Samuel Gerish Colley (December 8, 1807 - October 21, 1890) was an American farmer, sheriff, politician and

Indian Agent In United States history, an Indian agent was an individual authorized to interact with American Indian tribes on behalf of the government. Background The federal regulation of Indian affairs in the United States first included development of t ...

from

Turtle Turtles are an order of reptiles known as Testudines, characterized by a special shell developed mainly from their ribs. Modern turtles are divided into two major groups, the Pleurodira (side necked turtles) and Cryptodira (hidden necked tu ...

and Beloit,

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 three one-year terms in the

Wisconsin State Assembly The Wisconsin State Assembly is the lower house of the Wisconsin Legislature. Together with the smaller Wisconsin Senate, the two constitute the legislative branch of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. Representatives are elected for two-year terms, ...

. He became notorious for

malfeasance in office Malfeasance in office is often grounds for a just cause removal of an elected official by statute or recall election. Malfeasance in office contrasts with "misfeasance in office", which is the commission of a ''lawful'' act, done in an officia ...

as federal agent for the Upper Arkansas River valley tribes. His actions are considered by some to be one of the causes of the

Colorado War The Colorado War was an Indian War fought in 1864 and 1865 between the Southern Cheyenne, Arapaho, and allied Brulé and Oglala Sioux (or Lakota) peoples versus the U.S. army, Colorado militia, and white settlers in Colorado Territory and a ...

Background

Colley was born in

Bedford, New Hampshire Bedford is a town in Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, United States. At the 2020 census, the population was 23,322, reflecting a growth of 10% from 2010. Bedford is a suburb of Manchester, New Hampshire's largest city. History In 1733, the P ...

, on December 8, 1807, son of Joseph Colley, Jr. He married Lydia Atwood (1809 - 1874) of Bedford in 1832 (they were to have one child, Dexter). Colley was part of

Horace White Horace White (October 7, 1865 – November 27, 1943) was an American lawyer and politician from New York. He was the 37th Governor of New York from October 6, 1910 to December 31, 1910. Life He attended Syracuse Central High School, Cornell U ...

's New England Emigrating Company group who moved into the Beloit area ''en masse'' from New Hampshire and other parts of

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...

. He arrived in the spring of 1838, and claimed 320 acres (one half of a square mile) in Section 21 of the

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 ...

of Beloit, on which he built a small

frame house Framing, in construction, is the fitting together of pieces to give a structure support and shape. Framing materials are usually wood, engineered wood, or structural steel. The alternative to framed construction is generally called ''mass wall ...

in which eleven people spent that winter, though there was only one bed in the house. By the winter of 1839, Colley was a

justice of the peace A justice of the peace (JP) is a judicial officer of a lower or ''puisne'' court, elected or appointed by means of a commission ( letters patent) to keep the peace. In past centuries the term commissioner of the peace was often used with the sa ...

, and as such performed the first marriage held in the incipient village of Beloit. In 1840 his father joined him in Wisconsin. His father was a delegate to the Second Wisconsin Constitutional Convention in 1848.

Elected offices

In 1842, the first meeting of the town board of the Town of Beloit elected him one of their three

highway A highway is any public or private road or other public way on land. It is used for major roads, but also includes other public roads and public tracks. In some areas of the United States, it is used as an equivalent term to controlled-access ...

commissioners. In 1845 he was elected to the Rock County

Board of Supervisors A board of supervisors is a governmental body that oversees the operation of county government in the U.S. states of Arizona, California, Iowa, Mississippi, Virginia, and Wisconsin, as well as 16 counties in New York. There are equivalent agenc ...

. In 1848 he was elected as a

Free Soil Party 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 ...

member of the Assembly (although at one time he and his father had been Whigs. The previous members from Beloit, Robert T. Carey and Nathaniel Strong, had been respectively a Whig and 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 ...

. He was succeeded by John R. Briggs, a Whig.

After the Assembly

In 1850, Colley went to

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

gold fields Gold Fields Limited (formerly The Gold Fields of South Africa) is one of the world's largest gold mining firms. Headquartered in Johannesburg, South Africa, the company is listed on both the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) and the New York Sto ...

, but returned the next year. In 1851, he served as was one of the judges of the

plowing A plough or plow ( US; both ) is a farm tool for loosening or turning the soil before sowing seed or planting. Ploughs were traditionally drawn by oxen and horses, but in modern farms are drawn by tractors. A plough may have a wooden, iron or ...

contest at the first

Wisconsin State Fair The Wisconsin State Fair is an annual event held at the Wisconsin State Fair Park in West Allis, Wisconsin, a suburb of Milwaukee. The modern fair takes place in August (occasionally beginning late July) and lasts 11 days. History The first W ...

