Joseph Roswell Hawley (31 October 1826-18 March 1905) was the Republican Governor of Connecticut from 2 May 1866 to 1 May 1867 (succeeding William Alfred Buckingham and preceding James E. English), a member of the US House of Representatives (R-CN 1) from 2 December 1872 to 3 March 1875 (succeeding Julius L. Strong and preceding George M. Landers) and from 4 March 1879 to 3 March 1881 (succeeding Landers and preceding John R. Buck), and a US Senator from 4 March 1881 to 3 March 1905 (succeeding William W. Eaton and preceding Morgan Bulkeley).
Biography[]
Joseph Roswell Hawley was born in Stewartsville, North Carolina in 1826, and he became a lawyer in Hartford, Connecticut in 1850. He was an ardent opponent of slavery and joined the Free Soil Party, and he co-founded the Republican Party in Connecticut. Hawley served in the Union Army during the American Civil War, commanding a brigade at the 1864 Battle of Olustee and holding a divisional command at the Siege of Petersburg. After the war, he served as Governor of Connecticut from 1866 to 1867 and then in the US House of Representatives from 1872 to 1875 and 1879 to 1881 and in the US Senate from 1881 to 1905. He died in office at the age of 78.