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LEGENDS FROMTOPIMAGEARCADE.COMBUSH41LIBRARY sonsa number of Maines citizens have had knighthood bestowed upon them. MAINES FIRST KNIGHTS The first two Mainers to be knighted were subjects of the British Crown. Born to a Woolwich family of reportedly modest means William Phips 1651-1695 made his fortune as a treasure hunter locating and salvaging the riches from sunken Span- ish vessels. After turning over one-tenth of the booty to the crown Phips was knighted by King James II and appointed royal gover- nor of Massachusetts Colony. From then on things turned somewhat dicey for Sir Wil- liam. In 1692 he bowed to religious and po- litical pressure by creating a special court to hear the many accusations of witchcraft emanating from Salem Village. Phips placed his lieutenant governor William Stoughton in charge of the court. Stoughton was utterly devoid of legal training but more than qual- ified as a religious zealot and very few of the accused walked free from the trials. After a number of locals had been tortured and ex- ecuted Phips finally heeded the public out- cry and granted a handful of pardons but neither the community nor Phipss reputa- tion would ever be the same. William Pepperrell 1696-1759 of Kit- tery epitomized the self-made man achiev- ing great riches and prominence and be- coming the most famous American of the early 18th century. But it was for his service as a soldier that he was knighted. In 1745 during King Georges War Pepperell helped organize finance and lead a successful ex- pedition against the French fortifications at Louisbourg. It was a stunning achieve- ment and the king made him a baronet a member of an hereditary order. The phe- nomenally wealthy Pepperrell enjoyed the good life to the fullest and in the words of Nathaniel Hawthorne spent the remain- der of his days in all the pomp of a colonial grandee. According to prominent Maine historian Ernest Marriner Sir William who had once enjoyed being rowed across the Piscataqua in Governor Winthrops barge acquired a barge of his own rowed by liveried black slaves. He owned a tract of over 100 miles that stretched from the Saco to the Piscataqua rivers and his opu- lent mansion with its extensive formal gar- dens was maintained by a staff of a dozen slaves. Slavery had not yet been abolished in Massachusetts and ownership was an obvi- ous sign of wealth and status. In 1759 after attaining the highest level of military polit- ical and commercial success William Pep- perrellwrites Hawthornelaid down his aristocratic head among the humbler ashes of his fathers. THE KNIGHTS FROM SANGERVILLE Sangerville Maine boasts a population few- er than 1400. And yet the tiny town in Pis- cataquis County fostered two Knights of the Realm They could not have been more dif- ferent from one another. One contributed a fortune to the improvement of social condi- tions while the other developed an instru- ment of war. B orn in Sangerville Hiram Stevens Maxim 1840-1916 was a world- class inventor. He first demonstrat- ed his creative skills by inventing a bet- ter mousetrapliterally. By all reports his self-resetting snare was highly success- ful in eliminating rodents from a local grist mill. In his lifetime the prolific Hiram was awarded over 270 patents for inventions ranging from the pocket inhaler and the curling iron to smokeless gunpowder and aircraft artillery. He even dabbled albe- it unsuccessfully in the realm of sustained flight. His crowning achievement howev- er and the one for which he is remembered today was the invention of the self-powered machine gun. After a myopic U.S. War De- partment refused to purchase his invention Hiram set up a plant in Britain from which he successfully marketed his doomsday de- vice to virtually every other major army in the world. So impressed was Queen Victoria with Maxims gun that she had him knight- ed. Hiram Maxim lived until 1916two years after the outbreak of World War I and in time to see millions fall before the terrible efficiency of his invention. Harry Oakes 1874-1943 was born 34 years later and achieved notorietyand knighthoodby a totally different route. De- spite what was considered a fine education for its timea bachelors degree from Bow- doin College and graduate credits from Syr- acuse Medical SchoolHarry left home at 21 G eorge H. W. Bush isnt the only presidential knight. Three U.S. presidentsall Republi- canshave been knighted one be- fore he ever ran for ofce. In the fall of 1945 King George VI conferred the Order of Merit on a decidedly under- whelmed General of the Army Dwight D. Eisenhower. It was one of many honors heaped by grateful govern- ments on a no-nonsense professional soldier whose primary objective was the winning of World War II and who had little patience for the trappings of state. In a letter to General George Marshall Eisenhower bemoaned what he called a fearful drain on avail- able time. I do hope the whole busi- ness is doing a little good. Otherwise I am certainly inconveniencing myself to no purpose. In 1989 the British government be- stowed on President Ronald Reagan described by one reporter as Prime Minister Margaret Thatchers conser- vative soul matehis own GCB. Both Reagan and Bush were knighted after their terms of ofce had expired since Article I Section 9 of the U.S. Consti- tution prohibits members of the gov- ernment from accepting any pres- ent emolument ofce or title of any kind whatever from any king prince or foreign state without the approval of Congress. Maxim lived to see millions fall before the terrible efficiency of his invention. Mr. President Good knight