Born in Monroe, Maine on June 17, 1878, Hodgdon Charles Buzzell was educated in local public schools and at Hampden Academy.
A lawyer by profession, Buzzell served as the Superintendent of Schools in Monroe and sold insurance before moving to Belfast where he held several public offices, including those of Waldo County Attorney and City Solicitor.
Buzzell was elected to the Maine House of Representatives in 1917, 1919, 1921 and 1923 before being elected to the State Senate and becoming President of that body in 1925.
The following year, he tried unsuccessfully to win his party’s nomination to the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Senator Bert M. Fernald.
Thirteen years later, in 1939, he returned to the State House of Representatives and was elected its Speaker and in 1942 he was elected Mayor of Belfast.
Governor Sumner Sewall appointed him Judge of Probate to fill out the unexpired term of Ellery Bowden of Winterport and he was later elected to that office which he held until his death.
In 1948, Buzzell was taken ill at the stables of the Lewiston Fairgrounds where two of his horses had just raced. He died shortly thereafter of a cerebral hemorrhage on September 12, 1948 at the age of seventy.