Port of Portland's Custom House and Collectors of Customs


A plan of the city and harbour of Louisburg, 1758

A plan of the city and harbour of Louisburg, 1758
Item 102821   info
Maine Historical Society

Captain Moses Pearson was born at Newbury, Massachusetts on March 26, 1697, and began his career as joiner (cabinet-maker). A go-getter of the first rank, he arrived at Falmouth as the town was being re-settled in 1728.

Though still plying his trade, he soon signed his correspondence as “Gentleman” rather than craftsman. Historian Charles E. Clark in The Eastern Frontier (1970) wrote “Let this introduction to Moses Pearson, therefore, serve as an introduction to Old Falmouth, because the biography of one is in a large sense the history of the other.” All sources agree that Pearson was the first Royal Naval Officer (earlier title for Collector) in about 1730 serving some 19 years. He was subsequently elected town clerk, selectman, representative in the General Court (legislature), County Sheriff and captain of a militia company that fought at Louisbourg in 1745.

Pearson was a leading proprietor of Pearsontown (now Standish) and his family became part of a small gentry including the Westbrook, Waldo, Longfellow, Jones and Tyng families. He also owned one of the port’s largest wharves. Moses Pearson died June 8, 1778 and is buried at Portland’s Eastern Cemetery.

Falmouth Neck deed of ownership, Portland, 1764

Falmouth Neck deed of ownership, Portland, 1764
Item 102285   info
Maine Historical Society

Enoch Freeman, a native of Eastham, Massachusetts was born May 19, 1706, graduated from Harvard College (1729), taught school and engaged in the Boston Commission business (Barbados slave trade) before seeking his fortune as a Falmouth merchant in 1741. His family would join the gentry because of his social standing and old school connections.

A voracious office seeker, Freeman was appointed Naval Officer in 1749 but was replaced the next year with yet another Harvard graduate, Jabez Fox. Freeman complained bitterly to fellow classmates over the demotion. According to Sibley’s Harvard Graduates, Volume VIII, many locals considered Freeman a mere stranger; and William Willis’ Journals of Smith and Deane (1849) describes Freeman as “somewhat arbitrary and overbearing” though a man of “great moral worth and strict integrity.”

Freeman and Fox waged a major legal battle over the estate of Col. Thomas Westbrook during the same era. Freeman became Deputy Collector, Judge of Common Pleas, one of the town’s leading revolutionaries, colonel of a local militia company and holder of so many offices that Willis in his History of Portland (1865) stated “Freeman and eldest son, Samuel, for near a hundred years exercised a controlling influence in the affairs of the town and country.” The colonel died September 2,1788.

Directions for the funeral of Jabez Fox, Falmouth Neck, ca. 1755

Directions for the funeral of Jabez Fox, Falmouth Neck, ca. 1755
Item 102226   info
Maine Historical Society

Jabez Fox, born in Woburn, Massachusetts on May 25, 1705, was the second Harvard man (Class of 1727) to fill the Falmouth Naval Office.

After discovering his ‘voice’ was not suited for the ministry, Fox taught school in his home town and in 1741 was appointed “notary public for the Port of Falmouth” (Sibley’s Harvard Graduates, Vol. VII). He removed to Maine where his family had extensive land holdings.

On her death bed, he married Ann Hodge, the wealthy widow of merchant Phineas Jones, and moved into one the finest residences in town. A popular figure, Fox worked as a surveyor for the Plymouth Company, was elected to the General Court, 1745-47, was Commissary for the militia on the Eastern Frontier and was appointed to collect taxes in excise for the county.

Fox publicly clashed with his predecessor Enoch Freeman, whom he replaced as Naval Officer in 1750. He represented the Naval Office until his death on April 6, 1755 and tributes in the Boston press were glowing. Fox would not be the last of his family to work in the Custom House.

"Falmouth burnt by the Kings troops" journal entry, Falmouth Neck, 1775

"Falmouth burnt by the Kings troops" journal entry, Falmouth Neck, 1775
Item 102228   info
Maine Historical Society

Stephen Longfellow II, the fourth Naval Officer followed a familiar trajectory. Born in Newbury (Byfield Parish), Massachusetts on February 7, 1722/23, he graduated from Harvard (Class of 1742) and came to Falmouth Neck as a school teacher in 1745, where his family soon became a leading element in his adopted town.

Sibley’s Harvard Graduates, Vol. XI, pp. 155-57 notes that “offices were rapidly thrust on Longfellow.” These included clerk of courts, town clerk, and clerk of First Parish Congregational Church. In his History of Portland, historian William Willis, p. 459 states that Longfellow in 1755 “acted as Naval Officer” under Benjamin Pemberton of Boston. This indicates that the era of salutary neglect was ending and that the Board of Trade was consolidating more control over Maine.

In 1758, Francis Waldo (Harvard Class of 1747) informed Longfellow that he was being replaced and offered him the job of Deputy Collector, but this failed to materialize. Longfellow soon challenged his rival’s right to serve as representative. Both men were appointed “to farm out the excise on tea, coffee and chinaware in Cumberland County.” Increasingly Longfellow assumed a Tory stance, backing Governor Hutchinson. Sibley, revealing his obvious patriotic bias, states “The fact that Longfellow never resumed public office strongly suggests that he was distrusted as a Loyalist, but the fact the he weighed 245 pounds may have had something to do with his retirement.”

Sibley’s jibes persist “His interleaved almanacs for 1768-1790, preserved in the Maine Historical Society, are one of the most disappointing of historical documents. They are concerned mostly with farming, and dismiss the burning of Falmouth in six words "Falmouth burnt by the Kings troops." Stephen's own house burned in the attack, although he had physically moved to Gorham prior to the bombardment.

Stephen Longfellow II and his wife Tabitha were the great-grandparents of poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

Francis Waldo - Daniel Dole House, Portland, ca. 1940

Francis Waldo - Daniel Dole House, Portland, ca. 1940
Item 102077   info
Maine Historical Society

Francis Waldo, who was born at Boston May 1, 1728, continued the line of Harvard lads (Class of 1747) to hold and covet the directorship of the Falmouth Cutsom House.

Even though an heir to one of Maine’s greatest land grants (Waldo Patent), Francis did not cut a commanding figure. Once fined for “trifling and indecent behavior in Hebrew class” and a source of worry to his father, Brigadier-General Samuel Waldo, he was probably appointed through the latter’s influence.

