Cumberland County, Maine - John G. Tolford
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Biography
John G. Tolford
Biographical Review
Cumberland County, Maine
Boston
Biographical Review Publishing Company
1896
Page


John G. Tolford, late an esteemed resident of Gorham, Me., in former years one
of the leading dry-goods merchants of Cumberland County, doing business in
Portland, was born in Saco, Me., in 1811, son of Joshua and Mary Tolford. His
parents removed to Portland when he was eleven years old; and in that city he
earned his first wages, being employed in a grocery store. He left his place
within a short time, however, because liquor was sold there, and next entered
the dry-goods store of Rogers & Cutler, where he began work as an errand boy.
The strength of principle which caused him to resign his first position never
deserting him, step by step he worked his way up until finally he became owner
and manager of the business, which he moved to more commodious quarters across
the street. As the years passed, fortune favored him increasingly; and in 1852
he built another store on Free Street, Portland.

In 1865 he retired from business, having accumulated a fortune, and traveled for
some time on the Continent; and in 1875 he bought the handsome estate in Gorham
where his widow now resides, furnishing his home with all needed comforts and
luxuries suggested by good taste and foreign travel. A Republican in politics,
he took a personal interest in national affairs, but was not an aspirant for
office. He was a prominent member of St. Stephen's Episcopal Church in
Portland, which he joined when a young man, and was Senior Warden for over
twenty-five years. He died November 1, 1880, in his seventieth year.

Mr. Tolford was married in 1854 to Miss Anna B. Mountfort, daughter of Captain
Daniel and Mary (Mussey) Mountfort, of Portland. The Mountfort family is of
English origin. Mrs. Tolford's grandfather, Daniel Mountfort, was a tanner of
Portland, and in that city-her father was born. He began to follow the sea when
only a lad, and was Captain of a vessel when be was twenty-one years of age.
After weathering successfully the tempests of many seasons, he was finally lost
at sea, December 22, 1839, his vessel being wrecked in a snowstorm off Cape Cod.
He left three children, Mrs. Tolford, who was born in Portland in 1828, being
the youngest and the only one now living. She enjoyed the best educational
advantages offered at the time, attending the common schools of Portland, and
finishing her studies at Packard's Seminary on Free Street, Portland. Of her
union with Mr. Tolford two children were born, a son and a daughter. John G.,
the son, a promising lad, attended the Gorham High School and then entered
Phillips Academy at Andover, Mass. He was called home at the time of his
father's death, and shortly after that sad event was taken ill. Three years
later (1883) he died. He was then nineteen years of age. The daughter, Mary
Elizabeth, received a liberal education, attending Mrs. Bailey's Home School at
New Gloucester, Me., after a preliminary course of study in the Portland
schools, later taking a special course at the Belcher School, Farmington, Me.,
and at Gorham Seminary, and finally entering Wellesley College, where she took a
four years' course, graduating from the musical department in 1883. Nine years
later she married Mr. John A. Hinkley, of Gorham.

Mrs. Tolford is highly esteemed in Gorham and in Portland, her early home. She
attends the Congregationalist church, and is always ready to respond to the
demands of charity. Mr. Tolford was a fine example of a self-made man; and the
wealth which blessed his declining years was but a fitting outcome of the
struggle of his youth with poverty and temptation, his constant integrity, and
his diligent application to-business in his manhood's prime.

This brief memoir is happily accompanied by a lifelike portrait of Mr. Tolford.