>^7 
 
MEMORIAL 
 
 OF 
 
 HON. TOPPAN ROBIE. 
 
 PORTLAND, ME. : 
 
 DAILY PRESS PRINTING HOUSE— WM. M. MARKS, PRINTER. 
 
 1871. 
 
.7fU 
 
 }' 
 
 'V 
 
 
HISTORICAL SKETCH, 
 
 BY HON. J. A. WATERMAN. 
 
 Hon. Toppan Robie was born in Candia, N. H., Jan. 27, 
 1782, and died at his residence in Gorham, Jan. 14, 1871. 
 Tlie immediate cause of his death was inflammation of the 
 bladder and kidneys, brought on by a slight cold. 
 
 Mr. Robie was the fourth child of Edward and Sarah 
 (Smith) Robie. His grandfather was Samuel, son of Icha- 
 bod, son of John Robie, who came to this country from 
 some part of Great Britain and settled in the town of At- 
 kinson, N. H., about the year 1660. Mr. Robie's mother 
 was the daughter of John Smith and Sarah Toppan, of 
 Hampton, N. H. Hence, through his maternal grand- 
 mother came his somewhat peculiar christian name. His 
 parents removed from Chester, IST. H., to Candia in 1780, 
 and when he was about four years old they returned to 
 Chester, where they lived the remainder of their days. His 
 father died at the age of 92, his mother at 89. He had 
 three brothers and two sisters, of whom he was the sole 
 survivor. His early opportunities for acquiring even a 
 common school education were limited. When eight or 
 nine years old he went to live with his grandmother Smith 
 — then Webster, by her second marriage ; being a great 
 favorite with her, partly no doubt on account of his chris- 
 tian name. He remained the greater part of the time until 
 he was fourteen with her and her son Edmund Webster, 
 who was perhaps the most active and influential merchant 
 in the town. He attended the town school when there was 
 one, and was occasionally sent by his uncle to a private 
 school, where he was taught only reading, writing and 
 arithmetic. 
 
 But it was during these years that his future course was 
 shaped. Being a favorite in the family and familiar with 
 
6 
 
 his uncle he spent a great deal of time in his store, where 
 his natural inclination to mercantile pursuits was developed 
 and fostered. At the age of fourteen he went to Haverhill, 
 Mass., and was there employed in a store by Capt. Cotton 
 B. Brooks, afterwards a successful merchant of Portland, 
 where he died in 1834. 
 
 In March, 1799, when 17 years of age he came to Gor- 
 hara, a friend in Haverhill having procured a situation for 
 him as clerk in the store of the late John Horton. He re- 
 mained with Mr. Horton but a few months, and then went 
 into the employ of the late Dan'l Cressey, who was at that 
 time the principal trader in Gorham, and with whom he 
 continued until September, 1802, when, before he was twen- 
 ty-one years of age, in company with the late Sewall 
 Lancaster, he commenced business for himself. During 
 these years of clerkship his compensation was from $50 to 
 $216 per year and board. Yet from this, by strict econo- 
 my and careful husbanding of his earnings, he had laid by 
 a very respectable amount, which he had as his own to use 
 in commencing business. 
 
 But the habits which he had acquired, his aptness and 
 competency for business, his fidelity to his employers, and 
 above all the value which he had established for his word., 
 formed a capital worth far more through life than an in- 
 herited fortune could have been. Mr. Cressey had perfect 
 confidence in him, trusted his business with him to a very 
 considerable extent, and often sent him, young as he was, 
 to Boston to make his stated purchases for him. This, at a 
 time when the purchase money of thousands of dollars was 
 carried on the person, and the journey was made on horse- 
 back, the goods to be purchased a general assortment, for a 
 great variety of customers, requiring no ordinary skill and 
 judgment in selection, and shrewdness in buying, was an ex- 
 ceedingly delicate and responsible commission ; yet it was 
 executed by young Robie in a manner which not only gave 
 satisfaction to his employer, but established an acquaintance 
 and standing among merchants in Boston, Avhich were of 
 great advantage to him when he commenced business in his 
 own name. 
 
In 1804 he took his brother, Thomas S. Robie, then a lad 
 of thirteen, into his store, where he was employed in vari- 
 ous capacities, from that of shop boy to the position of chief 
 clerk vmtil 1815, when the two brothers went into partner- 
 ship as retail merchants, and for more than twenty years 
 oarried on business under the name of T. & T. S. Robie, 
 in the store now occupied by their worthy successors, 
 Messrs. Ridlon & Card. Never were two persons better 
 fitted to conduct business together than these two brothers. 
 Capt. Robie frequently declared, " never did two brothers 
 get along more cordially and pleasantly than we did from 
 beginning to end." Their business was very extensive and 
 very profitable ; and the name of this firm was known all 
 through the back countiy, and even as far as New Hamp- 
 shire and Vermont, as the synonym of activity, energy and 
 fair dealing. 
 
 Mr. Thomas Robie, better known as Deacon Robie, was 
 a man of eminent piety, a pure-minded consistent christian. 
 He died in October 1838, beloved and lamented by the 
 whole community. 
 
