Lawrence Brainerd

Lawrence Brainerd

Lawrence Brainerd (born March 16, 1794 in East Hartford , Connecticut , †  May 9, 1870 in St. Albans , Vermont ) was an American politician who represented the state of Vermont in the US Senate .

In 1803, when he was less than ten years old, Lawrence Brainerd moved from Connecticut to Troy, New York State , to live with an uncle. Together with this he then settled in St. Albans in Vermont in 1808, where he finished his schooling and then initially worked as a teacher himself. He then worked as an office worker in a trading company before embarking on a career as a businessman in the trade, banking, shipping and railroad industries.

Brainerd took his first political mandate in 1834 as a member of the House of Representatives from Vermont ; at that time he belonged to the Whigs . In 1840 he switched to the short-lived Liberty Party , as its candidate he ran for the office of governor of Vermont just as unsuccessfully as later after it was absorbed in the Free Soil Party .

As a member of this anti- slavery party, Lawrence Brainerd was elected to the US Senate in 1854; there he succeeded Samuel S. Phelps , who had been stripped of his mandate. Brainerd remained in the Senate from October 14, 1854 to March 3, 1855. He was a co-founder of the Republican Party and was sent as a delegate to its first congress in 1856. He was also president of the American Missionary Society . He ran for re-election as well as for the gubernatorial election in Vermont, although he had been nominated by his party once more. He focused again on his business activities, which he pursued until his death in 1870.

His cousin Joseph, who also lived in St. Albans, founded the newspaper "Franklin Journal", which its new owner named "St. Albans Messenger" after the sale and which still exists.

His daughter Ann published several books as a fantasy writer. She was married to J. Gregory Smith , who served as governor of Vermont from 1863 to 1865 and later founded the city ​​of Brainerd in Minnesota , named after his father-in-law, in his capacity as president of the Northern Pacific Railroad .

Web links

• Lawrence Brainerd in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)

• Lawrence Brainerd in the database of Find a Grave (English)