Percival Proctor Baxter

Percival Proctor Baxter ( born November 22, 1876 in Portland, Maine, † June 12, 1969 ) was an American politician and from 1921 to 1925 governor of Maine.

Early years

Percival Baxter visited by the Portland High School until 1898, the Bowdoin College. Then he studied until 1901 at the Harvard University law. But he chose not to work as a lawyer, but in the real estate company of his family. His parents were wealthy and his father longtime mayor of Portland. Baxter was a member of the Republican Party. In 1905 he was elected for a period in the House of Representatives from Maine. Between 1917 and 1920 he was again a deputy in this body. In between, he was in the years 1909 and 1910 in the State Senate. In 1921 he was again a member of the Senate of Maine and became its President.

Governor of Maine

As the only in 1920 elected governor Frederic Parkhurst after less than a month tenure suddenly passed away on January 31, 1921, Baxter had to take over his position as President of the Senate and terminate the opened term. After he had managed to get elected in 1922 even as governor, he could remain in office until January 7, 1925. During this time, a new prison was built in Maine and the penal code reform. Baxter campaigned for even sharper Prohibition laws. The environmental protection measures have been improved and the first women were hired in the public sector. Also in the field of education policy improvements were introduced. In 1926, Baxter applied unsuccessfully for a seat in the U.S. Senate. After he retired from politics and devoted himself to his business interests. He gave the state the country was built on the then Baxter State Park. Baxter also provided the building for a school for the deaf is available. He died in June 1969, his ashes were scattered in the eponymous Baxter State Park.