History of Oxford County Maine United States of America

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Local History Notes:

OXFORD, a county in the W. part of Maine, has an area of about 1700 square miles. It is watered by the Androscoggin, Margallaway, Saco, and other smaller rivers. In the N. part are several lakes connected with Umbagog lake, one of the principal sources of the Androscoggin river. Some parts, especially in the N. and N. W., are rough and mountainous, but a large portion is fertile, and well adapted to cultivation, particularly along the banks of its many lakes and rivers. Indian corn, potatoes, wool, and' grass are the staples. In 1850 this county produced 227,439 bushels of corn; 488,168 of potatoes; 69,309 tons of hay; 837,475 pounds of butter, and 156,353 of wool. There were 4 woollen and 2 flannel factories, 1 cotton factory, 4 foundries, 19 grist mills, 1 powder mill, 45 saw and planing mills, 24 manufactories of shingles, 2 of wooden ware, and 11 tanneries. It contained 54 churches, 4 newspaper offices, 13,584 pupils attending public schools, and 908 attending other schools. The Atlantic and St. Lawrence railroad passes through this county. Capital, Paris. Population, 39,763.

Biographies:

Hannibal I. Kimball, capitalist, was born in Oxford county, Maine, in 1832; son of Peter Kimball. After attending the district school he learned the trade of carriage making, and in 1851 became superintendent of an extensive manufactory in New Haven, Conn., with offices in Boston, Mass. He was admitted a member of the firm in 1853, and was made bankrupt in 1861 by the large indebtedness due from southern customers of the firm. He then removed to Colorado, where he became superintendent of a mining company. He removed to Atlanta, Ga., in 1865, having arranged with George M. Pullman of Chicago, Ill., to. introduce sleeping coaches on southern railroads and street cars in southern cities. Before the legislature of Georgia had determined to change the seat of government from Milledgeville to Atlanta he anticipated the importance to Atlanta of the change, and at his own expense purchased the unfinished opera house, then deserted, and changed the building into a complete state house. He proposed to the city of Atlanta that they purchase the building and offer it as a present to the state if the location of the state capital was changed to Atlanta. The offer was accepted and the legislature moved into the new building. In 1870, in view of encouraging a state fair at Atlanta, he purchased and transformed an old field of sixty acres near the city boundary into a pleasure park, and erected buildings necessary for a large exhibition of agricultural and mechanical products. This state fair was followed by annual fairs and by the International Cotton exposition of 1881 and the Cotton States and International exposition of 1895. To provide for the growing wants of the city, in 1870 he built the H. I. Kimball house, a hotel of 350 rooms, at that time the best equipped and finest hotel south of New York, and when, some years after, it was burned, he rebuilt it on a more extensive scale. He erected the first cotton mill in Atlanta, and repeatedly enlarged it to meet the growing business. He also established lines of street and steam railroads in all directions to develop the business of the city, and at the time of his death was an officer in various railroad and other commercial companies in Atlanta and of several banking institutions. He died in Brookline, Mass., April 28, 1895.

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

History of Oxford County Maine

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