Maine's Governors

Since William King was inaugurated as Maine’s first governor on June 2, 1820, the state has been led by 70 men and one woman. The position held today by Janet Trafton Mills has been occupied by such notable figures in our history as Hannibal Hamlin, Abraham Lincoln’s first vice president; Abner Coburn, generous benefactor to Maine educational institutions; Joshua L. Chamberlain, Civil War hero at the Battle of Gettysburg; Percival P. Baxter, donor of Mount Katahdin to the state; and Edmund S. Muskie, champion of Federal environmental protection legislation.

Only two governors are not represented by pictures. Of the balance, four are shown in portraits and the rest in photographs. Photographic images dating back to the 1840s enable us to study with complete clarity the faces of the men who governed Maine during the first decades of statehood before the Civil War as well as their more recent successors. These pictures come from three sources, the Maine State Archives, the Maine Historical Society, and the Maine Historic Preservation Commission.

These pages are based upon research which I initially undertook in 2001 assisted by the Commission’s summer intern Adam M. Crowley of the University of Maine at Orono, now an Assistant Professor of English at Husson College in Bangor. At that point, the project was envisioned as a publication, but the ever expanding use of the internet during the last decade has led me to offer this information to a broader online audience. I want to thank the Friends of the Blaine House for hosting this information. 

Earle G. Shettleworth, Jr.
Maine State Historian

 

Governor Alonzo Garcelon

Alonzo Garcelon

DATE OF BIRTH:  May 6, 1813
PLACE OF BIRTH:  Lewiston
DATE OF DEATH:  December 8, 1906
PLACE OF DEATH:  Medford, MA
PROFESSION:  Physician, Businessman, Newspaper Publisher
POLITICAL AFFILIATION:  Democrat
TERM IN OFFICE:  January 8, 1879 – February 5, 1880
FIRST LADY:  Olivia N. Spear

QUOTE: The subject of taxation is one which comes to the home and person of every voter of the State. The theory of a Republican government is, that every person should bear his just proportion of the burdens imposed for the protection of person and property and for the blessings of civil liberty secured to all.

Inaugural Address, January 8, 1879

OTHER ELECTED OR APPOINTED OFFICES: State Representative, State Senator, Mayor of Lewiston

FURTHER READING:

Chase, Henry.  Representative Men of Maine.  Portland: The Lakeside Press, 1893, p. 57.

Kennebec Journal, Augusta, December 10, 1906.

McIntyre, Philip W. and Blanding, William F.  Men of Progress.  Boston: New England Magazine, 1897, pp. 453-455.

 

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