Samuel Butman was born in Worcester, Massachusetts in 1788, the son of a Revolutionary War veteran who moved to Dixmont and established himself as a farmer.
Samuel served as a Captain in the War of 1812 and was very successful in agriculture and trade, erecting a set of mills in Dixmont Center.
Butman was a member of the first Maine Constitutional Convention and served in the Maine House of Representatives in 1822, 1826, and 1827.
He was elected to the United States Congress in 1827 and again in 1831.
In 1846 he served as a County Commissioner of Penobscot County and was elected to the Maine Senate in 1853, serving as its President that year.
He died in Plymouth, Maine on October 9, 1864.