Cumberland County, Maine - Hon. Henry B. Cleaves ********************************************************************** USGENWEB ARCHIVES NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb This copy contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by: C. Wendland SilverDrusilla@aol.com Copyright © 2005 by C. Wendland Caitlin's Gold Award Project, Girl Scouts USA, Rio Grande Girl Scout Council, El Paso, Texas ********************************************************************** Biography Hon. Henry B. Cleaves Biographical Review Cumberland County, Maine Boston Biographical Review Publishing Company 1896 Page 140-142 Hon. Henry B. Cleaves, the present Governor of Maine, was born in Bridgton, Me. His father, Thomas Cleaves, also a native of Bridgton, was a man of great energy and distinguished for the strictest integrity. His mother, Sophia Bradstreet Cleaves, a woman of high worth, was the daughter of Daniel Bradstreet, who came from Rowley, Mass., and settled in Bridgton in the early days. The family circle included five children - Robert A., Nathan, Thomas P., Henry B., and Mary S. Cleaves. The last-named is now the wife of William W. Mason. Judge Nathan Cleaves, the senior member of the law firm of Nathan and Henry B. Cleaves, died September 5, 1892. A resident of Portland for more than thirty years, he was closely identified with the best interests of this city. He was graduated from Bowdoin College in 1858, attained eminence in his profession as a lawyer, occupied many positions of honor and public trust, was held in the highest esteem, and the sense of the loss caused by his death was generally felt throughout the State. Governor Cleaves was educated in the common schools of his native town and at the academies of Bridgton and Lewiston Falls. In the summer of 1862 he enlisted as a private soldier in Company B, Twenty-third Maine Volunteers, under Colonel William Wirt Virgin, late a justice of the Supreme Court of the State of Maine. Having served out the term of his enlistment at Poolsville on the Potomac and at Harper's Ferry, during which period he was promoted to the rank of Orderly Sergeant, he was discharged when the regiment was mustered out. However, influenced by his patriotism, he immediately re-enlisted for three years under General Francis Fessenden, a son of the Hon. William Pitt Fessenden, who was recruiting a veteran regiment for active service in the Department of the Gulf. Young Cleaves was appointed First Lieutenant of Company F. On one occasion in the course of the service, when the officers of Company E had been either killed or disabled in action, he acted as Captain. A portion of his time was served in the Department of the Gulf, where he participated in various engagements under General Banks on the Red River expedition, at Mansfield, Pleasant Hill, Cane River Crossing, and other places. After the close of the campaign in Louisiana the regiment was ordered to Virginia; and Lieutenant Cleaves served during the remainder of the war in. the Army of the Potomac; and with General Sheridan in the Shenandoah Valley. When the war ended, he was offered a commission in the regular army by Secretary of War Stanton. Declining this, he returned to his home in Bridgton, and was employed as a day laborer in Perley & Styles's sash and blind factory. While here, he studied law with such assiduity that in September, 1868, he was admitted to the bar. After this he moved to Portland, and formed a law partnership with his brother, the late judge Nathan Cleaves. The firm had a large and lucrative practice, and was extensively known throughout the State and New England. Governor Cleaves is a director in many of the business corporations of the State. He is a prominent member of the Grand Army and the Marine State Veteran Association. In the practice of his profession and in matters of charity he has always shown a great friendship for the old soldier. His successful defense of William T. Best, a disabled veteran, in the extradition proceedings brought against him by the Province of New Brunswick, will be readily recalled, as it excited great interest at the time. Governor Cleaves, who has always been a Republican, cast his first vote in a national election for Abraham Lincoln, while still in active service in Virginia in the fall of 1864. He was a member of the legislature from Portland in 1876 and 1877, and served as Chairman of the Judiciary Committee. He was elected City Solicitor of Portland in 1877, and during his two years of office tried many important cases for the city. He was elected Attorney-General of Maine in 1880, and was twice re-elected to this important office by the legislature, serving five consecutive years. In this period, besides trying some eighteen murder cases, he prosecuted the important State tax cases against the railroad and telegraph companies to a successful termination, settling conclusively the right of the State to levy a franchise tax upon these corporations. Nominated for Governor at the Republican State Convention held in Portland in June, 1892, he was elected in September of the same year, and inaugurated on January 5, 1893. His nomination on this occasion without a dissenting voice was unusual in the politics of Maine, and evidenced his great popularity with the people. His renomination by acclamation at the large and enthusiastic convention held at Lewiston, June 5, 1894, was a deserved recognition of the man and the citizen, of the faithful and honest public officer, and of his able administration of the affairs of the State during his first term. At the September election in 1894 he was re-elected by nearly forty thousand majority, the largest majority ever given a Republican governor in Maine. His inaugural addresses, which are models of construction, and are such as only a scholar and statesman can write, have elicited commendation wherever noticed by the press. In the performance of his official duties he has invariably guarded the interests of the State with sedulous care. One of the leading papers of Maine recently said: "Today, throughout the length and breadth of the good old State of Maine, the name of Governor Cleaves is not only known, but is also held in the highest esteem. Political opponents even vie with each other in- paying tribute to his administrative qualities, as well as to the goodness of his great, big heart."