MR. BOUTELLE was born at Damariscotta, Maine, February 9, 1839. When he was nine years of age his parents removed to Brunswick, and he was educated in the public schools and at Yarmouth Academy. His father being a ship-master, young Boutelle early acquired a desire to follow the sea and he passed the greater part of eleven years of his early life, from the time he was fifteen until he was twenty-six years of age, in that employment.

On his return from a foreign voyage, he offered his services to the Government, and was commissioned April 8, 1862, Acting Master in the Navy. He served in the North and South Atlantic and West Gulf Squadrons, taking part in the blockade of Charleston and Wilmington, the Pocotaligo expedition, the capture of St. John’s Bluff and occupation of Jacksonville, Florida, and while an officer of United States steamer Sassacus was promoted to Lieutenant "for gallant conduct in the engagement with the rebel iron-clad Albermarle,” May 5, 1864. Afterwards, while in command of United States steamer Nyanza, he participated in the capture of Mobile and in receiving surrender of the Confederate fleet, and was assigned to command of the naval forces in Mississippi Sound.

After nearly four years of most distinguished service in this arm of the government defence, he was discharged, at his own requeSt, January 14, 1866. For a time he was commander of a steamer running between New York and Wilmington, after which he was engaged with a commission house in New York.

In 1870 Mr. Boutelle became connected with the Bangor Whig and Courier as managing editor, and on the death of the proprietor, Mr. J. H. Lynde, he, in company with Mr. B. A. Burr, purchased the paper, May 15, 1874. He continued the editorship of the Whig, and has remained in control of its columns ever since.

Mr. Boutelle was a district delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1876; was president of the Maine Blaine Club at the National Convention in 1880: represented Maine on the Republican National Committee at the National Convention of 1884, which nominated Blame and Logan; was delegate at large and chairman of the Maine delegation in the Republican National Convention in 1888, to which he read the cablegrams from Mr. Blame refusing the use of his name as a candidate, and was a member of the Republican State Committee from 1875 to 1882. He was first nominated for Congress in his district, June 24, 1880. After a most vigorous contest with his opponent, who was elected to the previous Congress by nearly 3,000 majority, Mr. Boutelle was defeated by only votes. He was elected by substantial majorities to the Forty-eighth, Forty-ninth, Fiftieth, Fifty-first, Fifty-second, and Fifty-third Congresses, in which he has been the leading Republican member of the Committee on Naval Affairs, and its chairman during the Fifty-first Congress, in which he drafted and secured the passage of the laws providing for the first three modern battle-ships of the new navy, and for the commerce-destroyers, Columbia and Minneapolis, designed to be the fastest in the world.

He has also been the active champion of the policy that has resulted in the establishment of the great steel armor and gun-forging plants at Bethlehem, Midvale, Homestead,, and elsewhere, the equipment of the unequalled gun factory at Washington, D. C., and the development of the finest ship-building works in the world at Philadelphia, San Francisco, Bath, and other places, where modern war ships unexcelled in power, speed and armament are constructed upon American designs and from materials now produced in our own country.

Mr. Boutelle is a man of most positive opinions and is ready to express them on all proper occasions. As a writer he is clear and concise, and as a speaker he is forcible and eloquent. For many years his services have been in demand in every campaign throughout the Eastern and Middle States, and he has most generously responded to those demands, doing excellent service for his party.

In May, 1866, he was married at Augusta to Miss Elizabeth Hodsdon, the second daughter of Adjutant General John L. Hodsdon, whose rare personal charms and beautiful character endeared her to all who knew her at home or at the national capital, where she accompanied her husband with their daughters during the winter sessions of Congress. He always took pleasure in recognizing his great indebtness to her devoted sympathy and wise counsels, and the greatest of sorrows came to him in her sudden death, which occurred July 28, 1892, at their home in Bangor, where he continues to reside with his three daughters, Grace, Elizabeth, and Anne.