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Senate Years of Service: 1855-1873 Party: Republican
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Library of Congress
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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 shoemakers 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.
BibliographyAmerican National Biography;
Dictionary of American Biography; Myers, John L.
Henry Wilson and the Coming of the Civil War. Lanham, Md.:
University Press of America, 2005; Myers, John L.
Senator Henry Wilson and the Civil War. Lanham, Md: University
Press of America, 2008; Myers, John L.
Henry Wilson and the Era of Reconstruction. Lanham, Md. :
University Press of America, 2009.
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