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 Frederick H. Parkhurst

Frederick H. Parkhurst

DATE OF BIRTH:  November 5, 1864
PLACE OF BIRTH:  Unity
DATE OF DEATH:  January 31, 1921
PLACE OF DEATH:  Augusta
PROFESSION:  Lawyer, Businessman
POLITICAL AFFILIATION:  Republican
TERM IN OFFICE:  January 6, 1921 – January 31, 1921
FIRST LADY:  Dorothy Woodman

QUOTE: The record of Maine’s patriotic response to the call for service in the World War illumines one of the brightest pages in the history of our State.

The year 1920 will ever be remembered as the year in which full suffrage was granted to woman, whose presence in the electorate constitutes a potent force for good government.

Inaugural Address, January 6, 1921

OTHER ELECTED OR APPOINTED OFFICES: State Representative, State Senator, Chairman of Maine’s Liberty Loan campaign during World War I

FURTHER READING:

Kennebec Journal, Augusta, February 1, 1921

 

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