Re: E Winthrop Colbath of NH b. 1787
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In reply to:
E Winthrop Colbath of NH b. 1787
Nikkie Eldridge 9/18/10
Jeremiah Jones Colbath, b. 16 Feb 1812, Farmington, Strafford, NH; d. 22 Nov 1875, Washington, D.C.; bur. Old Dell Park Cemetery, 30 Nov 1875, Natick, , Middlesex, MA; mrd 28 Oct 1840, Harriet Melvina Howe, b. 24 Nov 1824, Natick, Middlesex, MA;, d. 28 May 1870; bur. Old Dell Park Cemetery, Natick, Middlesex, MA.Harriet was the dau of Amasa Howe & Mary Toombs
Children:
1) Lt Col Henry Hamilton (Colbath) Wilson, b. 11 Nov 8146, Natick, Middlesex, MA; d. 24 Dec 1866,
Austin, TX
2) Adopted dau Eva mentioned in his will
Colbath ancestral line
Winthrop Colbath & Abigail Witham
Winthrop Colbath & Hannah Rollins
James Colbath & Olive Leighton
George Colbath & Mary Pitman
John Colbreath
Notes for Jeremiah
NAM:Changed name to Henry Wilson
New-Hampshire Statesman and State Journal, (Concord, NH) Saturday, August 03, 1833; Issue 11; col.
C ;Laws of New Hampshire Passed June Session—1833
. . .and Jeremiah Colbath, of Farmington, may take the name of Henry Wilson
The Galveston Daily News, (Houston, TX) Sunday, November 28, 1875; Issue 276; col. A (excerpt)
"By act of Massachusetts Legislature the name was changed to Henry Wilson.The reason assigned
for the change was that the senior Colbath had brought the name into disrepute"
NOT:Indentured to Mr. Knight the summer of 1822, age 10, until the age of 21. Indenture expired Feb
1833
Elected Vice President of the United States in Nov 1872 under General Grant
HLT:Not long after his inauguration as Vice President, his facial nerve became partial paralyzed. In 1875
a secondand third paralytic shock occurred and he expired at the capitol at Washington on the 22d
of November, 1875, in the 64th year of his age.
BUR:Old Dell Park Cemetery
NOT:Article about burial of Winthrop, Abigail, Jeremiah Jones Colbath (Henry Wilson), Harriet Howe &
Henry Hamilton Wilson in the Waterloo Courier, Waterloo, IA, 22 Dec 1875, p. 8, day 22
Article in Portsmouth Herald, Tuesday, February 15, 1938, Portsmouth, New Hampshire
Article in Herald And Torch Light, The, Wednesday, December 01, 1875, Hagerstown, Maryland
WIL:Signed 21 Apr 1874.His property, amounting in all to about $10,000, was left for the benefit of
Mrs. Mary Howe, his mother-in-law, for the support and education of Miss Eva Wilson, his adopted
daughter, and some other minor purposes
DEA:Independent Statesman, (Concord, NH) Thursday, November 25, 1875; pg. 68; Issue [9]; col. A
Death of Vice President Wilson
Vice President Wilson died in Washington, on Monday morning, at 7:20 o'clock.Although not
altogetherunexpected - for the dangerous character of his malady had become well known despite the evident dispositionof his medical and other immediate attendants to put the most favorable construction possible upon his symptons - this announcement will be received by the nation at large with feelings of profound sorrow, and by the personal friends of the incorruptible statesman with a grief too poignant for utterance.
Henry Wilson was born in Farmington, this State, 16 Feb 1812.His parents being extremely poor, he wasapprenticed at 10 years of age to a farmer in his native town, with whom he continued 11 years.During this time, his school privileges were exceedingly limited, his entire attendance aggregating about 12 months; but he early formed a tasted for reading, and from a private library in the neighborhood, borrowed, and read on Sundays, and in the evenings by firelight, in the course of his apprenticeship, nearly 1,000 volumes, chiefly of history and biography.
At the age of 21 he quitted Farmington, and with all his property in a pack upon his back, walked to Natick, Mass.,where he hired himself to a shoemaker until he had learned that trade, at which he worked two years, when,having accumulated some money, he returned to his native State, and studied for a while in the academies at Strafford, Wolfeboro', and this city.The insolvency of the party to whom he had entrusted his wages, compelled him to cut short his academic career and return to Natick, where
in 1838 he resumed work at his trade.He took an active part in the Presidential campaign of 1840, going upon the stump and making some 60 speeches in favor of Gen. Harrison, the whig candidate.In the next five years he was three times elected a representative from Natick to the Legislature, and twice to the State Senate.Here he became identified with the anti-slavery cause, and in 1845, in conjunction with the poet Whittier, he was selected to carry to Washington the great anti-slavery petition from Massachusetts against the annexation of Texas.In the same year he made a speech in the Legislature against the further extension of slavery, which gave him a national reputation.In 1848, he withdrew from the Whig National Convention, on the rejection of anti-slavery resolutions, and took a prominentpart in the formation of the Free Soil party.For two years he edited the Boston Republican, a daily newspaper.
