Anson P. Morrill (courtesy Maine State Museum)
(1803-1887), brother of Lot Myrick Morrill, a U.S. Representative, was born in Belgrade on June 10, 1803 and attended the district schools.
Appointed postmaster at Dearborn, Kennebec County, he served from November 1, 1825 to June 3, 1841. He moved to Madison and then to Readfield in 1844, where he took charge of a woolen mill, which he ultimately purchased.
Anson P. Morrill in U.S. House of Representatives
A member of the Maine House of Representatives in 1833, Morrill became sheriff of Somerset County in 1839, land agent 1850-1853, and unsuccessful Wildcat candidate for Governor of Maine in 1853.
There being no majority winner in the popular election, he was appointed by the legislature the first Republican Governor of Maine in 1855. He was a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1856. Morrill was elected as a Republican to the Thirty-seventh Congress (March 4, 1861-March 3, 1863), but was not a candidate for renomination in 1862.
He resumed his manufacturing pursuits and moved to Augusta in 1879. Again he became a member of the Maine House of Representatives in 1880. Morrill was president of the Maine Central Railroad in 1866 and vice president 1873-1887. He died in Augusta July 4, 1887, with interment in Forest Grove Cemetery.
Additional resources
Chase, Henry, ed. Representative Men of Maine.
*“Death of Anson P. Morrill,” Daily Kennebec Journal, July 6, 1887.
*Moody, Robert E. “Anson Peaslee Morrill,” Dictionary of American Biography. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1933, Vol. 13, pp. 196-197.
“Anson P. Morrill in U.S. House of Representatives” image from Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anson_Morrill (accessed February 19, 2019) [Public Domain]
Anson P. Morrill Congressional Biography: https://bioguideretro.congress.gov/Home/MemberDetails?memIndex=M000967 (accessed January 1, 2021)
———————–
*Cited in “Anson P. Morrill” Friends of the Blaine House at http://blainehouse.org/governors/Anson_P_Morrill.html (accessed April 21, 2011)