William B. Washburn

Infobox Governor
name = William Barrett Washburn

---

order = 28th
office = Governor of Massachusetts
term_start = January 4, 1872
term_end = April 29, 1874
lieutenant = Joseph Tucker (1872-1873)
Thomas Talbot (1873-1874)
predecessor = William Claflin
successor = Thomas Talbot (acting)
birth_date = birth date|1820|1|31|mf=y
birth_place = Winchendon, Massachusetts
death_date = death date and age|1887|10|5|1820|1|31|mf=y
death_place = Springfield, Massachusetts
party = Republican
spouse =
profession =
religion =
order2 = Member of the United States House of Representatives from Massachusetts's 9th district
term_start2 = March 4, 1863
term_end2 = December 5, 1871
predecessor2 = Amasa Walker
successor2 = Alvah Crocker
order3 = United States Senator
from Massachusetts
term_start3 = April 17, 1874
term_end3 = March 3, 1875
predecessor3 = Charles Sumner
successor3 = Henry L. Dawes

William Barrett Washburn (January 31, 1820–October 5, 1887) was an American politician from Massachusetts, serving in the United States House of Representatives and as Governor of Massachusetts. Born in 1820 in Winchendon, Massachusetts, he was the son of Asa and Phoebe (Whitney) Washburn and brother of Nelson Phinehas Washburn.

He graduated from Yale College in 1844, where he was a member of Skull and Bones; was employed as a store clerk 1844-1847; engaged in manufacturing pursuits in Erving, Massachusetts, 1847-1857; became a member of the Massachusetts Senate 1850; a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives 1853-1855; moved to Greenfield in 1858 and engaged in banking; elected as a Republican to the Thirty-eighth and to the four succeeding Congresses and served from March 41863 to December 5, 1871, when then he resigned, having been elected Governor of Massachusetts.

He was chairman, Committee on Claims (Forty-first Congress); Governor of Massachusetts 1872-1874, when he resigned, having been elected as a U.S Senator; elected as a Republican to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Charles Sumner and served from April 171874 to March 31875; he was not a candidate for reelection.

He was president of the Greenfield National Bank; he was a trustee of Yale College, the Massachusetts Agricultural College, and Smith College, of which he was also a benefactor, and a member of the board of overseers of Amherst College from 1864-77. Harvard University conferred the degree of EL. D. upon him in 1872.

He was also a member of the American board of the American Home Missionary Society, and the American Missionary Association Residuary legatees, leaving to each society about $50,000 in his will. He was also a benefactor of the Greenfield Public Library. He died in Springfield, Hampden County, Mass., on October 51887 while attending a session of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM), which he was also a member ; a director of the Connecticut River Railroad.

External links

* [http://www.mass.gov/statehouse/massgovs/wwashburn.htm Commonwealth of Massachusetts Official Governor Biography]