Samuel F. Hersey, courtesy Maine State Museum
Samuel Freeman Hersey (1812-1875) a U.S. Representative, was born in Sumner on April 12, 1812. He attended the common schools of Sumner and Buckfield, taught school from 1828 to 1831, and was graduated from Hebron Academy in 1831.
He moved to Bangor the same year, engaged in the merchandise business in Lincoln in 1833 and in Milford in 1837. Later he engaged in the lumber business in Stillwater in 1842 and in Bangor in 1850.
A member of the Maine House of Representatives in 1842, 1857, and 1865, Hersey was also a member of the Executive Council 1852-1854.
In politics he was a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1860 and member of the Republican National Committee 1864-1868. He was a member of the Maine State Senate in 1868 and 1869, but an unsuccessful candidate for Governor of Maine in 1870.
He was a proprietor of the township T5 R5 WELS, just before it was incorporated as a town. The town’s new name was, and is, Hersey.
Elected as a Republican to the Forty-third and Forty-fourth Congresses, he served from March 4, 1873 until his death in Bangor on February 3, 1875, with interment in Mount Hope Cemetery.
Minnesota Historical Society
St. Paul, MN
Papers: In the Hersey, Staples and Company Records, 1831-1934, 5.25 cubic feet.
Additional resources
Samuel Freeman Hersey Congressional Biography: https://bioguideretro.congress.gov/Home/MemberDetails?memIndex=H000545
McCauley, Brian. The Names of Maine. Acadia Press, Wellesley, Massachusetts. 2004.
I have a oil painting that was done by Samuel f Hersey. For mass public parks, or marks. I live in bridgton maine. Trying to find out if this is a missing piece. Thank you