Men of progress; biographical sketches and portraits of leaders in business and professional life in and of the state of Maine, Part 87

Author: Herndon, Richard; McIntyre, Philip Willis, 1847- ed; Blanding, William F., joint ed
Publication date: 1897
Publisher: Boston, New England magazine
Number of Pages: 1268

USA > Maine > Men of progress; biographical sketches and portraits of leaders in business and professional life in and of the state of Maine > Part 87

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establishment ; the most extensive of its kind in the state of Maine. It now employs many men, incluid- ing, besides stencillings, rubber stamps and engrav- ing of seals, etc. Since 1893 the business has been conducted by a stock company, of which Mr. Bennett is Manager. But Mr. Bennett does not confine his business activities to the management of this corporation. He has other large interests, in as well as out of the city. He established and owns the Old Orchard Electric Light Company, is Treas- urer of the Old Orchard Water Company, and general manager of the Duff Construction Company of the same place, which does a general piping, plumbing and manufacturing business. In politics he is a Republican, though never caring to join the army of office holders. In religion he is a Sweden- borgian, and one of the Parish Committee of the New Church in Portland. In the fraternal orders he is high in rank, having attained the Thirty-second degree in Masonry, and having served as Master of Portland Lodge High Priest of Greenleaf Chapter, and Eminent Commander of St. Albans Com- mandery. He is also an Odd Fellow, a Knight of Pythias, and a Red Man. Of other societies in which he holds membership are the Portland Athletic Club, the Maine Genealogical Society and the Maine Charitable Mechanics' Institute. Mr. Bennett was married February 10, 1871, to Georgia A. Gardiner of Old Orchard, Maine. They have had two children : Lilla Irene and Bessie Mildred, both living, and Edward, a son who died when but six years old.

BROWN, CHAPIN, Lawyer, Washington, District of Columbia, was born in Orland, Hancock county, Maine, March 25, 1855, son of Samuel Peters Brown, born December 9, 1816, and Charlotte Met- calf Mason, born November 15, IS41. He is a grandson of Samuel Brown of Bluehill, Maine, born March 17, 1776, and on the maternal side, of Horatio Mason of Orland. Thomas Mason, his great-grand- father on the maternal side, was soldier in the Revolution, and was engaged in the battles of I.ex- ington and Bunker Hill. Samuel Brown, his grand- father on the paternal side, did temporary military service during the War of 1812 as a volunteer. The subject of this sketch went to Washington at the age of six years, in 1861, with his father, who was appointed the Navy Agent at Washington, D. C., by President Lincoln. He returned to Maine how ever for his early education, which was received m the public schools of Orland, and at the " Little

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Blue " School for boys in Farmington. which he attended for two and a half years. In 1866 he entered the preparatory department (now Colum- bian Academy) of Columbian University in Wash- ington, and subsequently attended the College and Law departments of the University, graduating from the former as A. B. and taking the Senior year of College and Junior of the Law School in one year, receiving from the Law Department the degree of B. L. While pursuing his law course he held a position in the Civil Service ( Postoffice Depart-

CHAPIN BROWN.

ment) in Washington ; but upon completion of his course and receiving his degree, he resigned to take effect in six months, and had his resignation accepted so as to be sure of going out of govern- ment employ. In 1877 he was admitted to the Bar, and has since been engaged in general practice before all the courts of the District of Columbia and the Supreme Court of the United States. Mr. Brown brought to the practice of law the same per- severance and force of will that marked his college course, and which early placed him in the front rank of his profession. He was counsel in the noted criminal case of the United States vs. Frank K. Ward, in the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia, and in the civil case of Commissioners of the District of Columbia vs. Bauman and others,

involving the constitutionality of the law for the extension of the streets of the Capitol of the Nation. Early in his professional life he was made one of the Trustees of the Washington public schools. With conscientious regard for the requirements of the position, he made a thorough study of the public- school system, and his administration of the office was marked by a wisdom and breadth of view born of a comprehensive knowledge of all the needs and questions involved. At present he is one of the Trustees of the Girls' Reform School of the District, a position he has held for four years. As Chairman of a Citizens' Committee to raise a fund and pro- vide for the entertainment of visitors on the occasion of the national gathering of Knights of Pythias in Washington, in 1894, Mr. Brown demonstrated extraordinary executive ability in his labors to make the gathering a success, and presided over the deliberations of the committee with exceptional tact and judgment. In a similar capacity he served as a member of the General Executive Com- mittee at the inauguration of President Mckinley in March 1897, both as a member of the General Committee, and as Chairman of the Common Trans- portation Mr. Brown contributed very materially to the great success of the inaugural ceremonies. He was Vice-President of the Columbian University Alumni Association in 1892-3, and in December 1896 was unanimously elected President of the Association for the term of one year. Mr. Brown is a member of the Cosmos Club, and of the leading literary, art, scientific and social societies of Wash- ington. He is a Republican in politics, and took a very active part in the presidential campaign of 1896, speaking in the states of Maryland and Vir- ginia. Mr. Brown is unmarried.

