Notes for William Badger: GOVERNOR WILLIAM BADGER 1834 - 1835, 1835 - 1836
Badger (1779 - 1852) was born at Gilmanton (NH). Educated at common school and at Gilmanton Academy, Badger worked after his school years to build a cotton cloth factory, a sawmilll and a grist mill for his town. In 1804 Badger was made a trustee of Gilmanton Academy; he ultimately became Chairman of the Board for the school.
Badger served as an aide to Governor John Langdon (governor 1805 - 1812). In 1810 he was elected to the first of three consecutive terms as a State Representative (served 1810 -1812); then he served three terms in the State Senate (1814 - 1817; President of the Senate, 1816 - 1817). Badger served as Associate Justice, Court of Common Pleas (1816 - 1820), and as High Sheriff of Strafford County (1820 - 1830). He was a Presidential Elector in the national elections of 1824, 1836 and 1844.
In 1834 Badger won the gubernatorial election, and he won the next term as well. As Governor, Badger called for eliminating capital punishment, a new idea for New Hampshire. He had to deal with the breakaway Indian Stream Republic. Badger also encouraged the legislature to support President Andrew Jackson's successful efforts to do away with The Bank of the United States (helping to bring on the Panic of 1837). Badger tried to inject new life into the state militia by statute; he also was interested in bringing smallpox prevention directly to the state's small farming towns.
Portrait copied by A. Tenney from an engraving. Presented by a son (1873).
Location: State House, Second Floor, Corridor, West Face, Beginning at Room 208
Governor Badger took his own sweet time obeying the orders of President Jackson. Commander Mooney seems to have became inflated with power and sense of mission. "Settlers who retained pro-British sentiments were harassed by arrests and searches, and their womenfolk manhandled, until they pulled up stakes and took refuge in Canada." [Classen]
History does not lose sight of Luther Parker, the initial President of the Indian Stream Republic and the offended egotist who then worked to cause this conflict so he could enter New Hampshire politics in the legislature. Parker quit New Hampshire, taking his family out west to the Wisconsin Territory where he again local politics. As fate would have it, one of his children would be the last living citizen of the Indian Stream Republic, dying in the 1920s.
More About William Badger: Occupation: Governor.
More About William Badger and Hannah P. Cogswell: Marriage: January 12, 1814
Children of William Badger and Martha Smith are:
John Badger, b. August 22, 1804, d. January 30, 1826.
William Badger (b. January 13, 1779, d. September 21, 1852)
Notes for William Badger: