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William Windom

William Windom (10 May 1827-29 January 1891) was a member of the US House of Representatives (R-MN 1) from 4 March 1859 to 4 March 1869 (succeeding James M. Cavanaugh and preceding Morton S. Wilkinson), a US Senator from Minnesota from 15 July 1870 to 22 January 1871 (succeeding Daniel Norton and preceding Ozora P. Stearns), from 4 to 7 March 1871 (succeeding Stearns and preceding Alonzo J. Edgerton), and from 15 November 1881 to 4 March 1883 (succeeding Edgerton and preceding Dwight M. Sabin), and Secretary of the Treasury from 8 March to 13 November 1881 (succeeding John Sherman and preceding Charles J. Folger) and from 7 March 1889 to 29 January 1891 (succeeding Charles S. Fairchield and preceding Charles Foster).

Biography[]

William Windom was born in Belmont County, Ohio in 1827, and he moved to the Minnesota Territory in 1855 and settled in Winona in southeastern Minnesota. He served in the US House of Representatives from 1859 to 1869 and in the US Senate from 1870 to 1871 and from 1881 to 1883, serving as a Republican. He was a staunch advocate of railroad regulation, and he unsuccessfully sought the GOP's presidential nomination in 1880. Windom went on to serve as Secretary of the Treasury in 1881 and from 1889 to 1891 during the presidencies of James Garfield, Chester A. Arthur, and Benjamin Harrison. He moved to New York City in 1883 and practiced law there until 1889, and he died there in 1891 while serving as Treasury Secretary.

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