Androscoggin-Cumberland County ME Archives Biographies.....Newell, William H. 1854 - 
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Author: Everett S. Stackpole

   HON. WILLIAM H. NEWELL, son of Wm. B. and Susannah K. Newell, was born in
Durham, April 16, 1854. After pursuing the branches taught in the local schools
he attended the Western State Normal School at Farmington, from which he
graduated in 1872. Thence he went to the Maine Wesleyan Seminary at Kent's Hill,
graduating from the Classical Department of this institution in 1876.

   During the next six years Mr. Newell was principal of the Grammar School at
Brunswick, a position which he filled with a great deal of success at a very
trying time.

   While engaged in teaching at Brunswick he pursued a wide course of study and
general reading at the Bowdoin College library and entered upon the study of the
law in the office of Weston Thompson, Esq. While still teaching he was admitted
to the Sagadahoc County Bar, at Bath.

   In 1882 he abandoned teaching and removed to Lewiston, where he immediately
opened a law office. He formed a co-partnership with Hon. D. J. McGillicuddy and
F. X. Belleau, Esq., under the style of Newell, McGillicuddy & Belleau, with
offices in Central Block at the corner of Main and Lisbon streets. He soon after
withdrew from this concern and associated himself with Wilbur H. Judkins, Esq.,
as Newell & Judkins.

   This partnership lasted until January 1, 1894, when Mr. Newell withdrew and
became senior member of the present firm of Newell & Skelton, which is now
recognized as one of the leading law firms in Androscoggin County.

   He was married to Ida F. Plummer September 20, 1883. They have three
children, Augusta Plummer, born March 17, 1887, Gladys Weeks, born October 13,
1890, and Dorothy, born February 2, 1894.

   Mr. Newell is a Democrat in politics and, while he has never made politics in
any sense a vocation, he has been called upon to fill many public offices. He
was auditor of accounts for the City of Lewiston in 1885 and City Solicitor in
1890. In 1890 he was elected County Attorney of Androscoggin County by a large
majority in a normally strong Republican county. In the following spring he was
elected Mayor of Lewiston and was re-elected in 1892. He has been urged several
times since then to accept the nomination at the hands of the business men of
the City. In 1898, at the earnest request of the tax payers and representative
citizens, he again became a candidate for the mayoralty on a Democratic ticket
endorsed by the citizens in general. His great popularity is attested by the
fact that he was elected by a majority of almost 400 against a Republican
majority of 997 at the preceding election. He is now serving his third term in
this important office.

   He has also held many important positions of trust outside of politics. He
was a delegate from the Maine State Bar Association to the twenty-first annual
convention of the American Bar Association at Saratoga in 1898. About a year ago
Chief Justice Peters appointed him to membership on the Commission to draft a
plan for the annexation of the City of Deering to Portland.

   Mr. Newell is largely interested in important business enterprises and is
officially connected with numerous corporations. He is Vice President and a
director of the Manufacturers' National Bank of Lewiston, director and clerk of
the Rumford Falls and Rangeley Lakes Railroad, director and clerk of the Maine
Pulp and Paper Company, and director of the Androscoggin Water Power Company.

   He is a member of the Board of Trade and of the local social clubs and
organizations. He is an Odd Fellow and a member of all the local Masonic bodies.
He is also a member of Kora Temple, Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, and attended
the annual convention of Mystic Shriners at Dallas, Texas, in June 1898, as
Supreme Representative from Maine.

   As a lawyer Mr. Newell stands among the foremost in the State. Sound,
conservative and well grounded in his profession, he enjoys the confidence of
the business public in a marked degree. An exceptionally able advocate, keen,
incisive and resourceful, he is a terror to an obstinate or prevaricating
witness and always makes the hardest fight when the odds are most against him.
His reserve power and ability to adapt himself to varying circumstances is often
the subject of remark among his associates.

   His fidelity to his clients, his strict integrity and his executive ability
have brought him much into the management of large estates, and an extensive
practice in this line, both in probate and in commercial transactions, testifies
very emphatically to his success in his chosen profession.

   Generous, hospitable and public spirited in a marked degree, he makes and
holds friends without regard to political affiliations or business associations.
He is apparently never happier than when assisting some struggling member of his
own profession over a difficult point in his case, and the younger attorneys at
his Bar all say that no one ever seeks assistance of him in vain, no matter how
busy he may be.


Additional Comments:

Part of Chapter IX.
A FEW OUT OF MANY

Extracted from:

HISTORY OF DURHAM, MAINE
WITH GENEALOGICAL NOTES.

BY EVERETT S. STACKPOLE.

PUBLISHED BY VOTE OF TOWN.

LEWISTON: PRESS OF LEWISTON JOURNAL COMPANY. 
1899.


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