Jan. 6, 1854: Novelist Sarah “Sally” Sayward Barrell Wood, known colloquially as “Madame Wood,” Maine’s first novelist and the first female American writer of gothic fiction, dies at the age of 95. She published four novels and a collection of stories, all under pseudonyms – either “A Lady,” “A Lady of Massachusetts” (when Maine was […]

Jan. 4, 1832: The Maine Legislature convenes in the newly completed Maine State House for the first time. The building, located on Weston’s Hill in Augusta, took three years to erect and is built of Hallowell granite. Despite its completion, Portland officials try for decades to convince the Legislature to move the state capital to […]

Jan. 3, 1787: A fourth convention about a proposal to separate Maine from Massachusetts is held. An “Address to the People” about Maine residents’ grievances had drawn a 645-349 vote in favor of separation, but the total vote count was a tiny minority of those citizens eligible to vote, and they came from only 32 […]

Jan. 2, 2019: Janet Mills, a Farmington Democrat and Maine’s attorney general since 2013, becomes the state’s 75th governor and the first woman to hold that office. At age 71, she is also the oldest person sworn in as Maine governor. Two-term Republican Gov. Paul LePage, a former Waterville mayor, leaves office having vetoed a […]

Jan. 1, 1785: Maine’s first newspaper, the Falmouth Gazette, publishes its first issue. The founders, Benjamin Titcomb and Thomas B. Wait, establish the paper for express purpose of advocating for Maine’s separation from Massachusetts, according to historian William D. Williamson (1779-1846). That goal takes another 35 years to achieve. Williamson advocates for Maine’s statehood as […]