Ebenezer Jolls Ormsbee (June 8, 1834 – April 3, 1924), the 41st governor of Vermont, was a

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 ...

politician, a teacher, a lawyer and an American Civil War veteran.

Early life

Ormsbee was born in Shoreham, Vermont, the son of John Mason and Polly (Willson) Ormsbee. After combining farm work and an early education at academies at Brandon and

South Woodstock South Woodstock is a villagePrincipal Communities in Connecticut
Dept. of Economic and Comm ...

, he began studying law in 1857, and was admitted to the

Rutland County Rutland County is a county located in the U.S. state of Vermont. As of the 2020 census, the population was 60,572, making it the second-most populous county in Vermont. Its county seat and most populous municipality is the city of Rutland. H ...

bar in 1861.

Civil War

He enlisted in the Brandon "Allen Grays" in April 1861, which became Company G of the

1st Vermont Infantry The 1st Vermont Infantry Regiment was a three months' infantry regiment in the Union Army during the American Civil War. It served in the eastern theater, in and around Fortress Monroe, Virginia. History Responding to President Abraham Lincoln's ...

. He was elected 2nd lieutenant on April 25, 1861, and served with the regiment for its full three-month term. In September 1862, he joined Company G,

12th Vermont Infantry The 12th Vermont Infantry Regiment was a nine months' infantry regiment in the Union Army during the American Civil War. It served in the eastern theater, predominantly in the Defenses of Washington, from October 1862 to July 1863. It was a memb ...

, serving as its captain, and was mustered out with his regiment in July 1863.

Post war life

After he returned home, Ormsbee started practicing law in Brandon, as a partner of Anson A. Nicholson, and later with

Ebenezer N. Briggs Ebenezer N. Briggs (November 1, 1801 – January 26, 1873) was an American lawyer and politician in the U.S. state of Vermont. He served as the Speaker of the Vermont House of Representatives and as President Pro Tem of the Vermont Senate. He ...

. He was appointed assistant United States internal revenue assessor in 1868, serving until 1872. He served as state's attorney for Rutland County from 1870 to 1874, represented Brandon in the

Vermont House of Representatives The Vermont House of Representatives is the lower house of the Vermont General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Vermont. The House comprises 150 members, with each member representing around 4,100 citizens. Representatives ar ...

from 1872 to 1873, and Rutland County in the

Vermont State Senate The Vermont Senate is the upper house of the Vermont General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Vermont. The senate consists of 30 members. Senate districting divides the 30 members into three single-member districts, six two-m ...

from 1878 to 1879. He served a trustee of the Vermont Reform School from 1880 to 1884. In 1884, Ormsbee was nominated by the State Republican Convention to run for lieutenant governor; Ormsbee received 297 of the 510 votes, winning the nomination and the subsequent general election. He was elected governor in

1886 Events January–March * January 1 – Upper Burma is formally annexed to British Burma, following its conquest in the Third Anglo-Burmese War of November 1885. * January 5– 9 – Robert Louis Stevenson's novella ''Strange ...

. During his administration, he appointed a commission of three members to revise the educational laws of the state, and presided over the initial work of the state's new railroad commission. In 1887, President Grover Cleveland proposed to return Confederate flags captured by Union troops during the Civil War. This obviously caused a storm of opposition throughout the north. The Vermont Department of the Grand Army of the Republic declared "we most solemnly and earnestly protest for ourselves and in the name of our fallen comrades,... against removing from their final resting place the bloody emblems of a treason that cost many precious lives, fully believing that such removal will do more to keep alive the bitter recollections of the war than anything that has transpired since its close." Governor Ormsbee forwarded this resolution to President Cleveland, declaring they "have my unqualified and warmest approval, and you may rest assured that they contain the sentiments of Vermont on this subject."* Crockett, Walter Hill, ''Vermont The Green Mountain State,'' New York: The Century History Company, Inc., 1921, iv:168. At the end of 1891 Ormsbee was appointed by President Benjamin Harrison to serve on a commission to treat with the Paiute Indians at the

Pyramid Lake Indian Reservation The Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe Reservation is a United States reservation in northwestern Nevada, approximately northeast of Reno, in Washoe, Storey, and Lyon counties. It is governed by the federally recognized Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe, whi ...

