William T. Cobb (courtesy Maine State Museum)
(1857-1937) born in Rockland on July 23, 1857, was Maine governor from 1905 to 1909. Educated in local schools, he graduated from Bowdoin College in 1877 and did graduate work at the University of Leipzig and the University of Berlin. He attended Harvard Law School and was admitted to the bar in 1880.
William Titcomb Cobb, a Republican but not politically active, was elected Governor in 1904 and reelected in 1906. He supported President Theodore Roosevelt’s efforts at progressive reform, including controlling the growing power of railroad owners. After his term ended, he was honored by another mode of transportation when the steamboat Governor Cobb bore his name.
The Governor Cobb, visiting Lubec between 1910 and 1930 (Library of Congress)
He also supported pure food and drug laws and a meat-inspection law. A moralist, Cobb favored strict enforcement of Maine’s prohibition laws.
He left office to return to his law practice for nearly a quarter century. Cobb died in Rockland on July 24, 1937.
Additional resources
*Belfast Republican Journal, November 20, 1902
*Portland Sunday Telegram, July 25, 1937
Sobel, Robert, and John Raimo, eds. Biographical Directory of the Governors of the United States, 1789-1978, Vol. 2
Prints & Photographs Online Catalog. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540.
LC-D418-9319 (b&w glass neg.) at http://www.loc.gov/pictures/resource/det.4a27725.
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*Cited in Friends of the Blaine House at http://blainehouse.org/governors(accessed April 25, 2011) (accessed April 25, 2011)