Washington County
MEGenWeb
ALLAN, William Rice, of T. W. Allan & Son, lumber manufacturers, Dennysville, was born in Dennysville, May 24, 1847, son of Theophilus W. and Martha R. (Sargant) Allan. He is a great-grandson of Colonel John Allan, born in Edinburgh Castle, Scotland, January 31, 1746, son of Major William Allan of the British army. His grandfather was Mark Allan, born March 31, 1775, and his grandmother on the paternal side was Susannah Wilder, born August 9, 1774. His mother was born in Portland, Maine. He was educated in the common schools of Dennysville and at Bryant & Stratton's Commercial College in Portland, and from earliest boyhood has been engaged in the lumbering business, in association with his father, T. W. Allan, until the latter's death in 1894. T. W. Allan was one of the best-known lumbermen of Eastern Maine, having carried on the lumber business in the same place for over seventy years; he died January 7, 1894, aged ninety years, having always been held in high estimation by all who knew him. The business was for ninny years conducted under the firm name of J. & T. W. Allan, and later under the present style of T. W. Allan & Son, the membership consisting of T. W. Allan and his elder son, N. S. Allan. Mr. Allan has served his town in various public capacities, as Supervisor of Schools for thirteen years, as Second Selectman for seven years, and as First Selectman lor the present year, 1896. In 1893-4 he represented the eastern part of Washington county in the Maine Senate, as a member of that body serving on the Education and Insane Hospital committees, and as Chairman of the Temperance Committee. He is a member of Crescent Masonic Lodge and Crescent Chapter Royal Arch Masons, of Pembroke, Maine; St. Bernard Commandery Knights Templar, of Eastport, Maine; and Delta Lodge of Perfection, Scottish Rite, of Machias, Maine. He is also a member of the Massachusetts Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, his great-grandfather, Colonel John Allan, having been in command of Eastern Maine through the Revolutionary War. In politics Mr. Allan is a Republican, and a believer in the political rights of all men. He was married January 26, 1871, to Helen M. Kilby of Dennysville; they have had five children: Bertha Todd, Sargant Maxwell (deceased), Edith M., Donald Mark and Martha Sargant Allan. [Page 209]
AMES, John Keller, Lumber Manufacturer, Machias, was born in East Machias, Maine, November 7, 1831, son of Alfred and Mary Gardner (Keller) Ames. He is a grandson of Captain Isaac Ames, shipmaster, and Abigail Clark, both of Machiasport, Maine; and great-grandson of Mark Ames (originally of Marshfield, Massachusetts, and later of North Haven, Maine) and Priscilla Howland. His mother was a daughter of Captain John Keller (son of Findley Keller of Warren, Maine, and Mary Gardner) and Susan Phinney. He received his education in the common schools and at Washington Academy in East Machias, and for nearly fifty years has been engaged in the lumber business at Machias, and interested in navigation and various local industries. The death of his father when he was ten years of age left him to battle with the world alone. He worked his way through Washington Academy, and entering the employ of S. W. Pope & Company, lumber manufacturers, was soon made their Agent and managed their affairs. In 1880 he bought an interest in the property, and for the last sixteen years he has been in business for himself. He is President of the Machias Water Company; Director of the Washington County Railroad, the Bucks Harbor Packing Company and the Machias Electric Light Company; Trustee of the Machias Savings Bank, the Central Washington Agricultural Society and the Porter Memorial Library Association; also Vice-President of the Maine Lumbermen's Association, and an officer in various other organizations and institutions. Although a strong Republican from the formation of the party, Mr. Ames has never sought political office, but has served in various public capacities. He was for thirty years one of the Selectmen of Machias and Chairman of the Board during the latter part of that time, and he was State Senator from Washington county for the four years 1893-6. Among his public services, he fought the old Shore Line Railroad and saved the town of Machias a hundred thousand dollars at one time, and later fought the new Shore Line project and saved the town thirty thousand dollars. Mr. Ames is a sagacious business man, but has a large and generous heart, is very liberal to the poor, and is an ardent promoter of all matters pertaining to the good of his community and the general public. He was married October 7, 1855, to Sarah Albee Sanborn, daughter of Cyrus and Susan Sanborn of East Machias. They have six children: Edwin G., Manager of the Puget Sound Lumber Company, Washington; Anna M., wife of Fred H. Peavey of Sioux City, Iowa; Julia P., wife of R. Clinton Fuller of Providence, Rhode Island; and Frank S., Alfred K. and Lucy T. Ames of Machias. [Page 236]
DRISKO, George Washington, Editor of the Machias Union, was born in Jonesboro, Washington county, Maine, October 10, 1824, son of Chandler Robbins and Ruth Ruggles (Whitney) Drisko. He is a lineal descendant, ninth in male line, from Captain Myles Standish. His paternal grandfather was Jonathan Drisco, and his great-grandfather was Samuel Drisko, who came in 1771 from Falmouth, Maine, where he married Mercy Chandler, and settled in Jonesboro, Washington county. In 1778 Samuel moved his family to Columbia in the same county, and established himself on the farm lately occupied by George B. Drisko - George being the son of Samuel, Jr., youngest son of Samuel who settled at Jonesboro. The late Peleg W. Chandler of the Suffolk Bar (Boston) and the late Senator Zachariah Chandler of Detroit, Michigan, also the present Senator William E. Chandler of New Hampshire, are said to have come from the same stock. Jonathan Drisko, above mentioned, married Sarah McKenzie of Columbia, Maine. Sarah, grandmother of the subject of this sketch, was a daughter of John McKenzie, a native of Scotland, who came to Falmouth and Columbia, Maine, when a young man; her mother was Elizabeth Dyer of Falmouth, of whom the late Joseph Dyer, the well-known Maine shipbuilder along in the fifties, was a descendant or kindred. George W. Drisko was reared in farm life, and was subjected to the deprivations attendant upon settlers and families from 1824 to 1846 in the forests and outlying districts of Maine. He was educated largely by personal effort, reading biography and history, especially that of this country in all detail from 1730 to latest date, with home instruction by resident teachers, visitors and associates. He commenced newspaper and literary work as a correspondent of the Eastern Argus of Portland in 1846, and as a contributor to the United States Patent-office Reports in 1847; and from 1854 has been Editor of the Machias Union to the present time. He has also been on the reporter's staff of the New York Herald and Boston Globe since 1875, and for twenty-one years a member of the New England Associated Press; and is the author of the "Life of Hannah Weston " (1857), a history of the "Newspapers of Washington County" (1867), and of the history of Washington county published by the Messrs. Crocker in 1879 under the title of "History