. In 1853, he was again elected to the Assembly, this time as a member of the new

Republican Party Republican Party is a name used by many political parties around the world, though the term most commonly refers to the United States' Republican Party. Republican Party may also refer to: Africa *Republican Party (Liberia) * Republican Part ...

to succeed Whig

William D. Murray William D. Murray (September 9, 1908 – March 29, 1986) was an American football and basketball coach and college athletics administrator. He served as the head football coach at University of Delaware from 1940 to 1942 and from 1946 to 1950 and ...

, winning with a majority of 224 votes over former Democratic Assemblyman John Hackett. He was re-elected in 1854; and was succeeded after the 1855 election by fellow Republican Horatio J. Murray. In 1855, he was elected once more to the Rock County Board, this time from the City of Beloit; and again in 1859; in the latter year he was

chairman The chairperson, also chairman, chairwoman or chair, is the presiding officer of an organized group such as a board, committee, or deliberative assembly. The person holding the office, who is typically elected or appointed by members of the grou ...

of the board, as his father had been in 1847 and 1848. At some point during this time, he was also one of the three-person board elected by the county board as Superintendents of the Poor, in charge of the county poor house and poor farm.

Out west again

In 1860 Colley followed his son Dexter out to

Colorado Territory The Territory of Colorado was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from February 28, 1861, until August 1, 1876, when it was admitted to the Union as the State of Colorado. The territory was organized in the w ...

. In 1861, his cousin William P. Dole became

Commissioner of Indian Affairs The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), also known as Indian Affairs (IA), is a United States federal government of the United States, federal agency within the U.S. Department of the Interior, Department of the Interior. It is responsible for im ...

, and Colley was appointed Indian Agent for the Upper Arkansas Indian Agency at Fort Wise, later Fort Lyon. He has long been widely accused of stealing many of the better goods intended for the Indians there, which were sold by Dexter, who was an

Indian trade The Indian Trade refers to historic trade between Europeans and their North American descendants and the Indigenous people of North America, and the First Nations in Canada, beginning before the colonial period, continuing through the 19th century ...

r, to Dexter's great profit. Although Colley had declared "a little powder and lead the best food" for the restive local tribes, he denounced the Sand Creek massacre, assailing Colonel Chivington's actions in no uncertain terms. At least one modern study of the background to these events concluded that Colley, while not understanding the Indians, may have been a good administrator and not merely the exemplar of corruption as which he is usually depicted. With the Indians gone, Colley resigned in 1865 and returned to Wisconsin.

Back in Wisconsin

Lydia Atwood Colley had died in 1873; in 1874 Samuel was remarried to Clarissa Barnes Boutwell (1833 - 1911). In 1876, he was elected for a two-year term as County

Sheriff A sheriff is a government official, with varying duties, existing in some countries with historical ties to England where the office originated. There is an analogous, although independently developed, office in Iceland that is commonly transla ...

. During his term as sheriff, Clarissa prevented some of the prisoners in the county

jail A prison, also known as a jail, gaol (dated, standard English, Australian, and historically in Canada), penitentiary (American English and Canadian English), detention center (or detention centre outside the US), correction center, correc ...

from escaping, and was presented with a

pistol A pistol is a handgun, more specifically one with the chamber integral to its gun barrel, though in common usage the two terms are often used interchangeably. The English word was introduced in , when early handguns were produced in Europe, an ...

to commemorate her bravery.''History of Rock County'' etc. pp. 366-68, 370-71, 374, 412, 803 He and Clarissa were members of the local

Congregational church Congregational churches (also Congregationalist churches or Congregationalism) are Protestant churches in the Calvinist tradition practising congregationalist church governance, in which each congregation independently and autonomously runs its ...

. Colley retired to his farm in the Town of Turtle. He died October 21, 1890, in Beloit, and is buried in Oakwood Cemetery there.

References

External links

Photo of his gravestone
{{DEFAULTSORT:Colley, Samuel 1807 births 1890 deaths Farmers from Wisconsin American justices of the peace Members of the Wisconsin State Assembly People of the California Gold Rush People from Bedford, New Hampshire Politicians from Beloit, Wisconsin United States Indian agents Wisconsin Free Soilers 19th-century American politicians Wisconsin Republicans Wisconsin sheriffs People from Turtle, Wisconsin 19th-century American judges