Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1905-01-24
Henry v. poor-tIis Personality.


Horace N. Fisher In Boston Transcript
When we stand with uncovered heads
In the presence of death, as the clergy
man conducts the funeral obsequies, we
realize the profound truth of the time
honored hymn we all know:
"Like shadows gliding DER the plain,
Or clouds that move successive on,
Mans busy generations pass
1t Is not his accumulations of riches
and worldly honors, nor is it his social
pre-eminence, which preserves his MEM
DRY from the limbo of the myriads of
millions Of men who have lived their day
and whose very names are forgotten like
the leaves which form the mould of the
forest. It is mans personality, that
which goes to make the spiritual man,
which survives the outward form and
keeps his memory green, passing 1t down
from generation to generation. 1t by no
means follows that such enduring per-
sonality should consist Of grand achieve
ments. often dependent on exceptional
opportunities, rather than it is the re-
Election of his broad humanity, of the
real man who has lived and died in our
midst. 1t is his wise designs and I'M
selfish deeds, his useful purposes and
general character, which embalm his
memory with the precious spikenard.
To-day an aged man is laid to rest,
man identified with the railroad history
of this country, the oldest living gradu-
ate of Bowdoin College-Henry varnum
Poor of Brookline. His long and useful
life-fOr he was in his ninety-third year
and had won national and international
reputation-covered the space between
our War of 1912 and the fall of Port
Arthur. When he assumed the manage
ment of the American Railway Journal
in lS4S the railway system of this coun-
try was in its infancy; now transporta-
ton ranks with agriculture, manufac-
turing and mining as the quartet of hu-
man industry. 1t is unnecessary to re-
call Mr.. Poor's pre-eminence as the great
American expert on railway history; nor
the admirable contributions he has made
to economic science. 1t is Mr.. Poor's
personality which has an enduring in
terest: it is the everyday life, the minor
activities of his busy life, which is less
knC wn but not the less worthy of remem-
brance.
About fifteen years ago, when we'll
past the three score and ten of active
life, Mr.. Poor made his summer home in
Andover, Me-, on the homestead of his
maternal grandfather, which had re-
manned in the family from the time the
town was settled. Relieved from the
duties of active life he there showed
lana ly inc frt1 Df iun nf
to grow old gracefully. Possessed of
ample means and a rare tactful generos-
ity, his annual return to the land of his
was red-letter day for that
Everyone knew, loved and
trusted him; they came to him for advice
in all their emergencies, they found in
him wise sympathizer in the time of
trouble, an encourager in their public
life.
Last year when Andover celebrated
the centennial of its incorporation as a
town who was more proper to deliver
the commemoration address than Mr..
Poor, whose paternal and maternal
grandfathers were signers of the cove.
nant of Sept. l, 17SS, when the settlers
of the new settlement in the Maine will
the manner of the Pill
grims in the little cabin of the Mayfower
bound themselves Ito do, abide and
perform to the utmost of their abilities
all and every matter and thing adjudged,
ordered or recommended by said ma
jority relative to the purposes above
specified"
Mr.. Poor's address is model of die
ton, full of interest and of historical
value; we have in it vivid portrayal of
the frontier life of our New England at
the close of the Revolution, which is
most suggestive of the hardy manhood
which, spreading across the continent,
has made our national domain the
homes of millions of well-educated, or
derby and prosperous people.
When one reads that address it is hard
to realize that the writer was ninety-two
years old, full of the vigor and possess
ed of every faculty of man just enter
ing upon a green old age. That same
wonderful preservation of bodily and
mental vigor was undiminished almost
to the moment of his decease; that very
afternoon he discussed with rare acumen
the report of Commissioner Garfield in
favor of the Federal supervision of our
and remarked that if he was
in Washington he could show the Presi-
dent in ten minutes conversation very
serious objections to the plan proposed
in that report.
70 the very last Mr.. POOr's interest
was undiminished in every question of
public interest. Yet, modest and unob-
trusive, few but those most intimate
with him fully comprehended his sterling
character and grasp of the most intricate
questions of the day and their bearing
upon the great public interests of our
country.
Yet side by side with this modesty
there was smack of that old-time
courtesy which so charmingly marked
the gentleman of the old school, espec-
tally towards ladies; no cavalier was
more gallant and thoughtful for their
comfort.
But let US 60 back to the Andover GEN.
tennial; he threw open his beautiful
grounds to the public and invited all
who came to the celebration from the
neighboring towns, with q generous
hospitality such as we are accustomed
to think of as typical of the western
haracter-that patrial chal simplicity of
life amid ones flocks and herds and
fields of waving grain.