He became the leader of the new party in Massachusetts and the Chairman of its State Committee for four years.
In 1850, and again in 1851, he was chosen to the State Senate, and during both terms that President of thatbody.In 1852, he was President of the Free Soil National Convention at Pittsburg, and the same year becamethe candidate for Congress of his party in the 8th district, and although the previous majority against his party had been 7,500, he failed of an election by only 93 votes.In 1853 he was the Free Soil candidate for Governor,and was defeated.In 1855 he was elected to the U.S. Senate to succeed Edward Everett, and at once took a prominent position in that body as an able, earnest, consistent opponent of African slavery.For a brief period in 1855 he was associated with the American party, but left it on its adoption of a pro-slavery platform, and took an active part in the organization of the Republican party.In May, 1856, Mr. Wilson made a speech in the Senate denouncing Brooks’ cowardly attack on Senator Sumner in fitting terms, for which he has challenged Brooks.He declined the meeting on the ground that dueling was not only forbidden by the laws but was a barbarous practice, but stated at the same time that he believed in the right of self-defense in its broadest sense.
Mr. Brooks had sufficient discretion to abstain from any effort to test this belief.During the four following years,Mr. Wilson took part in all the important debates of the Senate.His most popular speech was a defense of free labor in reply to Senator Hammond, of South Carolina.In January, 1859, he was reelected to the Senate by a nearly unanimous vote.
During the war he was chairman of the committee on military affairs, a most responsible post which he filled with consummate tact and ability.He introduced the bill abolishing slavery in the District of Columbia, and was earnest and foremost, after the close of the war, in securing equal rights for the freedmen, taking a prominent part in the inception and adoption of the policy of reconstruction, including the constitutional amendments.
He was again elected to the Senate in 1865, and in 1872, was elected Vice President of United States on the ticket with General Grant, for a term of 4 years.Latterly. Mr. Wilson was suffered from poor health, although his mental faculties have remained unclouded.His last public act was to preside at the Massachusetts RepublicanState Convention.
Mr. Wilson was the son of Winthrop and Abigail Colbath, and was one of a family of seven children.
The name given him by his parents was Jeremiah Colbath, but soon after attaining his majority he petitioned the Legislature and had his name changed to Henry Wilson, Wilson being the maiden name of his mother.The records of our Legislature for the session of 1833 establish this fact.he was married on the 28th of October, 1840, to Miss Harriet Malvina Howe of Natick.Henry Hamilton, their only child, was born on the 11th of November, 1846.He died at Austin, Texas, on the 24th of December, 1866.The estimable wife of the deceased Vice President died May 28, 1870.
Vice President Wilson never prostituted official or political position to acquire wealth, and he leaves, besides the legacy of his remarkable public career, the bequest of an honorable poverty, as a shining example for those whomay hereafter sway the destinies of the country.
Mr. Wilson has been an author as well as a statesman.The proceedings of the sessions in which he participated, as well as his connection with the anti-slavery movement, have been recorded by his own hand in his well-known works, "the History of the Anti-Slavery Measures of the 37th and 38th Congresses," "Military Measures of the U.S. Congress," History of the Reconstruction Measures of the 39th and 40th Congresses," and his more elaborate history of the "Rise of the Slave Power in America."This book, without being a philosophical disquisition, is a wonderful narrative, written with all the author's ardor and restlessness, yet in a lucid and sustained style, and contains facts so arranged that it must hereafter prove a very valuable work of reference.It is highly praised by competent critics, one of whom says that the writer has won "for himself the position of the scholar and the historian, in addition to that of the politician and the statesman."
Mr. Wilson had many remarkable traits of character.It could not be otherwise with one who, springing from the ranks of the lowly, fought his way up, single handed, to the second place of honor and power within the gift of a powerful nation, and who bore his honors with the serenity, gentleness and meekness of the truly great and virtuous men of all times.If, however, we seek for his most distinguishing trait, we shall find it in his fidelity to his convictions of right.he was less a stickler for forms than his great compeer, Sumner, and more willing perhaps, to adopt untried expedients having in view a righteous accomplishment, but no man excelled him in faithfulness to duty as God gave him to see it, or in devotion to those grand principles which underlie the Republican policy, and which may be epitomized in that choice phrase of Horace Greeley's, "All Rights for All."He loved liberty and justice; he hated oppression and wrong.And while he was not afflicted with any of the namby pamby scruples of the dilettante politicians who deem it beneath their dignity to meet with the common people in the committee or caucus room, he never advocated compromise with wrong, or did evil that good might come of it.The time has not come when full justice can be done to the life and character of Henry Wilson - a live and character that abound with lessons for American youth, showing as they do, what perseverance, courage, consistency, diligence, energy and devotion to duty may achieve for even the lowliest born in our land.Industrious and pains-taking awls, a student to the last, and never flinching in the discharge of his duty, Henry Wilson has left a name which will be revered in America as long as Justice, Virtue, and Truth are exalted, and Injustice, Vice and Wrong are Condemned by the American people.