 After the death of his brother Mr. Robie continued in 
 trade a few years, and then withdrew from active partici- 
 pation in mercantile pur.-uits. His property gradually ac- 
 cumulating during these fifty years of close attention to 
 business, had now become large, and needed his more imme- 
 diate personal care, so that the past twenty years have been 
 less active and stiiTing ones than he had before enjoyed 
 since he first left his New Hampshire home to seek his for- 
 tune. And yet there have been no idle or unoccupied years 
 among them. His industrious habits clung to him to the 
 last, and he always found some employment for mind or 
 body, or both. He owned a good many acres of land near 
 the village of Gorham, which he has carefully cultivated, 
 certainly with great personal enjoyment if not profit, work- 
 ing much with his own hands and always exercising a 
 watchful supervision over his farming operations. Since he 
 was eighty years old he has cleared and prepared for tillage 
 some ten acres of wood and pasture land. In the summer 
 
months when the early — six o'clock — morning train from 
 Gorham to Portland passed his newly purchased land we 
 have often seen the venerable old man at work there, hatchet 
 in hand, endeavoring, by cutting and burning, to extermi- 
 nate the juniper bushes growing there, intruders to which he 
 seemed to have special dislike, as symbolical of uselessness, 
 waste and neglect. 
 
 Mr. Robie has always been regarded with great respect 
 by the citizens of the town in which he lived so long and 
 among whom he had acquired his reputation as well as his 
 wealth. He has held almost every municipal office wdiich 
 he would accept. He was six years a representative of the 
 town at the General Court of Massachusetts. In 1820-21 
 he was representative in the Legislature of Maine, and in 
 1837 a member of Gov. Kent's Executive Council. In 
 1809 he united with the Congregational Church in Gorham, 
 and continued his connection therewith and his interest in 
 the church and parish as long as he lived. For many 
 years he was treasurer both of the parish and of their 
 ministerial fund. This fund was an object of peculiar 
 interest, and almost personal attachment to him ; and un- 
 der his careful management of it, as well as by his numer- 
 ous contributions to it, it has trebled in amount since it first 
 came to his hands. He was also one of the Trustees of 
 Gorham Academy for more than fifty years — for many 
 years their treasurer — and contributed often to aid the in- 
 stitution. The past year he generously subscribed above 
 ^5000 towards the $20,000 cash fund which our citizens 
 offered the Congregationalists of Maine as an inducement 
 for the location of their proposed Classical School at Gor- 
 ham. lie filled at different times during his long and use- 
 ful life numerous other positions of honor and trust, and 
 always discharged the duties attaching thereto with marked 
 ability and strict fidelity. 
 
 During the war of 1812 he was Captain of a company of 
 militia, and when, in 1814, it was supposed that Portland 
 was in danger of invasion, and among other troops Gen. 
 Irish's brigade was ordered there, Capt. Robie marched "to 
 
9 
 
 the front," at tlie head of his company. The company en- 
 rolled G3 men ; of this number John Cressey, Darius Libbj^, 
 Philip Larrabee and Elisha Irish, all of Gorham, are the 
 only survivors. 
 
 Capt. Robie was married three times. In 1804 to jNIiss 
 Lydia Brown, daughter of Benj. Brown of Chester, N. H., 
 and a sister of the late Rev. Francis Brown, D. D., the 
 distinguished President of Dartmouth College, from 1815 
 to 1820. Mrs. Robie died in Feb. 1811, having borne him 
 two children, Harriet, who married Oliver Lincoln of 
 Boston, and died in 1832, and Francis Brown Robie, now 
 living at Gorham. He was again married in September, 
 1811, to Miss Sarah Thaxter Lincoln, daughter of Capt. 
 John Lincoln, originally from Hingham, Mass., but then 
 residing in Gorham. By her he had three children, Charles, 
 George and Frederick. George died in 1856. Charles and 
 Frederick survive and both reside in Gorham. This mar- 
 riage relation continued about seventeen years, when it 
 was sundered by the death of his wife in 1828. In 
 November, 1828, he married Mrs. Eliza Cross, widow of 
 Capt. William Cross, of Portland, and daughter of Wra. 
 Stevens, also of Portland. By her he had no children. — 
 She died Nov. 2, 1865, at the age of 83. 
 
 Having in the acquisition of his own large estate devoted 
 the closest attention to his business and exercised strict 
 economy and prudent care in small matters, searching for 
 saving grains, rather than looking after and expecting to 
 find nuggets or bars of gold, he retained these habits 
 through life. He had no sympathy for or patience with 
 anything which apjieared to him like idleness, waste or 
 extravagance. Though not by nature a generous man, 
 certainly not impulsively so, he dispensed very liberal sums 
 in public and private benefactions, as in the instance 
 already alluded to of his contribution to the Ministerial 
 Fund and in aid of the Academy, in his gifts to the town 
 of the soldier's monument and a town clock, and a donation 
 made by him on his 80th birth-day of 85,000 to the Con- 
 gregational Church and Parish of Chester. 
 
10 
 
 In politics, commencing as a Federalist, lie was after- 
 wards an ardent Whig, and in latter years an equally earnest 
 Republican. Tliougli always active and outspoken in the 
 support of his political principles, he made but few enemies 
 and rarely did any permanent bitterness of feeling result 
 from such a course. On the contrary, he was generally 
 very popular and held in great respect among all parties 
 and classes. 
 
