Josiah Appleton Bucknam died age 72 in Mechanic
Falls, Maine in (1893?)


Josiah Appleton Bucknam died age 72 in Mechanic
Falls, Maine in (1893?) Mr. Bucknam was highly
esteemed in his own community. He was an active
ardent business man, and devoted to all
philanthropies, to the faith Universalism) in which
he was so zealous as to be one of its leaders in the
state and to politics in which he was a lover of
reform and the fruits thereof.

.........

Mr. Bucknam was born in Hebron, Maine on 21 March
1821. He was educated at the county schools of
Hebron and himself taught school when twenty years
of age, for $13 a month. He was prudent as a boy and
much of a capitalist, it being related that he made
his first capital speculation on a dog which he
wisely "swapped" for a sheep which he fostered and
whose increase netted him $90. On May 1843, he took
his limited capital to Portland, where he bought a
peddler's cart and some dry goods which he drove
that season through Cumberland and Oxford Counties
with fair success.

In the fall of 1842, his brother, Joseph, who had
established a store at West Minot, Maine, offered
him a partnership, which he ac-cepted, the firm name
being J & J A Bucknam. They continued to trade in
small way until 1847, when they purchased the store
of Deacon Joseph Hall and Ezra Mitchell at Mechanic
Falls and began to trade on the site of what is now
(1893) the brick store of J A Bunknam & Co.

In 1843, they began the manufacture of cowhide boots
and women's kid shoes at West Minot, which was
continued until 1850 at Mechanic Falls. The store at
West Minot was conducted until 1848. Business was
then brisk at Mechanic Falls. The railroad had
arrived, making it a business centre and opening up
a large circle of trade. The Bucknams rented the
hotel (now Hawkes & Whitney's store) and ran that
for two years as a hotel as well as running also
their store and factory.

The depression that followed these years is well-
known. The state of business caused the Bucknams to
contract their business somewhat. Joseph sold out to
Josiah Appleton Bucknam, who abandoned the shoe
business and added a custom-clothing department to
his store. In 1854, the making of sales work work
was commenced. Only two men were employed at the
shops, and the work was sent out to families. All
sewing was done by hand for there was no sewing
machines. The business increased rapidly and even
the panic year of 1857 was very prosperous. In 1882,
this business was removed from the small building
where it was established, to the building now
occupied, where as many as 80 hands have been
employed in preparing the work for shipment and
where 800 people in a circle of fifty miles have
been on the payroll.

In 1862, Mr. Bucknam formed the firm of Bucknam &
Cobb by admission of Francis H. Cobb as partner. Two
years later H. L. Jones was admitted and the firm
was then Bucknam, Cobb & Co.  In 1869, Mr. Bucknam
purchased Mr. Cobb's interest and the firm was
reorganized by the admission of Chas. H. Dwinal,
Joseph and William B. Bucknam as members. Joseph
Bucknam died in August 1870 and in 1871 Mr. E. A.
Gammon purchased Mr. Jones's interest.  Mr. Gammon
had been clerk in the store since in 1864. In 1879,
Mr. Bucknam and Mr. Gammon bought out the other
partners and have since conducted the business.

In 1866, they built a fine brick store. In 1869,
they added a grocery business, which has been very
extensive, amounting to $100,000 a year. This is but
a portion of An Active Life. He has built and helped
build churches, has traveled hundreds and hundreds
of miles in matters connected with religion and
politics. We met him one summer day at Fryburg,
where he had driver across country to attend a great
Universalist gathering there in one of the groves of
Fryeburg.  He was originally a democrat but when
that party divided on the issue of temperance, he
voted the temperance ticket for governor and became
a republican when that party was formed with
independent proclivities. He was a lively worker in
polities and a frequent delegate to political
conventions. He has been town treasurer and a
Representative in the State Legislature. He has
always been a prominent temperance man.

In 1858, he was made a Free Mason and in 1876 an Odd
Fellow. He was a trustee of the Univervalist State
Convention and never missed one of this gatherings.
He was an energetic lay speaker and his counsels
were valuable.

Mrs. Bucknam, who died 19 May 1886 was Nancy Judson
Glover, born in Hebron, Oxford Co, Maine and a
descendant in the seventh generation of George
Barrows whose posterity have done so much in
building the sustaining Hebron Academy. They had
three sons: Judson J; Edward H. Chapin, and Charles
W. Their son: Edward H. Chapin Bucknam died 13 Aug
1891. The other sons are residents of Mechanic
Falls, Maine.

In personal life Mr. Bucknam possessed meritorious
traits and firm, unmovable convictions.  In 1849, he
gave up use of tabacco and never returned to it.  In
1851, he became a pronouced teetotaler and
prohibitionist. In 1853, he desiccated henceforth -
for all his life, one-tenth of all his actual gain
to benevolent objects. He kept all those pledges to
the letter.

In Mechanic Falls, Mr. Bucknam will be greatly
missed. He was progressive man and took a direct
personal interest in all measures to promote the
welfare of the community. In his death a good man
has gone.