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

 

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Governor Daniel F. Davis

Daniel F. Davis

DATE OF BIRTH:  September 12, 1843
PLACE OF BIRTH:  Freedom
DATE OF DEATH:  January 10, 1897
PLACE OF DEATH:  Bangor
PROFESSION:  Lawyer, Businessman
POLITICAL AFFILIATION:  Republican
TERM IN OFFICE:  February 5, 1880 – January 13, 1881
FIRST LADY:  Laura Goodwin

QUOTE: The love of liberty sometimes leads beyond the liberty to do right. The respect for law checks and regulates this spirit; it has ever been our guide in all the history of our State; it has triumphed in the great crisis through which we have just passed.

Inaugural Address, February 5, 1888

OTHER ELECTED OR APPOINTED OFFICES: State Representative, State Senator, Collector of Customs for Bangor

FURTHER READING:

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

Kennebec Journal, Augusta, January 11, 1897.

McIntyre, Philip W. and Blanding, William F.  Men of Progress.  Boston: New England Magazine, 1897, pp. 462-463.

Memorial Addresses on the Life and Character of Daniel Franklin Davis.  Augusta: Kennebec Journal, 1897.

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