Ames family.

John K. Ames was born in East Machias, Maine, on November 7, 1831. He was in the lumber business in Machias for nearly fifty years. As a young man, he was employed by S.W. Pope and Company, lumber manufacturers, becoming their agent and manager. This company had been formed by Samuel W. Pope and operated sawmills in East Machias, Whitneyville and Columbia Falls. It also owned the railroad at Whitneyville, Harwood Mills, wharves at Machias, and timberland in three townships and parts of three others. It had a business in Boston conducted by William Pope and Sons; John Ames was William Pope's nephew. In 1880 he bought an interest in the company and operated its mills until 1899, when he formed the Machias Lumber Company. The Machias Lumber Company owned about 100,000 acres of timber as well as nearly all of the waterpower, sawmills and wharves on the Machias River. By 1908, the company employed thousands of men and shipped its products throughout New England and New York. John Ames married Sarah Sanborn in 1855 and they had six children: Edwin G., Anna M., Julia P., Frank S., Alfred K. and Lucy T. Ames. John Ames died in 1901.

Frank S. Ames was treasurer of the Machias Lumber Company and also operated F.S. Ames & Co., dealers in fine groceries, dry goods, boots and shoes in Buck's Harbor, Maine.

Alfred K. Ames was born in Machias on September 4, 1866. In 1900 he married Nellie E. Hill and they had one son, John Keller Ames. Alfred Ames succeeded his father as president and general manager of the Machias Lumber Company. He continued the company's logging and mill operations until 1930 when the firm's holdings were sold to the Seaboard Paper Company. He served in the Maine Senate from 1915 to 1919 and had an unsuccessful run as the Republican candidate for governor of Maine in 1934. Alfred Ames is also known as the creator in 1930 of a film called "From Stump to Ship," which documented his lumber business and the changing nature of lumbering in Maine. He later worked for the Burrowes Corporation in Portland. Alfred Ames died on May 19, 1950.

From the description of Family papers, 1849-1961 (bulk 1870-1934). (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 54758405