Percival Proctor Baxter

Percival Proctor Baxter (November 22, 1876 – June 12, 1969) was a Republican governor of the U.S. state of Maine who served from 1921 to 1925.

Early life

Baxter was born into a wealthy family in Portland, Maine where his father James Phinney Baxter served six terms as mayor and had made his fortune in the canning industry. He graduated from Portland High School in 1894, Bowdoin College in 1898, and earned a law degree from Harvard University in 1901. He went into the family real estate business in Portland. He had seven siblings. However he was to inherit the bulk of the family money.

Elective history

*Maine State Senate - 1909-1910
*Maine House of Representatives - 1916-1919
*Maine State Senate - 1919-1921 (President in Pro-Tempe in 1921)
*Governor of Maine - 1921-1924 (succeeded upon death of Governor Frederic H. Parkhurst and then elected to one term
*Unsuccessful run for U.S. Senate - 1926

Baxter State Park

Baxter's history is intertwined with Baxter State Park which bears his name and with Mount Katahdin, Maine's highest point (the highest knob on Katahdin is called Baxter Peak).

In 1903 Baxter went on a fishing trip to the area around Katahdin for the first time. A push had begun in 1895 when the Maine Proprietors Association urged the state to turn it into a state park to attract tourists. In 1911 a bill was introduced to turn it into a U.S. National Park but none of the plans came to fruition.

In 1916 Baxter began his campaign to turn it into a state park. In 1920 he led a group of politicians up Pamola Peak, traversing the Knife Edge to the summit (now known as Baxter Peak).

In a 1921 speech Baxter said::Maine is famous for its twenty-five hundred miles of seacoast, with its countless islands; for its myriad lakes and ponds; and for its forests and rivers. But Mount Katahdin Park will be the state’s crowning glory, a worthy memorial to commemorate the end of the first and the beginning of the second century of Maine’s statehood. This park will prove a blessing to those who follow us, and they will see that we built for them more wisely than our forefathers did for us.

Most of the land around Katahdin was owned by the Great Northern Paper Company. Following Crash of 1929, the company agreed to sell convert|6000|acre|km2 around the mountain for $25,000 in 1930 to Baxter personally.

Baxter in turn deeded the land to the state with the proviso it:

:…shall forever be used for public park and recreational purposes, shall be forever left in the natural wild state, shall forever be kept as a sanctuary for wild beasts and birds, that no road or ways for motor vehicles shall hereafter ever be constructed thereon or therein.

The park was named in his honor in 1931.

Baxter was to continue to attempt to add property to the parkndash often running into opposition from those who did not want to sell or making temporary trade offs to allow continued timber operations before the land acquisition was completed.

Baxter, saying he did not trust the federal government, was to resist efforts to turn the park into a national park. He placed various restrictive covenants on the park so that today it is still not actually part of the Maine government body that administers the state's other parks. Rather it is administered by the Baxter State Park Authority.

In 1962 Baxter, at the age of 87, donated his 28th deed. The park now comprises convert|314|sqmi|km2. Baxter, who died a bachelor, left $7 million to maintain the park.

Other activities

In 1953 Baxter donated Mackworth Island to the state. He also deeded his summer home in Falmouth, Maine to create the Governor Baxter School for the Deaf (founded in 1957 from what was the Maine School for the Deaf), which still operates today.

Baxter died in Portland, and his ashes are scattered in the park.

References

* [http://www.maine.gov/legis/senate/history/past/prespast/1921pb.htm Maine.gov biography]
* [http://rptsweb.tamu.edu/pugsley/Baxter.htm TAMU.EDU profile]