A 16-year-old youth from Somerset County is sharing history with Maine’s next governor.

When Paul LePage is sworn in as governor on Wednesday, he will become the state’s second chief executive with French roots. The first was Alonzo Garcelon. The young Alonzo Garcelon is the former governor’s great-great-grandson.

Additional Photos

Laurena Garcelon, right, stands with her son, Alonzo Garcelon, 16, who is a descendant of former Gov. Alonzo Garcelon, who served in 1879. John Patriquin/Staff Photographer

The young Garcelon now lives in Portland. He was born in Skowhegan, grew up in Athens and Brighton Plantation in Somerset County, and attended classes in Madison-based School Administrative District 59. He is now a junior at Portland High School.

He performs in music theater, plays bass guitar and is interested in funk, reggae and hip hop music.

“It’s pretty interesting that they would name me after him, to see what I would accomplish,” Alonzo said. “It’s interesting to think that someone in my family was in government and had some role in how we might live our lives today.”

The first Alonzo Garcelon was a state representative and mayor of Lewiston. He became the state’s first Franco-American governor in 1879.

He served one year as Maine’s chief executive. LePage was also born in Lewiston.

Alonzo Garcelon’s mother, Laurena Garcelon, 49, works in the circulation department for The Portland Press Herald. She had held a similar job in the Morning Sentinel’s Skowhegan bureau.

Alonzo said he’s read about his great-great-grandfather.

“One of the things he helped to do was to help establish railroads in Maine; that’s what I heard from my mother and father over the years,” he said.

“My father told me about him when I was fairly young, when I started first going to school,” said the teenager, who doesn’t plan to get into politics or government.

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