Democratic Sentinel, Volume 6, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 December 1882 — The Richest Man In Maine. [ARTICLE]

The Richest Man In Maine.

Every morning, Sundays excepted, at a few minutes before 9 o’clock, © pair of black horses and a two-seated phaeton halt at the door of the First National Bank in Skowhegan. The team is commonplace in respect to horses, carriage and driver. The horses arc good, strong, clean-limbed beasts, but their trapping and grooming evince a disregard of appearances. The carriage is free from gloss and style. The old gentleman who alights and enters the bank is the richest man in Maine, ex-Gov. Abner Coburn. His wealth is estimated at $0,000,000 or $7,000,000, but can only be approximated. He and his brother Philander owned at the time timber lands worth $4,000,000 in Michigan and Minnesota. The brother is now dead. Besides his large possessions in Maine, the ex-Governor is said to own extensive timber lands in the region of Puget Sound. There are no heirs to his property but nieces. He was never married. His only living brother, Alonzo, is in very feeble health, and the ex-Governor will probably survive him. There is no one to perpetuate the Coburn name. Of eight brothers, not one has left a male heir. The last of them (Stephen’s son) was drowned with his father a few months ago. Ex-Gov, Coburn is 80 years old, and is for more reasons than one a remarkable man. In appearance he is venerable, but exceedingly well preserved. The frosts of eighty winters have given his head and face a whiteness that at first sight startles one, and invariably evokes a feeling of extreme respect in approaching him. Time has laid a kindly hand upon him. Himemory was never better. His sentences are quick, clean-cut and busi ness-like. His own efforts and astuteness have accumulated his immense fortune. He was a farmer’s boy. He was born in Skowhegan, about three miles out of the village. He lived on the farm till 1840, when he entered into the lumbering business, from the profits of which, mainly, have come his present possessions. He began as a surveyor and au explorer. He penetrated the wilderness for hundreds of miles, and in this adventurous and hardy pursuit gained the knowledge and skill which led to his profitable investments in timber land. He is still actively engaged in lumbering, and personally directs and superintends the management of his affairs. He has neither a clerk to keep his accounts nor a secretary to write his letters. If a man comes in to buy a township of land, he conducts the negotiations and makes all the calculations himself. If another man comes in to pay a note the millionaire of 80 years computes the interest with his own hand. He writes all his letters and mails them himself. He frequently comes to the postoffice of a morning with a whole armful of correspondence. He makes no display of his wealth whatever. Until recently he hasn’t had a coachman even. He is extremely charitable, and no one whom he believes deserving appeals to him in vain.— Lewiston (Me.) Journal.

A Missouri teacher makes the study of geography interesting to his pupils by beginning at home, taking first counties, locations and boundaries; next States, upon the same plan; then the United States, until the whole subject is mastered;