Hannibal Emery Hamlin was born in Hampden, Maine on August 22, 1858, the son of the Honorable Hannibal Hamlin, prominent Maine politico and vice-president of the United States during Abraham Lincoln’s first term.
Young Hamlin was educated in the public schools of Bangor and graduated from Colby College in 1879. He continued his education at Boston University receiving his LL.B. from that school in 1882 and entering into the firm of Hale & Hamlin in Ellsworth the following year.
The partner named Hale was, of course, none other than The Honorable Eugene Hale, United States Senator from Maine. A member of the Maine House of Representatives from 1893 to 1895, Hamlin served in the Maine Senate from 1899 to 1902, the latter two years as President of the Senate.
From 1905 to 1908 he was Maine’s Attorney General. Hamlin then returned to his law practice in Ellsworth where he remained for the rest of his life. He never married.