Wilson, Henry

Life Span
to
Full name
Henry Wilson
Place of Birth
Burial Place
Birth Date Certainty
Exact
Death Date Certainty
Exact
Gender
Male
Race
White
Sectional choice
North
Origins
Free State
Occupation
Politician
Attorney or Judge
Educator
Journalist
Political Parties
Whig
Free Soil
Republican
American Party (Know Nothings or Nativists)
Other Affiliations
Abolitionists (Anti-Slavery Society)
Government
Grant Administration (1869-77)
US Senate
State legislature
Military
Union Army

Henry Wilson (Congressional Biographical Directory)

Reference
WILSON, Henry, a Senator from Massachusetts and a Vice President of the United States; born Jeremiah Jones Colbath in Farmington, N.H., February 16, 1812; worked on a farm; attended the common schools; had his name legally changed by the legislature to Henry Wilson in 1833; moved to Natick, Mass., in 1833 and learned the shoemaker’s trade; attended the Strafford, Wolfsboro, and Concord Academies for short periods; taught school in Natick, Mass., where he later engaged in the manufacture of shoes; member of the State legislature between 1841 and 1852; owner and editor of the Boston Republican 1848-1851; unsuccessful candidate for election in 1852 to the Thirty-third Congress; delegate to the State constitutional convention in 1853; unsuccessful candidate for governor of Massachusetts in 1853; elected in 1855 to the United States Senate by a coalition of Free Soilers, Americans, and Democrats to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Edward Everett; reelected as a Republican in 1859, 1865, and 1871, and served from January 31, 1855, to March 3, 1873, when he resigned to become Vice President; chairman, Committee on Military Affairs and the Militia (Thirty-seventh through Fortieth Congresses), Committee on Military Affairs (Forty-first and Forty-second Congresses); in 1861 he raised and commanded the Twenty-second Regiment, Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry; elected Vice President of the United States on the Republican ticket with President Ulysses Grant and served from March 4, 1873, until his death in the Capitol Building, Washington, D.C., November 22, 1875; lay in state in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol, November 25-26, 1875; interment in Old Dell Park Cemetery, Natick, Mass.
"Wilson, Henry,” Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1774 to Present, http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=W000585.
Chicago Style Entry Link
Abbott, Richard H. Cobbler in Congress: The Life of Henry Wilson, 1812-1875. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1972. view record
McKay, Ernest A. Henry Wilson: Practical Radical: A Portrait of a Politician. Port Washington, NY: Kennikat Press, 1971. view record
Myers, John L. Henry Wilson and the Coming of the Civil War. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2005. view record
Wilson, Henry. Military Measures of the United States Congress, 1861-1865. New York: D. Van Nostrand, 1866. view record
How to Cite This Page: "Wilson, Henry," House Divided: The Civil War Research Engine at Dickinson College, https://hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu/index.php/node/6883.