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

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Biographies:

Eastman Johnson, painter, was born at Lovell, Maine, July 29, 1824. He was educated in the public schools of Augusta, Maine, and in 1842 began to work on portraits in black and white and in pastel. He removed to Washington, D.C., with his parents in 1845, and there made portraits of many public men, including Daniel Webster and John Quincy Adams. He also had among his sitters while in Boston, Mass., 1846-49, Longfellow and his family, Emerson, Hawthorne and Sumner. He studied at the Royal academy in D?sseldorf, 1849-50; with Leutze, 1850-51, and later in Paris, Italy and Holland, spending four years at the Hague, where he painted "The Savayard," and "Card Players," his first important pictures in oil. He returned to the United States in 1856, and lived among the Indian tribes on the northern shores of Lake Superior in 1856-57. He painted "Old Kentucky Home" in Washington, D.C., in 1858, which established his reputation. He resided in New York after 1858 and in 1860 was elected a member of the National Academy of Design, where he annually exhibited. His more noted pictures include: Husking Bee, The Stage Coach, The Pension Agent, Prisoner of State, Sunday Morning, The Barefoot Boy, Dropping Off, Fiddling His Way, Bo Peep (exhibited at the Royal academy, London), A Group of Children, Old Whalers of Nantucket, Milton Dictating to His Daughter and the portraits of Two Men; of Presidents Arthur, Cleveland and Harrison; of W. H. Vanderbilt, Commodore Vanderbilt, Secretary Folger, William B. Astor, John D. Rockefeller, W. D. Sloan, Mrs. Alexander Hamilton, Mrs. Dolly Madison, Mrs. August Belmont, Mrs. Hamilton Fish and Mr. and Mrs. James A. Burden.

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

Marcellus Lovejoy Stearns, governor of Florida, was born in Lovell, Maine, April 29, 1839; son of Caleb and Eliza Ward (Russell) Stearns; grandson of David and Sally (Andrews) Stearns and of George and Sally (Wright) Russell, and great-grandson of Maj. Benjamin Russell and of Capt. Abraham Andrews of the Revolutionary war. He attended Waterville academy, Maine, and matriculated at Waterville college (Colby) in the class of 1863, leaving in his junior year (November, 1861), to enlist as a private in Company E, 12th Maine volunteer infantry. He was commissioned 2d lieutenant in 1869, serving with General Butler in New Orleans, La., and temporarily commanding the government schooner Hortense on lake Ponchartrain; was promoted 1st lieutenant in 1863, and was one of the volunteers of the "Forlorn Hope" at the siege of Port Hudson, to whom congress voted medals in honor of their bravery. He also served with General Banks in the Red River expedition in 1864, and while leading a charge at the battle of Winchester, Va., Sept. 19, 1864, his right arm was shattered, necessitating amputation. He was subsequently transferred to the Veteran Reserve corps, U.S.A., and assigned to Company H of the 20th regiment, reading law while on waiting orders. He was afterward stationed at Wheeling, W. Va., and in the department of the Freedmen's bureau under Gen. O. O. Howard at Quincy, Fla., where he was mustered out of service, Jan. 1, 1868, and where he continued to make his home. He was a member of the state convention; of the state legislature, 1869?72, serving as speaker of the house; surveyor-general of Florida, 1869?78; lieutenant-governor of Florida, 1873, and governor of the state, !874?77, and served by appointment from President Hayes as a member of the U.S. commission at Hot Springs, Ark., 1877?80. He was married, Dec. 12, 1878, to Ellen Austin, daughter of the Rev. Horace D. and Mercy (Mason) Walker of Bridgewater, Mass. He subsequently visited the Pacifio coast, and upon his return made a tour of Florida for government improvements; traveled in Europe, 1886, and in 1887 removed to Atlantic, Iowa, where he served as president of the National bank until 1890, when for the benefit of his health, he took up his residence in Palatine Bridge, N.Y. He received the honorary degree of A.B. from Colby university in 1877; was president of the Delta Upsilon convention at Rochester, N.Y., 1885, and frequently a delegate to the national convention of the Republican party. He died in Palatino Bridge, N.Y., Dec. 8, 1891.

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