of New England by States and Counties." Mr. Drisko has served as Supervisor of Schools, Assessor, and in various other municipal offices of Machias, and in 1854 represented Washington county in the Maine Senate. He was elected a Trustee of the Machias Savings Bank in 1869, and has been President of that institution since 1893; was appointed Collector of Customs for the District of Machias in 1895, and at present holds that position; is President of the Machias Board of Trade, and for twenty-three consecutive years has been a Trustee of Washington Academy at East Machias. He has been a member of Harwood Masonic Lodge since 1859, is one of the earliest members of the Porter Memorial Library of Machias, has been President of several educational and literary clubs, and was a director in the celebrations of the Centennial of Machias in 1863 and the Centennial of the Battle of Machias in June 1875. He has also been a member of the Maine Press Association since 1866, and has served two terms as President of that organization. Mr. Drisko is one of the men who, while appreciating the value of money, are content with a fair competency, never "making haste to be rich." For forty-two years he has been in trade in books and stationery, and half-proprietor of the Machias Union. He has a well-ordered and comfortable home on Broadway, Machias, with ample grounds for vegetable and floral culture, in which latter he has excelled by natural taste and practical experience from boyhood. He has never used intoxicants nor tobacco, and has had no fancy for horse-racing, boating, or "sporting" of any kind. He enjoys his home and society, is fond of entertaining friends and visitors, and is given to quite extensive travel in the United States and the Dominion of Canada. In politics Mr. Drisko has always been a Democrat, but never extremely partisan, having respect for the opinions of others. He was married September 19, 1852, to Esther C. Nash, daughter of J. Lee Nash of Columbia, Maine; they have no children living. [Pages 241-242]
DYER, Horatio P., of H. P. Dyer & Company, shipping merchants, New York, was born in Steuben, Washington county, Maine, October 7, 1842, son of Eben S. and Almira G. (Shaw) Dyer. His great-grandparents on the paternal side came from England in the latter part of the eighteenth century, and settled on Cape Elizabeth, near Portland, Maine; later the family moved to Portland. He received his education in the public and high schools of Bangor, Maine, under excellent teachers. He left school when nineteen years old, and at the age of twenty began active life by going to sea, on long foreign voyages. At twenty-five he was placed in command of a large barque, and made his first voyage around Cape Horn. He always sailed from the port of New York. At the age of twenty-eight he was married in Baltimore, Maryland, to a daughter of A. B. Morton, Esq., of that city, a gentleman largely engaged in the South American trade: and in 1871, a year after marriage, he settled in Baltimore and went into the shipping business with the West Indies and Central America. He continued in Baltimore until the year 1881, when he removed his business to New York, and became a resident of Brooklyn. He continues the same business in Front Street, New York, at the present time, under the firm name of H. P. Dyer & Company, which has always been the style of the house, having associated with him two partners, who attend to the more active part of the business. Mr. Dyer has always been a staunch Republican in politics, but has never held any political office and would not accept any. He is a member of two of the prominent club organizations of Brooklyn, the Hamilton, and the Riding and Driving clubs. He is a Presbyterian in religion, a member of the First Presbyterian Church of Brooklyn and a member of the Session. He was married April 12, 1870, to Jennie M. Morton; they have one child, a daughter of twenty years: Marie Morton Dyer. [Pages 387-388]
HARRIS, Austin, of East Machias, Treasurer of Washington County, was born in East Machias, July 10, 1841, son of Peter Talbot and Deborah (Longfellow) Harris. His American ancestry is traced back on the paternal side to Thomas Harris, 1630, and Peter Talbot, 1650; and on the maternal side to William Longfellow, 1650. He received his early education in the common schools and at Washington Academy in East Machias, and graduated as A. B. at Amherst College in 1863. From 1864 to 1871 he was in a country store, and from 1871 to 1876 was in the employment of I'Assomption Lumber Company at Charlemagne, Province of Quebec, Canada. Since 1880 to the present time he has been a member of the firms of J. O. Pope & Company and Pope, Harris & Company, of East Machias - the former firm carrying on the business of a general country store, and the latter being manufacturers of long and short lumber and extensive owners of wild lands. Mr. Harris is a Trustee of the Machias Savings Bank, a Director of the Washington County Railroad Company, a Trustee of Washington Academy and since 1880 Treasurer of the Board, and a member of the Board of Overseers of Bowdoin College. He served on the Board of Selectmen of East Machias from 1887 to 1895. In 1895 he was appointed by Governor Cleaves, Treasurer of Washington County, to which office he was elected in 1896. He was also a member of the Maine House of Representatives in 1869-70, 1891-2 and 1893-4, and Senator from Washington county in 1879-80 and 1881-3. He is a member of Warren Lodge and charter member of Warren Royal Arch Chapter of Masons, both of East Machias. Mr. Harris is a Republican in politics, and was a Delegate to the Republican National Convention oi 1884. He was married December 15, 1868, to Emily Frances Pope, daughter of Samuel W. Pope, late of East Machias; they have had six children: Florence, Edna Pope, Mabel, Samuel Pope, Philip Talbot and Emily Harris. [Page 243]
LAUGHLIN, Arthur Wood, Treasurer and Business Manager of the Evening Express Publishing Company, Portland, was born in Pembroke, Washington county, Maine, March 1 1854, son of Thomas and Mary A. Laughlin. His father came with his family to Pembroke from New Brunswick about fifty years ago, his people having been among the early settlers of that province. A. W. Laughlin attended the ordinary country school until he came to Portland, about 1870, at the age of sixteen. After a year's attendance at the North School he entered the High School, but left at the end of three months to learn the printer's trade. While serving his apprenticeship he worked for George A. Jones & Company, job printers, and on the Sunday Star. During the year and a half of his connection with the Star office he had Mondays to himself, in exchange for working Saturday nights, and on these Mondays he attended Gray's Business College and learned bookkeeping. Upon finishing his apprenticeship he accepted a position as bookkeeper with T. Laughlin & Son, manufacturers of marine hardware, the firm being composed of his father and elder brother. He remained in this connection four years, acquiring a business education and training, and at the end of that time embraced an opportunity to buy an interest in a job-printing office, which he accomplished without outside aid, from earnings saved up to that time, and shortly afterwards he acquired the whole business. About this time