Brewster Family collection

Ralph Owen Brewster (1888-1961) was born in Dexter, Maine, to William E. and Carrie Bridges Brewster on February 22, 1888. He was graduated from Bowdoin College in 1909 (summa cum laude; Phi Beta Kappa Society). He worked as the principal of Castine High School before attending Harvard University. There he earned an L.L.B. in 1913. From 1914-1925 Brewster was a partner in the Portland, Maine, law firm of Chapman and Brewster. His political career began in 1916 when he was elected to the lower house of the Maine legislature. After resigning this position in order to enlist in the U.S. Army, Brewster was re-elected after his return at the end of World War I. In 1922 he was elected to the Maine State Senate, where he served until being elected governor of Maine in 1924. He served as governor from 1924-1928, was elected as the 3rd District U.S. congressman from 1934-1940, then won a seat in the U.S. Senate, serving from 1941-1952. Brewster lost the election for a third term in the U.S. Senate in 1952 and retired in 1953. Brewster married Dorothy Foss in 1913. They had two sons: Charles Brewster, born in 1916, and Owen Brewster, who was born in 1917 but died young in 1932. Brewster died in Brookline, Massachusetts, on December 25, 1961.