 Believing it to be his duty as a good citizen, as well as 
 being always ready to sustain his principles by his ballot, he 
 has never since his majority failed to attend the State and 
 municipal elections, or to cast his vote openly and fearlessly 
 for the persons of his choice. 
 
 While very pleasing in his person and address, always 
 sufficiently dignified, but affable and agreeable, he possessed 
 an unusual degree of firmness and persistency. When he 
 had deliberately decided upon a course of action — and he 
 seldom acted rashly — he rarely abandoned it, but pursued 
 it to the end, and took the consequences courageously, when 
 they came. 
 
 Thus endowed, with all these careful and prudent ways, 
 and unusually successful in all his purposes of life, it is not 
 strange that the most implicit confidence was placed in 
 him by so many of his fellow citizens, nor that he was for 
 more than half a century their counsellor and friend, and 
 their model of prudence and sagacity, as well of integrity 
 and fair dealing in all their business relations. While 
 they believed that "his word was as good as his bond," it 
 was his pride to show that all this confidence had not been 
 misplaced. 
 
 Descended from a hardy stock and possessing a sound 
 and healthy mind, as well as a strong and vigorous body 
 never injured by any excesses, he was permitted to reach a 
 very advanced age, with mental and bodily powers uniisu- 
 ally bright and active to the last. 
 
 What an eventful period in our history a life thus pro- 
 longed covers ! 
 
 He lived during the administration of each of our Presi- 
 
11 
 
 dents, and under the constitution in all its phases and 
 amendments. In fact, this period embraces the whole his- 
 tory of our government and the country since the close of 
 the revolutionary war. 
 
 How few of those who thus connect us with the past 
 survive. 
 
 Our friend was grateful that time had dealt so gently 
 with him, and that a kind Father had spared him from so 
 many of the ills and afiflctions incident to such advanced 
 age ; and in this feeling his surviving relatives and friends 
 have every reason to share. 
 
 His loss will be deeply and extensively felt, not only in 
 the immediate community in which he has dwelt so long, 
 but throughout the town, and by a large class of business 
 friends and acquaintances elsewhere. 
 
 He goes to his grave full of years and honors, and it is 
 believed without an enemy in the world. "He rests from 
 his labors and his works do follow him." 
 
12 
 
 BURIAL SERVICE. 
 
 The weeping skies of Monday, Jan. 16, seemed in sym- 
 pathy with the sadness which rested on the village of Gor- 
 ham. The stores were closed, the Seminary Exercises 
 snspended, as was business generally. The body was laid 
 in a beautiful rosewood casket, studded with silver nails. 
 On the silver plate was the simple inscription : 
 
 TOPPAN ROBIE, 
 
 DIED JANUARY 14, 1871, 
 
 Aged 89 years 11 months. 
 
 The features were perfectly natural, and had the appear- 
 ance of sleep. At three o'clock the services at the late 
 residence, under charge of Mr. J. C. Card, began by the 
 singing, by the young ladies of the Seminary, led by their 
 music teacher. Miss Charlotte A. Ginn, the following hymn, 
 written by request for the occasion, by Prof. E. P. Thwing. 
 The plaintive melody of Playel's Hymn was well adapted 
 to the expresrion of the sentiment of the lyric, and during 
 the singing of the second stanzas, Miss E. M. Chadbourne 
 and Miss K. D. Smith slowly advanced to the casket and 
 reverently laid upon it a beautiful garland and cross of 
 flowers, the gift of the Seminary : 
 
 Golden grain from harvest ripe, 
 
 Angel reapers garner in ; 
 Joy above, but grief below, 
 
 Where the reapers' steps have been. 
 
 We around the aged form. 
 
 Gather here with filial love. 
 Memory's garland now we bring, 
 
 Token of his crown above. 
 
13 
 
 Farewell! Father, Patron, Friend! 
 
 We no more thy face shall see, 
 Yet thj^ name enshrined in love 
 
 In our hearts shall ever be ! 
 
 May thy lips to others now 
 
 Be a bright example here. 
 That upon their brows in death 
 
 Gratitude may drop her tear! 
 
 Appropriate selections of scripture were read by Kev. C. 
 C. Parker, D. D., wlio then spoke as follows : 
 
 An unwonted sense of loneliness is on our hearts, and on 
 all this community. A father in our Israel — a father in 
 our whole community — has fallen. "VVe are gathered to the 
 burial of one, who for more than seventy years has been 
 identijQ.ed with this place ; who for years was its leading 
 business man ; for years its most trusted public servant, in 
 all the departments of public trust. All the high interests 
 of the town — those of the church and parish with which he 
 was connected and of which he was by far the senior mem- 
 ber, the interests of learning, as connected with the Acade- 
 my and Seminary, were dear to him. For their promotion 
 he gave with a munificent hand. 
 
 From a lad of seventeen to the hoary age of almost four- 
 score and ten years, he has lived among us. Here, with 
 singular sagacit}', energy and success he did his W'ork in 
 the days of his vigor, managing and moulding the aftairs of 
 the place. Here he spent his quiet serene old age. Here, 
 surrounded by his children, and children's children and 
 countless friends, he has passed away. 
 
