Election Day is an appropriate time to look back on another election that had special significance for Maine. That was 1860 when Hannibal Hamlin of Paris Hill became the only Maine resident ever elected to the vice presidency of the United States.

Hamlin served during Abraham Lincoln’s first term, but he was unexpectedly dropped from the 1864 ticket in favor of Andrew Johnson, a Tennessee war Democrat.

Like many of the Androscoggin-area historical matters I write about, I look for the interesting sidelights that often cast the events in a somewhat different perspective. The dry facts and the dates and places can be found in many resources, so here are a few often-overlooked details.

Hannibal Hamlin would not have seemed a likely candidate for high national office judging from his boyhood years around 1820. He was an athletic youth and liked to play “round ball,” as the early form of baseball was called. He also wrestled, and local stories recount the time he won a match with a burly blacksmith.

Hamlin’s birthplace in 1809 was a large farmhouse with a hilltop vista of the White Mountains. This centerpiece of the beautiful and historic homes of Paris Hill is now owned by Bob Bahre, former owner of Oxford Plains Speedway and New Hampshire International Speedway.

A sort distance across the front yard and driveways is the small, granite block jail built in 1822. Hannibal’s father, Cyrus Hamlin, was a doctor and sheriff when Paris Hill was the Oxford County seat until the 1890s. His mother was Anna Livermore, daughter of Deacon Elijah Livermore and Hannah Clark Livermore, descendants of early New England settlers and founders of the town of Livermore.

According to the online pages of the Maine Memory Network (www.mainememory.net), Hamlin’s mother is said to have stopped a jailbreak when her husband, the sheriff, was away. The website says, “She often had been seen to ‘place one hand on the back of a horse and vault with ease into the saddle.’”

When the future vice president was barely a year old, his life may have been saved by the legendary Mollyocket, the Native American woman renowned for her healing powers. Hamlin’s grandson, Charles E. Hamlin, wrote in his book, “The Life and Times of Hannibal Hamlin,” that the elderly woman called at the house on a day when the infant was seriously sick. She told Hamlin’s mother, “You give papoose milk warm from the cow, or he die.” The grandson said the result was “instantly favorable” and Hamlin “rarely knew ill health again.”

Charles Hamlin said Hannibal took an early interest in law. It was a “husking party” that led to the young man’s first experience in court. He and some friends at the party pelted an intoxicated man with hard ears of corn, and the man brought the boys up on assault charges.

The boys, knowing Hannibal’s interest in law, asked him to be their defender. The trial took place in the justice’s kitchen, and the room was packed. No sooner had the solemn proceedings begun than the floor collapsed.

“The court, the boys, the kitchen utensils, a closet of crockery, and the family cat were precipitated in a mass into the cellar,” Hamlin’s grandson wrote. No one was hurt, the trial resumed nearby and Hannibal’s arguments prevailed. The boys got off with fines of a dollar.

Years of successful practice of law and service in several elected offices followed for Hannibal Hamlin.

Charles Hamlin wrote in his book, “While it was the undoubted fact that Mr. Hamlin did not desire the presidency or the vice presidency, nevertheless  the logic of events, precedent, and party custom placed him in the line of succession for either of these offices, and he was swept into the vice presidency, though against his wishes.”

The office of vice president had minor significance and Hamlin called it a “nullity.” His relationship with Lincoln was said to be cordial, but he said, “I did not obtrude upon or interfere with the Presidential duties, though I always gave (President Lincoln) my views, and when asked, my advice.”

He left Washington for Maine on March 4, 1865, immediately after the inauguration of Lincoln and Johnson. Sarah and Charles, two of Hamlin’s children, stayed in Washington and they were at Ford’s Theater five weeks later when President Lincoln was assassinated.

The old jail on Paris Hill is now the Hamlin Memorial Library and Museum (opening April 2). Much more about Hamlin’s life can be learned there.

Dave Sargent is a freelance writer and native of Auburn. His e-mail address is [email protected].