was born in 1792 at Buckfield in western Maine. He graduated in Bowdoin College’s class of 1818 and went on to establish Maine’s first daily newspaper, the Portland Courier. Smith created Major Jack Downing, a character he used in his quest to satirize the American political class. He was an advocate for Maine statehood, using…
(1903-2000) former editor of The Washington Post, served briefly as ambassador to the United Nations, then retired to Ellsworth, where he continued to work at the Ellsworth American, a weekly newspaper he owned from 1966 to 1991 until his declining health forced him to stop in 2000. Coming off a Minnesota farm, he never got…
Daniel Elton Somes (1815-1888) a U.S. Representative was born in Meredith (now Laconia), New Hampshire on May 20, 1815 where he received an academic education. Somes moved to Biddeford in 1846 and established the Eastern Journal, later known as the Union and Journal; and engaged in the manufacture of loom harnesses, reed twine, and varnishes.…