 We are sad that we shall see him no more in our streets, 
 our places of business, our houses of worship ; sad that we 
 shall be welcomed no more to this, for so many years, his 
 home ; that he will greet us no more with his genial smile, 
 and his pleasant words, or instruct us with his words of 
 wisdom and experience. 
 
 But while sad and lonely, we rejoice that the silver cord 
 was loosened and the golden bowl broken so late and in so 
 much mercy ; and especially that the Christian hope, cher- 
 
14 
 
 ished for more than threescore years, did not desert him, 
 but was strong and sure to the end ; that he went like a 
 shock of corn in his season, ripe for the garner of God. 
 
 The Choir, led by Dea. Joseph Kedlon, sang to the tune 
 of Naomi the hymn beginning : 
 
 O God, our help iu ages past. 
 
 Prayer was then offered by Rev. Dr. Parker, after which 
 the hymn beginning, 
 
 We've no abiding city here, 
 was sung to the tune of Wells. The body was then borne 
 to the Cemetery, followed by the children and grand children 
 of the deceased and a large concourse of friends and citi- 
 zens of the town. Twelve of the leading citizens acted 
 as pallbearers as follows : Hon. John A. Waterman, 
 Daniel C. Emery, Esq., Joseph Ridlon, Esq., Stephen 
 Hinkley, Esq., Gen. Edward T. Smith, Col. Humphrey 
 Cousens, William Burton, Esq., Marshall Irish, Esq., 
 Samuel R. Clemments, Esq., Charles Paine, Esq., and 
 John Card, Esq., — the church bell sounding his dirge. 
 
16 
 
 Gorham, January 23d, 1871. 
 Rev. C. C. Parker, D. D. 
 
 Dear Sir : 
 The undersigned having listened with great interest to your dis- 
 course yesterday afternoon, relative to the life and character of the 
 late Hon. Toppan Robie, and believing that it would be read with 
 equal interest by many of our townsmen, and others Avho did not 
 have the privilege of hearing it, respectfully request a copy of the 
 same for publication. 
 
 With much esteem, your ob't serv'ts, 
 
 John A. Waterman, R. G. Harding, 
 J. B. Webb, Daniel C. Emery, 
 
 Stephen Hinkley, Marshall Irish, 
 
 Thad's p. Irish, R. A. Fogg, 
 
 Joseph Ridlon, Samuel F. Bacon, 
 
 Geo. B. Emery, John C. Card. 
 
 Gorham, Januarj^ 24th. 1871. 
 Gentlemen : 
 
 Your note requesting for pub- 
 lication the discourse relative to the life of the Hon. Toppan Robie, 
 has been received. 
 
 Such was the character of Mr. Robie, and such his relations to 
 this community, that I am not at liberty to decline your request. 
 Inadequate and imperfect as it is, the discourse is at your disposal. 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 C. C. Parker. 
 Hon. J. A. Waterman, D. C. Emery, Esq., Dea. M. Irish and 
 others. 
 
17 
 
 MEMORIAL DISCOURSE, 
 
 BY REV. C. C. PARKER, D. D. 
 
 Zech. 1st, 5tli. — ^^Your fathers, where are theyf^ 
 
 The prophet puts this question to rebuke the arrogance 
 of Israel, by reminding them of their common mortahty. 
 Many of the fathers had lived long and accomplished 
 much, but -where are they ? All gone. They and the 
 prophets are all asleep with the dead. 
 
 Put this question here — put it in any community, Your 
 fathers where are they ? and what shall the answer be ? 
 Gone, all gone ! Herodotus tells us that as Xerxes 
 reviewed on the plains of Doriscus the army of nearly 
 five millions, with which he had just invaded Greece, he 
 wept at the thought that in one hundred years not one of 
 all that vast throng moving before him, would be in the 
 land of the living. Had the haughty, but for the moment 
 subdued monarch seen all the future of that army he 
 would have found abundant occasion for weeping. Before 
 one of the hundred years was gone, Thermopylae and 
 Salamis and Platgea with the pestilence and famine had 
 swept from the earth nearly all that mighty host, and the 
 king himself was fleeing, an almost solitary fugitive, back 
 to Babylon, the capital of his kingdom, wliich so recently 
 he had left in such pomp and glory, and where in a few 
 years he himself was slain by the captain of his own 
 guards. 
 
