The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1895-12-14
PRESIDENT AND MANAGER.
OF an Excellent Stevedoring Business.

OF an Excellent SteyedOring Business.
Mrs. x atie Il. Hessions Remarkable Ex-
perfence-succeeded to Her Husbands
Business and Provides for Her Five
Fatherless Little Girls.
The December number of the Century
has the first instalment of serial story
. of remarkable interest by +. Hopkinson
Smith, the artist, author and engineer
The heroine of this story is woman
stevedore who carries on a prosperous
stevedoring business in New York harbor
and herself superintonds her gang of
workmen, makes all contracts and paws
all bills She is remarkable woman,
and the story is undoubtedly founded
upon fact She succeeded to her hus-
bands business.
1t will interest the PRESS readers to
know that right here in Portland the
facts of this story are almost duplicate ed
In the case of Katie E. Hession, who
lives on Waterville street. She is the
widow of the late Patrick j. Hession,
who died last December He was we'll
known contracting stevedore and carried
on good business. He left his widow
with five little girls to care for, small
property and his stevedoring outfit, in
Guiding two hosting engines and boats.
Had she scld these she could not have
realized their value and so on the advice
OF friends, she came to the conclusion to
carry Oh the business herself. Her hus-
band had repeatedly talked over the facts
and figures of his business with her, and
she was fairly well acquainted with the
necessary metohds OF.
There were many kind friends to help
her, especially Capt. E. j. Willard, the
veteran stevedore, and during the past
year she has not only been able to retain
most of her husband s business, but has
succeeded in securing several new pa
irons.
She unloads the coal for several of our
largest plants, including the Electric
Light Company, the Electric Railroad
Company, and several coal firms.
Her foreman, who superintends her
workmen, is her husbands brother,
John Hession She employs some ten
or a dozen men, She herself pays the
men and managers all the finances of the
business, which has been organized as a
stock company, Of which she is the pres
ident and general manager.
Mrs. Hession is middle aged woman,
of large physique, very prepossessing in
personality and very determined in char
acter. Her five little girls have a pleas
ant, comfortable home, and thanks to
their mothers courage and enterprise
the calamity of their fathers untimely
death is being, and undoubtedly will
continue to be, largely mitigated, at
least in regard to material matters,
At the beginning Mrs. Hessian had
left matters almost entirely to foreman,
but as the business began to lose money
she determined to manage the details
herself.
AS young woman she came to Port
land from Ireland. Previous to her mar
riage she had lived eight years in the
family of DR.. H. P. Merrill She went
to him and asked his advice as to
whether she had better take the respon-
sibility of managing the business de-
tails herself. He advised her to do so.
She said that she would have to have
bondsmen and he volunteered to be one
of them. The other one is Benjamin
Thompson, Esq, who had charge of the
settlement of Patrick Hession's estate.