Representative Samuel Mayall

Samuel Mayall (June 21, 1816 – September 17, 1892) was a United States Representative from Maine who later became a prominent businessman and political figure in Minnesota. He was born in North Gray, Massachusetts (then part of Massachusetts, now in Maine), where he attended the local public schools and also received private tutoring at home. In his youth he moved to nearby Gray, Maine, a community with which he remained closely associated during the early part of his public career.

Mayall entered state politics in Maine in the mid-1840s. He was elected to the Maine House of Representatives in 1845, and, after a brief interval, again in 1847 and 1848. During this period he also served in the Maine Senate in 1847 and 1848, reflecting his growing influence in state affairs. Despite his rising profile within the Democratic Party, he declined the Democratic nomination as a candidate for Representative to the Thirty-second Congress, choosing instead to continue his work in state government and local affairs.

In 1852 Mayall stood for national office and was elected as a Democrat to the Thirty-third Congress, serving as a United States Representative from Maine from March 4, 1853, to March 3, 1855. During his single term in Congress he participated in the legislative debates of the antebellum period, though he chose not to be a candidate for renomination in 1854. His decision to step away from seeking a second term coincided with a period of significant realignment in national politics, as sectional tensions over slavery and party identities intensified.

After leaving Congress, Mayall’s political affiliations evolved in step with broader national changes. In 1856 he served as a delegate to the Republican National Convention, indicating a shift from his earlier Democratic alignment to the emerging Republican Party, which was then consolidating former Whigs, anti-slavery Democrats, and other reform-minded elements. This transition presaged his later association with third-party reform movements in the Upper Midwest.

In 1857 Mayall moved west to St. Paul, Minnesota, which was then a rapidly developing frontier city and, soon thereafter, the capital of the new state of Minnesota. There he became a large landowner, investing heavily in real estate and related enterprises as the region grew. At the beginning of the American Civil War he was commissioned as a captain, reflecting both his standing in the community and his support for the Union cause. Following the war, he devoted his time primarily to managing and expanding his substantial business interests, which contributed to his prominence in St. Paul’s commercial life.

Mayall remained active in politics in his adopted state, increasingly identifying with the temperance movement. He ran for governor of Minnesota twice, in 1871 and again in 1873, both times as the candidate of the Prohibition Party. Although unsuccessful, his campaigns underscored his continued engagement with public issues and his support for social reform, particularly the cause of temperance, which had gained strength in Minnesota and across the nation in the postwar decades.

Samuel Mayall spent the remainder of his life in St. Paul, where he continued to oversee his business affairs and remained a respected figure in civic and political circles. He died in St. Paul on September 17, 1892. He was interred in Oakland Cemetery in St. Paul, a burial place for many of the city’s early leaders, marking the final resting place of a former Maine legislator and congressman who later became an influential businessman and reform candidate in Minnesota.