, in Nevada, to get the tribe to relinquish a claim to part of their reservation.For additional information, see Ormsbee's papers at the Vermont Historical Society The same year, he was appointed by President Harrison U.S. Land commissioner at Samoa to act with similar British and German commissions to adjust claims of foreigners to lands in Samoa, representing millions of acres of land. Ormsbee completed his work in May 1893, returned to the United States and resumed his law practice in Brandon. In 1896, ex-Governor Ormsbee joined a number of Vermont luminaries in a train trip to

Canton, Ohio Canton () is a city in and the county seat of Stark County, Ohio. It is located approximately south of Cleveland and south of Akron in Northeast Ohio. The city lies on the edge of Ohio's extensive Amish country, particularly in Holmes and ...

, in support of William McKinley's campaign for the presidency. In 1901, he presided over a banquet in honor of Vice President Theodore Roosevelt. In 1902, now President, Roosevelt returned to Vermont, and Ormsbee again presided over the ceremonies at a train stop in Brandon. In 1913, ex-Governor Ormsbee presided over the dedication of a monument to

Stephen A. Douglas Stephen Arnold Douglas (April 23, 1813 – June 3, 1861) was an American politician and lawyer from Illinois. A senator, he was one of two nominees of the badly split Democratic Party for president in the 1860 presidential election, which wa ...

, Brandon's most famous native son. Orsmbee married, in 1862, Jennie L. Briggs, daughter of

of Brandon. She died in 1866. He married again, in 1867, Frances Davenport, daughter of William L. and Loretta Cole Wadhams of Wadhams Mills, New York. He was a

Freemason 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 a longtime comrade of C. J. Ormsbee Post #18, Grand Army of the Republic, named for his brother, Charles James Ormsbee,

5th Vermont Infantry The 5th Vermont Infantry Regiment was a three years' infantry regiment in the Union Army during the American Civil War. Structure The 5th Vermont Infantry was part of the Army of the Potomac, in the Vermont Brigade of the Sixth Army Corps. It in ...

, who was killed in action at the

Battle of the Wilderness The Battle of the Wilderness was fought on May 5–7, 1864, during the American Civil War. It was the first battle of Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant's 1864 Virginia Overland Campaign against General Robert E. Lee and the Confederate Arm ...

on May 5, 1864. Ormsbee was president of the Brandon Free Public Library, president of the Brandon Cemetery Association, member of the prudential committee of the Brandon graded and high school for over 27 years, and president of the Brandon National Bank for more than 14 years. He died of apoplexy in Brandon, and was interred in Pine Hill cemetery.

References

Sources

* Benedict, G. G., ''Vermont in the Civil War. A History of the part taken by the Vermont Soldiers And Sailors in the War For The Union, 1861-5,'' Burlington, VT: The Free Press Association, 1888, pp. i:436, ii:402. * Crockett, Walter Hill, ''Vermont The Green Mountain State,'' New York: The Century History Company, Inc., 1921, iv:143, 160–163, 168, 216, 245, 349, 353, 362, 388, 449. * Dodge, Prentiss C., ''Encyclopedia Vermont Biography,'' Burlington, VT: Ullery Publishing Company, 1912, pp. 47–48. * Peck, Theodore S., compiler, ''Revised Roster of Vermont Volunteers and lists of Vermonters Who Served in the Army and Navy of the United States During the War of the Rebellion, 1861–66. Montpelier, VT.: Press of the Watchman Publishing Co., 1892, pp. 20, 156, 168, 469. * Ullery, Jacob C., compiler, ''Men of Vermont: An Illustrated Biographical History of Vermonters and Sons of Vermont,'' Brattleboro, VT: Transcript Publishing Company, 1894, part ii, p. 292.

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