William D. Williamson

William Durkee Williamson (July 31, 1779 – May 27, 1846) was the second Governor of the U.S. state of Maine (serving from May 29, 1821 to December 5, 1821) and one of the first congressmen from Maine in the United States House of Representatives. He was a member of the Democratic-Republican Party. Williamson was also Maine's first historian.

Williamson was born in 1779 in Canterbury, Connecticut and graduated from Brown University. He moved to Bangor, then part of Massachusetts, in the first decade of the 19th century and established a law practice there in 1807. He became Bangor's postmaster (among other offices) in 1810. During the War of 1812 he was present at the capture and sacking of Bangor by the British following the Battle of Hampden and, like all male residents of the town, was made to sign an oath declaring he would not take up arms for the remainder of the war.

Following the war, in 1816, Williamson was elected to the Massachusetts State Senate representing the District of Maine, but became a force behind the movement for Maine statehood. In 1820 Maine separated from Massachusetts to become a state, and Williamson became the first President of the Maine State Senate. In 1821, when the first governor (King) resigned, Williamson automatically succeeded him given his Senate office. That same year, however, he ran for and won a congressional seat in the 17th United States Congress, serving until 1823. Thereafter he returned to his law practice in Bangor, also serving as Judge of Probate for Penobscot County till 1840.

His younger brother, Joseph Williamson, also served as Senate President.

Williamson was also Maine's first historian, having written a 2-volume History of the State of Maine in the late 1830s. This stood as the standard reference on early Maine history for the rest of the 19th century.

Williamson died in 1846 in Bangor. He is buried at Mt. Hope Cemetery.

Books

• William D. Williamson, The History of the State of Maine (1832) online

• William D. Williamson at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress

References

• http://www.nndb.com/gov/927/000051774/ accessed September 13, 2005