Author: Lincoln, Enoch
Biography:
LINCOLN, Enoch (1788-1829: ANBO)
He was born into a prominent Republican family in Worcester MA; his mother was Martha (Waldo) Lincoln and his father Levi Lincoln, the State Governor. He entered Harvard in 1806 but left without a degree in 1808 to study law with his older brother Levi. After being called to the bar in 1811, he moved his practice to Fryeburg ME, where he lived from 1813 to 1819 and from where he published his one volume of poetry. (He is known to have contributed occasional poems later to celebrate special events.) He served as assistant district attorney for Maine until 1818, then went to Washington as a Congressman. Elected Governor of Maine 1826-9, he spent much of his time in office trying unsuccessfully to resolve a boundary dispute and declined running for a second term. He was engaged for years to Mary Chadbourne Page, but they never married. His plans for a quiet retirement went unrealized; he died suddenly shortly after leaving office. Some contributions to the first volume of Maine Historical Collections and his own Remarks on the Indian Languages appeared posthumously in 1831. (ANBO 16 Nov. 2019; Appleton) HJ