Gwin, William M.

Born: 1805-10-09 Tennessee

Died: 1885-09-03 New York, New York

Born near Gallatin, Tennessee, William M. Gwin was a physician, U.S. marshal, congressman, and Democrat. Following a classical education, he studied medicine at Transylvania University. After graduating with his medical degree in 1828, he practiced medicine in Clinton, Mississippi, until 1833. That year, he became U.S. marshal of Mississippi. Gwin married twice in his life. In December 1828 he wed Caroline M. Sampson. She died in October 1833. In March 1837, he married Mary Elizabeth Hampton, with whom he eventually had at least four children. In 1840, Gwin won election as a Democrat to the U.S. House of Representatives. He served from March 1841 to March 1843, but did not seek reelection. In 1849, he moved to California, where he served as a member of the state's constitutional convention that year. After the U.S. admitted California to the Union as a state, Gwin won election to the U.S. Senate. He served from September 1850 to March 1855, won reelection after the California legislature failed to elect someone to fill his seat upon the expiration of his term, and served again from January 1857 to March 1861. Gwin was pro-slavery, and was arrested twice during the Civil War for disloyalty to the Union. During the war, he was also involved in a scheme to convince Napoleon III to invest in an effort to resettle American enslavers in Mexico. He died in New York City, but was buried in California, where he retired in the years prior to his death.

Biographical Directory of the American Congress 1774-1996 (Alexandria, VA: CQ Staff Directories, 1997), 124, 1135; Tennessee, U.S., Marriage Records, 1780-2002, 23 December 1828, Davidson County (Lehi, UT: Ancestry.com Operations, 2008); Natchez Courier (MS), 1 November 1833, 3:3; California, U.S., Pioneer and Immigrant Files, 1790-1950 (Lehi, UT: Ancestry.com Operations, 2011); U.S. Census Office, Ninth Census of the United States (1870), Calaveras County, CA, 36; Gravestone, Mountain View Cemetery, Oakland, CA.