Wednesday, May 20, 2015
THE PORTLAND TRANSCRIPT, February 14, 1874
CITY ITEMS
(continued)
Edward Little was born in Newburyport, in 1773, and was the second son of Colonel
Josiah Little of that city. He graduated at Dartmouth in 1797, and prepared himself for
the bar. His early and middle life were spent in Newburyport and Portland. At one time
he was a bookseller and publisher in this city, his stand being in Muzzy's Row, Middle
Street. We occasionally find old volumes containing his imprint.
At the death of his father, who had large landed estates in Maine, he removed to
Danville, now Auburn, and build a mansion in a sightly position, overlooking the
grand water-power, the value and use of which he appreciated. While laboring to
develop the industries of the villages clustered on either side of Lewiston Falls,
foreseeing as he did for the first the grand possibilities of the situation, he did not forget
to plant and to foster the church and the school. One of his first acts, after building the
church, was to give the large and valuable tract of land to Lewiston Falls Academy,
which he also endowed with gifts of money. It is characteristic of the man that he
selected the fairest spot in all his broad domain for the school and had it all planted in
an ample park near the confluence of Little Androscoggin and the Androscoggin rivers.
He was an early laborer in the temperance cause, and the writer of this article well
remembers the series of temperance meetings held nearly forty years ago in his drawing-
room; for there was no hall or vestry then on the territory now occupied by two thriving
cities.
Mr. Little died in 1849. His sons, Thomas, Josiah and Edward survived him, but have
now passed away, leaving many descendants. Two of his daughters are now living, Mrs.
Samuel Pickard, of Auburn, and Mrs. Charles Clark of Lewiston. His young brother,
Josiah of Newburyport, founded the free public library of that city, and many educational
and benevolent associations were benefitted by his munificence. He endowed a professor-
ship at Bowdoin, which has taken his name, and now another professorship in the same
college is to be endowed with funds transferred for the purpose by the trustees of the
Institution founded by Edward Little.
The sculptor who is to model the proposed statue has a noble form and a benignant
countenance to represent in bronze. Fortunately many excellent likenesses of the good
man are in existence. Doubtless a Maine sculptor will receive the commission, and it is
hoped that the first portrait statue may be in every sense a credit to the State.
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