18 
 
 But it needs not war, nor pestilence, nor famine to carry 
 the generations of men from the earth in an exceedingly 
 brief period. The truth that so impressed itself upon the 
 mind of the Persian King, is a truth still. The law of 
 human life has not been changed. One hundred years 
 ago, those who were literally the fathers of this town — who 
 came when the red man Avas here — when the bear 
 and the wolf, the deer and the moose, the beaver and the 
 otter had their haunts on our hills and by our streams, — 
 who cleared the forests from our farms, opened the virgin 
 soil to the sun and changed the wilderness into fruitful 
 fields. One hundred years ago these fathers, Phinney, 
 and McLellan, and Irish and Alden and Cressey and 
 Files and many of their associates were here and still 
 actively engaged in the business of life. But where are 
 they now ? For years every one of them has been sleep- 
 ing with the dead. Not only the fathers of that day, but 
 all these here from the hoariest age down to the child in 
 its mother's arms — all are gone. We read their names 
 on the records of the town and the records of the church 
 and on the time-worn stones of the grave-yard — the story 
 of what they said and what they did, is current among 
 us — the houses they built, the farms they subdued, are 
 pointed out, but not one of them is in the land of the 
 living. Many of them lived to extreme old age, but at 
 last, one by one, the great reaper gathered them in. — 
 Many of them did a most important work, founding the 
 institutions and forming the society of the town, but for 
 years they have been resting in their graves — their work 
 all done. 
 
 We come down to the beginning of the present century. 
 Where are the men then busy on your farms and in your 
 stores and shops ? Within the bounds of the town, only one 
 Mr. Robert Estes, now in his 94th year, survives, who had 
 then reached his majority. With this exception not one of 
 all that thenfiUed your house of worship, from Sabbath to 
 
19 
 
 Sabbath, or Avere seen in your streets from day to day, 
 not one then the head of a household, or in any wise con- 
 nected with the affiiirs of the town, remains. A few then 
 in their childhood, remain to tell us what [these men did, 
 concerned as they were in building this house of worship, 
 in founding the Academy on yonder hill and in giving a 
 new impulse to the business and a higher tone to the 
 character of the town, but to the question, "Your fathers 
 where are they ?" having these in mind the answer is, 
 "Gone, all gone." We say this with an emphasis now, that 
 we could never say it before. The last of these fathers we 
 have just laid to his rest in the grave. In the death of 
 Hon. Toppan Robie, the last link that bound us as a com- 
 munity, to the distant past of the town and by which 
 we joined hands with the first settlers is broken. 
 
 This community has followed to the grave many a citi- 
 zen, eminent for qualities of mind and heart, eminent 
 for services to the church and town. I need but mention 
 Phinney and McLellan, the settlers — Lombard and 
 Thatcher the first ministers. Judges Gorham and Long- 
 fellow, and more recently Gen. Irish, Judge Pierce, Dr. 
 Waterman, Mr. Hinkley. You will recall a long list of 
 eminent names intimately connected with the highest in- 
 terests of the town for Avhom at their death the whole com- 
 munity mourned as for a father fallen. But never, I think, 
 in all the history of the town, has one passed away who had 
 been so intimately and for so long a period connected with 
 all the interests of the town, whose name was so well 
 known, or whose influence was so controlling in places of 
 business, in municipal aftairs, in the advancement of 
 learning and in all the financial concerns of the church 
 and parish as has passed away in the death of Mr. 
 Toppan Robie, or for whom the community mourned with 
 a more unfeigned and general sorrow. 
 
 The history of such a man as Mr. Robie is full of inter- 
 est — its lessons are a valuable heritage to the community. 
 
20 
 
 Let us study this history and ponder these lessons. I 
 shall attempt no formal biographical sketch, that has been 
 already done by most competent hands. 
 
 Mr. Robie came to this town in 1799, at the age of 17 
 years to serve as clerk in the store of Mr. Daniel Cressey. 
 Born amid the hills of New Hampshire, he came with no 
 inheritance save a sound and vigorous constitution and 
 those qualities of mind and heart which so characterized 
 his life. He came a lad, penniless and a stranger. He 
 dies at the advanced age of nearly four score and ten, 
 having amassed by far the largest fortune ever accumu- 
 lated in town — having had more to do with all its varied 
 affairs and leaving the stamp of his character more deeply 
 impressed than any that had gone before him and the 
 citizens of the town are his mourners. 
 
 What was the secret of all this ? The answer is found 
 in his sterling sense, his spotless integrity, his unwaived 
 and systematic industry and attention to business, 
 coupled with personal habits of great moderation and 
 frugahty. 
 
 When he was clerk the interests of his employer were 
 his interests. He needed no admonitions to do liis duty. 
 By his readiness, judgment and tact he quickly made him- 
 self a necessity to his employer commanding his confidence 
 and good will. Mr. Cressey, with whom he served the 
 longest period here, used to say of him, that he was the 
 best boy he ever knew. Such was his esteem of him, 
 both for judgment and integrity, that in a short time he 
 entrusted to him, to a large extent, his business, both in 
 the general management of the store and in the more 
 difficult and delicate task of making the varied purchases 
 in Portland and Boston, necessary for such an establish- 
 ment. 
 
