No, I am not announcing my bid for the Blaine House. But here is an interesting story about my husband's uncle, Nat Haskell. Nat and his family, wife, Barbara, and sons, David and Bob, lived right across the street from me on Higgins Street all the time I was growing up. I still see the two sons on occasion.
Nathaniel Mervin Haskell (September 27, 1912 in Pittsfield, Maine - February 7, 1983 in Portland, Maine) was a former Maine Republican politician. Haskell holds the distinction of having served as Governor of Maine for 25 hours: from 10:00am January 6, 1953, to 11:00am January 7, 1953.
When Nat was only two years old, his parents died and his sister, Amelia, and her husband, Van Stevens, took the family to Portland, Maine. Haskell graduated from Deering High School. Determined to be a lawyer, he graduated from the Peabody Law School in 1934 and was admitted to the Maine bar. For the remainder of his life, he maintained his legal office in downtown Portland.
In 1943, the year current Rep. Anne Haskell was born, Nat Haskell was elected to the Maine House of Representatives. He then was reelected in 1945, 1947 and 1949, when he served as Speaker of the House. Haskell was elected to the Maine Senate in 1951, reelected in 1953, and in that same year was elected President of the Senate.
Haskell's very brief term of Governor was the result of constitutional succession in the wake of the 1952 elections. The outgoing Governor, Frederick G. Payne, resigned early to begin preparing to take his new seat in the United States Senate. Since Maine has no lieutenant governor, the President of the Senate is next in the line of succession. When Payne resigned, Burton M. Cross became Governor by virtue of holding that office. However, Cross had also been elected Governor; his elected term was scheduled to begin on January 7, 1953. At 10:00am on January 6, 1953, Cross' term as Senate President, and therefore Governor, expired. Haskell, as the newly elected President of the Senate, became Acting Governor until the inaugural ceremony was held at 11:00am the next day.
Haskell continued as President for the 1953 regular session only, resigning prior to the start of the special session, held later that year, to accept the appointment as Probate Judge of Cumberland County.
