Alvin Saunders

Alvin Saunders

Alvin Saunders (born July 12, 1817 in Fleming County , Kentucky , † November 1, 1899 in Omaha , Nebraska ) was an American politician . He was from 1861 to 1867 the last governor of the Nebraska Territory and later US Senator for the state of Nebraska.

Early years and political advancement

Alvin Saunders attended local schools in his home in Kentucky. In 1829 he moved with his father to Illinois and in 1836 to Mount Pleasant in what is now Iowa , which was then still part of the Wisconsin Territory . Saunders was head of the local post office there for seven years. Although he studied law, he never embarked on a legal career. Instead, he got involved in trading and was involved in banking. Saunders was a member of the Iowa Constituent Assembly in 1846. From 1854 to 1856 and again from 1858 to 1860, he was a member of the Senate of that state. He then belonged to a commission set up by Congress to help organize the Union Pacific Railroad .

Territorial Governor of Nebraska

After the Republicans won the election and President Abraham Lincoln took office , Saunders was named the new and last territorial governor of Nebraska. He served from 1861 until the area became a federal state in the United States in 1867. During these years, some parts of the vast territory were spun off or assigned to other territories. This included areas of what is now the states of North Dakota , South Dakota , Colorado , Utah , Idaho , Montana, and Wyoming . The area slowly approached the boundaries of the future state of Nebraska. The simultaneous civil war had little effect on Nebraska.

According to him, Saunders County named in Nebraska.

US Senator

With the admission of Nebraska as the 37th state into the Union on March 1, 1867, Alvin Saunders' tenure as territorial governor ended. In 1868 he was a delegate to the Republican National Convention , where Ulysses S. Grant was nominated as a presidential candidate. From 1877 to 1883 Saunders represented the new state of Nebraska in the US Senate in Washington . There he was chairman of the committee for the monitoring of the not yet incorporated US territories. Alvin Saunders died in Omaha in 1899.

Web links

• Alvin Saunders in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)
• The Political Graveyard (English)
• Alvin Saunders in the database of Find a Grave (English)