History of Scarborough, (Cumberland County) Maine United States of America

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Biographies:

William King, governor of Maine, was born at Scarborough, Maine, Feb. 9, 1768; son of Richard and Mary (Blake) King. He was a half-brother of Rufus King, and a grandson of Samuel Blake, of York, Maine. His father was a commissary in the British army at Annapolis, Nova Scotia, in 1744, and subsequently established himself in business in Watertown, Mass., and in 1746 in Scarborough, Maine. William received a very meagre schooling, and when a mere boy worked in a lumber mill in Saco, and afterward at Topsham, Maine. He became the owner of the mill and store with his brother-in-law, Dr. Benjamin Porter. He removed to Bath in 1800, and there amassed a fortune as a lumber manufacturer and shipbuilder. He was married, in 1802, to Ann Frazier, of Scarborough, Maine. He was a Democratic representative from the town of Topsham to the general court of Massachusetts, 1795-96, and a state senator from the town of Bath, 1800-03, and from the Lincoln district, 1807-08. He was elected the first governor of the state of Maine in 1820, and resigned the office in 1821 to accept the appointment of U.S. commissioner for the adjustment of Spanish claims in Florida. He was appointed commissioner of public buildings for Maine in 1828, and was authorized to procure plans for the construction of a state capitol at Augusta. The models furnished by Charles Bulfinch, of Boston, which were copies of the Massachusetts capitol on a reduced scale, were accepted, and the structure was finished under his supervision. He was collector of the U.S. customs at Bath, Maine, 1831-34. He organized and was president of the first bank opened in Bath, owned much real estate, including the whole town of Kingfield, Franklin county, which was named in his honor, and was one of the incorporators and principal owner of the first cotton mill in Brunswick, Maine, erected in 1809. He was major-general of militia, and received the commission of colonel in the U.S. army as a recruiting officer in the district of Maine, during the war of 1812. He was a benefactor and trustee of the Maine Literary and Theological institution, afterward Colby university, 1821-48. The state of Maine is represented in Statuary hall, Washington, D.C., by his statue. He died in Bath, Maine, June 17, 1852.

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

Cyrus King, representative, was born in Scarborough, Maine, Sept. 16, 1772; son of Richard and Mary (Blake) King; brother of Gov. William King and a half-brotber of Rufus King. He was preepared for college at Phillips academy, Andover, Mass., and, was graduated from Columbia college in 1794. He commenced the study of law with Rufus King in New York, and served as bis private secretary ill 1796, when U.S. minister to England. He was married in October, 1797, to Hannah, daughter of Capt. Seth Storer, of Saco. He returned home and completed his legal studies in the office of Chief-Justice Mellen, at Biddeford, Maine, and was admitted to the bar in 1797. He practised law in Saco, Maine, 1798-1817; was a representative from the Maine district of Massachusetts in the 13th and 14th congresses, 1813-17. He died in Saco, April 25, 1817.

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

Charles McLaughlin Cumston, educator, was born in Soarborough, Maine, Jan. 12, 1824; son of Henry Van Schaick and Catharine (McLaughlin) Cumston; grandson of Capt. John and Sarah (Moody) Cumston and of Robert and Martha (Johnson) McLaughlin; and great-grand-son of John and Elizabeth Cumston, who came from England and settled in Boston, Mass., about 1750, and of William McIaughlin, an Ulster man, who married Sarah Jameson of Plymouth, Mass., and settled in Scarborough at the beginning of the eighteenth century. His grandfather, Capt. John Cumston, made the campaign of Quebec with Arnold in 1775. Charles was prepared for college at Monmouth academy and Waterville institute and was graduated at Bowdoin in 1843. He taught school in Turner and Gray, Maine, 1843-44; Alfred academy, 1844-45; Reading, Woburn and Salem, Mass., 1845-48; English high school, Boston, Mass., 1848-74; being head master, 1869-74. He resigned his charge of the school in 1874 and took up his residence with his maiden sister in Monmouth, Maine, in the house which was the home of his boyhood. He gave to the town Cumston Hall, erected in 1899, at an expense of $20,000. He was elected a corresponding member of the Maine historical society in 1894. He received the honorary degree of LL.D. from Bowdoin college in 1870.

