This year marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Portland\u27s native poet, He

This year marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Portland\u27s native poet, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Maine State Rep. Herb Adams, D-Portland, says that after his death in 1882, children from around the world sent coins to pay for casting his statue in bronze. The statue was dedicated in Portland in 1888. Sealed into its granite pedestal is a copper box containing, among other items, a scroll bearing the children\u27s names