History of Canton, (Oxford County) Maine United States of America

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Dexter Arnoll Hawkins, publicist, was born in Canton, Maine, June 24, 1825; son of the Rev. Henry and---(Fuller) Hawkins, and grandson of Dexter Hawkins, a soldier in the American Revolution, and of John Fuller, a member of the crew of the Bon Homme Richard under John Paul Jones, Sept. 23, 1779. He was graduated at Bowdoin, A.B., 1848, A.M., 1851. He was teacher of mathematics at the academies at Bethel and Bridgeton, and lecturer before teachers' institutes in Maine, 1848-52; principal of Topsham academy, 1849-50; studied law in the office of William Pitt Fessenden, Portland, Maine; at Harvard and at the ?cole des droits. Paris, France, and travelled in Europe under commission from the governor of Maine, to examine and report on the educational methods of the old world. He practised law in New York city, 1854-86, where he spoke and wrote in the interest of free education, protection, hard money and bimetallism. In 1875 he delivered a course of lectures before the Lowell Institute, Boston, Mass., on "The Educational Problem in the Cotton States." He was the prime mover in the formation of the national bureau of education. He published reports on Sectarian Appropriations of Public Moneys and Property (1869); Duty of the State to Protect the Free Common Schools of Organic Law (1871); Extravagance of the Tammany Ring (1871); Donations of Public Property to Private Corporations and the Illegal Exemption of the same from Taxation (1873); and books: Traditions of Overlook Mountain (1873); The Roman Catholic Church in New York City and the Public Land and Public Money (1880); Free Trade and Protection (1883); The Redemption of the Trade Dollar (1886); and The Silver Problem delivered as an address before the committee on coinage in the U.S. house of representatives (1886). He died at Groton, Conn., July 24, 1886.

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

History of Canton, (Oxford County) Maine

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