and conventions. In all these positions he brought to the service of his fel- low-citizens the same intelligent and painstaking labor that he gave to his own business. Cautious in
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regard to the feasibility or the righteousness of any measure, when once his mind was settled all was as clear to him as the light of day, and his course was unalterably determined. His charities were num- erous and spontaneous, and confined to no creed or sect ; to be needy was the only qualification, and rarely was an applicant turned away empty-handed. Mr. Frost was a member of the Massachusetts and Pine Tree State clubs. In his later years he pur- chased the old homestead in Limington, and there spent the summers with his family when his business duties could be dropped for the time. Although he had been away from the town for so many years, he at once entered into the interests of the quiet little country village, and many an inspiration for the im- provement of the aesthetic or material welfare of the community was due to some suggestion or act of his. In the summer of 1895 the visit East of a brother residing in a Western state was made the occasion of a family reunion at the old home. Of the family of three brothers and six sisters, all but one, who died in Andersonville Prison in the dreadful summer of 1864, were living ; and excepting one sister, then living in Western New York, were all present at the reunion. The respective ages of the survivors were 76, 73, 71, 69, 66, 61 and 53. This gathering Mr. Frost looked back upon with great pleasure, as he realized that it was probably the last time the family would be together. Little did any of the company suppose that he would be the first to join the silent throng. But a noble life lett little to be done. Although he had . not formally united with any church, he was ever deeply interested in all religious work, and for many years he was active in the work of the church whose worship he attended. Mr. Frost was married November 14, 1852, to Selinda Clough, of Lisbon, New Hampshire. Their children are three : Sarah A., Alice M., and William Frost, for several years associated with his father in busi- ness, and now his successor in the firm of Frost & Company. Mrs. Frost died June 12, 1897.
KING, HORATIO, LI. D., Postmaster-General of the United States in 1861, was born in Portland, Maine, June 21, 1811, son of Samuel and Sally (Hall) King ; died in Washington, District of Colum- bia, May 20, 1897. His grandfather, George King, who resided in Raynham, Massachusetts, served as Orderly-Sergeant and Clerk of the Raynham Com- pany in the Revolutionary War, as did three of his brothers, one of whom died in the service. Samuel
King went from Massachusetts to Portland, where he engaged in agricultural pursuits, and his sons were reared to farm life. Although the only practi- cal educational training which Horatio King re- ceived was that afforded by the common schools, he possessed a natural capacity for the acquisition of learning, and by his own exertions became familiar with the higher branches of study, including a good knowledge of French, which aided him greatly in his subsequent official career. In the spring of 1829, when eighteen years old, he decided to learn the newspaper business, and with a view of becoming thoroughly familiar with the mechanical as well as
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HORATIO KING.
the editorial department, he entered the office of the " Jeffersonian," a Jacksonian-Democratic paper then published in Paris. A year later he acquired an interest in the paper. Six months afterwards he became its sole proprietor and removed to Portland. About the time Andrew Jackson was elected to the Presidency, Mr. King assumed the entire editorial management of his paper, which earnestly supported that administration, and when the Senate refused to confirm the nomination of Mr. Van Buren as Minis- ter to England, the Jeffersonian was among the first papers in the country to advance his name as the next Presidential nominee. In 1838 he sold his paper to the Standard, which soon after was merged
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into the " Eastern Argus," and the Jeffersonian may be said to still live in the columns of that staunch advocate of Democratic principles. This terminated Mr. King's professional connection with the press, which had extended over a period of vital import- ance in the political history of the nation. The seeds of discord then sown ultimately blossomed forth into secession, and he is on record as having from first to last combated with zeal every scheme that looked towards disunion. In the fall of 1838 he went to Washington with a view of obtaining a newspaper opening, but not finding what he desired, he accepted in March 1839 a clerkship in the Post- office Department, tendered him by Postmaster General Amos Kendall. Applying himself with his accustomed energy and ability to the new work, he rose through various promotions until toward the close of 1850 he was placed in charge of the foreign mail service. Up to 1851 no postal convention had been entered into with any European govern- ment except Great Britain and Bremen, and those were imperfect. By diligently studying the situa- tion, he sought to remedy this omission, and in 1853 arrangements were made with the last-named gov- ernment reducing the half-ounce letter-rate from twenty to ten cents. This was the beginning of low rates across the Atlantic, and was speedily followed by postal treaties with Prussia, Hamburg, France, Belgium, the West Indies, and several of the South American Republics. In the spring of 1854 Mr. King was appointed First-Assistant Postmaster General by President Pierce, to fill a vacancy caused by the death of Major Hobbie. In January 1861 he became Act- ing Postmaster-General ; was nominated Postmaster- General by President Buchanan on February first, and being confirmed by the Senate on the twelfth of that month, held office until the inauguration of President Lincoln and the confirmation of his suc- cessor. In April 1862 he was appointed by Presi- dent Lincoln a member of the commission to carry out the provisions of the Emancipation Proclama- tion in the District of Columbia, his associates being Daniel R. Goodloe and Dr. John M. Brod- head, with William R. Woodward as Clerk, and B. M. Campbell as expert. The work of the commis- sion having been expeditiously and satisfactorily completed, its members waited upon the President, who received them with his customary frankness and cordiality, after which they adjourned sine die. After his withdrawal from official life Mr. King acted for some time as an attorney before the executive departments and international commissions, and
