Biographies

(Source: History of Bath and environs, Sagadahoc Co., Maine, 1607 - 1894
Ortland, Me.: Lakeside Press, printers, 1894 - 556 pgs.

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DR. CHARLES APPLETON PACKARD, A.M., was born in Brunswick, Me., and graduated at Bowdoin College in 1848. After graduation he studied and practiced civil engineering four years; then studied medicine, graduating from Maine Medical School in 1857. He first practiced medicine in Waldoboro for nine years; then, moving to New York State, was in practice at Fordham for four years. In 1870 he married Miss Caroline E. Payne, of Erie, Pa., who died in 1881. He came to Bath, in 1873, where he has continued the practice of his profession up to this time.

DR. WILLIAM E. PAYNE.—The first introduction into Bath of the homoeopathic system was by a foreigner by the name of Blazinski, who remained in town a short time. He was a Polander, and invited all the doctors to a private lecture on the Hannamann system, and some, if not all, of them attended, among whom was Dr. William E. Payne, who was a graduate of the regular school and a new-comer to Bath. He undertook experiments with it, which resulted in his adopting its practice in about 1840, and, after a hard experience, succeeded in its introduction; undoubtedly his pleasing personality having considerable to do with his success. He was aided in this by a novel way of advertising. Samuel Anderson was trying to introduce, at the same time, the "Thomsonian system" of " purely vegetable " remedies, and they united in a newspaper battle upon the respective merits of the two systems. It attracted attention and brought them business. In 1851 or 1852 Dr. Jotham Young came to Bath and commenced practice in this mode of treatment; remained about two years.  No practitioner of that persuasion could successfully compete with Doctor Payne.

ISAIAH PERCY.— This eminently Christian citizen was the son of Francis and Jane Wyman Percy, and was born in the " Percy neighborhood" in Phipsburg, December 23, 1806.
On January 29, 1833, he married Beulah B. Bowker, eldest daughter of Major James Bowker, a lady of many womanly and religious traits. He first settled in Phipsburg, and in 1840 moved to West Bath, where he raised a family of eight children who have all done honor to their parentage in their mature life. He owned and lived on a farm, but during his active life, pursued his trade of ship-joiner, working in Bath ship-yards. He joined the Congregational Church of his native town, and later the Central Church of Bath, of which he became the senior deacon.
     His wife died April 22, 1885, and after that time he lived in his ripe old age in the devoted care of his eldest daughter. Deacon Percy has always been known as an uncommonly substantial man from youth upwards. He was a man of reading and thought, and if he had had the advantages of early education and opportunity, would have made a public man of value. In early life he became a professed Christian and ever lived up to its requirements. He belonged to the ancient Georgetown branch of the Percy family, whose ancestors were among the early settlers at the lower end of Phipsburg, and whose genealogy has been traced back to the noble blood of the English Percys. His father was conspicuous as a devout Christian of the Congregational Church, and he was a grandson of Thomas Percy, who had been a deacon of the same church half a century, and was known by way of distinction as " Deacon Thomas," who was of conspicuous character as well as a notable citizen.
     Isaiah Percy was a man universally esteemed for his thoroughly upright character, and his bright intellect and keen judgment in all matters. He represented West Bath twice in the Maine House of Representatives, and repeatedly served the town as selectman, and in other positions of trust.
For forty-nine years he lived in the Percy homestead, where a family of boys and girls were raised. There are five children: Timothy, of Portland; Gershom, of Los Angeles; George, of San Francisco; Mrs. John P. Cobb, of Bowdoinham, and a daughter not married.
     He was one of the earliest advocates of abolition, not that he would free the slaves without compensation to their owners, but on the ground that, as slavery was a national sin and crime, the nation should procure the liberty of the slaves at any cost.

