1859 in the United States

1859 in the United States
Years:	1856 1857 1858 – 1859 – 1860 1861 1862
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33 stars (1859–1861)
Timeline of United States history History of the United States (1849–65)

Events from the year 1859 in the United States.

Incumbents

Federal Government

• President: James Buchanan (D-Pennsylvania)
• Vice President: John C. Breckinridge (D-Kentucky)
• Chief Justice: Roger B. Taney (originally now residing in from of the U.S. state of Maryland)
• Speaker of the House of Representatives: James Lawrence Orr (D-South Carolina)
• Congress: 35th (until March 4), 36th (starting March 4)

Governors and Lieutenant Governors

Governors Governor of Alabama: Andrew B. Moore (Democratic) Governor of Arkansas: Elias Nelson Conway (Democratic) Governor of California: John B. Weller (Democratic) Governor of Connecticut: William A. Buckingham (Republican) Governor of Delaware: Peter F. Causey (Know Nothing) (until January 18), William Burton (Democratic) (starting January 18) Governor of Florida: Madison S. Perry (Democratic) Governor of Georgia: Joseph E. Brown (Democratic) Governor of Illinois: William Henry Bissell (Republican) Governor of Indiana: Ashbel P. Willard (Democratic) Governor of Iowa: Ralph P. Lowe (Republican) Governor of Kentucky: Charles S. Morehead (Know Nothing) (until August 30), Beriah Magoffin (Democratic) (starting August 30) Governor of Louisiana: Robert C. Wickliffe (Democratic) Governor of Maine: Lot M. Morrill (Democratic) Governor of Maryland: Thomas H. Hicks (Know Nothing)/(Republican Party) Governor of Massachusetts: Nathaniel Prentice Banks (Republican) Governor of Michigan: Kinsley S. Bingham (Republican) (until January 5), Moses Wisner (Republican) (starting January 5) Governor of Minnesota: Henry H. Sibley (Democratic Party) Governor of Mississippi: William McWillie (Democratic Party) (until November 21), John J. Pettus (Democratic Party) (starting November 21) Governor of Missouri: Robert Marcellus Stewart (Democratic) Governor of New Hampshire: William Haile (Republican) (until June 2), Ichabod Goodwin (Republican) (starting June 2) Governor of New Jersey: William A. Newell (Republican) Governor of New York: Edwin D. Morgan (Republican) (starting January 1) Governor of North Carolina: Thomas Bragg (Democratic) (until January 1), John Willis Ellis (Democratic) (starting January 1) Governor of Ohio: Salmon P. Chase (Republican) Governor of Oregon: George Law Curry (Democratic) (until March 3), John Whiteaker (Democratic) (starting March 3) Governor of Pennsylvania: William F. Packer (Democratic) Governor of Rhode Island: Elisha Dyer (Republican) (until May 31), Thomas G. Turner (Republican) (starting May 31) Governor of South Carolina: William Henry Gist (Democratic) Governor of Tennessee: Isham G. Harris (Democratic) Governor of Texas: Hardin R. Runnels (Democratic) (until December 31), Sam Houston (Independent) (starting December 31) Governor of Vermont: Hiland Hall (Republican) Governor of Virginia: Henry A. Wise (Democratic) Governor of Wisconsin: Alexander W. Randall (Republican) Lieutenant Governors Lieutenant Governor of California: John Walkup (Democratic) Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut: Julius Catlin (Republican) Lieutenant Governor of Illinois: John Wood (Republican) Lieutenant Governor of Indiana: Abram A. Hammond (Democratic) Lieutenant Governor of Iowa: Oran Faville (Republican) Lieutenant Governor of Kentucky: until month and day unknown: vacant month and day unknown: Linn Boyd (political party unknown) (until month and day unknown), vacant (starting month and day unknown) starting month and day unknown: vacant Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana: William F. Griffin (Democratic) Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts: Eliphalet Trask (political party unknown) Lieutenant Governor of Michigan: George Coe (Republican) (until January 5), Edmund B. Fairfield (Republican) (starting January 5) Lieutenant Governor of Minnesota: William Holcombe (Democratic) Lieutenant Governor of Missouri: Hancock Lee Jackson (Democratic) Lieutenant Governor of New York: Robert Campbell (Republican) (starting January 1) Lieutenant Governor of Ohio: Martin Welker (Democratic) Lieutenant Governor of Rhode Island: Thomas Turner (political party unknown) (until May 31), Isaac Saunders (political party unknown) (starting May 31) Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina: M. E. Carn (Democratic) Lieutenant Governor of Texas: Francis Lubbock (Democratic) (starting December 21), Edward Clark (Democratic) (starting December 21) Lieutenant Governor of Vermont: Burnham Martin (Republican) Lieutenant Governor of Virginia: William Lowther Jackson (Democratic) Lieutenant Governor of Wisconsin: Erasmus D. Campbell (Democratic)

