James Phinney Baxter

James Phinney Baxter (March 23, 1831 – May 8, 1921) was an American politician, businessperson, historian, civic leader, and benefactor of Portland, Maine. He was elected as mayor of Portland for six single-year terms between 1893 and 1905.

His personal library, containing over 100 leather-bound books of maps, portraits, engravings and personal letters, is available for reference at the Portland Public Library.

Biography James Phinney Baxter was the son of Dr. Elihu Baxter and Sarah Cone Baxter. He was born in Gorham, Maine (in what is now called the Baxter House), on March 23, 1831, but lived in Portland from 1840. He attended Master Jackson's School until 1844, and then Lynn Academy until 1848. He began work in the Boston law offices of Rufus Choate, but ill health forced a return to Portland, where he worked in a dry-goods importing business with William G Davis, pioneering a canning and packing business (Portland Packing Company) that became important to the state's economy.

He used the wealth engendered by his successful business for philanthropic purposes. He was particularly passionate about supporting educational endeavors, and donated a public library (the Baxter Memorial Library) to his birthplace, Gorham, and a library to his adopted city, Portland. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1915. Baxter was a member of the Maine Society of Colonial Wars.

Baxter was a life-long opponent of vivisection and his Will prohibited any payment from his estate to persons who practiced vivisection.

Personal

Baxter died in 1921 at the age of 90, and a Congregationalist pastor officiated at his funeral, although Baxter was also affiliated with the Swedenborg Church. He is buried at Evergreen Cemetery and a large monument to him and his family is located at his gravesite.

One of his sons, Percival Proctor Baxter, wrote a short biography of his father, James Phinney Baxter, Historian in 1921. concluding with "My father had faith in mankind, faith in the future of America, faith in God and faith in the world to come."

Selected publications The Trelawney Papers (1884) George Cleeve and His Times (1885) The British Invasion from the North (1887) Sir Ferdinando Georges and his Province of Maine (1890) Christopher Levett, of York: The Pioneer Colonist in Casco Bay (1893) The Observatory (1893) The Pioneers of New France in New England (1894) The Voyages of Jacque Cartier (1906) The Greatest of Literary Problems: The Authorship of the Shakespeare Works (1917)

Descendants Descendants of James Phinney Baxter include: Percival Proctor Baxter, governor of Maine James Phinney Baxter III, president of Williams College