DAVID THOMAS PERCY. - The name of Percy comes down from the illustrious ancestry of the English Percys, famous in history.  The advent of the family of Percy from the old county to Kennebec region was in 1730, when Thomas Percy came over with his wife, two sons, and three daughters, and settled on Swan Island.  Subsequently he changed his habitation to Hunniwells Point, and was there at the time of the French and Indian War of 1756.  The two sons of the original Thomas were Arthur and Francis.
     Arthur settled in Phipsburg, and from him descended the entire race of Percys in this section of the state.  He married, first, a Gilmore, resided on a farm in the south part of Phipsburg, and had six sons and two daughters.  His first wife deceased and he then married Margaret Porterfield, daughter of the Mrs. Porterfield notable in the early history of Georgetown.  They had one son, Thomas, who became prominently known as Deacon Thomas, from having long held that office in the old Georgetown and Phipsburg Congregational Church.  He married Martha Gilmore, in 1763, and had three sons and six daughters.
     The descendant of David T. Percy was from the second son of the ancient Arthur Percy, whose name was also David, who was born November 20, 1791, and married Elsie Grace, who was born February 21, 1795.  They were married May 26, 1816, and settled in Bath.  He died February 9, 1867, and she January 3, 1866.  They had nine children, of whom David Thomas Percy was the fourth son, born August 15, 1831, and married Adriana Bosworth, daughter of Capt. Robert Bosworth, at Bath, January 5, 1854.
     On the maternal side, the great-grandparents of David T. Percy were James and Jane Grace, who came to this country with Alexander Drummond in 1729, and Jane was his granddaughter.  His grandfather was William Grace, who was born April 13, 1764, and married Sarah Andrews, of Bath, born May 30, 1757, and they had nine children.
     David T. Percy and his wife have had seven children, of whom six sons are living:  Frederick B. graduated at Yale and the Boston Medical University, and in his practice in Brookline, Mass.  George E. graduated at the Bath High School and the Boston Medical University, and is practicing his profession in Salem, Mass.  Frank H. is manager of the crockery store of the firm of D. T. Percy & Sons, in Bath.  Augustus A. conducts the business of the dry goods and carpet departments of the firm.  Arthur S. is in the lumber business in Boston.  David Thomas, Jr., is a graduate of Exeter, the Harvard Medical College, the Boston Medical University, and has settled in Arlington, Mass.
     David T. Percy, Sr., is at the head of the firm of D. T. Percy & Sons, in the dry goods, carpet, and crockery business, the largest establishment in those lines in this part of the state.  He has long been a prominent member of the Board of Trade, taking an active part in all measures designed to advance the prosperity of the city.  In politics he adheres to the Democratic party without being a partisan.  Mr. Percy, for a number of years, has been one of the deacons of the Winter Street Church, superintendent, for several years, of the Sabbath School of that society; has been a member of the City Government, serving in the Common Council and on the Board of Aldermen; and has been the candidate of the minority party for the highest offices within the gift of the city.  Deacon Percy has ever been forward in every good work; has been open-hearted and liberal in all benevolent movements, and unceasing worker in the temperance cause, and one of the most reliable and genial of Bath's citizens.

DR. JOSIAH PRESCOTT came to Bath about 1825 and practiced here all his life, on the allopathic system, and was a leading physician.

DR. ISRAEL PUTNAM was born in Sutton, Mass., December 25, 1805, and was the son of Israel and Hannah (Le Barron) Putman. His father was a cousin and intimate friend of Major-General Israel Putman. He graduated at Brown University and Bowdoin Medical School, commenced practice in Wales, Me., and removed to Bath in 1835, where he attained an extensive practice in his profession and became actively connected with municipal affairs. He was chairman of the town council, and after the formation of the city government was chosen mayor, holding the office from 1859 to 1865, and again in 1867. During this official period he won very marked approval for his administration, especially during the very arduous years of the war. Other municipal positions which he held were more or less connected with his profession. His character, alike as a physician, a magistrate, and a citizen, commanded universal confidence and high respect. Doctor Putman was an offhand man in everything he said or did, bluff in his ways, but withal genial, outspoken, and honest.  He was well read and a physician by nature. His generous disposition forbade him from collecting his just fees from those whom it would distress to pay him, and he was liberal to the poor almost to a fault. His death occurred June 30, 1876, aged 70 years and 6 months. The manner in which he first acquired practice is, perhaps, worth relating. Doctor Prescott had become of that age when he did not care to answer calls at night. The old doctor owned what was then a fine dwelling, now standing on the southwestern corner of Washington street and the railroad track. He found confidence in the young man, and one day he said to him, "You buy my house and I will turn over to you my night practice; when there is a call at my door I will put my head out of the window and say that I cannot go, but if you will call Doctor Putman he will do just as well." The house and practice were at once secured by the young doctor.
     His sons are William L. Putnam, judge of the United States Circuit Court; Edwin Putnam, who entered the united States Navy when twenty-one years of age, going into service in the War of the Rebellion, joining the Nahant, one of the iron-clads that was immediately engaged in the terrific and successful bombardment of the forts in Charleston harbor, served through the war and since, and is paymaster-inspector on active duty.

DOCTOR RAEBURN received his professional education in the medical colleges of Edinburg and Glasgow, and then entered the English army as surgeon. He came to this country as surgeon in the British army in the War of 1812, after which as a common sailor before the mast of a merchant ship he came to Thomaston. While there an accident occurred which required skilled surgery beyond that of the physicians of the town. Raeburn successfully accomplished the operation, and the reputation it gave him caused his settlement, in practice, in Warren, where he remained several years. Later he came to Bath and acquired celebrity as a surgeon, which was a specialty with him, and was accounted exceedingly skillful. He died about 1840, leaving an American wife.
     He was an eccentric man, bold and daring in his practice. Faith in his skill went a great ways with credulous people; they flocked to see him and he was called to their houses. His prescriptions were off-hand and odd. His style may be illustrated in a case when, at her house, a woman patient asked him what she should eat, when he quaintly replied, "Anything but the poker and bellows."

