Benjamin Calvin Bubar Sr. (1878-July 4, 1967) was an American

United Baptist United Baptist is name of several diverse Baptist groups of Christianity in the United States and Canada. History The name "United Baptist" appears to have arisen from two separate unions of Baptist groups: (1) the union of Regular Baptists and ...

minister and politician from

Maine Maine ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the United States, and the northeasternmost state in the Contiguous United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Provinces and ...

. After studying

Billy Sunday William Ashley Sunday (November 19, 1862 – November 6, 1935) was an American evangelist and professional baseball outfielder. He played for eight seasons in the National League before becoming the most influential American preacher during t ...

, Bubar was a leading fundamentalist leader in Maine.

Personal life and family

Bubar was born in

Blaine, Maine Blaine is a town in Aroostook County, Maine, United States. The population was 667 at the 2020 census. It was known as Alva prior to incorporation in 1874, when it was renamed in honor of James G. Blaine, then Speaker of the U.S. House of Repr ...

and educated in public schools as well as at Ricker Classical Institute. A

, he was the first ordained minister of that church in the state. He had six children. His children were also staunch temperance activists and involved in politics. His namesake,

Benjamin Bubar Jr. Benjamin Calvin Bubar Jr. (June 17, 1917 – May 15, 1995), also known as Ben Bubar, was an ordained minister who was the youngest person ever to win election to the Maine House of Representatives at age twenty-one and served as the Prohibition P ...

, was twice the

Prohibition Party The Prohibition Party (PRO) is a Political parties in the United States, political party in the United States known for its historic opposition to the sale or consumption of alcoholic beverages and as an integral part of the temperance movemen ...

's nominee for President (1976 and 1980). One of his daughters, Rachel Bubar Kelly, was the Prohibition Party's nominee for vice-president in 1996. His youngest child, Paul Bubar, was one of the founders of Word of Life Fellowship.

Writing

He was the author of the first anti-evolution bill submitted to the

Maine Legislature The Maine State Legislature is the State legislature (United States), state legislature of the U.S. state of Maine. It is a Bicameralism, bicameral body composed of the lower house Maine House of Representatives and the upper house Maine Senate. ...

. A fierce prohibitionist, in 1911 he published a book, The Devil Let Loose in Maine about the problems of alcohol in the State. A biographical sketch published by the Maine Legislature said that the book "did much to defeat" repeal of the Maine's prohibition of the sale of alcohol in 1911.

Politics

During the 1920s, Bubar worked with the

Ku Klux Klan in Maine Although the Ku Klux Klan is most often associated with white supremacy, the revived Klan of the 1920s was also anti-Catholic. In U.S. states such as Maine, which had a very small black population but a burgeoning number of Acadian, French-Ca ...

and, December 1925, went on a speaking tour of his native Aroostook County coordinated by Klan leader DeForest H. Perkins. In 1936, the ''

Bangor Daily News The ''Bangor Daily News'' is an American newspaper covering a large portion of central and eastern Maine, published six days per week in Bangor, Maine. The ''Bangor Daily News'' was founded on June 18, 1889; it merged with the ''Bangor Whig an ...

'' described him as "widely known in Maine as a Ku Klux Klan orator." He was a follower of

Francis Townsend Francis Everett Townsend (; January 13, 1867 – September 1, 1960) was an American physician and political activist in California. In 1933, he devised an old-age pension scheme to help alleviate the Great Depression. Known as the "Townsend Pl ...

, a physician who advocated for old age pensions during the

Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...

. He was elected to the

Maine House of Representatives The Maine House of Representatives is the lower house of the Maine Legislature. The House consists of 151 voting members and three nonvoting members. The voting members represent an equal number of districts across the state and are elected via ...

in 1934 as a Republican. He served from 1949 to 1952 as a Progressive. He ran for governor as an Independent in 1936, finishing in third place of three with 1.89% of the vote. He was elected again to the House in 1950 and 1952. In 1951, he was known for making a passionate but ultimately failed plea in favor of an income tax over a sales tax.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bubar Sr, Benjamin 1882 births 1967 deaths Members of the Maine House of Representatives People from Aroostook County, Maine Temperance activists from Maine Novelists from Maine American Ku Klux Klan members Maine Republicans Maine independents 20th-century Baptist ministers from the United States Ku Klux Klan in Maine 20th-century members of the Maine Legislature