Joseph B. Hamilton (June 10, 1817 - 1902) was an American teacher, lawyer and judge from
Neenah
Neenah () is a city in Winnebago County, Wisconsin, Winnebago County, Wisconsin, in the East North Central States, north central United States. It is situated on the banks of Lake Winnebago, Little Lake Butte des Morts, and the Fox River (Wiscon ...
,
Wisconsin
Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...
, who served in the
Wisconsin State Senate
The Wisconsin Senate is the upper house of the Wisconsin State Legislature. Together with the larger Wisconsin State Assembly they constitute the legislative branch of the state of Wisconsin. The powers of the Wisconsin Senate are modeled after t ...
.
Background
Hamilton was born on June 10, 1817, in
Lansing, New York
Lansing () is a town in Tompkins County, New York, United States. The population was 11,691 at the 2020 census. The town is named after John Lansing. People from Lansing were early settlers of Lansing, Michigan, and named it after their hometo ...
, son of William and Elizabeth (Bower) Hamilton. He was raised on his family's farm, and received a
common school A common school was a public school in the United States during the 19th century. Horace Mann (1796–1859) was a strong advocate for public education and the common school. In 1837, the state of Massachusetts appointed Mann as the first secretary o ...
education. At the age of 18, he attended the
academy
An academy ( Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy ...
in
Aurora, Cayuga County, New York
Aurora, or Aurora-on-Cayuga, is a village and college town in the town of Ledyard, Cayuga County, New York, United States, on the shore of Cayuga Lake. The village had a population of 724 at the 2010 census.
Wells College, an institution of h ...
, then spent a winter teaching school. For the next seven years he alternated between teaching school and attending
Cazenovia Seminary
Cazenovia College is a private college in Cazenovia, New York. Founded as the Genesee Seminary in 1824 and sponsored by the Methodist Church, in 1894 the college adopted the name of Cazenovia Seminary. It was reorganized in 1942 after church spon ...
. At 25 he took up the study of
law
Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...
, first with a firm in
Genoa, New York
Genoa is a town in Cayuga County, New York, United States. The population was 1,816 at the 2020 census. The town is named after Genoa in Italy.
The town is located in the southwestern corner of the county and is north of Ithaca. Genoa is in the he ...
, then later with one in
Auburn
Auburn may refer to:
Places Australia
* Auburn, New South Wales
* City of Auburn, the local government area
*Electoral district of Auburn
*Auburn, Queensland, a locality in the Western Downs Region
*Auburn, South Australia
*Auburn, Tasmania
*Aub ...
, continuing all the while to teach school. He was
admitted to the bar
An admission to practice law is acquired when a lawyer receives a license to practice law. In jurisdictions with two types of lawyer, as with barristers and solicitors, barristers must gain admission to the bar whereas for solicitors there are dist ...
in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
in April, 1845; and had a
legal practice
Legal practice is sometimes used to distinguish the body of judicial or administrative precedents, rules, policies, customs, and doctrines from legislative enactments such as statutes and constitutions which might be called "laws" in the strict s ...
in Mecklenburg, New York, until 1849. In 1847 he married Mary C. Jaycox, of Mecklenburg, who would become the mother of two children before her death in 1854, though neither child survived long.
In Wisconsin
In October 1849 he came to Wisconsin, and settled in Neenah, where he chose to settle. He was the Winnebago County
district attorney
In the United States, a district attorney (DA), county attorney, state's attorney, prosecuting attorney, commonwealth's attorney, or state attorney is the chief prosecutor and/or chief law enforcement officer representing a U.S. state in a l ...
for 1852-3. He had been a
Democrat
Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to:
Politics
*A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people.
*A member of a Democratic Party:
**Democratic Party (United States) (D)
**Democratic ...
, but with
free soil
The Free Soil Party was a short-lived coalition political party in the United States active from 1848 to 1854, when it merged into the Republican Party. The party was largely focused on the single issue of opposing the expansion of slavery into ...
sympathies; but in 1856 joined the
Republican
Republican can refer to:
Political ideology
* An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law.
** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...
, of which he would remain a local leader throughout his career. He was chairman of the board of supervisors of his
town
A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world.
Origin and use
The word "town" shares an ori ...
in 1856, and president of the
village
A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to ...
of Neenah in 1857 and
1858.
First term in the Senate
He was first elected to the Senate in 1862 from the 21st District (Winnebago County) as a Republican, succeeding fellow Republican Samuel M. Hay. He was appointed to the
standing committee
A committee or commission is a body of one or more persons subordinate to a deliberative assembly. A committee is not itself considered to be a form of assembly. Usually, the assembly sends matters into a committee as a way to explore them more ...
s on the
militia
A militia () is generally an army or some other fighting organization of non-professional soldiers, citizens of a country, or subjects of a state, who may perform military service during a time of need, as opposed to a professional force of r ...
education
Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty. Va ...
