Cumberland County, Maine - Mrs. Dorcas Hopkins Banks
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Biography
Mrs. Dorcas Hopkins Banks
Biographical Review
Cumberland County, Maine
Boston
Biographical Review Publishing Company
1896
Page 184-187


Mrs. Dorcas Hopkins Banks is the widow of Elias Banks, who at one time was a
merchant of Portland. She was born in this city in an old-fashioned house that
stood on the corner of Brackett and Danforth Streets, November 29, 1815. Her
parents were James Dean and Dorcas (Tucker) Hopkins; and she is of English
descent, her father having been born in England. Her paternal grandfather, whose
name was Thomas Hopkins, was a native of Axminster, Devonshire, England. He came
to this country with his family in 1784, and purchased property in Portland on
Congress and Middle Streets, which is still in the family.

James Dean Hopkins was twelve years of age when his parents settled in Portland;
and he received the greater part of his education in this city. He studied for
the bar, and in time became one of the most prominent lawyers of Portland, where
he was in active practice for many years. He was at one time President of the
Cumberland County Bar; and he numbered among his personal friends Judge Mellon,
Professor Simon Greenleaf, and Stephen Longfellow, the father of the poet. The
house in which Mrs. Banks now resides was erected by her father in 1823. His
wife, Dorcas Tucker Hopkins, the mother of Mrs. Banks, was the daughter of
Captain Daniel Tucker, who long followed the sea as a master mariner. The last
fifteen years of Captain Tucker's life were passed in Gorham, retired from
active work.

Dorcas Hopkins received a good education in the schools of Portland, and resided
with her parents until her marriage, which occurred in 1845. Her husband, Elias
Banks, was identified with the mercantile life of Portland up to the time of his
death in 1882. Four children were born to them, but one of whom, a daughter
named Elizabeth H., is now living. She has been twice married. By her first
husband, George Whittier, of Portland, she had one child, Margaret Dean
Whittier; and by her second husband, Edward H. Toby, of Brooklyn, N.Y., she has
one  son, Donald Banks Toby. Mr. and Mrs. Toby reside in Brooklyn. Mary Banks,
the second child of Mr. and Mrs. Elias Banks, passed but five brief summers on
earth. Edward Prince Banks, the elder son, who was born in 1848, and was a clerk
in the First National Bank of Portland, died in 1893, at the age of forty-four.
The younger son, William Seward Banks, who was born in 1854, and was a well-
known druggist in Portland, died in 1890.

Mrs. Banks is a member of the Congregational church on High Street, to which her
husband also belonged, and of which her children Elizabeth and Edward were
members. Her residence, which was built over seventy years ago, is one of the
substantial homes of Portland, and suits well the owner, who bears gracefully
the burden of her fourscore years, appearing much younger than she acknowledges
herself to be.