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Hiram Belcher

American politician (1790-1857)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 18, 2026
Entity authorityQ1620114 ↗
Source-derived summary

Hiram Belcher (February 23, 1790 – May 6, 1857) was a United States representative from Maine. He was born in Hallowell, Massachusetts (now in Maine) on February 23, 1790. He attended the rural schools and the local academy in town. Belcher studied law, was admitted to the bar and commenced practice in Farmington in 1812.

Belcher was elected town clerk of the community and served from 1814 to 1819; member of the Maine House of Representatives in 1822, 1829, and 1832; served in the Maine State Senate. He was elected as a Whig to the Thirtieth Congress (March 4, 1847 – March 3, 1849). He was chairman of the Committee on Mileage. He was not a candidate for reelection. He re-engaged in the practice of his profession until his death in Farmington on May 6, 1857. His interment was in Center Meeting House Cemetery.

Editorial summary

“Hiram Belcher” enters the record as american politician (1790-1857). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Hiram, Belcher and American can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewStrongest as a route into the people, institutions and dated events that shaped the subject’s public record. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1790, 1857, 1812, 1814—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1790-02-23. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Hiram, Belcher and American.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Hiram Belcher” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Hiram, Belcher and American provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 18, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1620114. VIAF identifies the subject as 43715774. The Library of Congress control number is n2005174828. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1790, 1857, 1812 and 1814.

Critical limits

A concise life account rarely captures disputed attribution, private networks or the changing language used to describe a career. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
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Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Hiram Belcher”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Hiram Belcher primary sources, Hiram Belcher archive and Hiram research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Hiram Belcher”?
  2. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
  3. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Hiram Belcher” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.