Edward Kent

Who was Edward Kent?

Edward Kent was the 12th and 15th Governor of the U.S. state of Maine during the Aroostook War. Born in 1802 in Concord, New Hampshire, he later moved to Bangor, Maine and spent the rest of his life there. He was among the last prominent members of the Whig Party in Maine before it collapsed in favor of the Republicans. He is the only Maine governor to have been elected to two non-consecutive terms, though his second term was through direct appointment by the Whig-dominated legislature.

Kent graduated from Harvard in 1821, in the same class as Ralph Waldo Emerson. According to a biographical article reprinted in the New York Times, "he had no rank in college and in truth was President of the 'Lazy Club'". He apprenticed as a lawyer in Topsham, Maine, but established his own practice in the growing lumber-port of Bangor in 1825. He was elected to the Maine Legislature in 1829 and held political offices on and off the rest of his life, becoming the 2nd Mayor of Bangor, then Governor, and then U.S. Consul in Rio de Janeiro. Tragedy struck him in Rio when two of his three children, along with his wife, died of yellow fever. His surviving child died soon after they returned to Bangor.