The Biographical Dictionary of America/Baxter, James Phinney
BAXTER, James Phinney, philanthropist,
was born at Gorham, Me., March 23, 1831. He
received his early education in the schools of
Portland, at an academy at Lynn, Mass.,
and finished his studies under private tutors.
Abandoning his intention to enter the legal profession, he engaged in mercantile enterprises which
proved successful, and his wealth enabled him
to gratify his philanthropic spirit. He organized
and was the first president of the associated
charities of Portland, of the Portland society
of art, and of the Gorges publication society; and
he built and donated to the city its public library
building, in which the Maine historical society
has accommodations for its library and collections.
He accepted many offices of trust, including trustee of the Portland savings bank, vice-president
of the Portland trust company, president of Merchants national bank, one of the board of
overseers of Bowdoin college, president of the
Maine historical society, the Portland public
library, and the Portland publishing company.
Throughout his active business life
he found time to
devote to study
and authorship. His
early contributions
were to the New
York Home Journal
and other first-class
publications. He
became widely
known as a lecturer,
and several poems delivered by him on
public occasions were
widely published, including one delivered in 1882,
on the occasion of the celebration of the seventy-fifth anniversary of the birth of the poet Longfellow by the Maine historical society, and
another on the celebration of the eighty-fourth
anniversary of the birth of the venerable Professor Packard, Longfellow's tutor, at Bowdoin
college. In 1889, on the occasion of the centennial celebration by the city of Portland of the
adoption of the Federal constitution, he delivered
the oration. At the World's congress in Chicago
in 1893, he read before the American historical
association a paper on "The Present Status of
Pre-Columbian Discovery," which elicited warm
commendation. He was elected mayor of the
city of Portland in 1893, and to his administration
Portland owes her model high school building,
the introduction of manual training into her
public schools, and many important reforms in
municipal management. In 1881 Bowdoin college conferred upon him the honorary degree
of A.M. His published books include: "Idyls
of the Year, Poems" (1884); "George Cleeve
and His Times" (1885); "The British Invasion
from the North" (1887); "Documentary History
of Maine" (1889); "Sir Ferdinando Gorges and
His Province of Maine" (1890); "Christopher
Levitt, the Pioneer Colonist of Casco Bay"
(1893), and "The Pioneers of New France in
New England" (1894).