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History and Government—Congressional Biographies—Massachusetts / USHenry WILSON
(1812-1875)
Senate Years of Service:
1855-1873Party: RepublicanWILSON, 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 Republican candidate for governor of Massachusetts in
1853; elected on January 31, 1855, to the United States Senate by a
coalition of Free Soilers, Americans, Conscience Whigs and
Democrats to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Edward
Everett, and soon after aligned with new Republican party;
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.
Bibliography
American National Biography; Dictionary of American
Biography; Hatfield, Mark O., with the Senate Historical
Office, “Henry Wilson.” In Vice Presidents of the
United States, 1789-1993. Washington: Government Printing
Office, 1997: 231-40; Myers, John L. Henry Wilson and the Coming
of the Civil War. Lanham, Md.: University Press of America,
2005.
Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present
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