William Hayden English (1822 - 1896)

Born 27 Aug 1822 in Lexington, Fayette, Kentucky, United States

Ancestors

Husband of Emma Mardulia Sybil (Jackson) English — married 17 Nov 1847 in Baltimore, Maryland, United States

Descendants

Died 7 Feb 1896 at age 73 in Indianapolis, Marion, Indiana, United States

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Biography

William English is Notable.

William Hayden English (August 27, 1822 – February 7, 1896) was an American politician. He served as a U.S. Representative from Indiana and was the Democratic Party nominee for vice president in 1880.

Preceded by Cyrus L. Dunham

U.S. House of Representatives Indiana 2nd Congressional District March 4, 1853 – March 3, 1861

Succeeded by James A. Cravens

William was born in 1822 in Lexington, Kentucky, the son of Elisha English and Mahala Eastin. Both his parents were Kentucky natives from slaveholding families of English and French Huguenot ancestry. They moved to southern Indiana in 1818. Elisha English quickly became involved in local politics as a Democrat, serving in the state legislature as well as building a prominent business career. William English was educated in the local public schools, later attending Hanover College.

From the end of 1842, English was mentored by Lieutenant Governor Jesse D. Bright, who helped him rise within Bright's faction of the party.The following year, the Indiana House of Representatives selected English as their clerk. In 1844, he worked the campaign trail, this time in the service of presidential candidate James K. Polk.

As a reward, after Polk took office in 1845, he granted English a patronage appointment as a clerk in the federal Treasury Department in Washington, D.C. English held this position for four years, during which time he met Emma Mardulia Jackson. They married in November 1847. They had two children: William Eastin and Rosalind. His son William served in Congress from 1884 to 1885. His grandson, William English Walling, the son of his daughter Rosalind, was a co-founder of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

After four years in the federal bureaucracy in Washington, he returned to Indiana and participated in the state constitutional convention of 1850. He was elected to the Indiana House of Representatives in 1851 and served as its speaker at the age of twenty-nine. After a two-year term in the state house, English represented Indiana in the federal House of Representatives for four terms from 1853 to 1861, working most notably to achieve a compromise on the admission of Kansas as a state.

English retired from the House in 1861, but remained involved in party affairs. In the American Civil War he was a War Democrat, supporting the Union war effort. As well as pursuing a political career, he was an author and businessman. He owned an opera house, was president of a bank, and developed many residential properties. English was successful in business, and became one of the wealthiest men in Indiana. After nearly two decades in the private sector, English returned to political life as the Democratic nominee for vice president in 1880. English and his presidential running mate, Winfield Scott Hancock, lost narrowly to their Republican opponents, James A. Garfield and Chester A. Arthur.

He died at his home in Indianapolis on February 7, 1896. English was interred in Crown Hill Cemetery with his wife, who had died in 1877.

Although many of the buildings he constructed have been demolished, English, Indiana, the county seat of Crawford County, is named after him, as is English Avenue in Indianapolis.

Sources

• Wikipedia contributors. "William Hayden English." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.
• Rhoades, Nelson Osgood, Editor, Colonial Families of the United States of America, Vol VII, http://content.ancestry.com/Browse/BookList.aspx?dbid=48076, Volume VII, pgs 475-477.
• Find A Grave: Memorial #11724