Hampden, Maine

Hampden, on the west bank of the Penobscot River, was incorporated in seventeen ninety-three. It has a modest but genuine place in American political history: Hannibal Hamlin, born in Paris, Maine, on August twenty-seventh, eighteen oh nine, practiced law here and lived in Hampden until eighteen forty-eight. Hamlin served as a United States senator from Maine, then was chosen as Abraham Lincoln's first Vice President, taking office in eighteen sixty-one.

He was dropped from the ticket in eighteen sixty-four, replaced by Andrew Johnson, a decision that would reshape Reconstruction after Lincoln's assassination. Hampden also saw British troops burn and loot the town during the War of eighteen twelve, a raid that still stings in local memory. The town today is a quiet Bangor suburb, but it was home to one of its more consequential Vice Presidents.