The Busy Bowdoin Devotee
Samuel Page Benson was born at Winthrop, Maine, in 1804. He came from one of the most reputable families of Lincoln County. His father, Dr. Peleg Benson, was one of Winthrop’s original settlers and a town physician. His mother, Sarah Page, was the daughter of a New Hampshire colonel. Growing up, Benson was called Sam P. by his family. Benson was likely well acquainted with Charles Snell as a child. Both were the son’s of Winthrop physicians and both attended Monmouth Academy in preparation for Bowdoin.
Benson was most likely not in Brunswick for the 1821-1822 year, but at the start of his sophomore year he is reported as rooming at the Honorable B. Orr’s along with nine other Bowdoin students. Junior year Benson lived with Alden Boynton in Winthrop Hall and senior year he lived off-campus at Mrs. Adams’ with Boynton, Elisha Bacon, and Horatio Bridge. Benson also held classmate John S. C. Abbott in high esteem and was close enough with George Washington Lane that he was seen as a source of information about Lane after graduation. Benson joined the Peucinian Society, an organization which he would hold dear for the rest of his life. Benson was occasionally cited by the Executive Government for unexcused absences, but these citations occurred far less than most of his peers. Benson was one of the strongest students of the Class of 1825. His classmates considered him as one of their “promising statesman.” At the Exhibition of his junior spring, Benson and his roommate Boynton participated in a conference called “The Instability of Popular Opinion.” At Commencement Benson was ranked fifth in the class, but somewhat confusingly, he gave the salutatory oration. Benson was also elected to Phi Beta Kappa.
After graduating, Benson first travelled to China, Maine, to study law under Samuel Warren and a General Benson. He completed his studies by 1827 and then moved to Unity and opened a law office. Two years later he moved back to Winthrop to help take care of his ailing parents. Benson would ultimately spend sixteen years in his hometown working as an attorney and serving his community. Between 1829 and 1848, he was elected as a town selectman, a state congressman, and Maine’s secretary of state. In 1831, he married Elizabeth Mann, the daughter of a Hallowell doctor. The pair had four daughters. Between his professional, familial, and community obligations Benson was a busy man. A constant theme in his letters is how much he has to travel and how little time he has to reply to correspondence. Still, despite Benson’s lack of free time he achieved success and recognition as both a lawyer and a political representative.
Then, in 1848, tragedy struck. Benson’s lost his beloved wife Elizabeth. His grief was only compounded by the fact that one of Benson’s daughters had already died. Mourning Elizabeth, Benson chose to retire from law and take a break from public service. Instead, he focused his energies on agriculture and investing in the railroads. In 1853, Benson rejoined public life when he ran for and was elected to a seat as a U.S. Congressman. He served two terms in the House of Representatives. While in Congress, Benson unsuccessfully sought to be Speaker of the House and chaired the Committee on Naval Affairs. When his term as a congressman expired in 1857, Benson permanently retired from political life. A year later Julia, another of one Benson’s daughters, passed away. After this, Benson moved in with his daughter Louisa and her husband, the Reverend John Sewall. The Benson-Sewalls moved first to Wenham, Massachusetts and then to Brunswick, where John became a professor at Bowdoin. In 1872, Benson married his second wife, a 45-year-old woman named Esther Burbank. The pair moved to Yarmouth, where they would remain for the rest of Benson’s life.
Benson retained a far deeper connection to his alma mater than most Bowdoin alumni. He never forgot his association with the Peucinian Society, delivering the commencement oration before the group in 1839. He served as an Overseer for the college between 1839 and 1876, as the President of the Board from 1860 to 1876, and as the Treasurer General of the Alumni Association between 1870 and 1876. In the latter role, Benson managed to raise $20,000 ($400,000 when adjusted for inflation) to build Memorial Hall. The congressman was also the mastermind behind the Class of 1825’s 50th reunion. He proposed the idea of an in-person 1875 reunion to the college and then sent letters inviting each surviving class member to Brunswick. He was among the thirteen attendees of that historic Bowdoin event. Just a year after the reunion, Benson passed away from a “protracted illness,” at the age of 71. He left behind his second-wife Esther and his two surviving daughters.