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William H

William Henson Wallace (19 July 1811-7 February 1879) was the Republican Governor of the Washington Territory from 9 April to 8 July 1861 (succeeding Richard D. Gholson and preceding William Pickering), a delegate to the US House of Representatives (R-WA AL) from 4 March 1861 to 3 March 1863 (succeeding Isaac Stevens and preceding George E. Cole), Governor of the Idaho Territory from 10 March 1863 to 1 February 1864 (preceding Caleb Lyon), and a delegate to the US House of Representatives (R-ID AL) from 1 February 1864 to 3 March 1865 (preceding Edward Dexter Holbrook).

Biography[]

William Henson Wallace was born in Troy, Ohio in 1811, the brother of David Wallace and the uncle of Lew Wallace, and he practiced law in Indiana before settling in Fairfield, Iowa in 1837 and serving in the territorial legislature as a Whig. He went on to run for the US Senate in 1848 before moving to the Washington Territory in 1853, and his friendship with President Abraham Lincoln ensured that Wallace was appointed Governor of the Washington Territory in 1861 and then as a delegate to the US House of Representatives, as well as the first territorial governor of Idaho and its first congressional delegate. He returned to Washington in March 1865 and served as a Pierce County probate judge until his death in 1879.

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