BROWN, DANIEL EUGENE, M. D., Brockton, Massachusetts, was born in Ellsworth, Maine, Feb- ruary 8, 1865, son of Ivory L. and Emma. I .. (Eppes) Brown. His paternal ancestor was Peter Brown, who came from England in the Mayflower. On the maternal side he is descended from Colonel David Greene, a brother of General Nathaniel Greene of Revolutionary fame. His mother was a daughter of Daniel Eppes, ist, son of Henry and Emma (Greene) Eppes, the latter a daughter of Colonel . David Greene's son John and Abigail (Gerry) Greene. His father was on the maternal side a cousin of Chief Justice John A. Peters of Maine. Daniel E. Brown received his general

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education in the public schools of his native city, and studied for his profession at the Hahnemann Medical College in Philadelphia, from which insti- tution he graduated March 31, 1886, meanwhile working during vacations in the stores of his father and his uncle, Daniel H. Eppes, in Ellsworth. Immediately after graduation he established him- self in Brockton, Massachusetts, where he has since continued and has built up a large practice. Dr. Brown is a member of the Massachusetts and of the Plymouth County homoeopathic medical societies, also a member of the Odd Fellows, the Elks and

D. E. BROWN.

the Knights of Pythias, and the Commercial Club of Brockton. In politics he is a Republican. He was married June 9, 1883, to Linnie M. Burnham, daughter of A. F. Burnham of Ellsworth, Maine ; they have one son : Albert Farrington Brown.

CARTLAND, THOMAS P. R., Shoe Manufacturer, Portland, was born in Brunswick, Maine, Decem- ber 29, 1854, son of Isaiah and Eunice H. (Rich) Cartland, and grandson of Charles Cartland of Lim- - ington, Maine. His father was a well-known mer- chant of Portland, where he died in January 1895, and his mother, now living, was the daughter of

Stephen Rich. He received his early education in the public schools of Portland. and completed his studies in a three-years course at the Friends Boarding School, at Providence, Rhode Island. Entering the employ of G. C. Tyler & Company, wholesnie shoe merchants of Portland, in their estab lishment he made himself familiar with the line of trade which he has since followed. In 1877 he formed a partnership with A. T. Davis and opened a retail shoe store under the Falmouth Hotel, Port- land, doing a very successful business under the firm name of Davis & Cartland for ten years. In 1887 he established his present manufactory in Portland, making a specialty of ladies' medium- grade button-boots for the wholesale trade. This business has steadily extended, and now employs many hands, occupying a large four-story building in Middle street. At first Mr. Cartland was asso- ciated with C. R. Jones, but subsequently Mr. Jones retired, and he has since remained the sole proprietor, retaining however the old firm nanie of Jones & Cartland. The goods are sold from his Boston office, and their sales, which are yearly increasing, extend over the South and West to New Orleans and the Pacific Coast. Although a staunch Republican in politics, Mr. Cartland is not actively interested in matters political, and takes no promi- nent part in public affairs. He is however well known to the public as a business man, and as a member of the various leading social organizations. He is a member of Ancient Landmark Masonic Lodge, Greenleaf Chapter of Royal Arch Masons and Portland Commandery Knights Templar, also of the Portland Athletic Association and Bramhall League Club. He was married in 1883, to Minnie Milliken, daughter of William H. and Julia (Wyman) Milliken of Portland : they have two children : M. Gertrude and Ruth T. Cartland.