about twenty years ago he retired as far as possible from active labor. He visited Europe twice, first in 1867, and again in 1875 and 1876. After his return from his last tour he published a book entitled " Sketches of travel, or Twelve Months in Europe." He contributed many articles upon a variety of subjects to the newspapers and magazines and lectured on various occasions. His Saturday evening literary reunions, of which over a hundred were held, will long be remembered in Washington society. He retained full control of his mental and physical powers during his declining years, which were spent at the Capital amid the scenes of his long and honorable official career, and on the morning of May 20, 1897, he passed quietly to rest. The immediate cause of his death was heart failure, following an attack of grip in the preceding November. Mr. King was a lifelong Democrat, and as a politican was both firm and consistent, heartily supporting every Democratic administration from the time he was old enough to exercise the privileges of a citizen. He opposed secession from the first, and during his term as Postmaster-General, when treason openly asserted itself upon the streets of Washington, he was the first public officer to deny the right of a state to secede from the Union. As an official he was indefatigable, devoting his entire energy to the duties of his position, and he dis- pensed with the use of cards, always being accessible to those whose business he was there to transact. He labored diligently to defeat all attempts to use the mails without paying for the privilege, and upon one occasion he sat up all night working to secure the enactment of a law requiring the prepayment of postage on letters, which was actually passed at five o'clock on Sunday morning. Long after his retirement he secured the passage of the " Penalty Envelope " bill, a great labor and money saving de- vice. In 1895 he published through J. B. Lippincott & Company " Turning on the Light," a review and defence of Buchanan's Administration, with many of Mr. King's most prominent addresses, sketches and poems, together with a biographical sketch by his son, Gen. Horatio C. King. In 1890 he delivered the Poem at the Annual Reunion of the Society of the Army of the Potomac, of which he was elected an honorary member. In 1896, Dickinson College, Pennsylvania, conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Laws. His duties as Secretary of the Washington Monument Society were the source of much pleasure to him, and he had the satisfaction of witnessing the completion and dedication of that
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beautiful marble obelisk. Mr .; King was married May 25, 1835, to Anne Collins, of Portland, Maine. Of seven children born to that union, three are liv- ing : Mrs. Annie A. Cole, of Washington, D. C. ; Gen- eral Horatio C. King, of Brooklyn, New York ; and - Henry F. King, of West Newton, Massachusetts. His first wife died September 22, 1869, and on February 8, 1875, he married Isabella G. Osborne, of Auburn, New York. It is worthy of note that although exempt by law from the performance of military duty, Mr. King furnished a substitute who was duly mustered in and served through the war ; 'and this exhibition of patriotismi received official recognition from the government.
KING, GENERAL HORATIO COLLINS, of Brooklyn, New York, was born in Portland, Maine, December 22, 1837, son of Horatio and Anne (Collins) King. He is a descendant in the fifth generation of Ben- jamin King, who was a Representative to the Gen- eral Court of Massachusetts in 1772, a delegate to the Provincial Congress in 1774, and a member of the Committee of Public Safety in 1776. Four sons of Benjamin King served in the Revolutionary War, one of whom died from exposure, and George King, great-grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was Sergeant and Clerk of a company raised in Raynham, Massachusetts. Samuel King, General King's grand- father, went front Massachusetts to Maine, settling in Paris, Oxford County, where he resided until his death. His father, Hon. Horatio King, LL.D., who died in Washington, District of Columbia, May 20, 1897, was Postmaster-General during the latter part of President Buchanan's administration, and a brief account of his life and official career appears in the pages immediately preceding this sketch. On his mother's side General King is a great-grandson of Captain Cyrenius Collins, who commanded a com- pany of Connecticut infantry in the War for Inde- pendence, and his maternal grandparents were Joseph W. and Hannah (Sturdevant) Collins, of Portland. His early educational training was re- ceived in the private schools of Washington and at the preparatory department of Emory and Henry College, in Virginia. He was graduated from Dick- inson College, Carlisle, Pennsylvania, in July 1858, and of this institution he is now a Trustee. He
studied law with Edwin M. Stanton, afterwards Sec- retary of War in President Lincoln's Cabinet, and was admitted to the Bar in New York city in May 1861. Although desirous of entering the army at
the first call for troops, he was persuaded by his parents to abandon the project, as it was predicted that the strife would be of short duration ; but his patriotism would not permit him to remain in civil life when the Union needed young and strong defenders, and in August 1862 he applied to Secre- tary Stanton for the position of Quartermaster of Volunteers on the staff of General Casey. In less than an hour after making his application he had a Captain's commission in his pocket, and five days later reported for duty. The nature of his duties was entirely unknown to him, but by studying care- fully the details of the work, the young Captain was
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HORATIO C. KING.
