Lorne Cupples was born in Canada to Simone and James Cupples and immigrated to the United States in 1886 when he was a child. He lived on Grove Street and married Lilla Simpson in June of 1905. Lilla sadly passed away in childbirth with the infant in March of 1907. Cupples married a second wife, Marion Corner in August of 1908. Active in the community he was a congregant of Saint John’s Episcopal Church and a member of the Ancient York lodge of Masons. Before joining the service, Cupples was the Superintendent of the Whitall Manufacturing Company in the Acre.

After the entry of the United States into World War I, Cupples entered Officer’s Training in August of 1917 and was commissioned a Captain in November of the same year. His enthusiasm to see action propelled him to take a reduced rank of Second Lieutenant so that he could go overseas and join the fight against the Central Powers. Cupples was assigned to the ordnance department of the 101^st Machine Gun Battalion of the 26^th Infantry Division.

Taking part in the Battle of the Argonne Forest in the Fall of 1918, Cupples received severe wounds to his stomach during the offensive. He died of his wounds on November 4, 1918 just a week before the Armistice that ended the war and was buried at the Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery in Romagne, France. It was written at the time, “While he died the noblest of death of all, his many friends will be grieved to hear that he has crossed the great divide.” Cupples Square was originally dedicated in his honor in October 1923 under the direction of Mayor John J. Donovan and the American Legion Post 87.

The neighborhood shopping district in the Highlands formed by the intersection of Pine and Westford Streets known as Cupples Square was dedicated to Lorne Cupples in October 1923 and was rededicated in 2016.