Montgomery Morrison Cothren (September 18, 1819October 27, 1888) was an

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

lawyer, Democratic politician, and

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 ...

pioneer. He served 18 years as a

Wisconsin circuit court The Wisconsin circuit courts are the general trial courts in the state of Wisconsin. There are currently 69 circuits in the state, divided into 10 judicial administrative districts. Circuit court judges hear and decide both civil and criminal case ...

judge, and was a member of 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 ...

Biography

Montgomery Cothren was born in

Jerusalem, New York Jerusalem is a Administrative divisions of New York#Town, town in Yates County, New York, Yates County, New York (state), New York, United States. The population was 4,469 at the 2010 census. The town is named after the ancient city of Jerusale ...

, in 1819, and, as a child, moved west to the

Michigan Territory The Territory of Michigan was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from June 30, 1805, until January 26, 1837, when the final extent of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Michigan. Detroit w ...

with his parents. He worked on his father's farm near

Kalamazoo Kalamazoo ( ) is a city in the southwest region of the U.S. state of Michigan. It is the county seat of Kalamazoo County. At the 2010 census, Kalamazoo had a population of 74,262. Kalamazoo is the major city of the Kalamazoo-Portage Metropolit ...

until age 19. He had some common school education in New York, but had little formal education in the Michigan Territory. Nevertheless, he studied the legal profession in his free time. At age 19, he went to the

lead Lead is a chemical element with the symbol Pb (from the Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a heavy metal that is denser than most common materials. Lead is soft and malleable, and also has a relatively low melting point. When freshly cu ...

mining region of the

Wisconsin Territory The Territory of Wisconsin was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from July 3, 1836, until May 29, 1848, when an eastern portion of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Wisconsin. Belmont was ...

and taught school. He continued to study the law in his free time, and was admitted to the bar in 1843. Shortly after, he was also chosen as Clerk of the County Board of Iowa County, and moved to Mineral Point, where he would reside for the rest of his life. That same year, he became a junior partner to attorney Parley Eaton in a firm known as Eaton & Cothren, and began to distinguish himself in the legal profession. By 1847, he had won the approval of his community and was elected to the Territorial Legislature for the 1847 special session, and subsequently to the 1848 session. After the establishment of the Wisconsin state government, in the fall of 1848 he won election to the

, serving in the

1849 Events January–March * January 1 – France begins issue of the Ceres series, the nation's first postage stamps. * January 5 – Hungarian Revolution of 1848: The Austrian army, led by Alfred I, Prince of Windisch-Grätz, enters in th ...

and

1850 Events January–June * April ** Pope Pius IX returns from exile to Rome. ** Stephen Foster's parlor ballad "Ah! May the Red Rose Live Alway" is published in the United States. * April 4 – Los Angeles is incorporated as a cit ...

sessions. He was chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee in 1849 and led a commission of lawyers in compiling the revised statutes of 1849—the first compilation of the state's laws. He became a prominent member of the Democratic Party in Wisconsin and, in the fall of 1852, he was nominated by the party for

judge in the 5th circuit, and was also chosen as a state at-large

presidential elector The United States Electoral College is the group of presidential electors required by the Constitution to form every four years for the sole purpose of appointing the president and vice president. Each state and the District of Columbia appo ...

for

Franklin Pierce Franklin Pierce (November 23, 1804October 8, 1869) was the 14th president of the United States, serving from 1853 to 1857. He was a northern Democrat who believed that the abolitionist movement was a fundamental threat to the nation's unity ...

. Cothren won both elections, defeating incumbent Judge

Mortimer M. Jackson Mortimer Melville Jackson (March 5, 1809October 13, 1889) was an American lawyer, judge, and diplomat. He was a justice of the original Wisconsin Supreme Court from 1848 through 1853 and was later a United States consul general in Canada for twen ...

, and representing Wisconsin in the

election An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has opera ...

of Franklin Pierce. Cothren was re-elected to another six-year term in 1858, and in 1863, he was the Democratic nominee for Chief Justice of the

Wisconsin Supreme Court The Wisconsin Supreme Court is the highest appellate court in Wisconsin. The Supreme Court has jurisdiction over original actions, appeals from lower courts, and regulation or administration of the practice of law in Wisconsin. Location The Wi ...

, but was defeated by the incumbent, Luther S. Dixon. He did not stand for re-election in 1864 and left office that spring to resume his law practice. He returned to politics in 1876 and was elected to a final six-year term as circuit court judge. Over these six years, he would stand for office three more times and lost all three elections. In 1879, he was defeated in the election for Wisconsin Supreme Court; in 1880, he lost election to the

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the Lower house, lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the United States Senate, Senate being ...

in the 3rd congressional district; in 1882, he lost his bid for re-election in his circuit court seat. Cothren died at his home in Calamine, Wisconsin, from

bilious fever Bilious fever was a medical diagnosis of fever associated with excessive bile or bilirubin in the blood stream and tissues, causing jaundice (a yellow color in the skin or sclera of the eye). The most common cause was malaria. Viral hepatitis and b ...

in 1888.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cothren, Montgomery Morrison 1819 births 1888 deaths People from Jerusalem, New York People from Mineral Point, Wisconsin People from Willow Springs, Wisconsin Wisconsin state court judges Members of the Wisconsin Territorial Legislature 19th-century American politicians Democratic Party Wisconsin state senators 1856 United States presidential electors 19th-century American judges