Stephen Coburn
(1817-1882) a U.S. Representative was born in Bloomfield (now Skowhegan on November 11, 1817. A brother of Abner Coburn, he attended Waterville and China Academies, was graduated from Waterville (now Colby) College in 1839.
Coburn taught a plantation school in Tarboro, North Carolina in 1839 and 1840. Then he returned to become the principal of Bloomfield Academy from 1840 to 1844. He studied law at the Harvard Law School, was admitted to the bar in 1845, and commenced practice in Skowhegan.
He was a member of the State Board of Education in 1849 and 1850, and was a delegate to several Republican State conventions.
Elected as a Republican to the Thirty-sixth Congress on November 6, 1860, to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Israel Washburn, Jr., Coburn served from January 2 to March 3, 1861. He was not a candidate for the Thirty-seventh Congress, that election having been held in September 1860, previous to his election to the Thirty-sixth Congress.
Coburn was a member of the Peace Convention of 1861 held in Washington, D.C., in an effort to devise means to prevent the impending war. He resumed the practice of law and was postmaster of Skowhegan from July 25, 1868, to January 23, 1877. Coburn was drowned in the Kennebec River at Skowhegan on July 4, 1882, with interment in South Cemetery, Skowhegan.
Additional resources
“Stephen Coburn” image from Wikimedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Coburn.