According to Sibley’s Harvard Graduates, Vol. II, “The decision to establish a (more active) Custom House at Falmouth gave Waldo a chance to settle down”, and in 1758 he obtained the appointment of Collector, Surveyor of the port of Falmouth and Naval Officer.

He moved into his father’s home on Falmouth Neck, became part of the community, and in 1760 completed his own grand residence in Stroudwater Village (pictured at left in 1940). He bought the first Royal Custom House, which he leased to the Board of Trade. Waldo was the very model of an absentee office holder, specifically during a period when the British government pressed to clamp down on smuggling to pay for the Seven Years War in Canada. On his long watch (1758-1775) Francis often travelled to Boston or London leaving lesser officials to handle a deteriorating, often dangerous situation, on the waterfront. Early in 1775, he fled to Boston, and England was where he eventually died on June 9, 1784.

The town of Falmouth, burnt by Capt. Moet, October 18, 1775

The town of Falmouth, burnt by Capt. Moet, October 18, 1775
Item 6278   info
Maine Historical Society

George Lyde (Lynde), born at Boston January 3, 1741/2 became the last Royal Collector. Like Moses Pearson, Lyde was not a Harvard graduate.

Writing to the Commissioners of Custom in Boston, April 29, 1775 Lyde stated, “We may not continue here, but at the risqué[sic] of losing the Custom House books and effects, as well as our lives.” He was actively involved in Falmouth from 1770 through to the Loyalist exodus in 1775, with Willis’ History of Portland recording, “In 1770, George Lyde was appointed collector of the port by the board of commissioners, who appointed Thomas Oxnard of this town as his deputy.” This is not entirely accurate. While Francis Waldo was abroad from September 1768 through November 1771, he probably delegated or leased the Collectorship to Lyde, rather than resigning.

Lyde’s family was identified as “very prominent in Boston” (NEHGR, Vol. 69, pg. 112). A local Tory and model Anglican, he was not a Harvard graduate. Well liked in Falmouth, in 1775, he succeeded Waldo as head of customs. Sometime between May 2 and the October 18, 1775 burning of Falmouth by the Royal Navy, Lyde joined his family in Halifax in 1778. The exact date and location of his death is unknown.

Thomas Child, Portland, ca. 1770

Thomas Child, Portland, ca. 1770
Item 12843   info
Maine Historical Society

Thomas Child (Childs) served as Naval Officer and Collector of the Port of Falmouth from 1775 to 1787 under the Articles of Confederation. (The port and town was set off an incorporated as Portland on July 4, 1786).

Child was born in Boston in 1731 and died in Portland on September 5, 1787. He began as a humble tide surveyor in 1765 and according to the Journals of Smith & Deane had mastered every job in the House, including Deputy Collector, while the boss was away. Child was also the town’s first Post Master, from 1764 to 1775, operating from a building near the Custom House.

Thomas wed Mary, a daughter of former Collector Enoch Freeman, who had become a formidable power in Falmouth politics, law and social life. When Royal Customs Collector George Lyde abandoned the port to the rebels, Thomas Child took over the custom collection for the new government of Massachusetts and later under the Articles of Confederation until his death. Buried at Eastern Cemetery, his widow Mary Child lived until 1832 and died in Boston.

Bond for goods imported, Portland, 1796

Bond for goods imported, Portland, 1796
Item 102955   info
Maine Historical Society

Nathaniel Fadre Fosdick was the Collector of the Port of Portland from 1788 to 1802, briefly under the Articles of Confederation; then after July 31, 1798 he became the port’s first United States Custom Collector, appointed by President Washington.

Born in Marblehead, Massachusetts in 1760, Fosdick was yet another Harvard graduate (Class of 1779). Already set up in Portland as a merchant and married to Abigail, daughter of merchant Ephraim Jones, he was informed of Thomas Child’s death. As William Willis notes in his History of Portland; Fosdick “immediately started for Boston in the midst of a violent snow storm, to make application for the vacant place. His promptitude secured the prize, to the discomfiture of other competitors whose horses were not saddled till the next day.”

Considered a “high-toned Federalist”, Fosdick lived at the corner of Pearl and Federal streets and kept the Customs Office in a one story wooden building near where Casco Bank later stood on Middle and Temple Streets. According to the Journals of Smith & Deane, Fosdick was removed by President Jefferson, a Republican, and made great show of not “giving up his place of business and official blanks" to his successor. Nathaniel left for Salem, Massachusetts, where he died in 1819. Abigail passed in 1851, the last of her line.

Portrait, Isaac Ilsley, 1826

Portrait, Isaac Ilsley, 1826
Item 14961   info
Maine Historical Society

Isaac Ilsley, Collector of the Port of Portland from 1802 to 1829 and superintendent of Light Houses, 1820-1829, had the longest tenure of any local Collector and was the builder of the port's first planned Federal Custom House which stood at 114 Fore Street.

The son of distiller Daniel Ilsley (and grandson of Capt. Isaac), Isaac was born at Falmouth and served as Cumberland County Register of Deeds from 1790 to 1802 when President Jefferson appointed him Collector.

According to Smith & Deane, the refusal of Fosdick, his predecessor, to turn over office papers “was to the no small embarrassment of Mr. Ilsley who was not familiar with the duties of office.” The neophyte persisted, becoming one of the most effective administrators to hold the office. Ilsley built a residence on Spring Street and kept offices in Mussey’s Row, later the old bank of Cumberland, followed by a building he constructed on the corner of Plumb and Fore. In 1820, the Fifth Auditor of the Treasury took charge of the nation’s Lighthouses, with the port collectors given slight control over local affairs, but with a spending limit of $100 without Auditor approval. More importantly, Ilsley was appointed by the Treasury to build a new stone U.S Custom House in 1827-28. Ilsley died in 1853.

Sailor Town, Fore Street in the Forties, ca. 1840

Sailor Town, Fore Street in the Forties, ca. 1840
Item 102996   info
Maine Historical Society

Portland's first specially built U.S. Custom House was located at 114 Fore Street. It faced Fore Street, with its rear on the water (roughly the site of the Custom House as of 2017). This structure served the port from 1829 to 1850 and again from 1854 to 1857.

