Hiram V. Willson

This article is about the United States judge. For the anti-slavery abolitionist, see Hiram Wilson.

Hiram V. Willson
Judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio
In office February 20, 1855 – November 11, 1866
Appointed by	Franklin Pierce
Preceded by	Humphrey H. Leavitt as judge of District of Ohio
Succeeded by	Charles Taylor Sherman
Personal details
Born	April 1808 Hamilton County, New York
Died	November 11, 1866 (age 58) Cleveland, Ohio
Alma mater	Hamilton College
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Hiram V. Willson (died November 11, 1866) was a United States federal judge.

Willson was born April, 1808 in Hamilton County, New York. He graduated from Hamilton College in 1832, and studied law in the office of Jared Willson of Canandaigua, New York. He continued his studies at the office of Francis Scott Key in Washington, D.C.. He moved to Painesville, Ohio in 1833, was admitted to the bar, and formed a partnership with Henry B. Payne at Cleveland, Ohio in 1834.

In 1852, Willson was nominated by the Democrats for United States House of Representatives, but lost to his law partner Edward Wade of the Free Soil Party. In 1854, the Cleveland Bar Association sent Willson to lobby Congress to divide the state of Ohio into two Federal Judicial Districts. The effort was successful.

On February 10, 1855, Willson was nominated by President Franklin Pierce to a new seat on the United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio created by 10 Stat. 604. He was confirmed by the United States Senate on February 20, 1855, and received his commission the same day. He served until his death, in Cleveland.

His most famous case was the trial of the Oberlin–Wellington Rescue conspirators, in 1858.

Some months before his death from consumption, he was received into the First Presbyterian Church.

Sources

• Hiram V. Willson at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a publication of the Federal Judicial Center.