Washington County, ME

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Washington County,
Maine
History and Genealogy

James Gillespie Blaine

Blaine, James Gillespie, statesman, author, was born Jan. 31, 1830, in Washington Countv Pa. He graduated at Washington College in 1847; adopted the profession of an editor; removed to Maine; and edited the Kennebec Journal and Portland Advertiser for several years. He served four years in the Maine legislature, two years as speaker of the house. In 1863-1876 he was a representative from Maine to the thirty-eighth to the forty-fourth congresses, serving as a member of the committee on post offices and post roads. He served on the committee on military affairs, the special committee on the death of President Lincoln, and as chairman of the committee on the war debts of the loyal state. In 1869-75 he was speaker of the house to the forty-first, forty-second and forty-third congresses; and in 1876-81 he was a United States senator. In 1881 and in 1889-92 he was secretary of state. He was an unsuccessful candidate for president of the United States in 1884. He was the author of Twenty Years of Congress. He died Jan. 27, 1893, in Washington, D.C.

[Source: Herringshaw’s National Library of American Biography: Contains Thirty-five Thousand Biographies of the Acknowledged Leaders of Life and Thought of the United States, by William Herringshaw, 1909 – Transcribed by Therman Kellar]

Mason L. Brown

BROWN, Mason L., civil engineer; born, Perry, Me., (Washington Co) 1864; son of Levi Prescott and Susan (Lincoln) Brown; educated in high school, business college, and by special instruction by professor in Massachusetts Institute of Technology; married at Detroit, June 24, 1889, Marie Vanier. Began practice as civil engineer at Boston, 1882; came to Detroit, 1886; laid out and constructed Woodlawn, Forest Lawn and Holy Cross cemeteries, all in Detroit; cemetery at Jackson, and Elm Lawn cemetery, Bay City; also summer resorts at Mackinac, Les Cheneaux Islands, Traverse City, Grande Pointe, Long Lake, Pointe aux Barques; sewers at Coldwater, Wyandotte and Ford, etc.; waterworks at Ithaca, State Industrial Homes at Adrain and Ford; also extensively employed in designing eleven different lines of electric railways in Michigan, Ohio and New York State. Director Detroit & Adrain Traction Co.; treasurer Venice of America Land Co.; assistant county surveyor; city engineer Wyandotte, Mich.; village engineer Ford and River Rouge. Member Detroit Engineering Society. Club: Detroit Wheelmen. Republican. Recreations: Outdoor sports. Office: 821-823 Chamber of Commerce Bldg. Residence: 292 Avery Av.

Submitted by: Christine Walters
[Source: The Book of Detroiters Edited by Albert Nelson Marquis 1908]

Horatio Nelson Young

Horatio Nelson Young (July 19, 1845–July 3, 1913) was a United States Navy sailor who received the Medal of Honor for his actions on the USS Lehigh during the American Civil War.

Biography

Young was born in Calais, Maine, a small United States-Canada border town. As a young man he lived in a place where crossing the bridge over the St. Croix River to St. Stephen, New Brunswick for employment, shopping, hospitalization, or just visiting friends, was an almost daily part of normal life. The two close-knit communities have shared services for more than two hundred years.
Following the outbreak of the American Civil War, Horatio Young traveled to Boston, Massachusetts where he joined the United States Navy. On November 16, 1863, the 18-year-old boy was serving aboard the USS Lehigh, when his ship ran aground in the Charleston, South Carolina harbor. In rough waters, and under heavy enemy fire trying to stop him, Horatio Young made several attempts until he succeeded in passing in a small boat from his ship to the USS Nahant with a line wrapped on a hawser that would enable the Lehigh to be freed from her position.
His courageous action saved the lives of many men aboard the helpless ship and for his actions he received the Medal of Honor, the United States' highest military decoration.
Horatio Young died in 1913 and was interred in the St. Stephen Rural Cemetery, in St. Stephen, New Brunswick, Canada surrounded by other Canadian and American honored war dead.

Medal of Honor citation

Rank and organization: Seaman, U.S. Navy. Born: July 19, 1845, Calais, Maine. G.O. No.: 32, April 16, 1864.
Citation:
On board the U.S.S. Lehigh, Charleston Harbor, 16 November 1863, during the hazardous task of freeing the Lehigh, which had grounded, and was under heavy enemy fire from Fort Moultrie. After several previous attempts had been made, Young succeeded in passing in a small boat from the Lehigh to the Nahant with a line bent on a hawser. This courageous action while under severe enemy fire enabled the Lehigh to be freed from her helpless position.
(Source: Wikipedia)

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