Collector Isaac Ilsley ran the Custom Office from three temporary locations until the Treasury Department appointed him agent to build this first truly designed U.S. Custom House for the Port of Portland.

In the Portland Daily Press of April 13, 1872, historian William Goold noted that agent Ilsley was so exacting with the allotted federal funds, that $1,500 was left over. Feeling that the pediment looked a tad empty, Ilsley placed a large gilt eagle on site at his own expense. The area was called “Lazy Hill” by detractors, but was in fact the pulsing heart of regional commerce.

Portland born John Neal, America’s first art critic, called Ilsley’s building “a Doric- Temple, very much after the fashion of a Pierpont –stove, and built of that ugliest of all known material, the Sandy-Bay granite.”

John Chandler, Portland, ca. 1810

John Chandler, Portland, ca. 1810
Item 12841   info
Maine Historical Society

General John Chandler, Collector of the Port of Portland and Superintendent of Light Houses from 1829 to 1837 was both a father of Maine statehood and the classic example of a patronage man.

Born in Epping, New Hampshire in 1762, Chandler served in the Revolutionary War under Gen. Henry Dearborn. As a poverty stricken and illiterate blacksmith, he moved to Monmouth, Maine in 1780 became a protégé of Dearborn. With the latter’s assistance, Chandler joined the Jeffersonians, learned to read, gained a place in the Massachusetts General Court and was elected to the U.S. House in 1804.

In 1812 he became a militia general and was commissioned a brigadier in the U.S. Army, commanding a division under Dearborn. Captured at Stoney Creek in Upper Canada, Chandler was exchanged and rewarded for his incompetence with an appointment as military Commander of Maine, then occupied by the British from Eastport to Castine. The reader should consult James E. Elliot’s remarkable volume, Strange Fatality: The Battle of Stoney Creek. (2009)

Inexplicably, Chandler continued to garner rewards, becoming a delegate to the Maine Constitutional Convention in 1819, president of the Maine Senate in 1820 and U.S. Senator 1820-29. He was appointed Collector by President Jackson in 1829. The Maine Register in 1820 notes his compensation as $2,022 as Collector with $400 as superintendent of Light houses.

In 1837, Chandler moved to Augusta. In his delightful History of Monmouth and Wales, Harry H. Cochrane notes; “the prevailing opinion of him (1894)…is that he was nothing more than an acute economist with self as the point of convergence of all his plans…. Any office at the disposal of the dominant party was open to him.”

Chandler died at Augusta on September 26, 1841. His gravestone in the Mount Vernon Cemetery represents more of his "acute economy" than of his numerous titles and offices. It is engraved simply with his birth and death dates.

Nathan Cummings, Portland, ca. 1865

Nathan Cummings, Portland, ca. 1865
Item 12801   info
Maine Historical Society

Nathan Cummings was somewhat taken aback, when the Whigs and Harrison triumphed in the Presidential elections of 1840. Democrat John Anderson was ousted from the Portland Custom House and Cummings, in 1841, quickly ushered in.

A native of Waterford, he was born on May 12, 1796, graduated from Bowdoin in 1817, and studied law with poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s father Stephen. He married Emily Ilsley, the daughter of former Collector Isaac Ilsley. Well placed in the community’s social and economic strata, Collector Cummings oversaw a Deputy Collector, a Surveyor and at least ten additional employees and was compensated with an annual salary of $1,800 to $2,000. However, the death in office of “Old Tippecanoe” President Harrison, a Whig, and his sudden replacement by Vice President John Tyler, a Democrat, sent shock waves through the Customs world.

Nathan Cummings, along with many of his fellow Collectors, was removed from office “for opinion sake” and replaced by a Democrat. In Portland, John Anderson was returned as Collector. After being ousted, Cummings became a successful flour merchant in partnership with Joseph C. Noyes, but according to biographer Rev. George Mooar; “The business was successful, but home and books had greater attractions and he retired.” Cummings was an active member of the Maine Historical Society. he died on July 15, 1878, and is buried Portland's Evergreen Cemetery.

John Anderson, Portland, ca. 1850

John Anderson, Portland, ca. 1850
Item 14667   info
Maine Historical Society

John Anderson took two terms as Collector of Customs and Superintendent of Light Houses, the first from 1837 to 1841, and the second from 1843 to 1848 reflecting the turbulence in Presidential politics.

A native of Windham, born July 29, 1792, Anderson graduated from Bowdoin College in 1813, became a distinguished Portland attorney, member of the Maine senate and served in the U.S. Congress from 1825 to 1833. Appointed U.S. District Attorney for Maine 1825-1833, he established himself as an important Jacksonian. In 1837, President Martin Van Buren appointed Anderson as Collector, and he held that position until 1841.

He lived at 52 Free Street, was married twice and had children by his second wife Anne Jameson. President William Henry Harrison, a Whig removed Anderson from office, though the latter was promptly elected Mayor of Portland, a job he held previously in 1833.

Anderson was replaced as Collector by Nathan Cummings (Collector No. 12) who served from 1841 to 1843. Sometime after John Tyler replaced the deceased Harrison as President, John Anderson was re-appointed as Collector for a second time. According to the Portland Sunday Times, December 2, 1900, Anderson had not sought a second appointment but held the office for three years during President Polk’s Administration. Anderson died August 21, 1853, was buried in Eastern Cemetery but re interred a few years later in Portland’s new Evergreen Cemetery. John Anderson’s son, Samuel J., later served as the 22nd Collector of the Port.

Robert P. Dunlap, Brunswick, ca. 1850

Robert P. Dunlap, Brunswick, ca. 1850
Item 51039   info
Maine Historical Society

Governor Robert Pickney Dunlap was Collector of Customs and Superintendent of Light Houses between 1848 and 1849.

Born at Brunswick, August 17, 1794, he was, like Anderson and Cummings before him, a graduate of the state’s first college, Bowdoin (Class of 1815). He studied law with Benjamin Orr, was a noted lawyer, was later elected to the state legislature and senate, serving as President in 1827,1828 and 1831.

Dunlap served as Maine’s Governor from 1834 to 1838 and Congressman from 1843 to 1847. Remarkably popular in spite of having served after the devastating Panic of 1837, he was rewarded with the position of Collector. In the 1850 Portland Directory it is recorded on July 15, 1848 “Hon. R.P. Dunlap entered his duties as collectors of this port.”