the suspension of a weekly paper that he had been printing tor the publisher left him with considerable newspaper printing material on hand, a condition which first turned his attention to the newspaper field, and on October 12, 1879, he started a penny daily called the City Item, the size of the sheet being fourteen by nineteen inches. After running it about two years he sold out to a stock company, assuming the position of Business Manager and Treasurer; the paper was enlarged and continued until September 1882, when it suspended publication. Having secured from the mortgagee of the old company a part of its material and equipments, including a Cottrell & Babcock drum-cylinder press, Mr. Laughlin issued on October 12, 1882, the first number of the Evening Express, of which he remained editor and sole proprietor four years. During this period the paper was enlarged several times and became recognized as one of the established newspapers of the state. In June 1886 Mr. Laughlin sold a half interest to the late William H. Smith, the firm name becoming Laughlin & Smith, and in October of the same year the Evening Express Publishing Company was formed, and incorporated under the laws of Maine, with Mr. Smith as President and Mr. Laughlin as Treasurer and Business Manager. After about a year Mr. Smith sold his interest and retired from the company. From its small beginnings in 1882 the Evening Express has grown in circulation and influence until now recognized as one of the leading papers of the state. Mr. Laughlin is a member and Past Grand of Unity Lodge of Odd Fellows, a Trustee of Trinity Lodge Knights of Pythias and member of the Legion of Honor, also a member of the Veteran Corps Portland Cadets and one of the "Champion Twenty-four " of 1875, who contested with the Montgomery Guards for possession of the champion flag. He was married January 1, 1880, to Miss Gertrude E. Knowlton of Portland; they have three children: Ethel G., James K. and Thomas Earle Laughlin. [Pages 47-48]
LINCOLN, Albert Robinson, M.D., Dennysville, was born in Perry, Washington county, Maine, October 3, 1831, son of William and Maria L. (Copp) Lincoln. He was descended from Samuel Lincoln, who came from the county of Norfolk, England, and settled in Hingham, Massachusetts, in 1633. His mother was a descendant of David Copp of Boston, in whose memory stands the oldest gravestone in Copp's Hill Cemetery in that city. His maternal grandfather and great-grandfather were refugees from Boston when the British evacuated that place during the Revolution, and settled in Shepody, New Brunswick. He received his early education in the public schools of Eastport, Maine, and at Sackville (New Brunswick) Seminary, after which he attended one term at Yale College. Graduating from the University Medical College of New York City in March 1854, he commenced the practice of medicine in May of that year at St. Anthony's Falls (now Minneapolis), Minnesota, where he remained until May 1855, returning then to Maine on account of his wife's health, and settling in Dennysville. In May 1859 he went to California, where he practiced in Coulterville until March 1861, when owing to sickness and death in his father's family he returned to Dennysville and was engaged there in active practice until he entered the army. In December 1862 he joined the First Maine Heavy Artillery Volunteers as Assistant Surgeon, and was stationed at Maryland Heights until May 14, 1864, when he joined the Army of the Potomac at Spottsylvania. He was assigned to the Second Army Corps, his regiment with other heavy-artillery regiments forming a division commanded by General Tyler. On the second day after joining the Second Corps his regiment was engaged by the enemy, and repulsed them, but lost in killed and wounded four hundred and sixty men. The regiment went through the various fortunes of soldier life in the field until, June 18, in front of Petersburg, it engaged the enemy with a loss of six hundred and forty in killed and wounded. In October 1864 Dr. Lincoln was ordered to the artillery brigade of the Second Army Corps, where he acted as Surgeon in charge of hospitals and for a short time as Surgeon-in-Chief of Artillery. He remained with the brigade until June 1865, when the organization was broken up. Returning to his regiment, having participated in the grand review while with the artillery, he was stationed at Fort Baker, Maryland, where the regiment was mustered out, and he returned home after an absence of nearly three years. After the war Dr. Lincoln resumed the practice of medicine in Dennysville, in which he has continued actively engaged to the present time, although now at an age when he often feels that rest is needed. He served as a member of the School Committee for twenty years, from 1855 1875, has been Master of Pembroke Grange Patrons of Husbandry, was for three years President of the Washington County Agricultural Society, and is now serving his fourth term as member of the Maine Board of Agriculture. He is a Master Mason, was for eight years Commander of Post Theo. Lincoln of the Grand Army, and is a member of the Society of the Loyal Legion. In politics Dr. Lincoln is a Republican; he voted for Abraham Lincoln the first time under Rebel fire at Fort Sedgwick, near Petersburg, Virginia. He was first married to Miss Elizabeth J. Clark, of New Haven, Connecticut, who died December 12, 1855. In 1857, February 19, he was a second time married, to Miss Deborah R. Foster, of Dennysville. They have three children: Elizabeth M. Lincoln, born November 11, 1857, now Mrs. A. J. Elkins of Minneapolis, Minnesota. Albert E., born October 15, 1858; Harry F., born August 31, 1867; and Olive E. Lincoln, born October 3, 1875. [Pages 217-218]
McKUSICK, Marshall Noah, Calais, was born in liaring, Washington county, Maine, March 7, 1841, son of Levi E. and Fannie A. (Marshall) McKusick. His paternal grandparents, Noah and Mary E. (Estes) McKusick, were of Scotch descent. He received his early education in the common schools, and at Milltown (New Brunswick) Academy, from which institution he graduated in 1860. Commencing at the age of fifteen, he taught school in autumns and winters for five years. In 1861 he enlisted as a private in the Sixth Maine Battery, and served nearly four years. He participated in nearly all the great battles of the Peninsula and the Army of the Potomac, was three times wounded, and was mustered out as First Lieutenant. After the war he followed various occupations for a time, meanwhile taking up the study of law, and after admission to the Bar in 1870, established himself in Calais, where he has continued in active practice to the present time. Mr. McKusick has attained a high standing in his profession, and enjoys a very large practice, having great success with juries and the courts. He is also interested in the St. Croix Cotton Mills, the Calais Shoe Factory, the Calais Creamery and the lumber industry, and has been connected with most of the important business enterprises on the St. Croix River. He has always been a Republican in politics, and has taken an active part in political matters in Calais and throughout the county and state. He was a Representative to the Legislature in 1880-1-2, and was one of the leaders of the House and Speaker pro tem, during most of the session of 1881. In the " count-out," so called by the Republicans, when the combination held the State House, he was the first member to enter the Representative Hall, and took a very active part in getting and holding the possession until the court decided in favor of the Republicans. While in the House he served on the Judiciary Committee, and was a member of the Committee that revised the statutes of the state. From 1882 to 1886 Mr. McKusick was Postmaster of Calais, was Mayor of the city in 1886-7-8, was Deputy Collector of Customs for five years, and at present holds the office of City Solicitor. He has been twice married - first, in December 1861, to Mary Henry, who died in November 1867, leaving one child: Ada, now the wife of Hobart Allen of Dennysville, Maine. His second marriage was in January 1872, to Lucy J. Bassford, daughter of Asher and Jane Bassford of Calais; they have six children: Mina G., Edith H., Marshall N., Jr., Maud, Ethel and James G. Blaine McKusick. [Pages 248-249]
