William Simonton (February 12, 1788 – May 17, 1846) was a Whig member of 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 ...

from

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

. William Simonton was born in

West Hanover Township, Pennsylvania West Hanover Township is a township in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 10,693 at the 2020 census, an increase over the figure of 9,343 tabulated in 2010. History Hanover Township of Dauphin County was divided int ...

, near

Harrisburg, Pennsylvania Harrisburg is the capital city of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Dauphin County. With a population of 50,135 as of the 2021 census, Harrisburg is the 9th largest city and 15th largest municipality in Pe ...

, to Dr. William Simonton and Jane Wiggins."American Historical Company. ''History of Pittsburgh and Environs, Volume 1.'' The American Historical Society, Inc. New York and Chicago, 1922. pg. 119 He graduated from the medical department of the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

in 1810 and practiced his profession while residing on his farm near

Hummelstown, Pennsylvania Hummelstown is a borough in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 4,535 as of the 2020 census. It is part of the Harrisburg– Carlisle Metropolitan Statistical Area. Originally named Fredrickstown, the town was establ ...

. Simonton was elected auditor of

Dauphin County, Pennsylvania Dauphin County (; Pennsylvania Dutch: Daffin Kaundi) is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 census, the population was 286,401. The county seat and the largest city is Harrisburg, Pennsylvania's state capital and nint ...

, in 1823 and served three years. He was one of the original supporters of the free-school system established by the act of 1834. Simonton was elected as a Whig to the Twenty-sixth and Twenty-seventh Congresses. He died in South Hanover Township, Pennsylvania, in 1846. Interment in the Old Hanover Cemetery, north of

Shellsville, Pennsylvania Shellsville is an unincorporated community in East Hanover Township, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is part of the Harrisburg–Carlisle Metropolitan Statistical Area. ReferencesMap Of Shellsville by MapQuest See also *Holly ...

. One of his sons,

Ashbel Green Simonton Ashbel Green Simonton (January 20, 1833 – December 9, 1867) was a North-American Presbyterian minister and missionary, the first missionary to settle a Protestant church in Brazil, Igreja Presbiteriana do Brasil (Presbyterian Church of Brazil). ...

, was a

Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...

minister and the first missionary to settle a

Protestant Church Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

Sources

The Political Graveyard

External links

* 1788 births 1846 deaths Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania alumni Politicians from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania Physicians from Pennsylvania Whig Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Pennsylvania 19th-century American politicians {{Pennsylvania-Representative-stub