1858 in the United States

← 1857 1856 1855 1858 in the United States → 1859 1860 1861
Decades:	1830s 1840s 1850s 1860s 1870s
See also:	History of the United States (1849–1865) Timeline of United States history (1820–1859) List of years in the United States

Events from the year 1858 in the United States.

Incumbents

Federal Government

• President: James Buchanan (D-Pennsylvania)
• Vice President: John C. Breckinridge (D-Kentucky)
• Chief Justice: Roger B. Taney (Maryland)
• Speaker of the House of Representatives: James Lawrence Orr (D-South Carolina)
• Congress: 35th

Governors and Lieutenant Governors

Governors Governor of Alabama: Andrew B. Moore (Democratic) Governor of Arkansas: Elias Nelson Conway (Democratic) Governor of California: J. Neely Johnson (Know Nothing) (until January 8), John B. Weller (Democratic) (starting January 8) Governor of Connecticut: Alexander H. Holley (Republican) (until May 5), William A. Buckingham (Republican) (starting May 5) Governor of Delaware: Peter F. Causey (Know Nothing) 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: James W. Grimes (Whig) (until January 13), Ralph P. Lowe (Republican) (starting January 13) Governor of Kentucky: Charles S. Morehead (Know Nothing) Governor of Louisiana: Robert C. Wickliffe (Democratic) Governor of Maine: Joseph H. Williams (Republican) (until January 6), Lot M. Morrill (Democratic) (starting January 6) Governor of Maryland: Thomas W. Ligon (Democratic) (until January 13), Thomas H. Hicks (Know Nothing)/(Republican) (starting January 13) Governor of Massachusetts: Henry Gardner (Know Nothing) (until January 7), Nathaniel Prentice Banks (Republican) (starting January 7) Governor of Michigan: Kinsley S. Bingham (Republican) Governor of Minnesota: Samuel Medary (Democratic) (until May 24), Henry H. Sibley (Democratic) (starting May 24) Governor of Mississippi: William McWillie (Democratic) Governor of Missouri: Robert Marcellus Stewart (Democratic) Governor of New Hampshire: William Haile (Republican) Governor of New Jersey: William A. Newell (Republican) Governor of New York: John Alsop King (Republican) (until end of December 31) Governor of North Carolina: Thomas Bragg (Democratic) Governor of Ohio: Salmon P. Chase (Republican) Governor of Pennsylvania: James Pollock (Whig) (until January 19), William F. Packer (Democratic) (starting January 19) Governor of Rhode Island: Elisha Dyer (Republican) Governor of South Carolina: Robert Francis Withers Allston (Democratic) (until December 10), William Henry Gist (Democratic) (starting December 10) Governor of Tennessee: Isham G. Harris (Democratic) Governor of Texas: Hardin R. Runnels (Democratic) Governor of Vermont: Ryland Fletcher (Republican) (until October 10), Hiland Hall (Republican) (starting October 10) Governor of Virginia: Henry A. Wise (Democratic) Governor of Wisconsin: Coles Bashford (Republican) (until January 4), Alexander W. Randall (Republican) (starting January 12) Lieutenant Governors Lieutenant Governor of California: Robert M. Anderson (Know Nothing) (until month and day unknown), John Walkup (Democratic) (starting month and day unknown) Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut: Alfred A. Burnham (Republican) (until May 5), Julius Catlin (Republican) (starting May 5) Lieutenant Governor of Illinois: John Wood (Republican) Lieutenant Governor of Indiana: Abram A. Hammond (Democratic) Lieutenant Governor of Iowa: Oran Faville (Republican) (starting month and day unknown) Lieutenant Governor of Kentucky: vacant Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana: William F. Griffin (Democratic) Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts: Henry W. Benchley (Republican) (until January 7), Eliphalet Trask (Republican) (starting January 7) Lieutenant Governor of Michigan: George Coe (Republican) Lieutenant Governor of Minnesota: William Holcombe (Democratic) (starting May 24) Lieutenant Governor of Missouri: Hancock Lee Jackson (Democratic) Lieutenant Governor of New York: Henry R. Selden (Republican) (until end of December 31) Lieutenant Governor of Ohio: Thomas H. Ford (Democratic) (until January 11), Martin Welker (Democratic) (starting January 11) Lieutenant Governor of Rhode Island: Thomas G. Turner (political party unknown) Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina: Gabriel Cannon (Democratic) (until December 10), M. E. Carn (Democratic) (starting December 10) Lieutenant Governor of Texas: Francis R. Lubbock (Democratic) Lieutenant Governor of Vermont: James M. Slade (Republican) (until October 10), Burnham Martin (Republican) (starting October 10) Lieutenant Governor of Virginia: William Lowther Jackson (Democratic) Lieutenant Governor of Wisconsin: Arthur MacArthur, Sr. (Democratic) (until January 4), Erasmus D. Campbell (Democratic) (starting January 4)