MOORE, John Godfrey, senior member of the New York Stock Exchange firm of Moore & Schley, who gained national prominence as the plaintiff in a suit contesting the constitutionality of the Income Tax Law, was born in Steuben, Washington county, Maine, July 7, 1847. His father was Captain Henry D. Moore, a shipmaster, who spent most of his time at sea, and retired from active service on account of severe injuries received during a storm. Mr. Moore's preparatory education was that of the majority of youths born in the Pine Tree State, the district schools; but a tew years later he enjoyed a winter at Cherryfield (Maine) Academy and another at the East Maine Conference Seminary at Bucksport. Thus equipped, he came to New York when eighteen years of age. His first employment in the city was is a clerk in the office of Thomas Mahew and Wilson Godfrey, lumber merchants, 117 Wall street. There he gathered his first experience of trade in New York, although presumably, like most natives of Maine, he had previously acquired some knowledge of the lumber business. Within a year, he bettered himself by accepting a position with Bell Brothers, lumber dealers, at the foot of West 23d street, and with this firm he remained until the summer of 1868. In that year, during which he attained his majority, he started in business on his own account, at 96 Wall street, in the occupation in which he had served an apprenticeship. He rapidly extended his connections, and finally, in company with John O. Evans, executed several important contracts with the War Department. His constructions consisted in part of piers and breakwaters at Buffalo and Cleveland, and improvements along the Delaware River from Philadelphia to Wilmington. To carry out these projects, he and his associates organized The National Dredging Company of the City of Wilmington, Delaware. In 1880, when the Western Union Telegraph Company had apparently absorbed all its rivals, Messrs. Evans and Moore entertained the idea of constructing lines connecting the principal cities, and of leasing wires to bankers and merchants during business hours and to newspapers at night. Abundant capital was forthcoming for the purpose, and the projectors had soon stretched wires connecting the cities of New York, Boston and Washington. Later, Cincinnati, Chicago, St. Paul, Kansas City and other important points in the West and Northwest were connected, and the competition thus established materially reduced rates. Finally, the Western Union purchased the lines of the American Union Telegraph Company, and then Mr. Moore organized The Mutual Union Telegraph Company, the prospectus of which announced that it would stretch wires all over the United States. From the inception of this enterprise, the work was pushed with energy and perseverance. Its construction was of the most perfect character, and its lines were rapidly extended through all parts of the country. Mr. Evans as President of the company attended to its finances, while Mr. Moore had charge of the work of construction and equipment. Before all the lines had been completed, Mr. Evans died and Mr. Moore succeeded him as President. Under his administration, the lines of the Mutual Union were leased to the Western Union Company for ninety-three years. Soon after the making of this compact, Mr. Moore became one of the directors of The Western Union Company. His management of the Mutual Union brought him into prominence as a financier, and when he returned to New York on February 1, 1885, after a vacation taken to recruit his health, he became a member of the stock-brokerage firm of Moore & Schley, which at once became one of the most prominent on the Stock Exchange. In recent years, Mr. Moore has taken an active interest in railroad affairs, especially in the South. In 1886, he acquired a large interest in the Chase National Bank and takes an active part in its management. He is also a director in the Manhattan Trust Company. He is a director in the Western Union Telegraph Company, and the Missouri Pacific, the Texas & Pacific, the Lake Erie & Western, the Louisville, New Albany & Chicago, and the Norfolk & Southern railroads, also of the Tennessee Coal, Iron & Railroad Company, the Brooklyn Union Gas Company, and is interested in many other industrial and manufacturing concerns and companies. Mr. Moore owns a fine private library, is a suporter of the great public museums of the city, and extends discriminating aid to charity. Among his clubs are the Union League, Manhattan, New, Lotos, New York and Riding. The courageous and determined opposition of Mr. Moore to what he considered an unconstitutional and unjust law was a matter which attracted wide attention. Actuated by the principles which have guided his business career, he announced soon after the Income Tax clause had been added to the tariff bill his antagonism to the measure, and declared he would exhaust every legal means to defeat the act. His success is well known to every well-informed citizen of the United States. [Pages 437-439]
MURRAY, Benjamin Bixby, of Pembroke, was born. in Norway, Oxford county, Maine, son of Rev. Benjamin B. Murray, who was born in Hartland, Vermont, and whose father, John Murray, was born in Dundee, Scotland. John Murray married Rachael Bixby, of Topsfield, Massachusetts. Benjamin B., father of the subject of this sketch, married Deborah Hooper, of Freeport, Maine. Her father was David Hooper, who was born in Manchester, Massachusetts, and her mother was Deborah Rogers of Bath, Maine. His early years were passed mainly in Turner, Androscoggin county, Maine, and his general education was received in the common and high schools of that town. Entering upon the study of law, he was admitted to the Bar in 1857, and was engaged in practice at Pembroke, Maine, until the commencement of the Civil War. In April 1861, while holding the position of Judge Advocate with the rank of Major on the staff of Major-General Butler, of the First Division of Militia of Maine, he was ordered to report for duty at Bangor, to assist in organizing the regiments raised in Eastern Maine under the first call of the President for troops. Later he recruited a company for the Fifteenth Regiment of Maine Volunteers and was commissioned Captain of Company A of that regiment, which was ordered South to join the New England division in the expedition against New Orleans. The