Lithograph of Daniel Freeman Emery (1808-1891) by Boston artist John Angel James Wilcox in the 1897 book The New England States, Their Constitutional, Judicial, Educational, Commercial, Professional and Industrial History by William Thomas Davis.

Emery founded the Portland hardware firm of Emery Waterhouse in 1842.

Bio. of Emery from the book (pages 1301-1302):

DANIEL FREEMAN EMERY.

The subject of this sketch was the son of Joshua and Martha (Freeman) Emery, and was born in Portland, Me, February 4, 1808. Until fourteen years of age he attended the public schools of his native city, and then entered the hardware store of Henry Goddard & Co., as a boy of all work. In those days janitors and porters were unknown, and it was a part of his duty to go to the house of his employer, Mr. Goddard, early in the morning and get the store-key and open the store and sweep it out preparatory to the trade of the day. The boys of those times, who afterwards became thoroughly trained merchants, began at the lowest rung in the ladder, receiving for the first year or two a certain amount of business training as the consideration for their work. The shop was the school and the employer the master, furnishing a better foundation for a business career, than the general education of a college, which as often unfits as fits the young men of to-day for the course in life they wish to pursue.

As a result of his early training, Mr. Emery at twenty-one years of age was admitted to the firm, while some of his early companions were just leaving college and drifting aimlessly about, with only one of the professions, already too full, open for their unpromising entrance. He remained in the firm until 1835, when, having accumulated a moderate capital, he went to New Orleans and engaged in contracts for granite paving. Granite paving was then the almost universally accepted method, and many of the vessels freighted for the North with cotton, took paving-stones back as freight or ballast. In 1842, having returned to Portland, he established the hard- ware firm of Emery & Waterhouse, consisting of himself and Joshua W. Waterhouse, which continued business under that name until 1866, when Mr. Waterhouse retired and the firm of Emery, Waterhouse & Co. was formed, consisting of Daniel Freeman Emery and his son, Edward Augustus Emery, and Daniel Freeman Emery, Jr. In 1873, after the death of Edward A. Emery, John T. Eustis and Edward B. Cook were admitted to the firm, the name of which continued as before. Mr. Emery continued his connection with the firm until his death, carrying on a large wholesale and retail business, and maintaining also a factory in North Monmouth, Me., for the manufacture of axes and shovels.

Mr. Emery was one of the solid men of Portland, and his well-known figure was seen daily in its streets, going to and from business, until the very day of his death. His commanding frame and snow-white beard always attracted attention, and reminded those of younger years of the days when merchants were reared, not born, as now, ready made, and, like houses built on the sand, yielding to the first financial gale.

Though somewhat feeble during his last few years, every day, in clear weather or foul, he visited his store, remaining through the business hours, having an oversight of all transactions, and by his wise counsel guiding the affairs of the concern in safe and conservative channels. On the day of his death, at the age of eighty- three, his carriage came to the door to take him to the store, but was ordered away as he said he felt well enough to walk. He had, however, not proceeded far from his residence on State street, when his strength failed, and he leaned against the fence for support. He was taken into the house of Mrs. Moore, a neighbor, and there on the 29th of December, 1891, breathed his last. In religious belief Mr. Emery was a Swedenborgian, and though the angel of death had been long hovering about him, its wings brought no terror to his heart. He had rounded out the full life of man, and in reviewing the incidents of his career his conscience suffered no pangs. He lived and died an honest and faithful business man, honored and respected by all who knew him.

Mr. Emery married, March 4, 1834, Sarah A., daughter of William Woodbury, of Portland, and had three sons and two daughters — Edward Augustus, who married Abby Lowell, of Portland; Daniel Freeman, Jr., who in 1872 married Martha Webster Gilman, of Orono, Maine (who died in 1880), and again married, in 1883, Mabel Stanwood, and is a member of the firm of Emery, Waterhouse & Co. and president of the Rumford Falls Paper Co.; Frederick W., who lives in Boston and is president of the New York Talc Company; Josephine, who married Nehemiah W. Rice, of Boston; and Lucia, an adopted daughter, who married Edward C. Johnson, of Boston.