, and on
internal improvements
Internal improvements is the term used historically in the United States for public works from the end of the American Revolution through much of the 19th century, mainly for the creation of a transportation infrastructure: roads, turnpikes, canal ...
At the close of the 1864 Senate session, Governor
James T. Lewis
James Taylor Lewis (October 30, 1819August 5, 1904) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 9th Governor of Wisconsin (1864–1866). Prior to his election as governor, he was the 7th Secretary of State of Wisconsin (1862&n ...
appointed him as Winnebago County's
county judge
The term county judge is applied as a descriptor, sometimes as a title, for a person who presides over a county court. In most cases, such as in Northern Ireland and the Victorian County Courts, a county judge is a judicial officer with civil ...
to fill the vacancy created by the elevation of Judge George W. Washburn. He was succeeded in the Senate by George Barnum, who like Hamilton and most Republicans had adopted the National Union Party label that year.
After first Senate term; second Senate term
He served as Judge from 1864 to 1870, and for about three years of that term lived in Oshkosh. In 1867 he married again, to Mary Aurelia Kimberly, a native of
Troy, New York
Troy is a city in the U.S. state of New York and the county seat of Rensselaer County. The city is located on the western edge of Rensselaer County and on the eastern bank of the Hudson River. Troy has close ties to the nearby cities of Albany a ...
, and graduate of
Emma Willard
Emma Hart Willard (February 23, 1787 – April 15, 1870) was an American woman's education activist who dedicated her life to education. She worked in several schools and founded the first school for women's higher education, the Troy Female S ...
'
Troy Female Seminary
The Emma Willard School, originally called Troy Female Seminary and often referred to simply as Emma, is an independent university-preparatory day and boarding school for young women, located in Troy, New York, on Mount Ida, offering grades 9– ...
, now resident in Neenah. The couple were to have one child who lived, a daughter.
Hamilton was elected once more to the Winnebago County Senate seat (now
Wisconsin Senate, District 19
The 19th Senate District of Wisconsin is one of 33 districts in the Wisconsin State Senate. Located in east-central Wisconsin, the district comprises northern Winnebago County and southwest Outagamie County. It includes most of the city of App ...
Andrew Haben
Andrew Haben (December 23, 1834January 18, 1908) was a German American immigrant, businessman, Democratic politician, and Wisconsin pioneer. He was the 19th and 24th mayor of Oshkosh, Wisconsin, and represented Winnebago County in the Wisconsin ...
, with 4,470 votes for Hamilton, 4,049 for Haben, and 529 for former GreenbackAssemblyman
Milan Ford
Milan Ford (February 14, 1822 – August 22, 1900) was an American farmer from Oshkosh, Wisconsin who served two years as a Greenback member of the Wisconsin State Assembly from Winnebago County.
Background
Ford was born in Kinsman, Ohio ...
. He was assigned to the committees on the
judiciary
The judiciary (also known as the judicial system, judicature, judicial branch, judiciative branch, and court or judiciary system) is the system of courts that adjudicates legal disputes/disagreements and interprets, defends, and applies the law ...
, and on town and county affairs. In the next session, he remained on the judiciary committee, but moved to the committee on the
assessment
Assessment may refer to:
Healthcare
*Health assessment, identifies needs of the patient and how those needs will be addressed
*Nursing assessment, gathering information about a patient's physiological, psychological, sociological, and spiritual s ...
and
collection
Collection or Collections may refer to:
* Cash collection, the function of an accounts receivable department
* Collection (church), money donated by the congregation during a church service
* Collection agency, agency to collect cash
* Collectio ...
of
taxes
A tax is a compulsory financial charge or some other type of levy imposed on a taxpayer (an individual or legal entity) by a governmental organization in order to fund government spending and various public expenditures (regional, local, or ...
, chairing the latter. In March 1882, he was once more appointed as county judge to serve out an unexpired term caused by the resignation of the incumbent.
Hamilton was not a candidate for re-election to the Senate in 1882, and was succeeded by Democrat Thomas Wall.
Personal life; death
Hamilton was a
Freemasonry
Freemasonry or Masonry refers to fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities ...
and held various offices in the Neenah lodge of that order. He was a
Methodist
Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's b ...
, and in his earlier years took an active part in
Sunday school
A Sunday school is an educational institution, usually (but not always) Christian in character. Other religions including Buddhism, Islam, and Judaism have also organised Sunday schools in their temples and mosques, particularly in the West.
Su ...
work.
His death was reported in the "Recent Deaths" column of the August 1902 issue of ''
The American Lawyer
''The American Lawyer'' is a monthly legal magazine and website published by ALM Media. The periodical and its parent company, ALM (then American Lawyer Media), were founded in 1979 by Steven Brill.