Hugh Johnston ANDERSON, Congress, ME (1801-1881)

ANDERSON, Hugh Johnston, a Representative from Maine; born in Wiscasset, Maine, May 10, 1801; attended the local schools; moved to Belfast, Maine, in 1815 and was employed as a clerk in the mercantile establishment of his uncle; clerk of the Waldo County courts 1824-1836; studied law; elected as a Democrat to the Twenty-fifth and Twenty-sixth Congresses (March 4, 1837-March 3, 1841); was not a candidate for reelection to the Twenty-seventh Congress in 1840; Governor of Maine 1844-1847; was a candidate for United States Senator in 1847 but subsequently withdrew; moved to Washington, D.C., and served as commissioner of customs in the United States Treasury Department 1853-1858; appointed head of the commission to reorganize and adjust the affairs of the United States Mint at San Francisco, Calif., in 1857; Sixth Auditor of the Treasury 1866-1869; retired from public life in 1880 and settled in Portland, Oreg., where he died May 31, 1881; interment in Grove Cemetery, Belfast, Maine.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present