equal to the emergency, and when the new levy of 130,000 men began to pour into Washington, he was ready to render much valuable assistance to the volunteer officers. After the preliminary work of organization was completed he was ordered to duty at department headquarters under Generals Heint- zelman and Augur and was later assigned to duty as Chief Quartermaster of DeRussy's Division, which included the line of fortifications from the Chain Bridge on the Potomac to Alexandria. At his earnest request to Secretary Stanton for duty in the field, he was ordered to report to General Sheridan, then commanding the Army of the Shenandoah. He was assigned to the staff of General Merritt, as
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Chief Quartermaster of the first cavalry division of nine thousand men. with the rank of Major. The care of such a large family was no easy task, but Major King supplied its wants with unfailing regularity and received special official mention from Generals Merritt and Devin, the latter stating in a Special Order 39 on his retirement, that he has so " performed his manifold, arduous and often hazar- dous duties as never to have given cause for a single complaint during his connection with this Division." In addition to his usual duties he seized and operated a sawmill and a tannery, pro- curing and manufacturing lumber sufficient for win- ter quarters for the entire command, and tanned with the aid of enlisted men some eighteen hun- dred sides of leather, with which the harnesses of the artillery and trains were put in thorough repair. After a severe campaign in the Valley, he accom- panied the Division to City Point and in the final great campaign of the Army of the Potomac. Dur- ing the first day of the Battle of Five Forks, Major King was ordered by General Devin, then com- manding the division, to find the Reserve Brigade, General Gibbs, and pilot it to a point where it was greatly needed. This he did with such promptness that the reinforcement arrived in time to repel a fierce charge, and General Devin recommended him to the Secretary of War for promotion for con- spicuous gallantry. The brevets of Lieutenant-Colo- nel and Colonel were conferred upon him by the War Department, and after participating in the great review at the Capital he resigned and re- turned to civil life. Since the war General King has practiced his profession in New York city and Brooklyn with success, having his residence in Brooklyn. He was for some time actively inter- ested in newspaper work, as associate editor of the New York Star, later being attached to the Christian Union and Christian at Work as pub- lisher, when Henry Ward Beecher and Dr. Tal- mage were respectively editors, and he has contrib- uted largely to newspapers and magazines articles, poems and songs, many of which have given him high rank in the literary world. Joining the New York National Guard, he was elected Major of the Thirteenth Regiment, and later was appointed Bri- gade Judge Advocate. He had made a careful study of military law, and his work on courts-martial- governing the National Guard was adopted by the state and served to simplify the proceedings in mil- itary courts. General King was appointed Judge Advocate General by Governor Cleveland in 1,883,
and was retained by Governor Hill until ISS6. From 1883 until his resignation in 1894 he was a member of the Brooklyn Board of Education. He is a charter member of the New York Commandery of the military order of the Loyal Legion, of which he has been Recorder, Registrar and Junior Vice- Commander, and the Grand Army of the Republic ; has been Recording Secretary of the Society of the Army of the Potomac since 1877, and has been a trustee of the Soldiers' Home, New York, since 1894. He is also a Mason and a member of Cerneau Lodge of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, Thirty-third degree ; the Benevolent Order of Elks ; the Board of Managers of the Empire State Society of the Sons of the American Revolution ; the Brook- lyn Historical Society, the Brooklyn Institute, the Brooklyn Club and the Brooklyn Democratic Club, of which latter he is President (1897) ; also of the New York Press Club, and of Plymouth Church. Politically he is a Democrat. In 1895 he was a candidate for Secretary of State in New York, and in the national campaign of 1896 he was a Delegate to the Indianapolis Convention and actively pro- moted the cause of sound money. General King was first married October 5, 1862, to Emma C. Stebbins ; she and her only child, Mabel, died in 1864. On June 14, 1866, he was a second time married, to Esther A. Howard, daughter of John T. Howard, Esq., one of the oldest and most esteemed residents of the City of Churches. To this union were born nine children, five of whom are living, namely : Emma, wife of Percy R Gray ; Alice, wife of John Hanway; Susan, wife of S. S. Norton ; Clara, wife of Cleveland Litchfield, and Mabel who is unmarried. The others were Essie, Horatio and Carlotta, who died in infancy, and Ethel, aged nine- teen, who died May 19, 1897. General King is the author of the following publications : Plymouth Sil- ver Wedding, The Brooklyn Congregational Coun- cil, King's Guide to Regimental Courts-Martial, The Thirteenth New York Regiment in Montreal, Annual Re-unions of the Society of the Army of the Potomac, nineteen volumes, and over a hun- dred vocal and instrumental compositions. As an orator, lecturer, post-prandial and stump speaker, General King stands high, and his services are in constant demand.
