1. Orsamus Cole served as the 6th Chief Justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court, and, until 2013, was the longest-serving justice in the Court's history, with nearly 37 years on the high court.
17 Facts About Orsamus Cole
1. 2.
Orsamus Cole represented Wisconsin's 2nd congressional district in the US House of Representatives for the 31st Congress.
3.
Orsamus Cole was born in Cazenovia, New York, the son of Hymeneus Cole and Sarah Salisbury.
4.
Orsamus Cole studied law, and, in 1845, he was admitted to the New York bar.
5.
The constitution was ratified by a referendum in May 1848, and, that fall, Orsamus Cole was nominated by the Whig Party as their candidate for Congress in Wisconsin's 2nd congressional district.
6.
In Congress, Orsamus Cole sided with the anti-slavery Whigs and refused to support the fugitive slave provisions of the Compromise of 1850.
7.
Orsamus Cole ran for re-election in 1850, but was defeated by Democrat Ben C Eastman.
8.
Orsamus Cole resumed the practice of law in Potosi, but, in 1853, stood on the consolidated Whig and Free Soil ticket as their candidate for Attorney General of Wisconsin.
9.
The Whig and Free Soil ticket was defeated in nearly all of the statewide races that year, and Orsamus Cole again returned to his law practice.
10.
That winter, they selected Orsamus Cole to be their candidate against incumbent Associate Justice Samuel Crawford in the April 1855 Supreme Court election.
11.
Orsamus Cole was re-elected to six-year terms in 1861,1867,1873, and was then re-elected to ten-year term in 1879.
12.
In November 1880, Cole was appointed by Governor William E Smith to fill the vacant Chief Justice role created by the death of Justice Edward George Ryan.
13.
Orsamus Cole was elected to a full ten-year term as chief justice in April 1881.
14.
Justice Orsamus Cole served thirty six years and seven months on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, and was the longest-serving justice in the history of that court until he was surpassed by Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson in 2013.
15.
Orsamus Cole was interred in Forest Hill Cemetery, in Madison, Wisconsin.
16.
Orsamus Cole married his first wife Julia A Houghton in 1848.
17.
Orsamus Cole married his second wife, Roberta C Noe Garnhart, the widow of John H Garnhart, on January 1,1879, at Madison, Wisconsin.