BROWN, RUFUS GREENE, Manufacturer of Im. proved Steam and Water Heating Apparatus, Bos- ton, was born in Waterford, Oxford county, Maine, July 1, 1832, son of John and Sophia ( Hamlin) Brown. His mother was a second cousin ol Hon. Hannibal Hamlin. He received his early education in the public schools, after which he served an apprenticeship at iron-moulding in Waterford, Maine, and worked at that occupation at Waterford for several years. He then engaged in the manufacture of carriage-axles, establish.n the business and continuing it for several years. In

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1862 he went to Massachusetts, and spent a short all needed apparatus and supplies. Mr. Brown is period in the foundry of Hinckley & Williams, Boston, after which he was connected with the Davis & Farnham Foundry Company for seven years. He then established an iron and brass foundry in Waltham, which he ran for several years. While thus engaged he patented, April 25, 1876, an improved steam-heating boiler, and subse- quently sold out his foundry business and devoted himself to the manufacture and sale of his steam- heating boiler, which was again patented for i-aprovements in 1877. For the past seven or eight years he has been located in Boston, making a

RUFUS G. BROWN ..

specialty of the manufacture and sale of Brown's New Improved Steam and Water Heating Appara- tus, patented in October 1889, which has acquired a widespread reputation and has come into exten- sive use. The great number of these heaters in service in Boston and vicinity are a standing testi- monial to their efficiency and economy, and all over New England and in other states, even as far west as Colorado, the apparatus is well and favor- ably known. Mr. Brown has built up a large business in this specialty, and in contracting for the heating of churches, factories, business estab- lishments and other public and private buildings, for which he furnishes boilers, radiators, piping and

a member of various societies, including Monitor Lodge of Masons, in which he has held all the offices, including that of Master for two years ; Walthan Royal Arch Chapter, serving in the vari- ous offices in that body, including that of High Priest for three years; and Gethsemane Com- mandery Knights Templar, of Newtonville, Massa- chusetts, in which he also has held various offices, including that of Eminent Commander. He is also a member of the Knights Templar Commanders' Union, of Boston, a social organization composed of Commanders, Past Commanders and Grand Commanders of the Knights Templar body. Mr. Brown was first married May 10, 1854, to Helen Proctor, daughter of Josiah and Rebecca Proctor of Waterford, Maine, by whom he had five children, of whom two are living : Clarence Herbert, a resi- dent of New York, and Sydney Paine Brown, a well-known member of the Suffolk ( Massachusetts) Bar. His second marriage was to Anna Jones, daughter of Edward and Elizabeth Jones of Wal- tham, Massachusetts; they have two children : Helen E., a student at Tufts College, class of 1897, and Alice Marion Brown, a pupil in the Waltham High School.

BLACK, CHARLES HENRY, Superintendent of Streets in Chelsea, Massachusetts, was born in Swan- ville, Waldo county, Maine, March 28, 1853, son of William Henry and Malinda Sawtelle (Staples) Black. His grandfather Alexander Black, whose wife was Ruth Merrithew, was among the early ship- builders and shipowners of Searsport, Maine, and also built and managed two large hotels at what is now called Black's Corner, Maine. His great-great- grandfather, Henry Black, emigrated from Scotland to the town of Winnissimet (now the city of Chel- sea), Massachusetts, in 1765. He married in 1769 Sarah Stowers, of what is now Revere, Massachu- setts, and moved to Prospect, Maine, then a part of Massachusetts. During the Revolution he served at Fort Pownal, now Fort Point, on the Penobscot River, Maine. In 1805-11, inclusive, he was a Representative from the District of Maine to the General Court at Boston. On the maternal side the subject of this sketch is a grandson of Hon. Josiah and Hannah (Downs) Stables. Hon. Josiah Staples was a Colonel in the state militia, and served as County Commissioner, also as a member of the Maine Senate with Hannibal Hamlin, the two being

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lifelong friends. Charles H. Black received his education in the common schools, and at the age of seventeen, in 1870, went to Boston, where he was engaged with Dwinell & Company, wholesale coffee and spices, until 1872, then with O'Hara & Bullard until 1874, from September 1872 to September 1873 in New York city. On the death of his father in 1875 he bought the latter's teaming and general contract business of the heirs, and continued the business until 1887. Mr. Black's early training, before leaving home, consisted largely of practical experience under his father, in road building, in which he developed a natural talent for road con-

CHAS. H. BLACK.

struction and for street work in general. In 1887 he was appointed Superintendent of Streets in Chel- sea, Massachusetts, and served in that capacity until 1894. In 1897 he was re-appointed to that position, which he now holds. He is also serving as Harbor Master of Chelsea, under appointment in 1893. He has also been Treasurer of the Gay Head Brick and Clay Company since 1894, is Treasurer of the New England Smoke Consumer Company of New York, and is Treasurer and Gen- eral Manager of the C. H. Black Company, engaged in the trucking and teaming business in Chelsea, Mr. Black is prominently identified with the Masonic fraternity, being a member of Robert Lash Lodge,

Shekinah Chapter Royal Arch Masons, Naphtali Council Royal and Select Masters and Palestine Commandery Knights Templar, all of Chelsea, and Aleppo Temple of the Mystic Shrine, Boston. He is a member of Mystic Lodge of Odd Fellows in Chelsea. the Order of Fraternal Helpers, Massachu- setts Benefit Association, New England Order of Protection and American Legion of Honor ; also of the Alter Ego and Review clubs, Chelsea. In poli- tics he has always been a staunch Republican. He was married July 30, :874, to Jennette Jameson Brown, youngest daughter of Captain Francis and Elizabeth Herman Brown of Chelsea. They have had five children : Maude Sawyer, now in the class of 1898 at. Wellesley College ; Jennette Chester ; Stephen Miller, died December 6, 1887, aged three and a half years ; Martha Louise and Grace Libby Black.