 When in company with Mr. Lancaster, he entered upon 
 business for himself, the capital he had was the few 
 hundred dollars, by strict economy and frugality already 
 
21 
 
 accumulated, together with his acquaintance with the 
 business and with community, and what was better than 
 either, his reputation for energy, sagacity and trust 
 worthiness. With these for his foundation and while yet 
 too young to cast a vote at the polls, he entered upon a 
 career of business, in a department where competition is 
 the sharpest, and where wrecks and failures are most nu- 
 merous ; but by a clear comprehension of his business, 
 and a careful husbandry of his means, fulfilling to the let- 
 ter every promise to customer or creditor — always keeping 
 abreast of the demand in community with his supplies ; 
 never getting far ahead of it, he gradually enlarged his 
 transactions, until from a business of a few thousands, it 
 became a business of many thousands ; until from a local 
 store of a country village, his place of business became 
 the centre of traffic for a vast region. AVith his brother 
 Thomas S. Robie, first as his trusted and confidential clerk, 
 and then from 1815, for more than twenty years, as his 
 partner, he competed largely and successfully with the 
 merchants of Portland for the extension trade, not only 
 of neighboring towns in this State, but also for that of all 
 Northern N. H. and North Eastern Vt., a region then 
 known as the "Coos Country," whose natural market be- 
 fore the building of rail roads, was Portland. For those 
 distant and desirable customers, his business became largely 
 wholesale business, both in the purchase of their produce, 
 and in the sale of goods with which they reloaded their 
 teams. Coming as they often did, especially in Winter, in 
 companies of from twenty to sLxty or more teams, the 
 traffic with them became most important and lucrative, 
 but demanding for the right handling of it all the 
 best qualities of the successful merchant. With an eye 
 that missed nothing, and with an energy and enterprise 
 that never slumbered, Mr.. Robie managed this business, 
 and made it the source of large and constantly increasing 
 income. His name became a synonym for mercantile 
 
 / 
 
22 
 
 honor' and enterprise through all the region whence this 
 traffic came. 
 
 The business life of Mr. Robie was purely that of the 
 merchant. He entered into no speculations; on those 
 troubled, uncertain waters, he launched not a craft, un- 
 furled not a sail. But all business germane to that of a 
 merchant, and which he could make subsidiary to that, 
 he established and prosecuted with energy, often employ- 
 ing in the various departments of business, a large number 
 of men. As a merchant, he took possession of the whole 
 field at his command, and cultivated it to the utmost. 
 He filled the measure of his opportunity. His story 
 from a well nigh penniless, friendless boy, as he entered 
 this village seventy-two years ago next March, up to the 
 head of his large establishment, and the possession of 
 his great wealth, is exceedingly interesting, with not a 
 little of romance in it. It is the story over again of the 
 Budgetts, the Astors, the Lawrences, the Peabodys, and 
 the vast majority of successful merchants and business 
 men, the world over, sagacity, energy, integrity, enter- 
 prise, a clear open eye, a brave heart, a dihgent hand, al- 
 ways against all odds winning the day. 
 
 Had Mr. Robie been led in early life, to establish him- 
 self in a large city, and enter the wider field that would 
 have been open to him then, there is little doubt he would 
 have rivalled the most successful, and been numbered 
 among the merchant princes of the country. There was 
 in him every element of success in all mercantile and 
 commercial matters. 
 
 The value of such a merchant in a community, cannot 
 easily be estimated. The merchant's calling is a most im- 
 portant one in all the economy of civilized life, bringing as 
 it does to our doors, the products and fabrics of almost all 
 the earth, and taking in exchange the surplus of our own 
 products, thus giving currency to all the business of life. 
 The merchant is eminently a pubhc servant, without whom 
 
23 
 
 civilized life would not be possible. In all ages he has 
 been a most important factor in the grand product of hu- 
 man welfare, both by promoting intercourse and inter- 
 change among men and nations, enabling each to enjoy 
 the products of all, and also by the general elevation of 
 the race. And that merchant who with wise forecast, 
 tireless industry and unsullied honesty, successfully con- 
 ducts his business; at whose counter the little child or 
 servant girl, as surely as the banker, gets her money's 
 worth, is above all price in community; and the qualities 
 of mind and heart necessary to large success in this call- 
 mg, are among the liighest and best that pertain to man. 
 All these qualities Mr. Robie possessed in an eminent 
 degree. As a business man he was the centre of great 
 influence and power in the community. Had he been sim- 
 ply a business man, nothing but a merchant, with his clear 
 well defined purposes, his intelligence, enterprise, and 
 fair dealings, he would have been in a high degree a 
 public benefactor. 
 
 But eminent as were his qualities as a merchant, — 
 extensive and engrossing as were his business operations, 
 demanding constant thought and circumspection, Mr. 
 Robie limited not himself to these. The scale of his mind 
 was quite too large to be thus circumscribed. From the 
 first he took a deep and active interest in all public 
 concerns of the town. Capable and faithful in his own 
 affairs, public trusts were soon committed to his hands. 
 With the same fidelity and tact that he managed his 
 private business he took care of these trusts. The result 
 was that for years, and that while he was conducting his 
 extensive mercantile business, he was largely engaged in 
 public matters at home and abroad. For years he repre- 
 sented the town first in the general court of Mass., and 
 then when this State was organized in the Legislature of 
 Maine, being one of the last representatives in the former 
 and the first in the latter. During the administration of 
 
24 
 
 Gov. Kent, he was a member of the Executive Council. 
 He was repeatedly appointed by the court a commissioner 
 for the location of county and other public roads. In the 
 war of 1812, though a staunch Federalist, he commanded 
 the company raised by the town for the defence of Port- 
 land, from which he derived the title of Captain, which 
 subsequently he always bore. He had great aptitude for 
 public as well as private business and had he fully entered 
 that field, there is little doubt he would have attained high 
 distinction. Certainly what he did, he did well. No 
 trust committed to his hands suJBfered. In dealing with , 
 public interests, he might and doubtless did, sagaciously 
 promote his private interests, but never to the detriment 
 of the public. What the public had a right to expect and 
 claim the public got. None of its revenues slipped 
 through his fingers or stuck to his palms. 
 