regiment landed at Ship Island near the mouth of the Mississippi, in April 1862, and a few weeks later proceeded up the river to New Orleans. Its history during that period is well-known. In August 1862 Captain Murray was commissioned Lieutenant-Colonel, and in the autumn following was placed in command. He served in Louisiana, Florida and Texas, being at the capture of Forts Semmes and Esperanza, in Texas, and participating in all the battles of the Red River campaign of 1864, including Mansfield, Pleasant Hill, Mansura and Cane River Crossing, in Louisiana. In July 1864 he came North and assisted in driving General Early's army from the vicinity of Washington, and also took part in the campaign in the Shenandoah Valley. In the fall and winter of 1864-5 he was stationed at Kearneysville, in command of the troops on the line of the Baltimore Ohio Railroad between Harper's Ferry and Martinsburg. After the surrender of Lee, Colonel Murray was again sent South with his regiment, on service for a time at Savannah, Georgia, and then being transferred to South Carolina. Subsequently he was appointed Provost Marshal General of the Department, on the staff of Major-General Q. A. Gilmore, with headquarters at Hilton Head, and later held the same position on the staff of General Charles Devens, who succeeded General Gilmore as Department Commander. In October of that year he received his commission as Colonel, but depleted ranks prevented muster. He was twice breveted by the President, the second time as Brigadier-General, dating from March 13, 1865, and remained in the service until July 1866, when he was honorably discharged, having served nearly five years. After leaving the volunteer service, he was appointed Captain in the regular army and ordered to New Orleans for duty, but in consequence of impaired health the appointment was declined. In 1868 General Murray was appointed Deputy Collector of Internal Revenue for the Fifth District of Maine. In 1869 he was State Senator from Washington county, and in the following year was renominated for a second term, but declined, having been appointed to succeed General John C. Caldwell as Adjutant-General of Maine, in which office he served until 1876. In the summer of the Centennial year he was appointed Special Agent of the United States Treasury Department, and soon after was appointed Assistant Financial Agent of the United States at London, England. In this capacity he went to England in charge of ten millions in United States bonds, and remained there until 1877, in connection with the refunding of the national debt. While in London he assisted in the sale of bonds amounting to over a hundred million dollars, occupying for office purposes rooms in the banking house of N. M. Rothschild & Sons, with whom large transactions took place. Upon his return to Maine, General Murray was elected to the Legislature from Pembroke, and in March 1878 he was appointed United States Marshal for Maine, to succeed the Hon. S. S. Marble, which office he held for four years, when he resumed the practice of law at Pembroke. In March 1889 he was appointed one of the Valuation Commissioners of the State, by Governor Burleigh, and served until the work of that Board was completed, in the month of March, 1891, after which he was engaged in the practice of law until the fall of 1896, when he was again elected to the House of Representatives of Maine for the period of two years. In the summer of 1896 Bowdoin College conferred upon him the honorary degree of Master of Arts. General Murray was married March 28, 1853, to Fanny G. Farnsworth, of Pembroke, who died February 20, 1894; they had one son: Elmer F. Murray, born April 10, 1857, died August 26, 1861. [Pages 249-250]
NASH, William B., President and General Manager of the Star Publishing Company, Rockland, was born in Cherryfield, Washington county, Maine, April 20, 1872, son of William M. and Caroline J. (Moore) Nash. He is a grandson of James Walker Moore, who was one of the pioneer lumber kings of Eastern Maine, a resident of Cherryfield. His father, William M. Nash, has now very large lumber interests in Washington county, and has taken a prominent part in Maine politics for several years. He was educated in the public schools of Cherryfield, Coburn Classical Institute at Waterville, Maine, and Colby University. He had an early inclination towards journalism, and was a newspaper correspondent while in college and afterwards, doing also considerable special literary work, and taking courses of study to fit him for such a career. At the age of twenty-one, in 1893, he moved to Rockland, where he formed and became chief owner in the Star Publishing Company, publishers of the Rockland Daily Star, a straight Republican paper, which in the first year of its existence obtained a large circulation and filled a want long felt by the people of Knox and Lincoln counties. Mr. Nash has been President of the company from its organization, and since October 1895 has also occupied the position of Business Manager. He is a member of Rockland Masonic Lodge of Rockland, and in college was a member of the D. K. E. fraternity. In politics he is a Republican. Besides his newspaper business, Mr. Nash has quite large lumber interests in Washington county. He was married December 4, 1895, to Maud L. Smith, of Machias, Maine. [Page 270]
PATTANGALL, William Robinson, Lawyer, Machias, was born in Pembroke, Washington county, Maine, June 29, 1865, son of Ezra L. and Arethusa B. (Longfellow) Pattangall. The Pattangalls are of Scotch-Irish descent. His grandfather, Nathan B. Pattangall, lived in Perry and Pembroke, Maine, was a surveyor, teacher, farmer and merchant, and represented his town in the State Legislature. His father, Ezra L. Pattangall, has been a shipmaster and shipbuilder, merchant, manufacturer, and leading business man of Pembroke, has represented the town in the Legislature, the county in the Senate, and is now a member of the Republican State Committee. His maternal ancestors, the Longfellows, were early settlers of Machias, Maine; his grandfather was Captain Daniel and his great-grandfather Colonel David Longfellow. He attended the common and high schools of Pembroke until the age of fifteen, and entered the Maine State College at Orono in the class of 1884, taking the course in science and literature, but left at the close of his Junior year. After leaving college he read law for a year, and then owing to poor health went to sea for a time and worked at active pursuits until he was twenty-six, when he returned to Washington county and taught school and read law for three years. In May 1893 he was admitted to the Bar. After practicing for a year in Columbia Falls, Maine, he removed to Machias, where he has now been for three years an active member of the Washington County Bar, in whose thirty members he takes rank among the first six. While teaching in Machiasport, Mr. Pattangall held various town offices, and at the present time he is Supervisor of Schools of Machias, and represents the Machias district in the State Legislature. Politically he was born and bred a Republican, but voted for Cleveland in 1892, and was the Democratic candidate for Judge of Probate of Washington county in that year. In 1893 he returned to the Republican party, and in the national campaign of 1896 was a strong gold advocate and stumped his county for McKinley. Mr. Pattangall was married June 7, 1884, to Jean M. Johnson, of Calais, Maine; they had one child, a daughter: Katherine J. Pattangall. Mrs. Pattangall died August 10, 1887, and in 1892, September 27, he was again married, to Gertrude McKenzie, of Machiasport; they have two children: Edith G., born July 22, 1893, and Grace D. Pattangall, born April 27, 1896. [Page 199]
