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Senate Years of Service: 1861-1863; 1863-1865; 1865-1871 Party: Unionist; Unconditional Unionist; Republican
WILLEY, Waitman Thomas, a Senator from Virginia and from West Virginia; born in Monongalia
County, Va., in what is now a part of Marion County, W.Va., October 18, 1811;
graduated from Madison (Pa.) College in 1831; studied law; admitted to the bar
in 1833 and commenced practice in Morgantown, Va. (now West Virginia);
appointed clerk of the county court of Monongalia County in 1841 and later
clerk of the circuit superior court, and held both positions until 1852;
delegate to the Virginia constitutional convention in 1850 and 1851; elected as
a Unionist to the United States Senate from Virginia to fill the vacancy caused
by the expulsion of James M. Mason and served from July 9, 1861, to March 3,
1863; chairman, Committee on Enrolled Bills (Thirty-seventh Congress); delegate
to the State constitutional convention of West Virginia; upon the admission of
West Virginia as a State into the Union was elected as a Unionist to the United
States Senate; reelected in 1865 as a Republican and served from August 4,
1863, to March 3, 1871; chairman, Committee on Engrossed Bills (Thirty-ninth
Congress), Committee on Patents and the Patent Office (Thirty-ninth and
Fortieth Congresses); again served as clerk of the county court of Monongalia
County 1882-1896; retired from public life; died in Morgantown, W.Va., May 2,
1900; interment in Oak Grove Cemetery.
BibliographyAmerican National Biography;
Dictionary of American Biography; Ambler, Charles.
Waitman Thomas Willey, Orator, Churchman, Humanitarian.
Huntington, W.Va.: Standard Print and Publishing Co., 1954; Bayless, R.W.
Peter Van Winkle and Waitman T. Willey in the Impeachment Trial of Andrew
Johnson.
West Virginia History 13 (January 1952): 75-89.
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