BLAISDELL, WALTER FERREN, Coal and Wood Merchant, New York, was born in Frankfort (now Winterport), on the Penobscot River, Maine, Novem- ber 5, 1848, son of Ebenezer Ferren and Nancy (Chase) Blaisdell. His great-grandfather Ebenezer Blaisdell came to Frankfort from New Hampshire shortly after the Revolutionary War, in which he rendered valiant service. He was a retired sea. captain, and was one of the first settlers of Frankfort ; he bought sections of land on the Penobscot River, and built the house in which the subject of this sketch was born, which is still standing and has never been out of the family. He was said to be the first to plant apples in Maine. Into this house the grandfather of our subject, also named Ebenezer, was brought when a small boy, and here he lived and died. He married Annie Ferren of Kennebunkport, Maine, daughter of Jonathan Ferren, who fought in the French and Indian War and in the Revolution, and went with Arnold in the expedition to Quebec, where he was taken prisoner but was afterwards rescued. His son Ebenezer F., born in 1823, has lived in this house all his life, and still owns it. His wife, Nancy Chase, to whom he was married in 1847, was a daughter of Mark L. Chase, a descend- ant of the same family as Salmon P. Chase, Chief Justice of the United States. He was an advanced freethinker, and an inventor, originating the method of applying the motion of the compass to the center of the upper mill-stone and adjusting it to the bed stone. This method was universally used for grind ing wheat and corn in this country until the new roller process of flour making, which came into

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vogue only a few years ago; and there is a large amount of wheat and corn ground by the old process yet. He was also the inventor of the celebrated sidehill plough. Nancy Chase Blaisdell was a descendant of patriotic stock, her maternal grand- father, John Spearin, having fought seven years under Washington through the Revolution, and was also in the War of IS12 with his three sons, one of whom was severely wounded. She is also descend- ed through her grandmother from General Kendall, whose ancestors came from England and Scotland about 1627, who erected at Kendall's Mills, now the city of Waterville, the first sawmill on the Ken- nebec River, and whose sister was the first white child born on that river. Walter F. Blaisdell was the oldest of eight brothers. He received such early education as was afforded by the district school, after which he went to work on a farm and later worked in a cooper shop for the firm of Treat & Company until the summer of 1864, when he enlisted in the navy. He served during the last year of the war in the gunboat Massasoit, under the command of R. T. Henshaw and Lieutenant Sum- ner, receiving his discharge in the latter part of June 1865. From the fall of 1865 until 1869 he followed the sea, and then engaged in steamboating on the old Sanford Line of steamers, the Katahdin and Cambridge, running between Boston and Ban- gor, as Quartermaster and Second Mate. After leaving the employ of the Sanford Line he went to work in the granite quarries at Mount Waldo, Frankfort, for Pierce & Rowe, who had a large contract to furnish stone for the Brooklyn Bridge. He worked for this firm a year and then went to the quarries on Fox Island, Maine, in the employ of the Government on work for the Treas- ury Building at Washington, as a blacksmith and tool sharpener, where he continued until 1876. His two brothers, Frank and Joseph, went to New York in 1873 and entered the employ of L. M. Palmer, connected with the Havemeyer & Elder Sugar Refining Company, and were followed by two other brothers in 1875. In April 1876 Walter joined them and went to work for the same com- pany, and eventually all of the eight brothers worked for Mr. Palmer at one time. In February 1877 the subject of our sketch started in the kindling-wood business with a handsaw and hatchet, and later with his brothers established their present business in this line, which now has grown to immense propor- tions. The partnership began under the name of the Blaisdell Brothers Wood Company, in 1879,

four brothers being then interested, namely Walter F., Mark L., Joseph W. and Frank L; after two years taking in Philo C. All continue in the busi- ness at the present time, except Mark 1 .. , who has retired, and lives in Clinton, Connecticut. The brothers continued under the original firm name until 1892, when they formed the Standard Wood Company, taking in three factories in Maine, one in New Hampshire, three in New York state and five in Pennsylvania, besides handling the product of four independent concerns. The business has grown marvellously, until at the present time the Blaisdell Brothers are manufacturing from one hundred