WILLIAM MAXWELL REED was a native of Phipsburg and third son of Col. Andrew and Beatrice McCobb Reed. He was born at the Reed farm, on the banks of the Kennebec River, about one mile below the Centre Village, on the 14th of March, 1800. His educa­tion was derived from the local schools, one of which was conducted for many years by his eldest brother, John, who was a fine type of the school-master of that day. William also taught school for a while in his native town. Although young in years, he displayed in his school discipline the same energy and force of character that were such important factors in his subsequent career. The monotony and enforced quiet of the school-room was, however, irksome to his naturally active temperament and he soon forsook the desk and became the manager of his father's farm. This was an extensive plantation and required many laborers.
     Having faithfully and successfully conducted this business for several years, his father compensated him with the gift of a small farm adjoining the main one. On this land stood the old John Parker timber-house, which had begun to decay. Mr. Reed took down this ancient and well-known landmark, on the site of which he erected a house for himself in 1824. He was married, November 25, 1825, to Miss Caroline Drummond, the eldest daughter of Capt. Alexander Drummond of Phipsburg Centre. After this event he devoted himself to his own farm, at the same time was interested in operating a lumber mill at the Centre Village. Two years after his marriage and occupancy of this house, it was burned by the carelessness of a carpenter who was giving the house some finishing touches. A new house was ready for occupancy in a few months.
     In 1835 Mr. Reed sold his farm, purchased and occupied the colonial house of his uncle, Parker McCobb, at Phipsburg Centre, also purchasing, in partnership with James Drummond, the double saw­mill owned by the heirs of Thomas McCobb. From this time he was engaged for many years in the lumber business. In connection with two other business men, he inaugurated the building of the lumber mills at Parkers Head, by making Parkers Bay a mill-pond and inducing lumber-men to erect the dam and mills.
     His first attempt at ship-building was the schooner Madawaska, in 1832, which he built in a yard near his first dwelling on the Reed farm. The launching of this vessel was memorable as it took place during a snow storm in the month of June.

Colonel Reed inherited a tendency toward a military career from his ancestors on both the paternal and maternal side, and when only nineteen years of age, was unexpectedly elected from the ranks to lieutenant of a military company, at a time when such promotion was no small honor, rising to captain, major, and lieutenant-colonel.
     In 1844 Colonel Reed moved to Bath and engaged permanently in ship-building, buying a yard in the southern part of the town, where he built ships during the rest of his life, under the firm of William M. Reed & Son. At the organization of the Sagadahoc Bank, he was one of its founders and a director, and in 1861 became its president, a position he filled until his death. When the enterprise of building the Kennebec & Portland Railroad was inaugurated he was among the first to aid the undertaking with money and influence.

Mr. Reed's public career began at twenty-eight years of age, when he was elected, by the town of Phipsburg, to the House of Repre­sentatives, and was continually re-elected until 1840, when he was elected senator, serving two terms; later was a member of the Governor's Council two terms ; when Lincoln was first candidate for President was one of the electors; has served several times in the Common Council and was one of the first aldermen of the city.

Originally an ardent Whig and anti-slavery in his political senti­ments, he became a Republican upon the formation of this party, and was ever active in its cause, supporting the War of the Rebellion with zeal. In the performance of his public trusts, he gave the same attention to their duties as he gave to his own private business, to the obligations of which he was ever prompt, discreet, and active.

Hon. Isaac Reed, of Waldoboro, was a member of the same Senate as Mr. Reed, and thus publicly wrote of him since his death_: "That honest, Christian gentleman was my room-mate during two sessions of the Legislature." From his earliest years he was sur­rounded with Christian influences, inherited genuine religious tendencies, and early in life he and his wife united with the church. In Bath he attended the Winter Street Church. Mr. Reed developed in his youth those noble traits of character that led to decision, disinterestedness, and unswerving integrity.

For forty-one years he and his wife made their house one of open hospitality. The poor found in him a constant friend, and he was always ready to assist any worthy object whose claims were presented to him. He always manifested a particular interest in young men, and one never applied to him in vain. Wm. M. and Franklin Reed built fifteen ships, three barks, one brig, and three schooners.
     Colonel Reed died, while in the midst of a useful life, January 12, 1866, in his sixty-sixth year. His wife died April 12th of the same year.    They were buried in the Maple Grove Cemetery at Bath.

Of a family of eight children, there are now living: Franklin, resident of Bath, and Edwin, Victoria, and Ellen Drummond (wife of Henry Churchill Goodspeed), residents of Massachusetts.