(1778-1858) a U.S. Representative was born in Beverly, Essex County, Massachusetts on October 25, 1778. He received his early education in Beverly, Massachusetts, attended Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts, and was graduated from Harvard University in 1799.
Dane studied law; was admitted to the bar in 1802, and began his practice in Kennebunk. A delegate to the Maine constitutional conventions in 1816 and 1819, he was chosen a member of the Executive Council of Massachusetts in 1817, but declined the office.
He was elected to the Sixteenth Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of John Holmes, a Representative from Massachusetts but residing in the new State of Maine, thus becoming Maine’s first U.S. Representative. Reelected to the Seventeenth Congress, he served from November 6, 1820, to March 3, 1823, but was not a candidate for renomination in 1822.
A member of the Maine House of Representatives in 1824, 1825, 1832, 1833, 1839, and 1840, he served in the Maine State Senate in 1829. He declined to serve as Executive Councilor of Maine in 1841.
Joseph Dane died in Kennebunk on May 1, 1858, with interment in Hope Cemetery in Hope.