Greater Kennebec Valley
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Augusta’s Horatio Bridge Paymaster General of the Navy by James Nalley
O
tually served in the U.S. Navy, it was Bridge’s appreciation of Hawthorne’s early writings and his overall faith in the man’s genius that helped him to continue on. In fact, Hawthorne later mentioned that “Bridge was solely responsible for my being an author” and one of his first books, The Snow Image, was dedicated to his close friend. Horatio Bridge was born in Augusta, Maine on April 8, 1806. The son of James Bridge, a prominent judge and Bowdoin College Trustee, Horatio received his early education in some of the region’s best private schools, including Hallowell Academy. After graduating from Bowdoin College, he continued on to study law at Northhampton Law School in Massachusetts. Although the school was only open for a few years in the 1820s, it produced several well-
n a beautiful sunny day in May 1825, the crowds gathered at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine to watch the Class of 1825 receive their hard-earned degrees. Sitting among the proud graduates were two unknown names of the time ― Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Nathaniel Hawthorne, who were both about to embark on their careers in the field of literature. Many of the graduates had either secured some type of employment or enrolled in further academic study. However, the field of literature was just as precarious as it is today, and Hawthorne contemplated another path. Fortunately, Horatio Bridge, a fellow graduate and one of his closest friends, was there to encourage him. Although Bridge went on to law school and even-
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