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

Rufus King, statesman, was born in Scarborough, Maine, March 24, 1755; son of Richard and Isabella (Bragdon) King and grandson of John King, who emigrated from Kent, England, about 1700, settled in Boston, Mass., and was married to Mary, daughter of Benjamin Stowell of Newton, Mass. Richard King was a farmer, merchant and the largest exporter of lumber from the district of Maine. Rufus King received his elementary education in the schools of Scarborough; was sent to Byfield academy in Newburyport in 1769, and was graduated from Harvard college in 1777. He studied law in Newburyport under Theophilus Parsons; was appointed aide-de-camp to General Sullivan in the Rhode Island campaign of 1778, and upon its unsuccessful termination he resumed his studies. He was admitted to the bar in 1780, and soon built up a large practice. He was a representative in the Massachusetts legislature in 1782, and a delegate to the Continental congress, 1784-87, and introduced the anti-slavery bill before the latter body in March, 1785. He was appointed by the Massachusetts legislature one of the deputies to the Philadelphia convention of May 25, 1787, to revise the articles of confederation, and when the question of the adoption of the revision was submitted to the states he was sent to the Massachusetts convention, and by his familiarity with the provisions of the instrument and clear explanation of them, contributed greatly to its final adoption. He was married, in 1786, to Mary, daughter of John Alsop, a wealthy New York merchant and a deputy from that city to the first Continental congress, 1774-76, and retiring from the practice of the law he removed to New York city in 1788. He was chosen a member of the New York assembly in 1789, but before he had an opportunity to serve on any committee in that body be was elected, with Philip Schuyler, a U.S. senator, and he drew the long term, to expire March 3, 1795. The senate at that time sat with closed doors, and except in the journals no reports of the proceedings are to be found, and it was not until 1794 that a motion to make the proceedings public was carried. Mr. King was an advocate of the Jay treaty with Great Britain in 1794, and when he was prevented from explaining the provisions of that act to the people at a public meeting, he published, in connection with General Hamilton, who had also been refused a hearing, a series of explanatory papers under the pen-name "Camillus." He was re-elected to the U.S. senate in 1795, and resigned in 1796, when appointed by President Washington U.S. minister to England. He was at the court of St. James until 1803, when he was relieved at his own request, and on his return to the United States removed to Jamaica, L.I., where he interested himself in agriculture. He was the Federalist candidate for Vice-President in 1894, when he received fourteen electoral votes, and again in 1808, when he received forty-seven electoral votes. In 1813 he was again elected to the U.S. senate. He was opposed to the war of 1812, but when it was declared he gave the government his support. He was nominated for governor of New York in 1815, but was defeated by Daniel D. Tompkins. He was nominated by the Federalists for the Presidency in 1816, in opposition to James Monroe, and he received thirty-four electoral votes. While in the senate he opposed the establishment of a national bank, contributed largely to the passage of the navigation act of 1818 and introduced and carried a bill providing that the public lands should be sold for cash at a lower price than had been the custom. He was again elected to the U.S. senate in 1819, where he opposed the admission of Missouri as a slave state and objected to any compromise as calculated to breed future trouble. He recorded a resolution in the senate stating that the proceeds of all sales of public lands, after payment of the public debt for which they were pledged, should be held as a fund to be used to aid in the emancipation of slaves and for their removal to any territory beyond the limits of the United States. He was appointed U.S. minister to Great Britain by President John Quincy Adams in 1825, but failing health caused his early retirement in 1896. He was a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a corresponding member of the Massachusetts Historical society. He received the honorary degree of LL.D. from Dartmouth college in 1802, from Williams college in 1803, from Harvard college in 1806 and from the University of Pennsylvania in 1815. He was survived by five sons: John Aslop, afterward governor of New York; Charles, president of Columbia college; James Gore, representative in congress from New York; Edward, and Frederick Gore. He died in New York city, April 29, 1827.

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