Cadwallader Colden WASHBURN, Congress, WI (1818-1882)

WASHBURN, Cadwallader Colden, (brother of Israel Washburn, Jr., Elihu Benjamin Washburne, and William Drew Washburn), a Representative from Wisconsin; born in Livermore, Androscoggin County, Maine, April 22, 1818; completed preparatory studies and taught school in Wiscasset, Maine, in 1838 and 1839; moved to Davenport, Iowa, in 1839 and was employed in the geological survey of that State; moved to Rock Island, Ill., and studied law; elected surveyor of Rock Island County, Ill., in 1840; moved to Wisconsin and settled in Mineral Point, Iowa County, in 1842; was admitted to the bar the same year and commenced practice at Mineral Point; founder of the Mineral Point Bank in 1852; elected as a Republican to the Thirty-fourth, Thirty-fifth, and Thirty-sixth Congresses (March 4, 1855-March 3, 1861); chairman, Committee on Private Land Claims (Thirty-sixth Congress); declined to be a candidate for renomination in 1860; moved to La Crosse, Wis., in 1861; delegate to the peace convention held in Washington, D.C., in 1861 in an effort to devise means to prevent the impending war; served in the Union Army during the Civil War; colonel of the Second Regiment, Wisconsin Volunteer Cavalry, February 6, 1862; brigadier general of Volunteers July 16, 1862; major general November 29, 1862; resigned May 25, 1865, and returned to La Crosse, Wis.; elected to the Fortieth and Forty-first Congresses (March 4, 1867-March 3, 1871); chairman, Committee on Expenditures on Public Buildings (Fortieth Congress); was not a candidate for renomination in 1870; Governor of Wisconsin 1872-1874; unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1873; engaged in the manufacture of lumber; owned and operated large flour mills in Minneapolis, Minn.; died May 15, 1882, at Eureka Springs, Carroll County, Ark., while on a visit at the springs for his health; interment in Oak Grove Cemetery, La Crosse, Wis.

Bibliography

Hunt, Gaillard, comp. Israel, Elihu, and Cadwallader Washburn: A Chapter in American Biography. New York: Macmillan, 1925.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present