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Nathan A. Farwell

American politician (1812-1893)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 20, 2026
Entity authorityQ1549976 ↗
Source-derived summary

Nathan Allen Farwell (February 24, 1812 – December 9, 1893) was a politician, businessman and United States Senator from Maine.

Life and career

Born in Unity, then in Massachusetts but now in Maine, he attended the common schools and then taught school from 1832 to 1833. He moved to East Thomaston, Maine, in 1834 and engaged in the manufacture of lime and in shipbuilding. Farwell subsequently became a master mariner and trader. He then studied law and moved to Rockland, Maine, where he founded the Rockland Marine Insurance Co., and served as president, as well as practicing law in that city. He traveled in Europe from 1845 to 1847.

He was a member of the Maine State Senate from 1853 to 1854 and again from 1861 to 1862, serving the last year as presiding officer. He was a member of the Maine House of Representatives in 1860 and again from 1863 to 1864. He was a delegate to the Baltimore Republican National Convention in 1864, and in that year was appointed to the U.S. Senate as a Republican for the unexpired term of William Pitt Fessenden. He served in that body from October 27, 1864, to March 3, 1865, but was not a candidate for reelection in 1865.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Nathan A. Farwell” as american politician (1812-1893). Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA productive starting point for separating a subject’s documented career from later reputation and commemoration. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1812, 1893, 1832, 1833—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1812-02-24. The account is most persuasive where Nathan, Farwell and American can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as american politician (1812-1893). Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

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 Sep 20, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1549976. VIAF identifies the subject as 83509826. The Library of Congress control number is n2009161300. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1812, 1893, 1832 and 1833.

Critical limits

A concise life account rarely captures disputed attribution, private networks or the changing language used to describe a career. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. 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
Verify next

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 “Nathan A. Farwell”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Nathan A. Farwell primary sources, Nathan A. Farwell archive and Nathan 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 “Nathan A. Farwell”?
  2. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
  3. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Nathan A. Farwell” 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.