Cicero, it appears Percival Baxter is James Phinney Baxter's son. Here's the obit for James:
OBITUARY: James Phinney BaxterI'm reading his The Greatest of Literary Problems at the moment. IF -- cornelis' big IF -- Baxter's interpretation of the documentary evidence regarding one Wm. Shakspear of Stratford-on-Avon is correct, then I just can't imagine how that person could be the author of Shakespeare's works.
Sprague's Journal of Maine History
Volume 9, April–June, 1921 No. 2
Page 78-80James Phinney Baxter
(By the Editor)A brilliant human light was extinguished, when, on Sunday, May 8, 1921, at his home in Portland, occurred the death of James Phinney Baxter, father of Governor Percival P. Baxter. It is only the truth to say that he was one of the greatest of Maine's eminent men of the present generation. He was born in Gorham, Maine, March 23, 1831, the son of Dr. Elihu and Sarah (Cone) Baxter. When nine years of age his parents moved to Portland which was ever after his home. At that time there was in Portland a far famed school for boys known as "Master Jackson's School." He was a scholar there until thirteen years of age when he attended the Lynn Academy four years. At first his parents were desirous of his becoming a lawyer and he entered the office of Rufus Choate in Boston for this purpose, but failing health compelled him to return to Portland, and his legal studies thus interrupted were never resumed. He entered into the business of importing dry goods with the late William G. Davis who was later prominent in the affairs of the Maine Central Railroad. Baxter and Davis were pioneers in the canning and packing business and Maine owes them much for successfully developing this great industry in our State.
Possibly his experience as a boy in the Portland schools convinced him that the opportunities for improving educational conditions there were vast. But from whatever source his inspiration may have come he was for a lifetime a consistent and persistent advocate of whatever would advance the cause of education in his city and state.
Successful in all of his undertakings he acquired a large fortune, but wealth did not narrow his vision, shrivel his manhood, or dry up his milk of human kindness. His benevolence and philanthropy as a private citizen and his activities in organized charities are known to all men.
To his native town and his adopted city he has donated public libraries, and has made other munificent gifts in other directions of a public nature. The city of Portland and the State of Maine have in innumerable ways been benefited by his life efforts.
A publicist of strong convictions, fearless in his positions when believing that he was right, he was long an important factor and a moulder of thought in political and public affairs. And yet political management as such never appealed to him. He never held but one important office, so far as we are aware, which was when the people of his city demanded his services as mayor, which position he held for six years.
He was at the time of his death president of the Portland Public Library, the Baxter Library of Gorham, the Benevolent Society and since 1890 of the Maine Historical Society, also an overseer of Bowdoin College. He was connected with the New England Historical and Genealogical Society, the American Antiquarian Society, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Massachusetts Historical Society and the Old Colony Historical Society. He also held the office of secretary of foreign correspondence of the American Antiquarian Society.
But this many-sided man will be best known in the field of literature and historical research, and as an authority on New England history, especially that portion of it pertaining to Maine's colonial period. In this regard he has left monuments for himself which will last through the ages.
His intellectual activities for the past century have amazed those of his friends who fully realized what a busy life he led along other and diverse lines. In his younger days Mr. Baxter contributed poetry to literary journals like The Home Journal, Shillaber's Carpet Bag, Godey's Lady's Book, the Portland Transcript, etc. We have not the necessary data at hand to enumerate all of his labors as an author. Williamson's Bibliography of Maine, published in 1896, has a list of twenty-seven at that time. Among his most important works are the Trelawney Papers, George Cleve and His Times, the British Invasion from the North, Sir Ferdinando Gorges and His Province of Maine, The Pioneers of New France in New England, The Voyages of Jacques Cartier, Journal of Lieut. William Digby, 1776-1777. Only six years ago (1915), he contributed to the literature of the world an important and learned study of the Bacon-Shakespeare controversy. This was published under the title of "The Greatest of Literary Problems" and elicited much discussion among reviewers and men of letters.
Twenty-four volumes of the Documentary History of Maine, have been published, all of them part of the Collections of the Maine Historical Society. The first two volumes were edited by William Willis, and Charles Deane, and the two volumes of the Farnham Papers, were edited by Mary Frances Farnham. The other twenty volumes which include the Trelawney Papers, were edited by Mr. Baxter. The nineteen volumes of the Baxter Manuscripts represent one of the greatest feats of historical research ever performed by any one person that we have knowledge of. Mr. Baxter, at his own expense visited and personally examined all of the records, letters, deeds, or writings of any description pertaining to the history of Maine, in the Archives of Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Montreal, Quebec, London, and Paris, and procured copies of them. These are what constitute the "Baxter Manuscripts." They are invaluable to all students of Maine history. No accurate story of Maine's Colonial and Revolutionary periods, or of any parts thereof, can ever in all the fullness of time, be written or compiled without reference to them.
It is truly a large footprint on the sands of time. It is the record of a great and worthy achievement.
(c) 1998
Courtesy of the Androscoggin Historical Society
Anyhoot, as I said, it's a puzzle!
You wrote: "Shakespeare critics have no use for theories that Bacon or Oxford wrote Shakespeare's plays." I find this unsurprising. FWIW, it seems to me that once an orthodoxy gets established, it is extremely difficult to question or challenge it.
How interesting that you have a family connection to the Maine Baxters!
Thanks for writing, Cicero! MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Thanks, Betty. Yes, my daughter and son-in-law are here for Christmas. Evidently the President of Williams was the same-named son of your author and brother of the governor. I asked my son-in-law about it after posting.
The family goes back to the father mentioned in the article who invented a method for automated canning. As a result, Maine became a center for canning fish and other food. Also, the Union victory in the civil war may owe something to this invention, since the Confederates never had the same advantage that comes from canned food in the supply line.
I agree with you about the problems of professional orthodoxy. After all, I'm the one who keeps mentioning Thomas Kuhn. Nevertheless, I think the orthodox position has overwhelming evidence to support its position in this instance. Just about the only contrary evidence I've seen offered is wishful thinking and the snobbish attitude that those plays couldn't have been written by anyone less than a blue-blooded gentleman with ancestors going back to the Conquest.