Joshua Cushman

Joshua Cushman (April 11, 1761 – January 27, 1834) was a United States Representative who served in Congress both when Maine was part of Massachusetts and after Maine’s admission to the Union. He was born in Halifax, in the Province of Massachusetts Bay, on April 11, 1761, during the colonial period under British rule. Coming of age during the American Revolution, he entered public service early in life through military duty.

Cushman served in the Continental Army from April 1, 1777, until March 1780, participating in the Revolutionary War as a young man. Following his military service, he pursued higher education in the newly independent United States. He attended Harvard University, from which he was graduated in 1787. After college he studied theology, preparing for the ministry in the Congregational tradition that was prominent in New England at the time.

Having completed his theological studies, Cushman was ordained to the ministry and licensed to preach. He became pastor of the Congregational Church in Winslow, in what is now the state of Maine but was then part of Massachusetts. He served that congregation for nearly twenty years, establishing himself as a long-tenured clergyman and community leader. His pastoral work in Winslow placed him at the center of local civic and religious life during a period of growth and settlement in the District of Maine.

In addition to his ministerial duties, Cushman entered public office in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. He served in the Massachusetts State Senate and was also a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, reflecting the trust placed in him by his constituents in the District of Maine. Through these legislative roles he gained experience in state governance at a time when questions of land, settlement, and eventual statehood for Maine were increasingly prominent.

Cushman was elected as a Democratic-Republican from Massachusetts to the Sixteenth Congress, serving from March 4, 1819, to March 3, 1821, when the District of Maine was still politically united with Massachusetts. When the State of Maine was admitted into the Union in 1820, he was also elected as a Democratic-Republican member to the Seventeenth Congress, now representing the new state in the national legislature. He was subsequently reelected as an Adams-Clay Republican to the Eighteenth Congress, serving from March 4, 1821, to March 3, 1825. His shift in party designation reflected the evolving national political alignments of the era, particularly the emergence of the Adams-Clay faction within the broader Democratic-Republican coalition.

After the conclusion of his congressional service in 1825, Cushman returned to life in Maine, where his earlier career as a minister and legislator had been rooted. He remained a respected figure in the state’s public life during its formative years as a member of the Union. Joshua Cushman died in Augusta, Maine, on January 27, 1834. He was interred in a tomb on the State grounds in Augusta, underscoring his standing as a prominent public servant in both Massachusetts and Maine during the early decades of the United States.