MOORE, EDWARD, of Moore & Wright, con- tractors for public works, Portland, was born in Freeport, Maine, February 13, 1838, son of William
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E. and Agnes A. (Mackie) Moore. The senior Moore, William, was born in a small town in the North of Ireland, in 1810. The mother, Agnes, was born in Portland, Maine, in 1811, the daughter of Andrew Mackie, a Scotch sea-captain. Young . Moore's early book-education was obtained in the primary and grammar schools of Portland between the ages of five and eleven, at which latter youthful period he began his training for active life by going to sea as a cabin boy. From the age of fifteen to seventeen he served an apprenticeship at the trade of pattern-making, and then went to St. John, New Brunswick, to learn the trade of making lasts. When nineteen years old he returned to Portland and started a factory for the manufacture of lasts. Soon after the outbreak of the Civil War, in the summer of 1861, he enlisted as a private soldier and took part in recruiting men for the Fifth, Thir- teenth and Seventeenth Maine regiments, receiving a commission August 18, 1862, as Second Lieu- tenant of Company H Seventeenth Maine, and remaining continuously with that regiment until it was mustered out of the service in 1865. On March 3, 1863, he was promoted to First Lieu- tenant of Company C, and March 10, 1863, to the Captaincy of the same company. He was brevetted Major, and March 13, 1865, Lieutenant Colonel of United States Volunteers for gallant and meritorious service- luring the war. Colonel Moore took part in the following battles : Fredericksburg, Virginia (December 11-15, 1862), The Cedars, Virginia (May 2, 1863), Chancellorsville, Virginia (May 3-8, 1863), Gettysburg, Pennsylvania (July 2-3, 1863), Funkstown, Maryland (July 12-15, 1863), Wapping Heights, Virginia (July 22-23, 1863), Auburn and Bristol, Virginia (October 14, 1863), Kelley's Ford, Virginia (November 7, 1863), Locust Grove, Vir- ginia (November 27, 1853), Mine Run, Virginia (November 28-30, 1863), R. pidan, Virginia ( Feb- ruary 6-7, 1864), Spottsylvania Court House, Vir- ginia (May 14-16, 1864), Fredericksburg Pike, Virginia (May 19, 1864), North Anna River, Virginia (May 23-26, 1864), Pamunkey River, Vir- ginia (May 26-28, 1864), Tolopotomy (May 28 to June 2, 1864), Cold Harbor, Virginia (June 2-12, 1864), Petersburg, Virginia (June 16-20, 1864), and Siege of Petersburg (June 20, 1864, to Febril- ary 25, 1865), during which he took part in the battles of Jerusalem Plank Road (June 22-24), Deep Bottom (July 27-28), Explosion of Mine (July 30), Strawberry Plains (August 14-18), cap- ture of the Confederate picket line in front of Fort :
Sedgwick (September 26), Peble's Farm (October 1-2), Fort Sedgwick (October 10), Boydton Plank Road (October 27-28), Weldon Railroad (Decein- ber 7-11) and Dabney's Mills (February 5-7, :865). He also took part after the surrender of Lee's army in the march to Washington, and the Grand Review of November 23, 1865. He was mustered out of the service June 4, 1865. At the close of the war Colonel Moore returned to Portland completely broken down in health. With its partial restora- tion came renewed longing for active business life. Gifted with love and capacity for mathematical pursuits, indomitable energy and keen business
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