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Governor Samuel Smith
As found in REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF MAINE
A Collection of Biographical Sketches of all the Governors since the formation of the State.
Prepaired under the direction of Henry Chase
Portland, ME.
The Lakeside Press, Publisher
1893
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GOVERNOR SMITH was born at Hollis, N. H., March 12, 1788. He fitted for college at Groton Academy, and graduated
from Harvard College in 1808. On leaving college he studied law with Samuel Dana of Groton and was admitted to
the Bar in Boston in 1812. He immediately moved to Wiscasset and entered actively upon the practice of his profession.
Mr. Smith soon took high rank as a lawyer and was not long in building up a very fine law business.
Coming from an old Democratic family, he naturally allied himself to that party and became an active and ardent
political worker. in 1819, the year before our separation from Massachusetts, he was elected a member of the Massachusetts
Legislature from Lincoln County, and the following year he was elected to the Legislature of Maine. In 1821 he
was appointed Chief Justice of the Circuit Court of Common Pleas, as successor to Judge Weston, who had been promoted
to the Supreme Bench. In 1822 the Circuit Court system was abolished, and Judge Smith was appointed to a seat on
the new court, of which Judge Whitman was Chief Justice.
This position he held until 1830, discharging his duties with intelligence and fidelity, when he was elected Governor
of Maine. He held the office three successive terms. At the expiration of his third term the Governor retired to
private life; but in 1835 his services were again required by the State, and he was again appointed to the Bench
of Common Pleas. in October of the same year he was appointed, with Chief Justice Mellen and Ebenezer Everett,
Esq., a Commission to revise and codify the public laws, and the first edition of the Revised Statutes was the
result of their labors. He retired from the Bench in i 837.
Governor Smith moved from Augusta to his old home in Wiscasset in 1836, where he spent the remainder of his days
in quiet literary pursuits and in the enjoyment of an independent estate. He died at Wiscasset, March 3, 1860.
Mr. Smith married, in Augusta, September 12, 1832, Miss Louisa S., daughter of Hon. Henry W. Fuller, of that city.
‘J’hey had seven sons, all of whom are now deceased.
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