Buckfield born Seba Smith (1792 - 1868) is widely considered to be the originator of Downeast humor writing and an important pioneer of the regional character in American literature. In 1830 while a publisher journalist with the Portland Daily Courier, Smith began a series of satirical letters to the paper from a fictional Mainer called Major Jack Downing. Written in Yankee dialect the letters followed the shrewd young rustic from back-country politics to the state legislature and on to the White House where he became a crony President Jackson. The letters were picked up by newspapers throughout America, and Major Jack became a national symbol. Although Smith published The Life and Writings of Major Jack Downing of Downingville (1833) and My Thirty Years Out of the Senate (1859), the character of Major Jack was pirated by other writers and political cartoonist of the day. Though the character became an indelible part of Jacksonian America, Smith apparently reaped little financial reward from his creation. Nevertheless, the author pointed American humor in a direction that continues to this day.