Benjamin Calvin Bubar Sr. (1878-July 4, 1967) was an American

United Baptist United Baptist is name of several diverse Baptist groups of Christianity in the United States and Canada. History The name "United Baptist" appears to have arisen from two separate unions of Baptist groups: (1) the union of Regular Baptists and Se ...

minister and politician from

Maine Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and north ...

. After studying Billy Sunday, Bubar was a leading fundamentalist leader in Maine.

Personal life and family

Bubar was born in

Blaine, Maine Blaine is a town in Aroostook County, Maine, United States. The population was 667 at the 2020 census. It was known as Alva prior to incorporation in 1874, when it was renamed in honor of James G. Blaine, then Speaker of the U.S. House of Repr ...

and educated in public schools as well as at Ricker Classical Institute. A

, he was the first ordained minister of that church in the state. He had six children. His children were also staunch temperance activists and involved in politics. His namesake,

Benjamin Bubar Jr. Benjamin Calvin Bubar Jr. (June 17, 1917 – May 15, 1995), also known as Ben Bubar, was an ordained minister who was the youngest person ever to win election to the Maine House of Representatives at age twenty-one and served as the Prohibition ...

, was twice the

Prohibition Party The Prohibition Party (PRO) is a political party in the United States known for its historic opposition to the sale or consumption of alcoholic beverages and as an integral part of the temperance movement. It is the oldest existing third party ...

's nominee for President (1976 and 1980). One of his daughters,

Rachel Bubar Kelly Rachel Bubar Kelly (November 22, 1922 — January 14, 2002) was the Prohibition Party candidate for United States Vice President in the 1996 presidential election as the running mate of Earl F. Dodge. Dodge had in the past been the running mat ...

, was the Prohibition Party's nominee for vice-president in 1996. His youngest child, Paul Bubar, was one of the founders of Word of Life Fellowship.

Writing

He was the author of the first anti-evolution bill submitted to the Maine Legislature. A fierce prohibitionist, in 1911 he published a book, The Devil Let Loose in Maine about the problems of alcohol in the State. A biographical sketch published by the Maine Legislature said that the book "did much to defeat" repeal of the Maine's prohibition of the sale of alcohol in 1911.

Politics

During the 1920s, Bubar worked with the

Ku Klux Klan in Maine Although the Ku Klux Klan is most often associated with white supremacy, the revived Klan of the 1920s was also anti-Catholic. In the U.S. state of Maine, with a small African-American population but a burgeoning number of Acadian, French-Canadian ...

and, December 1925, went on a speaking tour of his native Aroostook County coordinated by Klan leader

DeForest H. Perkins DeForest Henry Perkins (December 24, 1872August 7, 1936) was an American educator, real estate developer, and political activist who was the Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan in Maine from 1925 to 1928. Perkins served as Superintendent of Portlan ...

. In 1936, the ''

Bangor Daily News The ''Bangor Daily News'' is an American newspaper covering a large portion of central and eastern Maine, published six days per week in Bangor, Maine. The ''Bangor Daily News'' was founded on June 18, 1889; it merged with the ''Bangor Whig and ...

'' described him as "widely known in Maine as a Ku Klux Klan orator." He was a follower of Francis Townsend, a physician who advocated for old age pensions during the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

. He was elected to the

Maine House of Representatives The Maine House of Representatives is the lower house of the Maine Legislature. The House consists of 151 voting members and three nonvoting members. The voting members represent an equal number of districts across the state and are elected via p ...

in 1934 as a Republican. He served from 1949 to 1952 as a Progressive. He ran for governor as an Independent in 1936, finishing in third place of three with 1.89% of the vote. He was elected again to the House in 1950 and 1952. In 1951, he was known for making a passionate but ultimately failed plea in favor of an income tax over a sales tax.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bubar Sr, Benjamin 1882 births 1967 deaths Members of the Maine House of Representatives People from Aroostook County, Maine Temperance activists from Maine Novelists from Maine American Ku Klux Klan members 20th-century American legislators Maine Republicans Maine Independents 20th-century Baptist ministers from the United States Ku Klux Klan in Maine