ROGERS, John Conway, M.D., Pembroke, was born in Speirrin, County Tyrone, Ireland, March 26, 1835, son of Patrick and Mary (Conway) Rogers, and came to this country with his parents in 1836. His mother was a grand-niece of Major-General Conway of Revolutionary renown. He received his early education in the common schools of Perry, Washington county, Maine, afterwards attending Washington Academy at East Machias, Maine, and North Yarmouth (Maine) Academy, taught school while fitting for college, and entered Waterville College (now Colby University) in 1859. He commenced the study of medicine in 1861, and after taking a year's course in Bowdoin, graduated at Harvard in the class of 1864. Immediately after graduation he entered the Army as Assistant Surgeon, and remained in the service until the close of the war. In June 1865 he commenced the practice of medicine in Brooklyn, New York, but in 1866 removed to Pembroke, where he has since practiced. Dr. Rogers worked his own way while getting an education, and pushed forward into active life entirely unaided. He has served in various town offices in Pembroke, was First Selectman from 1877 to 1880, member of the Superintending School Committee for many years, and has been Supervisor of Schools since 1892. In 1891-2 he was a State Senator from Washington county. He is a member of the Harvard Medical Alumni Association, and of Post I. C. Campbell, Grand Army of the Republic, of which he has been Surgeon for most of the time since its organization in 1872. Dr. Rogers is also the author of various well-known poems, some of which have been printed in "Poets of Maine," “Poets of America," and "Gems of Poetry," the latter with biographical sketches. In politics he was a Democrat up to 1879, and since has been an active Republican. He was married in 1859 to Rebecca Mahar, of Pembroke; they have five children: Albion Q., George B., Horace M., John C., Jr., and Mary K. Rogers. Dr. Rogers has fitted his sons for college; Albion, the elder, graduated from Bowdoin in the class of 1881, and John, the fourth son, entered Bowdoin in 1895. [Pages 229-230]
SUMNER, Alexander Baker, Merchant, Lubec, was born in Lubec, February 19, 1833, son of Joseph and Sarah Barker (Wiggin) Sumner. He is descended in the eighth generation from William Sumner, who was born at Bicester, Oxfordshire, England, in 1605, came to New England in 1636 and settled in Dorchester, Massachusetts. He received his early education in the public schools, and at the age of sixteen went to sea, making trips in coasting vessels. In 1850 he entered the office of Jeremiah Fowler, manufacturer of ground and calcined plaster, and remained in Mr. Fowler's employ five years. In 1857 he was employed with the civil engineering corps on the Detroit and Milwaukee Railway, then under construction, with headquarters at Ionia, Michigan; and in 1858-9 he was gold mining in Buitte county, California. Returning to Lubec in 1860, he was engaged until the second year of the Civil War in the ship-chandlery and grocery business, with Simeon Ryerson, by whom the business was established in 1851. On August 14, 1862, he enlisted in the Sixth Regiment Maine Infantry Volunteers, was commissioned Second Lieutenant on August 25, joined the regiment at Antietam, was assigned to Company A, and was promoted to First Lieutenant on March 3, 1863. On May 3 following, the regiment was engaged in the charge on Marye's Heights at Fredericksburg, Virginia; forming with the Fifth Wisconsin (also of the Light Division, Sixth Corps), the apex of the wedge of the assaulting column. Captain Gray was killed, and twenty-three enlisted men were killed or wounded, from a total of forty-seven on duty in the company. Lieutenant Sumner was promoted to Captain on June 3, 1863, and commanded a battalion of five companies from July 17 until August 21, when a new regiment was organized, designated as the First Regiment Veteran Infantry Maine Volunteers, of which he was commissioned Major on October 29, 1864. He was on duty constantly until the surrender of Lee, having been with the Sixth Corps in every movement of that body from Antietam to Appomattox. For distinguished and meritorious service in the field he was commissioned Lieutenant-Colonel of Volunteers by brevet, to rank from April 2, 1865. Returning to Lubec at the close of the war in 1865, Major Sumner resumed the business which he left in 1862, establishing however the new firm of A. B. Sumner & Company, and making grain, feed and coal the specialties of the trade. Mr. Ryerson retired from business in 1884, and the firm has continued to the present time with W. T. Comstock as junior partner. Mr. Sumner was a member of Governor Perham's military staff in 1872-3, ranking as Colonel and Brigadier-General. He has served as Town Clerk of Lubec (1856), as Town Treasurer in 1876-7, and as Chairman of the Board of Selectmen in 1880-1-2. In 1877 and 1878 he represented Washington county in the Maine Senate, and in 1887 and 1888 he was a member of the Executive Council from the Seventh Councillor District, during the administrations of Governors J. R. Bodwell and Sebastian S. Marble. He has been a member of Washington Masonic Lodge, Lubec, since 1854, and is a member of William H. Brawn Post, Department of Maine, Grand Army of the Republic, serving as Post Commander for two years; also a member of Maine Commandery Military Order of the Loyal Legion, and the Society of the Army of the Potomac. In politics Mr. Sumner is a Republican; his first vote for President was cast for General Fremont in 1856. He was married October 8, 1866, to Sarah Adelaide Ryerson, of Lubec. [Pages 458-459]
TALBOT, Lowell, Lumber Commission Merchant and Shipbroker, New York, was born in Trescott, 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 favorable 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 Boulter, and Joseph Warren, born in 1812, all of whom have been 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 Academy 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 years conducted business in New York, during which time he has witnessed the death or retirement 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 business in New York; for although there are successors to firms, there is not a single individual remaining 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 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 Talbot. [Pages 559-560]