With the “turn of the presidency”, Dunlap lost the Collectorship. President Pierce, also a graduate of Bowdoin College, awarded Dunlap the Postmastership of Brunswick in 1853, a position he held until 1857.

Heavily involved in the workings of Bowdoin College, as trustee and President of the Board of Overseers, Dunlap also served as national head of the Freemasons of America for eight years. He died October 20, 1859, and his monument, topped by a Franklin Simmons memorial bust, graces Pine Grove Cemetery in his hometown.

Old Exchange, Portland, in 1845

Old Exchange, Portland, in 1845
Item 22425   info
Maine Historical Society

The Merchants' Exchange Building in Portland was designed by the celebrated Massachusetts architect Richard Bond (1798-1861) and was commissioned by a group of the city’s leading businessmen in 1835. However, because of the Panic of 1837, the structure, reckoned the most magnificent of its type north of Boston, was sold to the city. Completed in 1839 under Mayor Levi Cutter, locals urged the Federal government to rent it. Indeed Asa W.H. Clapp’s one term in Congress (1846) was almost entirely focused on getting such a bill passed. He succeeded and never sought office again.

"The Exchange" at the corner of Middle and Exchange Streets, became the new Customs House, Post Office, Federal Court, Municipal Offices, Atlantic Bank and Society of Natural History headquarters. Built at a cost of $135,000, Washington later bought it for $149,000. It became the central focus of the city, opening on January 11, 1850; but on January 8, 1854, the great granite Greek Revival structure was entirely destroyed by fire. A Bibliographical Dictionary of Architects in Maine series includes an entry for Richard Bond by Stephen Jerome which describes the commission.

Luther Jewett, ca. 1849

Luther Jewett, ca. 1849
Item 49683   info
Maine Historical Society

Luther Jewett was collector from 1849 to 1853 and served as superintendent of Light Houses. His tenure coincided with the "Investigation of 1851" which removed lighthouses from the grip of the Fifth Auditor of the Treasury due to poor management. Local Collector “responsibilities were now reduced”, according to Ross Holland’s America’s Lighthouses (1972), “Their duties were primarily fiscal and administrative; they saw to the appointing and pay of keepers and the disbursing of funds for routine lighthouse operations. As the years went on, the local Superintendent’s duties were further eroded, and in time they had no lighthouse duties.”

Collector Luther Jewett was born in Portland in 1793, a son of Joseph and Ruth (McLaughlin) Jewett. He lived at 56 Middle Street and married Charlotte P. Jones in 1850. The couple built a new home on the northwest side of Pleasant Street in 1851. It was during Jewett’s collectorship that the Portland Exchange was opened as the Custom House. Luther Jewett died in 1856. His cousin Jedediah Jewett was appointed collector in 1861.

Ruins of the Merchant Exchange / U.S. Custom House, Portland, 1854

Ruins of the Merchant Exchange / U.S. Custom House, Portland, 1854
Item 102079   info
Maine Historical Society

Ezra Carter, Jr., formerly a Scarborough school teacher was appointed Collector in 1853 and remained in charge until 1856. He was the first Collector born in the 19th century (1804) and moved to Portland in 1835, where he lived at 40 Free Street.

Carter had the misfortune to be collector when the Portland Exchange was destroyed by fire on January 8, 1854, the ruins of which are pictured at left. Carter and his staff reopened in the old Custom House on 114 Fore Street, which continued in that function until 1857. Having been appointed by President Pierce, he might have been expected to continue under Buchanan, but according John M. Todd in The Press (Portland), November 21, 1907, Carter was a critic of Buchanan and was sacked.

Subsequently, he had a long, enjoyable career with the book publishing firm of Sanborn & Carter. In 1887, Ezra succumbed at the age of 83 and is buried at Portland’s Western Cemetery.

U.S. Custom House and Post Office, Portland, 1866

U.S. Custom House and Post Office, Portland, 1866
Item 22695   info
Maine Historical Society

When the Portland Exchange complex, which included the port’s Custom House, went up in flames in 1854, the Treasury Department chose architect Ammi Burnham Young (1798-1874), to design a new structure on the site of the old building at Middle, Exchange and Lime Streets. Copies of the drawings survive in the Collections of the Maine Historical Society.

The Brunswick Telegraph of April 21, 1855 reported that “work on the Portland Custom House is to be commenced at once, under the charge of Lieut. Franklin.” The same paper noted that Moses McDonald was appointed “disbursing officer”, with a compensation of eight dollars a day. This Custom House was granite and considered fireproof, but was later badly damaged in the Great Fire of July 4 & 5, 1866. Attempts to rebuild it then failed as damages proved too extensive.

Portland Custom House officials under President James Buchanan, ca. 1857

Portland Custom House officials under President James Buchanan, ca. 1857
Item 102774   info
Maine Historical Society

Moses McDonald, the disbursing agent for the new Portland Custom House, was appointed Collector by President James Buchanan and served from 1857 to 1861.

A native of Limerick, born in 1814, McDonald attended Bowdoin College but was a non-graduate (Class of 1834), however he was admitted to the Maine Bar at Biddeford in 1837. Elected to the legislature in 1841, 1842 and again in 1845, he became Speaker of the House and was later elected to the State Senate. He served as State Treasurer from 1847 to 1849, was twice elected to the U.S. Congress 1851 to 1854 where he voted his own mind opposing the Kansas-Nebraska Act. The best account of McDonald is James M. Mundy’s Speakers of the House of Representatives (1981).

Rewarded for supporting Buchanan, McDonald was hugely unpopular, especially among the rising tide of Republicans. He lost his sinecure at the commencement of the Lincoln administration. He returned to Saco where he remained politically damaged goods until his death in 1869.

Jewett house, Portland, ca. 1900

Jewett house, Portland, ca. 1900
Item 20912   info
Maine Historical Society

Jedediah Jewett, the first Republican-appointed Collector of Customs at Portland, replaced the outcast Moses McDonald, and served from 1861 to 1863.

As John M. Todd states in Sixty Two Years in a Barber Shop (1906), “The late Jedediah Jewett was a partner of the late John B. Brown and was one of the smartest men Portland ever had. As a citizen, merchant, mayor, financier and collector of the port, none surpassed him.”