 Mr, Robie from the first, took a lively interest in the 
 promotion of higher education in the community, and this 
 interest continued unabated to the end. Though too 
 young and too recently here to be one of the original 
 trustees of the Academy, he was one of its earliest and 
 warmest friends, and soon became one of the most influ- 
 ential members of its Board of Trust, a position which he 
 held until his death, having been for years the senior 
 member. From time to time he gave liberally to the 
 funds of the Academy and Seminary, having taken a 
 most active part in the establishment of the latter. He 
 uniformily attended with interest all public examinations 
 and exhibitions. We shall not soon forget, how with 
 infirm step h3 climbed Academy Hill bearing the burden 
 of nearly four score and ten years, to attend the closing 
 exercises of the last Academic year, or the appearance of 
 his venerable form, as in the evening, at the public exhibi- 
 tion he sat on the stage in this house. 
 
 The generous ofier of a cash subscription of $20,000 
 made a few months ago by the citizens of this place to 
 
25 
 
 secure the location here, bv the Congregationalists of 
 Maine, of their proposed Classical School, was due in a 
 large measure to the interest and zeal in the matter man- 
 ifested by Mr. Robie. He drew the subscription and 
 headed it with a pledge of $5,000. He attended all the 
 meetings of citizens and trustees in regard to it, whether 
 by day or night, and at last added largely to his first sub- 
 scription to secure the $20,000. When to the liberal offer 
 made by the Trustees of the Seminary and the citizens of 
 Gorham an adverse response was received, no one felt 
 a deeper, sadder disappointment than he. Among the 
 last conversations I had with him, previous to his last 
 sickness, he referred with unabated interest to the subject. 
 His one great desire for years, had been to see the Sem- 
 inary, and with it, the cause of high and sound learning 
 and liberal culture here, on a sure foundation. Throug-h 
 the proposed Classical School, he hoped this might be 
 attained and he was ready to give largely. The failure 
 was the one peculiar sadness of his last days. 
 
 From his earhest manhood Mr. Robie was much inter- 
 ested in the concerns of the parish. Often acting as 
 collector, he was annoyed and disgusted at the petty, 
 paltry ways in which men, otherwise fair and honorable, 
 would avoid payment of parish subscription and assess- 
 ment. To avoid this vexation, he resolved to have estab- 
 lished a Ministerial Fund, the income of which should, in 
 part or entirely, support the preaching of the gospel. 
 The present fund is largely due to his efforts. More 
 than half of it is the result of his donations. If in latter 
 years he has had any pet measure this has been it. For 
 the most of the time after its foundation he was its trea- 
 surer, and could not have cared for his own private inter- 
 ests with more watchfulness and concern than he did for 
 the safety and increase of this fund. It ought to be a 
 great blessing to the church and parish, enabling them to 
 do much more liberally for all the general objects of be- 
 
26 
 
 nevolence for which the demands are so urgent. If it 
 shall ever fail to be a blessing, it will sadlj disappoint the 
 hopes and purposes of Mr. Robie. Having great confi- 
 dence in the wisdom of establishing such funds espe- 
 cially in feeble parishes, he celebrated his eightieth birth 
 day by the gift for this purpose of $5,000 to his ancestral 
 parish in Chester, N. H. 
 
 Mr. Robie did little from impulse. He was eminently 
 a man of calculation, purpose, fore-thought. In his 
 dealings he was rigidly just, rather than impulsively gen- 
 erous. Intending to keep his own word — fulfill it to the 
 letter — he expected the same from others and strongly 
 insisted upon it. Such an example in its leading business 
 man, was most healthful on the whole tone of dealing in the 
 community. He was willing to be taxed liberally for the 
 support of the poor, but he was not much in the habit of 
 seeking them out and aiding them with private benefactions. 
 To him to accumulate was easy, and his wants were few 
 and simple. Industry, frugality and temperance in all 
 things, were high virtues in his esteem. He knew that much 
 of the poverty around him was needless, if not criminal, the 
 result of thriftlessness, folly and dissipation and he had 
 little sympathy or patience with it. It is well all are not 
 like Mr. Robie in this respect. As society is, there is a 
 place and demand for sympathetic impulsive generosity. 
 Be the cause of poverty what it may, the poor we always 
 have with us, and somebody must seek and succor them. 
 No duty is plainer. But it is well for the community that 
 all generosity is not impulsive — the offspring of a quick 
 and fickle sympathy — that with some it is cool, syste- 
 matic, forecasting. In this respect Mr. Robie was much 
 like the late George Peabody, whom he resembled in very 
 many qualities of mind and heart. Such men accumulate 
 that they may endow our schools and colleges — found our 
 asylums and homes for the destitute — and thus diffuse 
 
27 
 
 light and knowledge and with them comfort and gladness 
 perpetually among men. 
 