TOBEY, William Burton, Agent and Treasurer of the North Berwick Company, woolen manufacturers, North Berwick, was born in Machiasport, Washington county, Maine, January 11, 1851, son of Horatio N. and Sarah E. (Foster) Tobey. He was educated in the schools of East Machias, and received his early business training in a country store in association with his father at Machiasport, following which period he was for seven years connected with the wholesale drygoods house of Deering, Milliken Company, Portland. From 1877 to 1881 he filled the position of bookkeeper for the North Berwick Company at their mills in North Berwick, and in 1881 was made Agent and Treasurer of the Company, which offices he has since held. He is also Treasurer of the Dirigo Slate Company of Monson, Maine, a Director of the North Berwick National Bank and the North Berwick Agricultural Association, and Secretary of the North Berwick Building Association. Mr. Tobey takes an interest and active part in all matters pertaining to the public good, and is a believer in progression, in business and socially. He has served his town in various public capacities, and was Collector and Treasurer in 1886, and Town Auditor in 1896. In politics he has always been a Republican, was Chairman and Treasurer of the Republican Town Committee in 1888, was Delegate to the Republican National Convention of 1888 at Chicago, and is President of the McKinley Club of North Berwick. In religion Mr. Tobey is a Liberal. He was- married in 1875 Arianna A. Small, of Machiasport, by whom he had two children: Thad. B. and William H. Tobey. In 1889, October 23, he was a second time married, to Julia H. Whittier, of Bangor; they have one child: Dorothy I. Tobey. [Page 179]
VANCE, John Bell, Shaker Elder, was born in Baileyville, Washington county, Maine, May 9, 1833, eldest son of Shubael B. and Elizabeth Moshier (Morrill) Vance. He was the grandson of Hon. William Vance, a large landholder in the eastern part of the state, and a member of the convention which framed the Constitution of Maine after its separation from Massachusetts. In 1838 his father became a convert to the faith of the United Society of Believers, commonly known as Shakers, and joined the Family at Alfred, Maine, September 14 of that year, taking John, then five years of age, with him. In that pious and kindly community the future Elder was reared and educated, and to its service and that of God devoted his long, laborious and useful life. At a very early age he began to manifest a strong predisposition for learning and love for books, improving every leisure moment. The strength and beauty of his character and his manifest fitness for high religious station soon attracted the attention of the wise leaders of the community, and at the age of sixteen he began teaching in the district school of the Society; and taught the winter term more than half the years up to the time of his death. Possessing a fine spiritual nature and deep religious instincts, he became a profound student of the Shaker faith and one of its ablest exponents. He was early an able debater and firm defender of the faith in the second manifestation of Christ, as held by the United Society of Believers, and in later years was their principal public speaker in Maine, delivering discourses notable for soundness of reasoning and clearness and vigor of expression. At the singularly early age of twenty he was appointed Elder in the Novitiate Order, and in January 1872, at the reorganization of the Society, was appointed Senior Trustee and Elder of the Church Family. For financial and executive ability he ranked among the best officers the Society ever had. In 1886, on the death of Elder Otis Sawyer, he was appointed First Trustee and Presiding Minister of both the Alfred and New Gloucester communities, a position designated in some of the Western families as Presiding Bishop. This position he held until he died. In 1864 he was joined at Alfred by his sister, Mary P. Vance, who became Senior Sister of the Board of Elders. On the thirteenth of March 1896, Elder Vance passed to the other life, after a brief and painful illness, the result of disease brought on by his unremitting labors in behalf of the Society. To that Society he gave his heart, the utmost resources of hand and intellect, and trained skill and wide knowledge. He was bound up in its welfare. Having a faculty for almost all kinds of business, he applied his skill to practical purposes. In order to help his people in their business relations he studied law; in order to promote their bodily health he studied medicine; in order to promote the security of their landed property he studied surveying; and in order to better cultivate their farms and guard their herds he studied scientific agriculture and stock-breeding and the dairy, being a conspicuous figure at the state agricultural meetings. During his later years he had general charge of all the farming interests of the Society. In his ardor he even went so far as to acquire the tailoring trade, and for a long time cut the garments worn by the brethren. From all these multifarious occupations he managed to save time for an intelligent study of literature, and for the perusal of books of weight and value. Though taking no part in political strife, he always evinced a strong and intelligent interest in state and national affairs, and was eminently a good citizen as well as an honorable man. Such was John Bell Vance, a lofty spirit who made better the world in which he lived; a kindly nature who won the respect of all and the deep affection of those who knew him intimately. His acquaintance was wide throughout Maine, and he was everywhere welcome. In the town where he passed his life he leaves a tender and gracious memory. [Pages 448-449]
VOSE, Edwin Howard, M.D., Calais, was born in Robbinston, Washington county, Maine, August 20, 1838, son of Peter Thacher and Lydia Cushing (Buck) Vose. His first American ancestor was Robert Vose, born 1599, who came from England to New England about 1635 and settled in Dorchester, now Milton, Massachusetts. The line of descent is through (2) Thomas, (3) Henry, (4) Robert, (5) Thomas, (6)Thomas and (7) Peter Thacher Vose. He is also descended from the families of Thacher, Sumner, Prince, Oxenbridge, Partridge, Tucker, Josslyn, Hinckley, Williams, Keith, Adams, Hayden, Hayward, Howard and Buck, and through the Oxenbridge branch, from King Edward III of England. He attended the public schools of Robbinston and Calais Academy, after which he spent about six months as clerk in a grocery store in 1858, taught school two winters in 1858-60, was clerk for ten months in Rolfe & Peabody's lumber concern at Princeton, Maine, and in September 1861 began the study of medicine with Drs. Swan & Holmes of Calais. He attended medical lectures at the Maine Medical School in 1862-4 and at Harvard in 1863, graduating at the Maine Medical School of Bowdoin College in August 1864. After practicing in Gorham, Maine, from March 1865 to February 1869, he returned to Calais, where he has continued in active practice to the present time. Dr. Vose belongs to the regular school of medicine, so called, and has long enjoyed a high standing in his profession. He is a member of the Maine Medical Association, of which he was Secretary in 1867-8, and of the Council of Physicians and Surgeons of New Brunswick. In 1872 and from 1876 to 1892 he was City Physician of Calais, was a member of the Board of Health 1885-91, has served on the Board of United States Examining Surgeons for Pensions since 1873, and is Examining Surgeon for the Equitable, Union Mutual, New Vork Life, Connecticut Mutual, United States, Pennsylvania, and several other insurance companies. He was Acting Assistant Surgeon in the United States Navy from December 1863 to April 1864, resigning on account of sickness. Dr. Vose is a prominent Mason, being Past Master of St. Croix Lodge, Past High Priest of St. Croix Royal Arch Chapter, Past Thrice Illustrious Master St. Croix Council Royal and Select Masters, Past Commander Hugh de Payens Commandery Knights Templar, Past District Deputy Grand Master of the Second Masonic District, Past District Deputy Grand High Priest Fifth Masonic District, Past Junior Grand Warden Grand Lodge of Maine, member of the Maine Consistory Sublime Prince Royal Secret, Thirty-second Degree, and is now serving his eleventh year as Grand Prelate of the Grand Commandery of Maine. He is also Past Commander of Joel A. Haycock Post Grand Army of the Republic, and is a member of Border Lodge Ancient Order United Workmen. In politics Dr. Vose comes from old Whig stock, and has been a Republican from the formation of the party. He was married September 12, 1866, to Eliza Maria Goodnow, of Calais; they have had four children: Kate Gage, now the wife of Rev. George S. Mills of Belfast, Maine; Alice Howard, who died in childhood; Henry Goodnow and Winnifred Vose. [Pages 233-234]