Events

• March 4 – A speech by James Henry Hammond in the United States Senate promotes the idea of "King Cotton" and the "mudsill theory" in support of slave labor.
• April 19 – The United States and the Yankton Sioux Tribe sign a treaty.
• May 11 – Minnesota is admitted as the 32nd U.S. state (see History of Minnesota).
• May 19 – The Marais des Cygnes massacre is perpetrated by pro-slavery forces in Bleeding Kansas.
• June 16 – Abraham Lincoln makes his "House Divided" Speech at the State Capitol in Springfield, Illinois, on accepting the Republican Party nomination for a seat in the U.S. Senate.
• July – Forty-Niners stream into the Rocky Mountains of the western United States during the Pike's Peak Gold Rush.
• July 8 – The Paulist Fathers, a Roman Catholic society of apostolic life for men, is founded in New York City by Isaac Hecker.
• July 29 – Treaty of Amity and Commerce (United States–Japan) ("Harris Treaty") signed on the deck of USS Powhatan in Edo (modern-day Tokyo) Bay.
• August 16 – U.S. President James Buchanan inaugurates the new trans-Atlantic telegraph cable by exchanging greetings with Queen Victoria. However, a weak signal forces a shutdown of the service in a few weeks.
• August 21 – The first of the seven Lincoln–Douglas debates is held.
• September 1–2 – 'Staten Island Quarantine War'.
• September 14 – Fordyce Beals patents his six shooter revolver which will be produced by E. Remington & Sons of Ilion, New York as the Remington Model 1858.
• November 17 – Denver is founded.

Ongoing

• Bleeding Kansas (1854–1860)
• Third Seminole War (1855–1858)
• Utah War (1857–1858)

Births

• January 6 – Albert Henry Munsell, painter, teacher of art and inventor of the Munsell color system (died 1918)
• January 9 – Elizabeth Gertrude Britton, botanist (died 1934)
• January 11 – Harry Gordon Selfridge, department store magnate (died 1947)
• February 6 – Jonathan P. Dolliver, U.S. Senator from Iowa from 1900 to 1910 (died 1910)
• February 15 – John Joseph Montgomery, glider pioneer (died 1911)
• February 19 – Charles Alexander Eastman, Native American author, physician, reformer and co-founder of Boy Scouts of America (died 1939)
• February 28 – Richard P. Ernst, U.S. Senator from Kentucky from 1921 to 1927 (died 1934)
• March 9 – Gustav Stickley, furniture designer and architect (died 1942)
• March 12 – Adolph Ochs, newspaper publisher (died 1935)
• March 30 – DeWolf Hopper, musical theater performer (died 1935)
• April 23 – Leonor F. Loree, railroad executive (died 1940)
• April 29 – Georgia Hopley, journalist, political figure and temperance advocate (died 1944)
• June 17 – Mary F. Hoyt, first woman appointed to the U.S. federal civil service, in 1883 (died 1958)
• June 20 – Charles Waddell Chesnutt, African American author, essayist and political activist (died 1932)
• June 28 – Otis Skinner, actor (died 1943)
• July 1 – Velma Caldwell Melville, editor and writer (died 1924)
• August 18 – Thomas S. Rodgers, admiral (died 1931)
• September 1 – Andrew Jackson Zilker, philanthropist (died 1934)
• September 12 – J. H. Smith, politician and pioneer (died 1956)
• October 7 – Joseph E. Ransdell, U.S. Senator from Louisiana from 1913 to 1931 (died 1954)
• October 12 – John L. Sullivan, heavyweight boxer (died 1918)
• October 15 – William Sims, admiral (died 1936)
• October 27 – Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President of the United States from 1901 to 1909, 25th Vice President of the United States from March to September 1901 (died 1919)
• October 30 – Wilson Eyre, architect (died 1944)
• November 8 – Lawrence Yates Sherman, U.S. Senator from Illinois from 1913 to 1921 (died 1939)
• November 21 – Charles A. Towne, U.S. Senator from Minnesota from 1900 to 1901 (died 1928)
• November 26 – Katharine Drexel, Roman Catholic foundress, first American canonized as a saint, in 2000 (died 1955)
• December 25 – Herman P. Faris, temperance movement leader (died 1936)
• December 31 – Harry Stewart New, U.S. Senator from Indiana from 1917 to 1923 (died 1937)

Deaths

• January 10 – Hezekiah Augur, sculptor and inventor (born 1791)
• March 4 – Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry, naval officer (born 1794)
• April 10 – Thomas Hart Benton, U.S. Senator from Missouri from 1821 to 1851 (born 1782)
• August 23 – Calvin Willey, U.S. Senator from Connecticut from 1825 to 1831 (born 1776)
• September 17 – Dred Scott, slave (born c. 1795)
• September 21 – Arthur P. Bagby, U.S. Senator from Alabama from 1837 to 1841 (born 1794)
• November 16 – Robert Hanna, U.S. Senator from Indiana from 1831 to 1832 (born 1786)
• December 14 – Michael Woolston Ash, U.S. Representative from Pennsylvania from 1835 to 1837 (born 1789)
• December 18 – Thomas Holley Chivers, poet and physician (born 1809)

See also

• Timeline of United States history (1820–1859)

External links

• Media related to 1858 in the United States at Wikimedia Commons