Born in the Embargo year of 1807, and a cousin of Collector Luther Jewett, Jedediah was the husband of Eliza (Elizabeth) Fox. The most exciting action during Jewett’s term as collector was the Confederate raid and capture of the U.S. Revenue Cutter Caleb Cushingon the night of June 26, 1863. Quickly, Collector Jewett and Mayor Jacob McLellan gathered a posse of civilians and members of the 7th Maine regiment and pursued in the steamer Chesapeake and packet Forest City. They quickly overtook the rebels, who blew up their prize and surrendered. The spoils of war, including flags, socks and a toilet seat were displayed at the Custom House, and Jewett was praised by the Secretary of the Treasury.

Though not directly related to the event, Jewett died on October 10th after being confined for two months with an affliction of the throat. Jedediah’s passing in 1863 led to flags at half-staff at City Hall, the British Consulate, Custom House and ships in the harbor, as well as a lavish funeral from his home on Spring Street to the Fox Tomb in Eastern Cemetery, all dutifully reported in the Daily Press of October 13, 1863.

Israel Washburn Jr., ca. 1870

Israel Washburn Jr., ca. 1870
Item 147   info
Maine Historical Society

Governor Israel Washburn, Jr. was appointed Collector of the Port of Portland in 1863 and served until 1877. His predecessor Jedediah Jewett had died in office while the Civil War still raged.

The appointment of a member of the famous Livermore Washburn brothers was no accident. Born in 1813, Israel served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1851 to 1861 and with brothers Elihu and Cadwallader, was a founder of the national Republican Party. Israel was Maine’s first Civil War governor, from 1861 to 1862, and President Lincoln quickly granted him the top paying federal job when Washburn declined to run again.

Though much has been written about the man, the interested scholar should consult Kerck Kelsey’s "Israel Washburn, Jr.: Maine’s Little Known Giant of the Civil War" (2004). The post of Collector paid three times the governorship. Washburn and his wife built an elegant home in Portland at 375 Spring Street and he wound up overseeing the largest period of commercial growth in the port’s history. According to Kelsy, trade at the port topped fifty million dollars and the Collector had a staff of 61 workers.

The Great Portland Fire of July 4 & 5, 1866 destroyed the Ammi Young designed Custom House on Middle and Exchange streets, whereupon the Treasury selected Alfred B. Mullett to design a new building at 312 Fore Street, facing Commercial Street.

In 1872, Washburn opened the new Second Empire structure that remains standing at the outset of the 21st Century. In 1877, after 14 years and a seemingly first rate record as Collector, Washburn was cast out through the influence of James G. Blaine, in favor of Sen. Lot Morrill, a fellow Republican.

Israel’s time as collector marked the height of the Portland Custom House in terms of size and prestige. He retired in good grace and poor health becoming an officer and contributor to the Maine Historical Society. He died May 12, 1883, and was given lavish funeral services in Portland, and was buried in Bangor’s Mount Hope Cemetery. His family home, Washburn-Norlands Living History Center in Livermore remains a state treasure as of 2017.

Custom House, Portland ca. 1880

Custom House, Portland ca. 1880
Item 16548   info
Maine Historical Society

From the Great Portland Fire in 1866 to 1872, the work of the Custom House was apparently conducted from offices on the second floor in the Portland Savings Bank Building on Exchange Street.

In 1868, construction began on a new Custom House at 312 Fore Street. This location had been the home of the first built U.S. Custom House. The new building’s Second Empire granite design was the work of Alfred B. Mullett (1834-1890), Supervising Architect of the U. S. Treasury. Interested researchers should consult Antoinette J. Lee article on Mullett in A Biographical Dictionary of Architects in Maine(1985) and Colonial Dames Three Centuries of Custom Houses (1972).

The Portland Custom House was given a great deal of attention by the architect and his staff, who felt that the workmanship was of “the very best character”, and so it has proved to be. In Portland Illustrated (1874), art historian John Neal raved that the building was “One of the most beautiful buildings to be seen anywhere, either at home or abroad. The material is very light-colored granite, from Concord, N.H. [and Hallowell, Maine], resembling the finest marble. It cost about $500,000 and has been thoroughly finished, and furnished within and without. It is believed to be fire-proof, and is enriched with bronze and marble stairways and fire-places, and magnificent chandeliers, and stuccoed ceilings, and our costliest native woods”.

In the 1970s the last Collector, the redoubtable Lucia M. Cormier, noted that the building still retained its elegance. One of the architectural jewels of Maine, the structure was restored by the General Services Administration in the twenty-first century at a cost of $5.1 million dollars.

Senator Lot Myrick Morrill, ca. 1880

Senator Lot Myrick Morrill, ca. 1880
Item 20788   info
Maine Historical Society

Senator Lot Myrick Morrill served as Customs Collector from 1877 until his death in 1883.

Born in Dearborn (now Belgrade), Morrell worked in his father’s mill and grocery store before attending Waterville (now Colby) College. He studied law with Judge Edward Fuller, and joined the Maine Bar in 1837. He wed Charlotte Holland Vance and the couple produced four children.

Elected to the state senate in 1854-56 as a Democrat, he soon joined the new Republican Party. Morrill was elected governor, serving from 1858 to 1860 and moving on to the U.S. Senate from 1861 to 1869.

A forceful abolitionist, he voted for President Johnson’s Impeachment, served out Fessenden’s term in the Senate in 1871, and became Secretary of Treasury from 1876 to 1878, resigning because of declining health. President Hayes offered Morrill the ambassadorship to Great Britain or the Boston Customs Collectorship, but Morrill wanted Portland.

Morrill had a home a 339 Danforth Street, was a member of the Fraternity Club and served as collector until his death in 1883. He died in Augusta and is buried in the city’s Forest Grove Cemetery. The U.S. Revenue cutter Lot M. Morrill honors the Senator and Collector.

Frederick Dow, Portland, ca. 1890

Frederick Dow, Portland, ca. 1890
Item 102121   info
Maine Historical Society

Colonel Frederick “Fred” Neal Dow, was Collector of Customs for the Port of Portland and Falmouth by appointment of President Arthur from 1883 to 1885 and a second time by appointment of President Benjamin Harrison from 1891 to 1893.

Born in Portland in 1840, Fred N. Dow was the son of the celebrated prohibitionist Neal Dow, whose home at 714 Congress Street is a Registered National Historic Landmark and headquarters of the Maine Woman Temperance Union. Always known as Fred, he attended Portland High and the Friends School in Rhode Island before entering the family tannery at age sixteen. As James H. Mundy points out in Speakers of the Maine House of Representatives (1981) “Discouraged from enlisting at the outbreak of the Civil War, young Dow was continuously overshadowed by his zealot father.”

Still Fred proved an original in his own right, reading for the law but never practicing, running the family business, and becoming a colonel on the staff of Gov. Perham. Serving on the Governor’s Council, he became State GOP chairman in 1876. He was elected to the state legislature, served as Speaker of the House, founded the famous “Portland Club” in 1886 and ran The Portland Evening Express and Sunday Telegram,which sold to Guy Gannett in 1925. Fred married Julia Dana Hammond and the couple had two children. Dow played a major role in Republican politics. He died on November 27, 1934, and is buried at Portland's Evergreen Cemetery.

Samuel J. Anderson, Portland, ca. 1890

Samuel J. Anderson, Portland, ca. 1890
Item 14666   info
Maine Historical Society

General Samuel J. Anderson served as the port’s Collector of Customs from 1885 to 1889.

The son of former Collector John Anderson, he was a Portland city native born in 1824 and a Bowdoin graduate in the Class of 1844. He went on to earn degrees at Harvard (1846) and Bowdoin (1847) and served as Cumberland County Attorney from 1856 to 1859. Like Fred Dow, Samuel did not serve in the Civil War but was prominent in the State Militia thereafter, where he earned his military title. A Democrat, he served as Surveyor of Customs from 1856 to 1860 and the State House of Representatives in 1876.

Anderson was best known as the president of the Portland and Ogdensburg Rail Road (1869-1905). The Portland Board of Trade journal, September, 1888 noted that the General “has been for many years a leading member of the Board of Trade and from 1879 to 1883 President of the Board, and always a brilliant exponent of business interests of his native city and state, where he is widely known and respected.” Anderson lived at 94 Free Street. He died November 8, 1904.

John W. Deering, Portland, ca. 1896

John W. Deering, Portland, ca. 1896
Item 12798   info
Maine Historical Society

Capt. John William Deering of Saco, Portland’s 24th Collector of Customs, was a practical mariner and president of the Portland Marine Society. Despite the obvious correlation between the collectorship and Deering’s maritime skillset, his resume was unique among his collector processors.

Born on August 7, 1833, he attended Thornton Academy and went to sea in his teens, rising quickly to the position of master of vessels trading with Europe and China. He married Mary A. Small of Portland and in 1867 moved to the port, where they raised a son and two daughters. In the same year Capt. Deering founded the firm of Deering Winslow Company, importers of coal and southern pine.

As pointed out by historians Shettleworth, Glass and Hanson, in Homes Down East: Classic Maine Coastal Cottages and Town Houses (2014), Deering “served as an alderman and mayor [1883-1885] of Portland, first as a Republican and later as a Democrat.” As Mayor he played a major role in developing the city’s park system.

A leading member of the Portland Board of Trade, an excellent profile of the man appeared in the Board of Trade Journal, May, 1894. Deering was appointed to the Custom House by President Cleveland in 1894 and held the position until 1898.

“Mizzentop”, built at Cape Arundel by architect John Calvin Stevens in 1888, was Capt. Deering’s summer home until his passing in 1904.

Weston F. Milliken, Portland, ca. 1880

Weston F. Milliken, Portland, ca. 1880
Item 12106   info
Maine Historical Society

Weston F. Milliken was Collector of the Port from 1898 to 1899. This dapper and successful local merchant was appointed, in the estimate of the Portland Board of Trade Journal, February 1898, because “Few men in Portland have been more generally or closely identified with large business interests and public institutions and projects for the advancements of Portland’s prosperity than he.”

A native of the town of Minot, born in 1829, Milliken set up in Portland in 1856 and founded “the heaviest grocery house in the state, a various styles of the Milliken firms have always maintained the highest credit and reputation and fair dealing that has given prestige to the city in this line of business.”

Weston F. Milliken, according to the journal, “has been associated with about every important public enterprise and corporation projected for advancement in this city and its public institutions during his successful career here as director of our national and savings banks and building loan association, railway, steamboats and all other transportation companies, and many industrial corporations, insurance, loan and trust companies, etc.”

During his collectorship, Milliken was in poor health. In a local obituary it was stated, “During the last week …. he has been feeling much better and has been able to ride out a little and has visited his office at the Milliken-Tomlinson company and the Custom house.” Weston Freeman Milliken died in November 1899, and is buried at Portland’s Evergreen Cemetery.

Charles M. Moses, ca. 1890

Charles M. Moses, ca. 1890
Item 12103   info
Maine Historical Society

Charles Malcolm Moses attained the collectorship on December 21, 1899, upon the passing of Weston F. Milliken and served until 1911.

He was born in Augusta or Limerick (sources vary) on August 25, 1851. Charles’ family settled in Saco, where for a quarter of a century Mr. Moses was paymaster and clerk of the Saco Water Power Machine Shops, an industry that employed 600 individuals. Elected Mayor of that city in 1888, he was also a member of the State Republican committee and Appraiser for the Port of Portland in 1898.

According to historian John J. Pullin’s, Joshua Chamberlain: A Hero’s Life and Legacy (1999), Moses became Collector as part of a high stakes political chess game. Former Governor Chamberlain sought the office and had many Republican backers, but Sen. William P. Frye and others blocked the appointment over Chamberlain’s execution of Clifton Harris. In compromise, Moses became Collector and Chamberlain the Surveyor.

According to Susan D. Jones’ The Deering Family In Southern, Maine (1979), Moses married Lillian (Lilla) Jane Deering in 1872, and had one daughter. Moses died in 1912.

Willis T. Emmons, Saco, ca. 1900

Willis T. Emmons, Saco, ca. 1900
Item 12295   info
Maine Historical Society

Willis Talmon Emmons of Biddeford served as Collector at Portland from March 1, 1912 to 1916. On July 1, 1913 the Portland and Falmouth District had been reorganized under the new “Collector of Customs for Maine and New Hampshire”, physically located at the Portland Custom house with Emmons as Collector.

Born in 1858, Emmons was a graduate of Thornton Academy and Harvard Law School. He married Anna V. Leavitt of Saco and later Lillian Tarbox. A lawyer of note, he was elected Mayor of Saco in 1887-1889, Judge of the Municipal Court, 1883-1890 and appointed Deputy Collector of Customs, Portland from 1890 to 1895.

A loyal Republican, Emmons was York County Attorney from 1894 to 1899, a Mason, Odd Fellow and Knight of Pythias. As Collector of Customs, he soon oversaw a new District which included Maine and New Hampshire (except Coos County). Emmons retired to Saco, after the Democrats gained the Presidency, and successfully engaged in politics. He died in 1937, and is buried at Laurel Hill Cemetery in Saco.

Charles Sleeper, Portland, ca. 1920

Charles Sleeper, Portland, ca. 1920
Item 12109   info
Maine Historical Society

Dr. Charles Martin Sleeper was the Collector at the Portland Custom House, District of Maine and New Hampshire, from 1916 to 1924. Appointed by President Wilson, Sleeper was born at the Lakeport, New Hampshire, on June 20, 1856.

He lost his father at the age of twelve and in order to support his mother and her other children, became a bobbin boy in a local cotton mill. A hard worker, Sleeper became a factory overseer at the age of 20 and graduated from Bowdoin College in 1883.

Dr. Sleeper settled in South Berwick, became a physician and a member of the town, county and state Democratic committees, elected to the 74th and 75th legislatures and the Governor’s council in 1916. He was married to Julia Florence Uniacke and had two children. The Portland Evening Express, August 27, 1924 opined at Sleeper’s death; “He was one of the best known Democratic lights in this section of the State, one of the greatest political leaders in York County for years, and a gentleman of such pleasing personality, such quiet, unassuming and friendly ways, that he easily made hosts of friends in political, business and social life.” A cartoon showing Sleeper netting cash appears in Frederic W. Freeman’s delightful volume, Mother Goose Comes To Portland (1918), a great image of the port during World War I.

On the waterfront just prior to and during World War I, government structures of great substance, exports and imports, along with “almost fabulous” wages characterized the port. But in spite of new projects like the Maine State Pier (1923), Canadian preference for their own, new rail-ports, led to Portland’s commercial decline by the 1930s.

A notice for his death appeared in the August 27, 1924 issue of the Portsmouth Herald. Dr. Sleeper is buried in South Berwick.

Gov. Carl E. Milliken, Augusta, ca. 1921

Gov. Carl E. Milliken, Augusta, ca. 1921
Item 11702   info
Maine Historical Society

Gov. Carl Milliken was the Collector during 1925 and 1926, but his position was more or less a place-holder as he was anxious to meet higher challenges. Born on July 13, 1877 in Pittsfield, Milliken graduated from Cony High school, Bates College (1897) and Harvard (1899) and wed Emma Chase in 1901. The father of six, he worked for Mattawamkaeg Lumber Co., Stockholm Lumber and the Katahdin Telephone Company before his entry to the Maine Legislature in 1909 and State Senate 1912.

A Republican, Milliken was governor from 1917 to 1921, holding the office through the first World War, and the state’s centennial anniversary. He was the first governor elected by direct primary, the first full time Maine Governor and the first to live in the Augusta Governor’s Mansion. Readers should consult "The Blaine House: Home of Maine Governors by H. Draper Hunt" (1994).

As Arthur Douglas Stover notes in Eminent Mainers (2006), “Milliken’s real interest was motion pictures and after leaving the Custom House, served as Secretary of the Motion Picture Association of America (the so-called Hayes Office), a job which often brought him into conflict with the National Council of Churches, and which he resigned in 1931.”

A complex and original Mainer, he made his mark on the national film scene, passing away in 1961.

Maine State Prison, Thomaston, ca. 1915

Maine State Prison, Thomaston, ca. 1915
Item 25809   info
Maine Historical Society

Frank J. Ham is stated to have served as the 30th Custom Collector from 1926 to 1927. The Portland Directory lists the following: “CUSTOM HOUSE, 312 FORE AND 105 COMMERCIAL STREET / INTERNAL REVENUE.-District of Maine, Frank J. Ham, collector.” He is similarly listed in Theodore Roosevelt Hodgkins’ Brief Biographies: Maine (1926).

However, by 1928, Harrie B. Coe’s Maine: A History, Vol. II lists “U. S. INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE / DISTRICT OF MAINE / Collector, Frank J. Ham, Augusta.” Collector Ham had not only moved from Portland to Augusta but his position is changed. In the same source, under “CUSTOMS DISTRICT OF MAINE AND NEW HAMPSHIRE Collector Frank M. Hume, Portland, Maine.” If the sources are to be believed, these are two different men and two different positions, with Frank J. Ham being followed by Frank M. Hume in the Collector position (see Collector No. 31).

Frank J. Ham was born in Canaan, Maine on May 3, 1865, he married Jennie M. Demren in 1898 and raised two children. Active in Belgrade, he was Sheriff of Kennebec County, Warden of the Maine State Prison from 1913 to 1915, and again from 1916 to 1921 and Chairman of the Republican State Committee. He died March 8, 1939. He seems to have served briefly in Portland as Custom Collector as changes were being made within the U.S. Internal Revenue Service. He then became Collector of Revenue in Augusta.

Colonel Frank Hume in Cuba, 1898

Colonel Frank Hume in Cuba, 1898
Item 10243   info
Aroostook County Historical and Art Museum

Colonel Frank Merton Hume, a native of Bridgewater, was Collector of the Port of Portland from 1928 to 1933 (unless Frank Ham, Collector No. 30 is listed incorrectly). Born on January 7, 1867 to Bedford and Charlotte Kidder Hume, he was educated at Riverside Military Academy in Poughkeepsie, New York and Harvard. In 1893, he married Harriette L. Ebbetts at Houlton, and raised two children.

A banker and postmaster of Houlton from 1897 to 1914, Hume served in the Spanish American War, on the Mexican Border and on the Western Front with the 103rd U.S. Infantry during World War I, where he won the Distinguished Service Award and Croix de Guerre.

He was very popular after the war, served with distinction as Collector of the port of Portland and at his death on March 8, 1939 was mourned by the Maine press. His funeral was honored by Maine National Guard Units, American and Canadian Legions and the Yankee Division. Col. Hume is buried in Evergreen Cemetery in Houlton.