 It is well all men are not of the one kind or the other. 
 The world needs both In these as in all his gifts, God 
 has rightly tempered human society. In this respect, 
 judging from the concurrent testimony of the community, 
 Mr. Robie and his brother Dea. Thomas S. Robie, admir- 
 ably supplimented each other, the latter spontaneously 
 seeking the poor and with prompt, generous, but unobtru- 
 sive, often unseen hand sending them relief and with 
 it often some message of christian instruction and com- 
 fort. 
 
 But while Mr. Robie's benevolence did not naturally, 
 spontaneously take this direction, but found expression 
 rather in such gifts as those to our ministerial fund, and 
 to that of his paternal parish, in donations to the Academy 
 and Seminary, in the erection of the soldier's monument 
 and in putting the clock into the tower of our church, he 
 by no means withheld his hand from private benefactions. 
 Rarely, I apprehend, did he refuse to give more or less to 
 and worthy object seeking aid at his hands. 
 
 Mr. Robie and his first wife, Mrs. Lydia Robie, united 
 in full communion with this church June 1, 1809, and 
 came to the Lord's table on the 4th of that month. They 
 had previously during the ministry of Rev. Mr. Noyes, 
 united with the church on what was then known as the 
 "Halfway Covenant." When Mr. Rand was invited to 
 the pastorate of this church, he made it a condition of 
 settlement thac this covenant should be abolished, and 
 none admitted to church privileges but on full profession 
 of faith in Christ. Mr. Rand was settled in January, 
 1809, and Mr. and Mrs. Robie came to the communion 
 in June following. Since the death of Gen. Irish his 
 life-long friend and associate, Mr. Robie, has been the 
 senior member of the church. In the financial and gen- 
 eral affairs of the church and parish he took a deep in- 
 
28 
 
 terest, but he seldom, if ever, took part in a social meeting 
 or spoke of his religious feelings and experience. In these 
 respects he was verj reticent. And yet whenever, during 
 the few years of my pastorate here, I have alluded to the 
 subject, he has spoken with cheerfulness and confidence 
 of his Christian hope. At my last interview with him, 
 a few hours before he lost his speech and consciousness, 
 after a brief prayer, at his request, he spoke with much 
 freedom of himself, saying with as much emphasis as in 
 his sickness and feebleness he could command, " All my 
 trust is in Christ. I trust not at all to myself or to what 
 I have done — I trust all to Christ." He then asked my 
 views of heaven. Understanding him to refer to recog- 
 nition of friends, I expressed my confidence that we should 
 meet and know them there. He added, " I have thought 
 of this a great deal lately. It will be so pleasant to meet, 
 my father and my mother and the dear companions that 
 have gone before me." But, said he, "I know all will 
 be right. We shall be satisfied." With these among his 
 last thoughts and last words, he soon fell into that sleep 
 which issued finally in the sleep of death. 
 
 Thus has passed away the last of the fathers. To the 
 question. Where are they? the answer is, as never before, 
 full and unqualified. " All gone." The link that so long 
 connected us with the remote part of our town is broken. 
 The living volume, from which we had read so many in- 
 teresting chapters of local history, is closed. 
 
 The old age of Mr. Robie was singularly serene. For 
 years his work had been so done, his business matters so 
 arranged, that he was ready for his departure at any mo- 
 ment, and yet he was busy to the last. The mind that had 
 been so active, the hand that had been so diligent in his 
 prime and vigor, were active and diligent still. No rust 
 gathered on the machinery of his being, mental or physi- 
 cal. Whatever asperities, poUtical or ecclesiastical con- 
 troversies had engendered in the past, were all softened 
 
29 
 
 or obliterated by time and age. He cherished no enmi- 
 ties, he was every man's friend. His look as we saw him 
 from Sabbath to Sabbath in the house of God, his smile 
 and his words of greeting, of counsel and cheer, as we 
 met him in our streets^ in our shops and offices, or at his 
 home, where for years he had lived, breathed a perpetual 
 benediction. Thus he was with us, interested in all that 
 interests us, going in and out, like a father, almost to the 
 end. His sun went down full orbed and in a clear sky. 
 
 To me Mr. Robie had been a person of peculiar inter- 
 est from the first. I saw in him, I thought, one of the 
 finest representatives of the gentlemen of the Old School, 
 intelligent, courteous, dignified in an eminent degree. — 
 Though certainly not a perfect man, he was a model of 
 his kind. His character was singularly symmetrical and 
 complete. 
 
 It was a fortunate day for Gorham when the lad Top- 
 pan Robie entered and begun his work in our village. 
 Sadness was on all the community the day when in the 
 wintry storm we bore the form of the patriarch, Toppan 
 Robie, a name almost a synonyme with Gorham, to its 
 rest in the grave. 
 
 Let us gather up and ponder the lessons of this man's 
 life. As he followed Christ and the right, served God 
 and his generation, let us follow his steps. The longest 
 life soon ends, the most important work is soon done. 
 Happy shall we be, if, when our record is made up, there 
 shall be in it as much the world will care to read, as little 
 it will wish to blot, as there is in that of Toppan Robie.