John A. Poor

John Poor was born in East Andover, Massachusetts (now Andover, Maine), to Dr. Silvanus Poor and Mary (Merrill) Poor. He became a school teacher at Bethel, Maine, before undertaking the study of law. He was admitted to the Maine Bar in 1834 and established a law practice in Bangor, Maine, with his brother Henry Varnum Poor. John was inspired by his first viewing of a steam locomotive on the Boston and Worcester Railroad in 1834. ==Railroads==

Poor promoted the concept of a railroad from Montreal to Portland, Maine. Montreal would gain access to an ice-free seaport while the Saint Lawrence River was frozen; and Portland would gain commercial opportunities from the transfer of Canadian exports in its harbor. Portland writer, critic, and investor, John Neal wrote of the necessity "to drive Boston out of the business and secure [a] monopoly." Poor's vision was realized when Portland became the winter seaport of the transcontinental Grand Trunk Railway. The railway was completed a month after his death in 1871. He was president of the York and Cumberland Railroad in 1851, and president of the Penobscot and Kennebec Railroad in 1852. His ambitious vision for Portland's rail connection with Chicago was never realized, but his European and North American Railway became the eastern end of the transcontinental Canadian Pacific Railway. ==Legacy==

The City of Portland passed the following resolutions in 1871 in respect to the memory of John A. Poor: :"Resolved, that among the many laborious, energetic and far-seeing business men of Portland, to whom we are indebted for the consideration we now enjoy, both at home and abroad, the Honorable John A. Poor, who called away on Tuesday morning last, stood foremost - head and shoulders above the rest. :"As not merely a business man, but as a statesman, large-hearted, sagacious, indefatigable and self sacrificing, it was not for the present, but for the future, that he underwent such labor for nearly thirty years, as resulted in sudden death at the age of sixty-three, when the grandest of all his magnificent undertaking wanted but a few days of completion. :"Resolved, That to his labor, knowledge and foresight, we are indebted for the Atlantic & St. Lawrence Railway, now the Grand Trunk, whereby our valuation has nearly quadrupled since 1842, the season of our greatest depression and discouragement; :"For the opening of Commercial Street now lined on both sides with large business houses and resulting in the Marginal Way, one hundred feet in width, around our whole city, front and back, and over three miles in length, giving us an uninterrupted water front, worth million to us, in connection with our unrivaled harbor; :"For the opening of our Portland Works, where engines and cars of the best workmanship have been built, year after year in large numbers not only for the railroads of Maine, but for other and very distant regions, during the last twenty years; :"For the establishment of our Gas Works, after they had come to a full stop; And for much that has been done first and last for the flourishing Rochester Road, now on its way to New York; :"For the original movement, which resulted in the hydrographic survey of our state by that able and conscientious engineer, Walter Wells, whereby our whole country has been brought acquainted with the astonishing accumulation of water power within our territory for manufacturing purposes. :"Resolved, That to John A. Poor we are indebted for the project of out European and North American Railway, now nearly completed - as part of the Trans-continental and Inter-oceanic railway through Portland, Rutland, Oswego, and Chicago - which, had he lived, would soon be in successful operation, a great highway for the nations, opening the West, by a direct line, the nearest, safest and cheapest transportation, for five hundred million bushels of wheat which Baring Brothers have already provided a market for, and for whatever else the overflowing West may desire to be rid of; enriching the farmers and connecting the Old World with the New, China, Japan, and the East with all Europe, through our territory, leaving us to take toll both ways, and bringing the commercial world acquainted with our magnificent harbor, and our unequaled facilities for a large business; all the other enterprises mentioned, though successful, being but preliminary and subordinate to this, now so near its consummation. :"Resolved, That while we desire to bear sad testimony to the world of the departed, we cannot withhold our sympathy from his wife and child, thought we are aware that, for a season, their loss will be but aggravated by such evidence, because we believe that after a time it may be among the greatest of their earthly consolations." The Liberty ship SS John A. Poor was named for him. ==References==