John H. Dooley, 1932

John H. Dooley, 1932
Item 12802   info
Maine Historical Society

John Henry Dooley a native of Bangor was appointed Collector of Customs by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1934 and held the office until 1939. Born in 1869, Dooley graduated from Portland High School, married Honora Cassidy and had three children.

A printer by trade, Dooley commenced as an apprentice for Charles Holbrook Co. in 1888, joining Printwell Printing, Co. in 1908 and rising to the presidency of that firm. A lifelong Democrat, he served as an Alderman and City Councilman.

The popular Dooley was the first Catholic, and first Irish-American, appointed to head the Custom House. He died December 15, 1939 while still Customs Collector and president of the Printwell company.

Aerial view of Navy Section Base, Portland, 1942

Aerial view of Navy Section Base, Portland, 1942
Item 67327   info
National Archives at Boston

Joseph Thomas Sylvester was the second Roosevelt appointee. He served from 1940 until 1953, for both the World War II and Korean War era. He was born in Portland on November 11, 1885, the son of John H. and Margaret Sylvester. Joseph’s father worked as a teamster for Geo. H. Rounds Coal & Wood Company on Commercial Street. Sylvester grew up in the city, wed Anastasia Theresa Lynch in 1913 and was employed by the G.H. Guppy Drug Company, first as a clerk then as treasurer.

Sylvester served as collector during World War II. During this time, Portland became headquarters for the destroyer arm of the North Atlantic Fleet, with South Portland a major supplier of Liberty Ships. The rapid build of the Navy Section Base, pictured at left, occurred in the same period. Also during J.T. Sylvester's tenure, in 1941, the Portland-Montreal Pipeline linked the port to Canada and until 2016, made Casco Bay one of key oil tanker ports on the east coast.

Sylvester retired in 1953 and died at his home at 171 Vaughan Street on September 19, 1962.

Aerial view of Portland Harbor, ca. 1950

Aerial view of Portland Harbor, ca. 1950
Item 13757   info
Maine Historical Society

Edward Milton Elwell was appointed Collector of the Port of Portland by President Dwight D. Eisenhower and served from 1954 to 1956, when commerce was at a low ebb. Born in Buxton on September 23, 1925, Elwell was the first Collector born in the 20th Century. He served with the army in Germany and Belgium, where he met his wife Angela M. Pollaris. The couple had one son. He worked for the Maine Employment Commission, the State Highway Commission, was active on campaign staffs of Senator Margaret Chase Smith, Gov. Frederick G. Paine, Gov. Burton M. Cross and Congressman Peter A. Garland.

In 1952, Elwell was executive director of the Republican State Committee. At age 29, he was the youngest U.S. Collector. The reason for his short stint is not known. In later years, he operated the Elwell Insurance Agency, and was deeply involved in local affairs being founder and president of the Buxton-Hollis Historical Society, trustee of the Buxton Public Library, member of the York County Old Times Records Preservation Committee and chairman of the Buxton Town Bicentennial in 1972. He died on May 31, 1991 and was laid to rest in Buxton’s Elwell Cemetery.

Your work means victory World War I poster, ca. 1917

Your work means victory World War I poster, ca. 1917
Item 15098   info
Maine Historical Society

Leslie Adams “Bill” Blake, another Eisenhower choice, was Portland’s Customs Collector from 1957 to 1961. Born in Boothbay Harbor on September 30, 1896, he was the last appointee born in the 19th Century and one of the few with a maritime background. The son of Fred E. and Cora Adams Blake, Bill married Elizabeth Maud Brown of the same town in 1927, the couple would have two sons.

He began work in 1917 as a ship carpenter for the United States Shipping Board Emergency Fleet and later worked for an insurance company. The publication, State of Maine Ports, 1958-1959 (1958) reported “Leslie A. Blake, present collector of customs, is the 25TH Presidential appointee to serve in this position for District One” (35th since Colonial Naval Officers). “The Collector of Customs of the U.S. Treasury Department has a very active office and staff available 24 hours a day handling the activities…covering Maine and New Hampshire, including 18 ports with some 32 stations, extending from Portsmouth, N.H. to Fort Kent, plus an Inspector in St. John, N.B., during the winter when the St. Lawrence is closed to shipping.”

Collections in District Number 1 amounted to “approximately $3,000.000.” Bill Blake served as Collector until 1961. He died August 21, 1972 at Boothbay Harbor and is buried in Oceanview Cemetery.


Item 102995   info
Maine Historic Preservation Commission

Lucia M. Cormier was the first woman, and the first Franco-American, to serve as Portland’s Custom Collector and the last Collector appointed by a United States President. She served from 1960 to 1970. Born at Rumford in 1909, the daughter of David and Adell Goguen, Cormier graduated from St. Stephens High School in her home town, earned a BA from the College of St. Elizabeth, Morristown, NJ (1936) and an MA from Columbia (1940).

A language teacher at her old high school, Cormier was elected to the Maine legislature in 1943 and served six terms up until 1960. She was part of a new generation of women and of liberal Democrats reviving the party in the Post-War era. Senator Edmund S. Muskie wrote “Her character and wisdom contributed mightily to the emergence of our Democratic party.”

In 1945, Cormier opened a successful bookstore and with a deep involvement in labor and education issues, and ran against Senator Margaret Chase Smith. The two appeared on the cover of Time magazine, September 5, 1960.

Though Senator Smith prevailed, President John F. Kennedy appointed Cormier Collector in 1960, a job she held for ten years. In the final year, her job title was changed from Collector to District Director, a title she kept until her retirement in 1974. In both capacities she did a great deal to call attention to the historic value of the Custom House, telling reporter Bob Niss of the Portland Evening Express, May 5, 1973, “I’m surprised by people who’ve lived in Portland all their lives and stop by on business and say how they never realized how beautiful the building was.”

In the gentle fade out of Collectors and grand Custom Houses, Lucia M. Cormier proved the perfect transitional leader. On May 17, 1973, the building was listed on the National Register of Historical Places. Lucia Cormier retired as District Director in 1974, dying at Holly Hill nursing home in Daytona Beach, Florida on January 27, 1993.

Custom House, Portland, ca. 1910

Custom House, Portland, ca. 1910
Item 28825   info
Seashore Trolley Museum

The Custom House seen in 1910.

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