VOSE, Peter Ebenezer, Merchant and Lumber Manufacturer, Dennysville, was born in Robbinston, Washington county, Maine, November 20, 1820, son of Peter Thacher and Lydia Cushing (Buck) Vose. He is descended from (1) Robert Vose, born 1599, who came from Great Britain to New England about 1635, and settled in Dorchester (now Milton), Massachusetts. The line of descent is: (2) Thomas, (3) Henry, (4) Robert, (5) Thomas, (6) Thomas and (7) Peter Thacher Vose, father of the subject of this sketch. His ancestral lines also include the families of Thacher, Sumner, Prince, Oxenbridge, Tucker, Josslyn, Partridge, Hinckley, Williams, Keith, Adams, Hayden, Hayward, Howard and Buck, and through Oxenbridge are connected with Edward III, King of England. His mother was a daughter of Roger Buck, an early inhabitant of Cambridge, Massachusetts. His education was limited to that received in the common schools of Robbinston - mainly in the old red brick schoolhouse now transformed into the residence of Hon. Harrison Hume. He was the firstborn of eight children. His mother was an excellent woman, who brought up her children very carefully, and he cannot recollect when he commenced attending church and Sunday school, so early was it in his life. His father was a shipbuilder, but the boy was never employed in the shipyard, although he worked more or less on the farm. He spent a few months of the winter of 1833-4 in Lancaster and Boston, Massachusetts, and at the age of twenty he commenced teaching district school - teaching for four winters at Red Beach, Robbinston and Dennysville. After a few months' experience as book keeper and cashier in a drygoods store in Boston, became to Dennysville in December 1844, and has resided there ever since. From March 1845 he was a clerk in the store of Deacon John Kilby for nearly eleven years. Then buying out his employer's stock he started for himself, and has done business at the old stand for a continuous period of more than forty-one years. For many years he was also engaged in lumbering and lumber manufacturing, and was quite extensively interested in shipping - furnishing builders with ship timber, and taking interests in the vessels. Mr. Vose has filled various public offices, serving as Selectman of Dennysville for twenty-nine years, Assessor thirty-one years and Overseer of the Poor twenty-four years, most of the time as Chairman of the Boards, and was Town Treasurer for twenty-four years. He was also Treasurer of the Washington County Agricultural Society for twenty-three years, until 1890, and Treasurer of the Washington County Bible Society twenty-seven years, and always present at its annual meetings. He has been a Justice of the Peace for about fifty years, now holding his eighth commission. He has had the settlement of many estates, as Adminiitrater and Executor, and has assisted in obtaining many pensions. In politics, born and bred a Whig, he early imbibed anti-slavery ideas, and connected himself with the Free-Soil party in 1848. When the Republican party came into existence, and became to all intents and purposes Free Soilers, he was "in it," and there has remained. He has never held nor sought a political office, however, and was evidently not cut out for a politician, being constitutionally unfitted for "wirepulling," and consequently was never sought after by "rings." Mr. Vose has been connected with the Congregational Church of Dennysville as Deacon for twenty-nine years, Clerk for thirty years, Treasurer twenty years, Trustee of its funds for thirty years, Superintendent of its Sunday School thirty years, and a teacher in the school fifty-eight years, and for over thirty years was Agent for the meetinghouse, chapel and parsonage. He has been active as a temperance man, and has been a member and officer in many temperance societies. He never drank a glass of intoxicating liquor, and never used tobacco in any form, and the same can be said of his son, his father and his grandfather on the paternal side. So strong has always been his feeling against tobacco, that in all his business life he never has sold an ounce of it, nor a pipe or cigar. Yet he disclaims being "cranky" on this subject. At one period of his life, as a magistrate, he had numerous trials of alleged sellers of the ardent at his courts; and as he had no sympathy for the accused nor fear of them, he almost invariably found the guilty ones guilty, and dealt with them accordingly. As a churchman Mr. Vose has been present at more than fifty annual and semi-annual county conferences of the Congregational Church, and was for some years the Moderator at those meetings. He has attended three sessions of the National Congregational Council as a Delegate, at New Haven, Connecticut; Concord, New Hampshire; and Worcester, Massachusetts. He has also been Delegate to several State Congregational Conferences, to meetings of the American Board of Foreign Missions, the American Missionary Association and the American Tract Society. He is a life member of the American Missionary Association and of the Boston Young Men's Christian Association. For many years he has conducted religious services on Sundays during the a sence of the minister. Mr. Vose modestly says of himself that he has endeavored to lead an honest and honorable life, performing the duties of his several humble positions according to the best of his ability. Others say of him that he has led a useful as well as an honorable life, and a busy one. He was married May 24, 1847, to Lydia Kilby, daughter of Deacon John and Lydia Cushing (Wilder) Kilby of Dennysville. They have four children: Mary Matilda, married Edmund B. Sheahan of Dennysville: Jolin Thacher, married Lizzie E. Mack of Eastport, Maine; Ida Sumner, married Clinton A. Woodbury of Sweden, Maine; and Lydia Caroline, married William B. Johnson of Woodfords, Maine. After a happy married life of almost fifty years his excellent wife suddenly deceased October 3, 1896, aged seventy-four years. [Pages 261-263]
Contributed 2025 Apr 25 by Norma Hass, extracted from 1897 Men of Progress; Biographical Sketches and Portraits of Leaders ... of the State of Maine
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This page was last updated
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