Polycarpus Loring Cushman (1778-1855)

   This dour-looking gentleman is Polycarpus Loring Cushman, a uniquely named member of both houses of the Massachusetts state legislature. Born on September 21, 1778, in Bernardston, Massachusetts, Cushman was the second-born son of Dr. Polycarpus (1750-1797) and Rachel Field Cushman. Polycarpus Loring Cushman gained his distinctive first and middle names courtesy of his father, who named him in honor of a prominent Plympton, Massachusetts physician, and friend of the family named Polycarpus Loring (1700-1770). The name Polycarpus (Latin for Polycarp) extends from a 2nd century Christian bishop in Smyrna (located in modern-day Turkey).

  Young Cushman engaged in farming pursuits for the majority of his life, and it is mentioned that he was one of the first farmers to raise Merino sheep in New England. An 1851 work entitled The Rich Men of Massachusetts makes special note of Cushman's career in farming, stating that he "has done more to advance agricultural interest in this part of the state than any other individual." 
   Cushman married in October 1804 to Ms. Sally Wyles, with whom he had one son, Henry Wyles Cushman (1805-1863). Sally (one source also gives a variation on her name as "Sarah") died in Saratoga Springs, New York in 1845 at age 63. Polycarpus remarried one year later in July 1846 to Abigail Barnard Coleman (born 1786), a resident of Sterling, Vermont.  During a long life Cushman gained a reputation as one of Bernardston's prominent men of affairs, and throughout his life was entrusted to hold a variety of public offices. In 1810, 1816, and 1817 he held the posts of town assessor, selectman, Overseer of the Poor, and later, Justice of the Peace, serving in that capacity for fourteen years. Late in his life, he became a founding member of the Franklin County Agricultural Society, which came into being in 1850. 

   In 1816 Cushman was elected to his first term in the Massachusetts State House of Representatives, where he served one term. He was reelected to the legislature in 1840, and in 1844 was elected to a term in the State Senate from Franklin County. In an interesting coincidence, he served in the same Senate session as his only son, Henry Wyles Cushman (later a Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts), who was elected to a vacancy in the Senate caused by the death of William Whitaker. It is mentioned that father and son were of different political faith (Polycarpus was a Whig and his son a Democrat) but were said to have agreed in "everything else".

The home of Polycarpus L. Cushman, from the History of the Town of Bernardston, 1902.

  Following his term in the Senate, Polycarpus returned to Bernardston and thereafter engaged in his earlier agricultural interests, as well as being recorded as a "warm friend of the cause of education.". He died at age 76 on May 16, 1855, in his native town and was memorialized in the Rich Men of Massachusetts as being "high minded and honorable in all his dealings and intercourse with his fellow citizens, and is liberal, public spirited and charitable." In an aside note, the rare portrait of Cushman shown above was located via a book written and compiled by his son Henry, entitled The Historical and Biographical Genealogy of the Cushmans,  published in 1855, the year of his father's death. The book mentions that the portrait is based on a daguerreotype taken of him at age 75 at the studio of B.F. Popkins in Greenfield, Massachusetts. 

A death notice for P.L. Cushman, from  The New England Historical and Genealogical Register.

Whitemarsh Benjamin Seabrook (1793-1855)

    Today's article centers on Whitemarsh Benjamin Seabrook, one of the oddest named Governors in U.S. history, and also one of the most obscure I've had to research. For over ten years Seabrook remained one of the few oddly named politicians who was "faceless", and I was almost sure that this wonderfully named South Carolina Governor would remain without a face to place with his name. In an addendum to the preceding, fortune has smiled down upon me once again, for the discovery of the above painting marks the first time I've seen a portrait of Governor Seabrook. The painting in question was discovered via Google Books in a 1987 work by author Larry Trise, entitled Proslavery: A History of the Defence of Slavery in America.
   Whitemarsh B. Seabrook was born on June 30, 1793, at the Seabrook family plantation on Edisto Island, South Carolina, the son of Benjamin Whitemarsh and Elizabeth Margaret Meggett Seabrook. Seabrook's year of birth is variously given as either 1792, 1793, 1794, or 1795, but the majority of the sources I've found mention the correct year as being 1793. During his adolescence he attended the College of New Jersey, graduating in 1812. Soon after completing his education, Seabrook began the practice of law but eventually turned his attention to agricultural interests in his native state. He married in February 1815 to Margaret Wilkinson Hamilton (1795-1839) and the couple later became the parents to several children, including Benjamin Whitemarsh (1819-1820), Mary Hamilton (1822-1854), Julia Emma (1824-1904), Susan Septima (1826-1908), Paul Hamilton (1827-1862), Margaret Ann (1829-1831) and Edward Wilkinson (died in infancy in 1836.)
   As a plantation owner, Seabrook had a large cotton crop on Edisto Island, and most of the sources mentioned him note his involvement in the Southern cotton trade. He served as President of the South Carolina Agricultural Society from 1839 to 1845, and during his time in that office wrote A History of the Cotton Plant, a work that became a standard agricultural textbook at Clemson University and was even translated into several languages.
  While Seabrook maintained an involvement in agricultural pursuits, he was also active in politics. At age 21 he was elected to the South Carolina House of Representatives for the first of many terms. From there he won election to the state senate and in 1834 was named Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina, serving under Governor (and later U.S. Senator) George McDuffie (1790-1851). In 1848 the South Carolina General Assembly elected Seabrook as Governor, and during his tenure stressed the vital importance of education. He was instrumental in the foundation of a Teacher's Association in South Carolina, although it became defunct not long after he left office. 
  Seabrook's one term as Governor concluded in 1850 and he returned to his Edisto Island plantation. One of his last public services was as a delegate to the Southern Rights Convention of 1852. He died in Beaufort, South Carolina on April 16, 1855, and was subsequently buried in the Gun Bluff Plantation Cemetery on the grounds of his home on Edisto Island. Following his death Seabrook was memorialized by the Charleston Mercury as having filled "an honorable place among public men of the state", and:

"He was plain and simple in his way of life, kindly in all his personal relations, and thoroughly identified with the agricultural interests of the State, to which he contributed valuable information and an undeviating support."

From the Triweekly Washington Sentinel, April 28, 1855.