John Winchester Dana was born in Fryeburg, Maine on June 21, 1801 of rather substantial stock.
His father, The Honorable Judah Dana, was a lawyer, Bank Commissioner, Executive Councilor, Judge and grandson of General Israel Putnam. His mother was the granddaughter of the founder of Dartmouth College.
Educated at Fryeburg Academy, Dana chose to pursue a business career rather than the profession of law as his father wished.
In 1841 he turned to politics serving as a member of the Maine House from 1841 to 1842 and as a State Senator from 1843 to 1844.
In 1844 he was elected President of that body serving as acting Governor for one day on January 3, 1844.
In 1846 he ran for Governor in his own right being opposed by both a Whig candidate, Daniel Bronson, and Liberty Party candidate, Samuel Fessenden.
Since no candidate received a majority, the election was thrown into the Legislature which fortunately for Dana was dominated by Democrats.
He was reelected in 1848 and again in 1849. A conservative, anti-slavery Democrat, he left office in 1850 to return to private life but was appointed United States charge’d’ affaires to Bolivia by President Franklin Pierce in 1853.
On March 10, 1859, Dana resigned and returned to Maine. In 1861 he ran against Governor Israel Washburn, one of the founders of the Republican Party, and was badly defeated.
Disappointed by his defeat, depressed by his wife’s ill health and the war, he sold his property in Fryeburg and moved to South America to raise sheep.
While helping to nurse the sick in an outbreak of cholera, Dana contracted the disease and died in Rosario, Argentina on December 22, 1867.