Orsamus R. Cole (August 23, 1819May 5, 1903) was an American lawyer and judge. He served as the 6th 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 ...

, and, until 2013, was the longest-serving justice in the Court's history, with nearly 37 years on the high court. He also represented

Wisconsin's 2nd congressional district Wisconsin's 2nd congressional district is a congressional district of the United States House of Representatives in southern Wisconsin, covering Dane County, Iowa County, Lafayette County, Sauk County and Green County, as well as portions of ...

in the

U.S. 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 chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they ...

for the 31st Congress (1849–1850). His name is frequently misspelled as Orasmus.

Early life and career

Orsamus Cole was born in

Cazenovia, New York Cazenovia is an incorporated Administrative divisions of New York#Town, town in Madison County, New York. The population was 6,740 at the time of the 2020 census. The town is named after Theophilus Cazenove , Theophile Cazenove, the ''Agent Gener ...

, the son of Hymeneus Cole and Sarah Salisbury. Both of his grandfathers had served in the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...

. Cole attended the common schools and graduated from

Union College Union College is a private liberal arts college in Schenectady, New York. Founded in 1795, it was the first institution of higher learning chartered by the New York State Board of Regents, and second in the state of New York, after Columbia Co ...

Schenectady, New York Schenectady () is a city in Schenectady County, New York, United States, of which it is the county seat. As of the 2020 census, the city's population of 67,047 made it the state's ninth-largest city by population. The city is in eastern New Y ...

, in 1843. He studied law, and, in 1845, he was admitted to the New York bar. That same year, after a brief stop in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, he moved to Potosi, a lead mining town in

Grant County Grant County may refer to: Places ;Australia * County of Grant, Victoria ;United States *Grant County, Arkansas *Grant County, Indiana *Grant County, Kansas *Grant County, Kentucky *Grant County, Minnesota *Grant County, Nebraska *Grant Co ...

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 ...

. At Potosi, he entered a prosperous law practice partnership with William Biddlecome.

Political office

In 1847, he was chosen as one of Grant County's delegates to the 2nd Wisconsin Constitutional Convention. The constitution was ratified by a referendum in May 1848, and, that fall, Orsamus was nominated by the Whig Party as their candidate for Congress in

. In the November general election, Cole defeated his opponents, Democrat A. Hyatt Smith and Free Soil candidate George W. Crabb, and earned a seat in the

31st United States Congress The 31st United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, consisting of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, D.C. from March 4, 1849, ...

. In Congress, Cole sided with the anti-slavery Whigs and refused to support the fugitive slave provisions of the

Compromise of 1850 The Compromise of 1850 was a package of five separate bills passed by the United States Congress in September 1850 that defused a political confrontation between slave and free states on the status of territories acquired in the Mexican–Ame ...

. He ran for re-election in 1850, but was defeated by Democrat

Ben C. Eastman Ben C. Eastman (October 24, 1812 – February 2, 1856) was an American lawyer and politician who represented Wisconsin's 2nd congressional district in the United States House of Representatives in the Thirty-second and Thirty-third Congres ...

. He resumed the practice of law in Potosi, but, in 1853, stood on the consolidated Whig and Free Soil ticket as their candidate for

Attorney General of Wisconsin The Attorney General of Wisconsin is a constitutional officer in the executive branch of the government of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. Forty-five individuals have held the office of Attorney General since statehood. The incumbent is Josh Kaul, ...

. The Whig and Free Soil ticket was defeated in nearly all of the statewide races that year, and Cole again returned to his law practice.

Supreme Court

Following their defeat in 1853, Whig and Free Soil remnants went on to form the new Republican Party. In the 1854 elections, the new Republican Party was very successful and captured a majority of the Wisconsin State Assembly. That winter, they selected Cole to be their candidate against incumbent Associate Justice Samuel Crawford in the April 1855 Supreme Court election. Cole defeated Crawford, largely because of his opposition to the fugitive slave laws, and took office the following June. He was re-elected to six-year terms in 1861, 1867, 1873, and was then re-elected to ten-year term in 1879. In November 1880, Cole was appointed by Governor William E. Smith to fill the vacant Chief Justice role created by the death of Justice

Edward George Ryan Edward George Ryan (November 13, 1810October 19, 1880) was an Irish Americans, Irish American Immigration to the United States, immigrant, lawyer, and Wisconsin pioneer. He was the 5th chief justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court. Early life ...

. He was elected to a full ten-year term as chief justice in April 1881. Justice Cole served thirty six years and seven months on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, and was the longest-serving justice in the history of that court until he was surpassed by Chief Justice

Shirley Abrahamson Shirley Schlanger Abrahamson (December 17, 1933December 19, 2020) was the 25th chief justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court. An American lawyer and jurist, she was appointed to the court in 1976 by Governor Patrick Lucey, becoming the first femal ...

in 2013. At the end of his term in 1892, he retired to

Milwaukee, Wisconsin Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at th ...

, where he died on May 5, 1903. He was interred in Forest Hill Cemetery, in

Madison, Wisconsin Madison is the county seat of Dane County and the capital city of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. As of the 2020 census the population was 269,840, making it the second-largest city in Wisconsin by population, after Milwaukee, and the 80th-lar ...

Personal life and family

He married his first wife Julia A. Houghton in 1848. They had two children, Sidney, who lived to adulthood, and Orsamus, who died as an infant in 1853. Julia died in 1874. He married his second wife, Roberta C. Noe Garnhart, the widow of John H. Garnhart, on January 1, 1879, at Madison, Wisconsin. She died June 17, 1884. His former home, now known as the

Carrie Pierce House The Carrie Pierce House is an elegant house built about 1857 in Madison, Wisconsin for Alexander McDonnell, one of the builders of the third Wisconsin state capitol. In 1972 the house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places His ...

, is listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

Electoral history

U.S. House of Representatives (1848, 1850)

, colspan="6" style="text-align:center;background-color: #e9e9e9;", General Election , colspan="6" style="text-align:center;background-color: #e9e9e9;", General Election (partial returns)

Wisconsin Attorney General (1853)

, colspan="6" style="text-align:center;background-color: #e9e9e9;", General Election

Wisconsin Supreme Court (1855)

, colspan="6" style="text-align:center;background-color: #e9e9e9;", General Election, April 3, 1855

References

External links

* , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Cole, Orasmus 1819 births 1903 deaths Members of the United States House of Representatives from Wisconsin People from Cazenovia, New York People from Potosi, Wisconsin Chief Justices of the Wisconsin Supreme Court Wisconsin Whigs Union College (New York) alumni Whig Party members of the United States House of Representatives 19th-century American politicians Politicians from Madison, Wisconsin 19th-century American judges