Niblack, William E.

Born: 1822-05-19 Indiana

Died: 1893-05-07 Indianapolis, Indiana

Born in Dubois County, Indiana, William E. Niblack was an attorney, surveyor, state representative, judge, U.S. congressman, and Democrat. He attended country schools in Indiana as a boy, then Indiana University, where he studied law. He gained admittance to the bar in 1843, and began practicing law in Vincennes, Indiana. He also worked as a surveyor for Dubois County for a time. In October 1849, he married Elizabeth Ann Sherman. Together they eventually had at least five children together. He won election to the Indiana House of Representatives, where he served from 1849 to 1850. He then won election to the Indiana Senate, where he served from 1850to 1853. He served as judge of the circuit court of Indiana's Third Judicial District from January 1854 until his resignation in October 1859. In 1855, he moved back to Vincennes. He won election as a Democrat to the Thirty-Fifth U.S. Congress, filling the vacancy caused by James Lockhart's death in September 1857. Niblack served in the U.S. House of Representatives from December 7, 1857 to March 1859, won reelection, and served again from March 1859 to March 1861. He returned to the Indiana House in 1862-63, and served as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1864 as well as after the Civil War. In 1864, he won election again to the U.S. House, serving in the Thirty-Ninth Congress. In 1850, he owned real property valued at $1,200. By 1860, he owned $8,000 in real property and a personal estate valued at $3,000.

Biographical Directory of the American Congress 1774-1996 (Alexandria, VA: CQ Staff Directories, 1997), 156, 159-60, 172, 1586; Indiana, U.S., Compiled Marriages, 1810-2001, 4 October 1849, (Provo, UT: Ancestry.com Operations, 2014); U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Martin County, IN, 56; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Vincennes, Knox County, IN, 99; U.S. Census Office, Ninth Census of the United States (1870), Vincennes, Knox County, IN, 136-37.