History of Lewiston, (Androscoggin County) Maine United States of America

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Biographies:

William Pierce Frye, senator, was born in Lewiston, Maine, Sept. 2, 1830; son of John March and Alice M. (Davis) Frye: grandson of Joseph and Mary (Robinson) Frye, and great-grandson of Joseph and Mehitable (Poor) Frye. His father was an early settler of Lewiston, a manufacturer, and a leading citizen; and his great-grandfather, Maj.-Gen. Joseph Frye (1711-1794), made his escape by killing his Indian guard at the capture of Fort William Henry, Lake George, N.Y., in 1757, where he was a colonel in the Colonial army. He was a pioneer settler of Fryeburg, Maine. William Pierce was graduated at Bowdoin in 1850, studied law under William Pitt Fessenden, and practised at Rockland and afterward at Lewiston, Maine. He was a representative from Lewiston in the state legislature, 1861; 1862 and 1867; a presidential elector in 1864, mayor of Lewiston, 1866-67; attorney-general of Maine, 1867-69; member of the Republican national executive committee, 1872, 1876 and 1880; a delegate to the Republican national conventions of 1872, 1876 and 1880, and chairman of the Republican state committee in place of James G. Blaine, 1881. He was a representative in the 42d-46th congresses inclusive, 1871-81, and was elected to the 47th congress, but resigned before the meeting of that congress to take his place in the U.S. senate, having been elected to the seat made vacant by the resignation of Senator James G. Blaine, and he took his seat in the senate, March 8, 1881, completing the term of Senator Blaine which expired March 3, 1883. He was re-elected in 1883 for a full senatorial term, beginning March 4, 1883, was again re-elected in 1889 and again in 1895, and a fourth time, Jan. 17, 1901. As a representative he served on the library committee as chairman, on the judiciary and ways and means committees, and as chairman of the executive committee. He was prominent in the discussion of the Geneva award distribution, and through five congresses maintained and finally gained the rights of the actual losers, as indicated in the bill originally introduced by him. In the senate he was chairman of the committee on commerce, also serving on the committees on foreign relations; on fisheries; to establish the University of the United States; on the select committee on Potomac river front, and also as chairman of the special committee on Pacific railroads; and was elected president pro tempore of the senate, Feb. 7, 1896. He carried through his bill providing for a congress of American nations and one providing for the maritime congress. He was a member of the commission which met in Paris in the autumn of 1898 to negotiate a treaty of peace with Spain. When the 56th Congress met, Dec. 4, 1899, Senator Frye was again elected president of the senate, pro tempore and he became acting Vice-President of the United States by reason of the death of Vice-President Hobart. He was a trustee of Bowdoin college from 1880, and received the honorary degree of LL.D. from Bates college in 1881, and from Bowdoin in 1889.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

Alonzo Garcelon, governor of Maine, was born in Lewiston, Maine, May 6, 1813; son of Col. William G. and Mary (Davis) Garcelon; grandson of William Garcelon; and great grandson of James Garcelon, who came to America in 1752 and so far as is known was the first and only immigrant of the name. He worked on the farm, attended the academies in Monmouth, Waterville and Newcastle, and was graduated from Bowdoin in 1836, having paid his college expenses by teaching school. He studied medicine at Dartmouth, was graduated from the medical college of Ohio at Cincinnati in 1839, and returned to Lewiston, Maine, to practise his profession. He represented his city in the state legislature in 1853 and 1857; served in the state senate in 1855; was mayor of Lewiston in 1871; and in 1878 received the Democratic nomination for governor, being elected by the legislature in 1879 as there was no election by the people. He took an active part in the erection of the first cotton mill in the city of Lewiston in 1845-46: obtained railroad connections for the city; established the Lewiston Journal, the first newspaper there, in 1847, and was influential in the formation of Androscoggin county and all other public interests of the city. He was married first to Ann Augusta Waldron of Dover, N.H., who died in 1857; and secondly, on Jan. 13, 1859, to Olivia N. Spear of Rockland, Maine, who died in 1889.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor