Stephen Longfellow (March 23, 1776 – August 2, 1849) was a U.S. Representative from

Maine Maine () is a U.S. state, state in the New England and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Provinces and territories of Canad ...

Biography

Born in Gorham in the

Province of Massachusetts Bay The Province of Massachusetts Bay was a colony in British America which became one of the thirteen original states of the United States. It was chartered on October 7, 1691, by William III and Mary II, the joint monarchs of the kingdoms of ...

(in what is now

) to Stephen Longfellow and Patience Young Longfellow, Longfellow attended Phillips Academy, Andover, MA, and then from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

in 1798. He studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1801 and commenced practice in

Portland, Maine Portland is the largest city in the U.S. state of Maine and the seat of Cumberland County. Portland's population was 68,408 in April 2020. The Greater Portland metropolitan area is home to over half a million people, the 104th-largest metro ...

. He married Zilpah Wadsworth in 1804 and, with her, had eight children, including the poets Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Samuel Longfellow. He served as a member of the general court of Massachusetts in 1814 and 1815. He belonged to the Federalist Party and was a delegate to the Hartford Convention in 1814 and 1815. He also served as a Federalist presidential elector in 1816. Longfellow was elected as an Adams-Clay Federalist to the Eighteenth Congress (March 4, 1823 – March 3, 1825). He was not a candidate for renomination in 1824 and resumed his law practice for a time. He served as a member of the state house of representatives in 1826. He served as overseer of Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine from 1811 to 1817 and was a trustee of the college from 1817 to 1836. He supported the Portland Athenaeum. One of its founding members, he also served as president of the Maine Historical Society in 1834. Longfellow died in Portland, Maine on August 2, 1849 and was buried in the Western Cemetery.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Longfellow, Stephen 1776 births 1849 deaths Members of the Maine House of Representatives Members of the United States House of Representatives from Maine Massachusetts Federalists Harvard University alumni Politicians from Gorham, Maine Politicians from Portland, Maine Maine Federalists Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Federalist Party members of the United States House of Representatives Burials at Western Cemetery (Portland, Maine)