Charles Stetson

Charles Stetson (November 2, 1801 – March 27, 1883) was a United States Representative from Maine and the eldest member of a powerful Bangor mercantile and political family. He was born in New Ipswich, Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, on November 2, 1801, the son of Simeon Stetson, who had been born in Braintree, Massachusetts. In 1802 he moved with his parents to Hampden, in what was then the District of Maine, where his father kept a store and a sawmill and built vessels engaged in the West India trade. His uncle Amasa Stetson was proprietor of the nearby town of Stetson, Maine, where Simeon had briefly settled before removing to Hampden. Growing up in this commercially active family environment, Stetson was exposed early to the maritime and trading interests that underpinned the regional economy.

Stetson’s boyhood was marked by the War of 1812 and the British incursion along the Penobscot River. At the age of thirteen he witnessed the British invasion force that sacked the town of Hampden and terrorized its inhabitants following the Battle of Hampden in 1814, an episode that left a lasting impression on the community. He attended local schools and then Hampden Academy, one of the leading academies in the region. Pursuing higher education, he enrolled at Yale College and graduated in 1823, joining the growing cohort of New England–educated professionals who would shape Maine’s early civic and political life.

After leaving Yale, Stetson studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1826. He commenced the practice of law in Hampden, serving the legal needs of a town closely tied to shipping, lumber, and river commerce. In 1828 he was admitted to practice before the bar of the United States Supreme Court, a distinction that reflected his professional standing at a relatively young age. During these early years he also began to hold various local offices, establishing himself as a figure in municipal affairs as well as in the regional legal community.

As Bangor, adjoining Hampden on the Penobscot River, rapidly developed into the region’s largest port and a major lumber center, Stetson moved there in 1833 to take advantage of the city’s expanding commercial and professional opportunities. He soon entered public service in Bangor’s municipal government. From 1834 to 1839 he served as Judge of the Bangor Municipal Court, presiding over local judicial matters during a period of fast-growing population and trade. He later became a member of the Common Council of Bangor from 1843 to 1844, participating in the city’s legislative body as it dealt with the challenges of urban growth. At the state level, he was a member of the Executive Council of Maine from 1845 to 1848, advising the governor and helping oversee state administration at a time when Maine’s political institutions were still relatively young.

Stetson’s experience in local and state government led to his election as a Democrat to the Thirty-first United States Congress. He represented Maine in the U.S. House of Representatives from March 4, 1849, to March 3, 1851, during a period dominated by sectional debates over slavery and territorial expansion following the Mexican–American War. At the conclusion of his term he was an unsuccessful candidate for renomination to the Thirty-second Congress. After leaving Congress he resumed the practice of law in Bangor, remaining a prominent member of the city’s legal and civic circles.

In the years leading up to the Civil War, Stetson, like many Maine Democrats who opposed the extension of slavery, shifted his political allegiance. In 1860 he affiliated with the Republican Party, as did many local politicians, including his fellow Hampden native Hannibal Hamlin, who became Vice President of the United States under Abraham Lincoln. Stetson’s change of party reflected the broader political realignment in Maine and New England as antislavery sentiment strengthened and the Republican Party became the dominant political force in the state.

Stetson married Emily Jane Pierce, the daughter of Waldo Pierce of Frankfort, Maine, thereby linking himself to another established Maine family. The Stetsons became a powerful Bangor mercantile and political dynasty in his lifetime and beyond. His younger brother Isaiah Stetson (1812–1880) served as Mayor of Bangor from 1859 to 1862 and as a member of the Maine House of Representatives in 1866–1867. Another brother, George Stetson (1807–1891), became a leading Bangor lumber merchant, shipbuilder, and president of local banks and insurance companies, as well as a prominent civic figure; he married a niece of future Vice President Hannibal Hamlin and served in the Maine House of Representatives in 1863–1864. George’s son, Isaiah Kidder Stetson (born 1858, Yale class of 1879), expanded the family’s business interests into ice harvesting and later served as Speaker of the Maine House of Representatives from 1899 to 1900 and as a member of the Maine State Senate from 1903 to 1906. Charles Stetson’s daughter, Caroline Pierce Stetson, married attorney Franklin A. Wilson, who represented Bangor in the Maine House of Representatives in 1874–1875 and subsequently became president of the Maine Central Railroad. Stetson’s grandson and namesake, Charles Stetson Wilson, pursued a diplomatic career and served as United States Ambassador to Bulgaria, Romania, and Yugoslavia in the 1920s and early 1930s.

The family’s prominence was also reflected in the built environment of Bangor. There are two Stetson Blocks in downtown Bangor. The Stetson Block on Exchange Street was destroyed in the Great Fire of 1911 and quickly replaced by a building of the same name, on the same site, from a design by local architect Wilfred E. Mansur. A second and larger Stetson Block was constructed in 1913 on Central Street, designed by the Boston firm Parker, Thomas, and Rice; it presently houses “Bagel Central.” Both buildings are protected as part of the Great Fire of 1911 National Register Historic District. The lower part of Broadway in Bangor is also known as “Stetson Square,” underscoring the family’s lasting local influence. The George Stetson House at 208 French Street in Bangor, a Greek Revival residence designed by architect-builder Benjamin S. Deane in 1847–1848, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as part of the Broadway Historic District.

Charles Stetson spent his later years in Bangor, continuing his legal work and maintaining his position as a respected elder of the city’s bar and civic life. He died in Bangor on March 27, 1883, and was interred in Mount Hope Cemetery in Bangor, one of the nation’s oldest garden cemeteries. His career as lawyer, judge, state official, and member of Congress, together with the extensive public and commercial roles played by his descendants and relatives, secured the Stetson family a lasting place in the political and economic history of Bangor and the state of Maine.