Cumberland County, Maine - Captain Lincoln Webb Tibbetts
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Biography
Captain Lincoln Webb Tibbetts
Biographical Review
Cumberland County, Maine
Boston
Biographical Review Publishing Company
1896
Page 493-494


Captain Lincoln Webb Tibbetts, whose features are portrayed on the opposite
page, one of the prominent business men of Portland, Me., was born in Boothbay,
Lincoln County, September 18, 1834, son of James and Eunice (Brookings)
Tibbetts.

His paternal grandfather, James Tibbetts, Sr., born in 1768, married Abigail
Lewis, who was born in 1772. They had twelve children, all of whom grew to
maturity, married, and had families of their own. Grandmother Tibbetts died at
the age of eighty-two years, leaving eighty-three grandchildren, and also
eighty-three great-grandchildren, her death being the first in the family in
that long period of eighty-two years.

James Tibbetts, the younger, was born in Boothbay in 1806; and from that port he
entered on the life of a seaman, eventually becoming a Captain and the owner of
several vessels. In the latter part of his life he resided permanently on shore,
and was engaged in farming and in mercantile business. In politics he was
formerly a Democrat, but afterward a pronounced Republican, being one of the
organizers of that party. He was active in town affairs, holding the office of
justice of the Peace for many years, and that of Selectman. He died in Boothbay
at an advanced age. His wife, Eunice, was a daughter of Josiah and Eunice
(Bailey) Brookings, of Woolwich, Me., where she was born in 1811. She also died
in Boothbay. Mr. and Mrs. James Tibbetts reared eight children, namely: Sumner
R., a resident of Melrose Highlands, Mass.; Lincoln Webb, of Portland; Mary
Louise, wife of Leonard Lewis, of Farmington, Minn.; Eliza, wife of Roscoe
Hodgdon, of Boothbay; Jennie, wife of Captain Ward H. Lewis, of Portland; Ellen,
a teacher in Massachusetts; Hattie, wife of John Dow, of East Branch, Mich.; and
Albert S., the eldest (deceased), formerly a prominent sea captain of Falmouth,
in the River Platte trade during the latter part of his life.

Lincoln Webb Tibbetts received a good education, finishing his course of study
at Litchfield Academy. He was very young when he took his first voyage, a long
cruise to Africa; and he was Captain of a vessel engaged in African trade before
he attained his majority, bringing hides, ginger, and palm oil from ports on the
west coast of the Dark Continent. He made .but a few voyages to Africa, being
engaged but two years in that trade, a round trip consuming six months. After
that be sailed to West Indian and European ports in large vessels, of which he
was part owner, and previous to the breaking out of the Civil War he had entered
into - trade with the South. Captain Tibbetts sailed from New York just before
secession was proclaimed, with eight thousand kegs of gunpowder for New Orleans,
was dismasted in a gale, and put into St. Thomas for repairs; but, when the
repairs were completed, Louisiana had seceded, and he returned North without
delivering the powder, arriving in New York the day after the bombardment of
Fort Sumter. Captain Tibbetts would have realized a neat sum had he delivered
the powder, but he preferred to suffer loss rather than injure the Union, even
in an indirect way; and, though the matter has been before Congress since 1872,
when the country could afford to reward her faithful servants, his loss has
never been reimbursed.

The Captain was on the high seas until 1865, and had many hair-breadth escapes
from privateers, as he always refused to put his vessel under foreign flags for
protection. After that he was four years in the furniture business on shore, but
in 1870 returned once more to the sea, trading with the West Indies and Mexico
for two years, and then engaging in traffic on the River Platte, carrying lumber
to South America, and returning with hides. He was thus engaged until 1887,
sailing in the barque "Celina" the last five years. He then went into the
roofing business, representing a New York firm in the city of Portland, an
occupation which he still follows. He is an eminently successful business man,
his knowledge of different parts of the world and all sorts and conditions of
men admirably supplementing the tact which is his natural endowment. He is
Treasurer and Manager of the Maine Lighting Company (incorporated) and Treasurer
of the Mountain Farm Seashore Company, which is improving the property at Small
Point, near the mouth of the Kennebec.

July 7, 1857, Captain Tibbetts was united in marriage with Elizabeth Merrill, of
Richmond, Me., daughter of Captain John Merrill, a seafaring man of that
locality. The following children have brightened their home: Lizzie May, Hattie,
Emma, and Alice. The latter is the wife of Dr. J. B. Thornton, of Boston.

Captain Tibbetts takes an active interest in political affairs. He is a member
of the Democratic City Committee, and has been twice elected Councilman from
Ward I (in 1892 and 1893), serving while in the Council on important committees;
and in 1894 he was nominated for the legislature, but defeated by a small
majority. He is well advanced in the degrees of Masonry, belonging to Herman
Lodge, A. F. & A. M., of Gardiner, Lebanon Chapter, and Maine Commandery,
Knights Templars, of the same place, and is also a member of the Portland Marine
Society. The residence of Captain Tibbetts and his family is at 23 Becket
Street, Portland.