Edwin C. Burleigh (courtesy of Maine State Museum)
(1843-1916) a U.S. Representative and a U.S. Senator from Maine, was born in Linneus, November 27, 1843, when its population was barely 300. He attended the common schools and was graduated from the Houlton Academy.
He taught school, was a clerk in the adjutant general’s office, a surveyor and farmer, and a clerk in the State land office at Bangor 1870-1876. This son of “The County”
moved to Augusta in 1876 where he served as State Land Agent until 1878. He was assistant clerk in the Maine House of Representatives in 1878 and clerk in the office of the State Treasurer 1880-1884. State Treasurer from 1884 to 1888, became principal owner of the Kennebec Journal in 1887.
After serving as Governor of Maine (1889-1892), he was elected as a Republican to the Fifty-fifth Congress in 1897 to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Seth L. Milliken. Burleigh was reelected to the Fifty-sixth and to the five succeeding Congresses and served from June 21, 1897, to March 3, 1911, having been an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1910.
He resumed newspaper publishing in Augusta, and the management of timberlands. Elected as a Republican to the United States Senate, he served from March 4, 1913, until his death in Augusta, June 16, 1916, with interment in Forest Grove Cemetery.
Additional resources
Chase, Henry. ed. Representative Men of Maine.
*Kennebec Journal, Augusta, June 17, 1916.
*McIntyre, Philip W. and Blanding, William F. Men of Progress. Boston: New England Magazine, 1897, pp. 509-511.
*Memorial Addresses on the Life and Character of Edwin Chick Burleigh. Washington: 1917.
U.S. Congress. Memorial Services for Edwin C. Burleigh. 64th Cong., 2nd session, 1916-1917. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1917.
Biographical Directory of the United States Congress 1774-Present: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress 1774-Present: http://bioguide.congress.gov/biosearch/biosearch.asp
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*Cited in Friends of the Blaine House at http://blainehouse.org/governors(accessed April 25, 2011) (accessed April 25, 2011)