The stunning fire that swept through the historic Washburn family premises in Livermore has brought fresh attention to the seven brothers who were born there, and became nationally prominent in government and business.

Never have so many siblings served in Congress as when four Washburns did in the mid-19th century. They were not only Congressmen; two also became governors and another was an influential confidant of Abraham Lincoln and a U.S. secretary of state.

Though the Washburns were born and raised in Maine, most who made a mark in government did so elsewhere. So, the fire that renewed interest in the Washburns is also occasion to examine other Mainers who won acclaim from voters in their adopted homes.

Magician

Most recent is a former professional magician, Jeb Bradley, who was elected to Congress from New Hampshire’s First District in 2002. A native of Rumford, Bradley lived there in the mid-1950s while his father Joe, then a recent Bowdoin College graduate, worked as a chemist at Oxford Paper.

Though his family left Maine when Bradley was a child, he frequently returns to vacation along the coast and climb the state’s highest mountains.

A social moderate but fiscally conservative Republican, Bradley narrowly lost his 2006 bid for a third term to anti-war activist Carol Shea-Porter, one of the more surprising upsets of the last election.

Bradley hopes to reclaim the seat this year.

Reached by this columnist a few days ago, Bradley feels the political dynamics of 2008 are different from 2006, because with Sen. John McCain at the top of the ticket, more GOP voters will be drawn to the polls. What hurt his candidacy in 2006, Bradley thinks, was “stay at home-ism,” a phenomenon he believes will be easier to overcome with the higher voter turnouts stimulated by a presidential election.

Carpetbagger

A congressman who strayed much farther from his Maine roots was Bert Ames. This Rockland native and Farmington Academy alumnus was a U.S. Senator and governor in Mississippi in the 1870s.

An early commander of the 20th Maine, (the regiment with which his successor, Gen. Joshua Chamberlain, would win Gettysburg renown) Ames won the Medal of Honor for bravery at the Battle of Bull Run and, as Brigadier General, helped mastermind the crucial Union assault on North Carolina’s Fort Fisher in 1864.

Like many other high-ranking Union officers, Ames became a post-war “carpetbag” political leader in the South. In his case, however, his attempts to improve the lives of blacks in Mississippi and reform its government ultimately led to his downfall, when white Confederates reasserted their influence.

By 1876, Ames was the last southern Reconstruction governor forced from office. His departure was precipitated by impending impeachment proceedings.

Though present day historians praise Ames’ reforms, his reputation once endured ridicule. Typical criticism was expressed in John F. Kennedy’s 1955 book, “Profiles in Courage.” Kennedy derided Ames because he “was chosen Governor by a majority composed of freed slaves and Radical Republicans, sustained and nourished by Federal bayonets.”

After leaving Mississippi in the late-1870s, Ames became a wealthy industrialist. Some of his spare time was spent playing golf with John D. Rockefeller. He was also consoled for his Mississippi humiliation by being re-commissioned in 1898 as a general in the Spanish-American War.

At his death in 1933, at age 97, he was our nation’s longest surviving Civil War general.

Gold-digger

Ames was not the only Civil War-era Mainer to govern a state far from his Downeast roots. Frederick Low, one of California’s youngest governors, was elected there 35 years after his birth in Winterport.

Allure of quick riches prompted Low’s departure from Maine. After arriving near-penniless in San Francisco, at the height of the 1849 gold rush, Low leveraged $1,500 from gold-digging into an almost overnight business success.

In less than five years, he became chief executive of every steamship line between the Sacramento River and San Francisco Bay, and founded a bank in Marysville.

After a brief stint in Congress, Low was elected California governor in 1863, as which he marshaled support for President Lincoln, a fellow Republican, and the Union cause.

He also spearheaded the drive to encourage higher education by establishing the state university system.

It is therefore at Low’s doorstep at which credit – or blame? – for UCLA and Cal-Berkeley is laid.

There are many other Mainers who attained high office elsewhere; Low, Ames, and Bradley are only a few.

For example: George Perkins, a Kennebunkport native, was elected California governor in 1878, and Buckfield native John Long was elected governor of Massachusetts in 1880.

Similarly, some of Maine’s most esteemed political leaders came from away.

Luminaries like Pennsylvania’s James G. Blaine and Virginia-born Angus King show, sometimes, the exodus of Maine’s political persona is offset by its in-migration

And the tide of political talent both ebbs and flows.

Paul H. Mills is a Farmington attorney well known for his analyses and historical understanding of Maine’s political scene. He can be reached by e-mail: [email protected].