HERSEY, Samuel Freeman, philanthropist, born in Sumner, Maine (then Massachusetts), 12 April, 1812; died in Bangor, Maine, 3 February, 1875. After his graduation at Hebron academy in 1831, he became a bank-clerk, and engaged in mercantile pursuits in Bangor in 1844. Subsequently he was interested in the lumber business and banking in Maine, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. He was a member of the Maine legislature in 1842, 1857, 1865, 1867, and 1869, and of the executive council of Maine in 1851-'2. Mr. Hersey was a delegate to the national Republican convention at Chicago in 1860, and to that held in Baltimore in 1864. From 1864 till 1868 he was a member of the national Republican committee, and served as a representative in congress from 1873 till 1875. He left a large fortune, giving $100,000 to Bangor, which supports a public library, a bequest to Westbrook seminary, Deering, Maine, and a sum for a summer retreat on the Penobscot for the Universalist Sunday school of Bangor.