WALTER F. BLAISDELL.

thousand to one hundred and twenty-five thousand cords of wood yearly, selling in every city and town of any size and consequence from Salem, Massachu- setts, to Philadelphia. Joseph W. is President of the company, Frank L. is General Superintendent, and Philo C. Assistant Superintendent. In 1886, Walter F. associated himself with G. D. Curtis, under the firm name of Curtis & Blaisdell, for hand- ling coal in New York city. Their pockets, situated at Fifty-sixth street and East River, were among the first erected in New York. They started with but little knowledge of the business, and old con- cerns predicted that the new firm would make a failure of their enterprise, as they expended at the

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outset a large amount of money in equipping their plant to handle coal economically. They sold the first year about fifteen thousand tons, and the busi- ness has grown steadily from that time until in 1896 they handled a hundred and eighty thousand tons. The success they have gained has been due to industry and close attention to the details of the business, combined with the peculiarly happy work- ing together in harmony of all the brothers. Mr. Blaisdell was first married in January 1876, to Nellie Mitchell, daughter of Orin Mitchell of Rockiand, Maine, who was a Captain in the Fourth Mains Regiment and served throughout the Civil War. Mrs. Blaisdell died in February 1884, leaving two children : Charles O. and Sarah Ann Blaisdell. In 1890 Mr. Blaisdell was married a second time, to Cordelia Bruce, third daughter of David Bruce of New York city. David Bruce was the inventor of the typecasting machine that has been used for casting all the type in this country since it was invented. His father and uncle founded the old type-foundry of Bruce & Sons, who aided and sup- ported Horace Greeley in starting the New York Tribune. The father of the Blaisdell Brothers, E. F. Blaisdell, is still alive and well, residing on the old place in Winterport. He was an old Abolition- ist, and one of the first Republican Representatives sent to Augusta by that party ; he has repeatedly been Chairman of the Board of Selectmen of Win- terport, and has been well and favorably known by all of the old-line Abolitionists and Republicans in Maine for the past fifty years. The mother, Mrs. Nancy Chase Blaisdell, is still living.

BLAISDELL, SILAS CANADA, M. D., New York city, was born in Winterport, Waldo county, Maine, May 20, 1856, son of Ebenezer Ferren and Nancy (Chase) Blaisdell. The house in which he first saw the light has been in the family for a hundred and ten years ; his father and grandfather, all their children and those of his great-grandfather, were born in it, and it never has been out of the name of Blaisdell. A statement of facts relating to Dr. Blaisdell's ancestry and family history is given in the preceding sketch of his eldest brother, Walter F. Blaisdell. Silas C. Blaisdell's early education was received in the common schools of Winterport,. except for a short course at Hampden (Maine) Academy. From childhood he always had the desire to become a physician, and everything in the course of his life has been bent to that purpose.

On account of the limited means and large family of bis parents, he was apprenticed to a cooper, with whom he served for about four years. After that he went to work with a tailor, to learn the art of cutting garments. After about eighteen months of service in that relation he went to Brooklyn, New York, where his first year proved to be the hardest of his whole life, working fourteen hours a day, at the rate of six dollars a week, in the clothing trade. At the end of the year he received contracts from Lowell M. Palmer of the Havemeyer & Elder Sugar Refining Company, with whom he continued for four years, during which time he was able to save

S. C. BLAISDELL.

money enough to pay his way through college. Dr. Blaisdell cannot remember of having in the whole course of his life had as much as a twenty-five cent piece given to him, for which he did not give the full equivalent of value in labor of some kind. Entering the University of the City of New York in 1879, he was appointed in his first year's course, after a competitive examination out of over seven hundred students, Assistant Demonstrator of Anat- omy in the college, and won the silver medal. The second year brought him the gold medal - the first and only time in the history of the university that these medals have been awarded, to a first-year and second-year man. The third year, honorable men-

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Men of progress; biographical sketches and portraits of leaders in business and professional life in and of the state of Maine, Part 87

Author: Herndon, Richard; McIntyre, Philip Willis, 1847- ed; Blanding, William F., joint ed Publication date: 1897 Publisher: Boston, New England magazine Number of Pages: 1268

Author: Herndon, Richard; McIntyre, Philip Willis, 1847- ed; Blanding, William F., joint ed
Publication date: 1897
Publisher: Boston, New England magazine
Number of Pages: 1268