Sebastian S. Marble (Senate President photo, Maine State Archives)
was born on March 1, 1817 in Dixfield and attended local schools and Waterville Academy before deciding to study law. He was admitted to the Maine Bar in 1843 and after two years of traveling and teaching in the west he returned to Maine, finally settling in Waldoboro.
Practicing law from 1851 to 1861, he became Collector of Customs for his district in the early 1860’s and was subsequently appointed U.S. Marshal of Maine serving from 1870 to 1878.
Elected to the Maine State Senate from Lincoln County in 1882 and reelected three times, he was elected President of the Senate in his final term. As President, he succeeded Governor Joseph Bodwell who he died on December 15, 1887.
In the U.S. presidential election of 1888, he supported the nomination of Benjamin Harrison, and in that same year sought his party’s nomination for Governor. At 71 he was rebuffed in favor of the younger Edwin C. Burleigh of Augusta who was nominated and elected.
Disappointed, Marble left office on January 2, 1889 to return to private life, serving on the local school committee and as Chairman of Waldoboro’s Board of Selectmen.
Marble died at his home in Waldoboro on May 10, 1902.
Additional resources
Chase, Henry, ed. Representative Men of Maine.
*Kennebec Journal, Augusta, May 12, 1902
*McIntyre, Philip W. and Blanding, William F. Men of Progress. Boston: New England Magazine, 1897, pp. 325-326.
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*Cited in Friends of the Blaine House at http://blainehouse.org/governors(accessed April 25, 2011) (accessed April 25, 2011)