Roswell Farnham

Infobox Governor
name= Roswell Farnham


caption=
order=38^th
office= Governor of Vermont
term_start= 1880
term_end= 1882
lieutenant= John L. Barstow
predecessor= Redfield Proctor
successor=John L. Barstow
birth_date= birth date|1827|7|23|mf=y
birth_place= Boston, Massachusetts
death_date= death date|1903|1|5|mf=y
death_place= Bradford, Vermont
spouse= Mary Elizabeth Johnson
profession=
party= Republican
footnotes=

Roswell Farnham (July 23, 1827ndash January 5, 1903) was a U.S. politician of the Republican Party and an officer in the Union Army during the American Civil War.

He came to Vermont with his father 1840, setting at Bradford; entered the junior class University of Vermont; graduate, 1849, degree of A. M. 1852. In 1849 married Mary Elizabeth Johnson of Bradford. Taught school at Dunham, Lower Canada; was principal of Franklin Academical Institution, Franklin, Vermont; later taught at the Bradford Academy; admitted to the Orange County Bar 1857; formed partnership with Robert McK. Ormsby; began practicing independently 1859; elected states attorney 1859, and twice re-elected.

During the early part of the Civil War, he was a second lieutenant in the Bradford Guards, a company in the 1st Regiment Vermont Volunteers. Later, he was a captain and then the lieutenant colonel of the 12th Regiment Vermont Volunteers, and for nearly half the term of his nine months of service was in command of the regiment.

After the war resumed practice of law at Bradford; Republican candidate for representative in the Legislature, but was defeated; state senator from Orange County 1868 and 1869; delegate to the Republican national convention and presidential elector 1876; elected governor of the state in 1880 by a majority of over 25,000.

References

* Prentiss C. Dodge, compiler, "Encyclopedia Vermont Biography," Ullery Publishing Company, Burlington, Vermont, 1912, p. 45.