Events

January–March

• January 28 – The city of Olympia is incorporated in the Territory of Washington in the United States of America.
• February 14 – Oregon is admitted as the 33rd U.S. state (see History of Oregon).
• February 27 – U.S. Congressman Daniel Sickles shoots Philip Barton Key for having an affair with his wife.
• March 21 – The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania issues the charter establishing the Zoological Society of Philadelphia, the first organization of its kind in the United States and founder of the nation's first zoo.

April–June

• June 8 – The discovery of the Comstock Lode in the western Utah Territory (present-day Nevada) sets off a rush of prospectors to the area.
• June 15 – The so-called Pig War border dispute between the Americans and the British on the San Juan Islands begins by the death of the namesake pig.

July–September

• July – Pike's Peak Gold Rush begins in the Colorado Territory.
• July 1 – The first intercollegiate baseball game is played, between Amherst and Williams Colleges.
• August 27 – Edwin Drake drills the first oil well in the United States, near Titusville, Pennsylvania, starting the Pennsylvanian oil rush.
• September – Joshua Abraham Norton proclaims himself "Emperor of the United States" in San Francisco.

October–December

The Last Moments of John Brown by Thomas Hovenden, 1882–1884

• October 16 – John Brown raids the Harpers Ferry Armory in Harper's Ferry, Virginia, in an unsuccessful bid to spark a general slave rebellion.
• October 18 – Troops under Colonel Robert E. Lee overpower Brown at the Federal arsenal.
• November 1 – The current Cape Lookout, North Carolina, lighthouse is lighted for the first time (its first-order Fresnel lens can be seen for 19 miles).
• December 2 – Militant abolitionist leader John Brown is hanged for his October 16 raid on Harpers Ferry, West Virginia.

Undated

• The Rancho Rincon de Los Esteros Land Grant is confirmed to Rafael Alvisa, (part of modern-day Santa Clara County, California).
• The University of Michigan Law School is founded.
• Approximate date – The song Dixie is written, probably by Dan Emmett.

Ongoing

• Bleeding Kansas (1854–1860)

Births

• January 6 – Duncan U. Fletcher, United States Senator from Florida from 1909 till 1936. (died 1936)
• January 12 – Henry Heitfeld, United States Senator from Idaho from 1897 till 1903. (died 1938)
• February 22 – Samuel D. Nicholson, United States Senator from Colorado from 1921 till 1923. (died 1923)
• May 12 – William Alden Smith, United States Senator from Michigan from 1907 till 1919. (died 1932)
• September 16 – Frank R. Gooding, United States Senator from Idaho from 1921 till 1928. (died 1928)
• October 20 – John Dewey, educator born in Vermont. (died 1952)

Deaths

• January 29 – William Cranch Bond, astronomer (born 1789)
• February 25 – Edward A. Hannegan, United States Senator from Indiana from 1843 to 1849. (born 1807)
• March 19 – Oliver H. Smith, United States Senator from Indiana from 1837 to 1843. (born 1794)
• April 14 – George M. Bibb, United States Senator from Kentucky from 1811 till 1814. (born 1776)
• September 16 – David C. Broderick, United States Senator from California from 1857 till 1859. (born 1820)
• November 28 – Washington Irving, author (born 1783)

External links

• Media related to 1859 in the United States at Wikimedia Commons