Frank W. Bucknam

Bucknam was born on December 7, 1869, in Yarmouth, Maine, to William and Katie.[2] He was educated in the public schools. After graduating high school, he attended business college in Portland, Maine, graduating around the time of his 21st birthday in 1890.[1]

Leone R. Cook's apothecary was in the unit now occupied by Royal River Books

108 Main Street, Yarmouth, in which Bucknam operated a pharmacy between 1894 and 1900

Bucknam entered the drug business as an apprentice with Leone R. Cook in Yarmouth's Upper Village. While there, in 1894 he received a certificate as a registered pharmacist.[1]

In March 1894, he began running his own store at today's 108 Main Street[3] in Yarmouth's Lower Falls. His stock included toilet articles, patent medicines, paints, oils, wallpaper, leading brands of cigars and confectionary.[4] After six years in business, and while also balancing a role as a Yarmouth town clerk,[5] in 1900 he purchased a store in Skowhegan, living with his wife, Gertrude, on Madison Avenue.[1][6] His new business was destroyed by fire in December 1904, but he was back in business in a temporary store within 36 hours. He eventually found a new home beneath the Oxford Hotel at 78 Water Street. This building too burned down, in 1908.[1][7]

In 1906, Bucknam was appointed Maine's Commissioner of Pharmacy by Governor of Maine William T. Cobb, beating five other candidates. He had received written recommendations from three-quarters of the druggists in the state.[1]

Bucknam was a delegate to the United States Pharmacopeial Convention in Washington, D.C., on multiple occasions, including in May 1920.[8][9]

Bucknam was married twice: first to Gertrude F. Whitcomb, a native of Laurel, Indiana,[10] from September 2, 1896, until her death on March 11, 1925,[11] then Eva Lillian Knowlton from April 6, 1926, until his own death.[11] He had one known child, Alvan William, with Gertrude. Alvan died in the Battle of Chateau-Thierry, France, during the latter stages of the First World War.[2]