Otis Colwell

Otis Colwell was an American merchant from Southport (now Kenosha), Wisconsin who spent a single one-year term in 1849 as a Free Soil Party member of the Wisconsin State Assembly from Racine County, which at that time included what is now Kenosha County.[1]

Background

Colwell was born in Massachusetts approximately 1797 (in January 1849 he was 52 years of age). He came to Wisconsin Territory in 1844, and operated a store in Southport.

Politics and legislature

In 1848 he was elected to the second session of the Wisconsin legislature from the district consisting of the Towns of Pike, Pleasant Prairie, and Southport,[2] succeeding Julius L. Gilbert, a Democrat. At that time he is described as being 52 years old, as a native of Massachusetts, and a merchant.[3] He was succeeded in the 1850 session by Samuel Hale, at that time a Democrat, but who would later join the Free Soil Party himself.

In 1852 he was one of two elected justices of the peace for what was now named the City of Kenosha.

Later life

A house built for Colwell in 1853 is still standing, at what is now 6215 7th Avenue in the City of Kenosha.[4]

Colwell spent a brief period (part of 1861) as Head Keeper of the Kenosha Light lighthouse in Kenosha Harbor; he was the second of three men to be Head Keeper in that year.[5]

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References
  1. "Members of the Wisconsin Legislature 1848–1999 State of Wisconsin Legislative Bureau. Information Bulletin 99-1, September 1999. p. 39 Archived 2006-12-09 at the Wayback Machine
  2. "State Legislature:In Assembly" Wisconsin Express January 16, 1849; p. 1, col. 3
  3. "List of Members of the Assembly of the State of Wisconsin Convened at Madison January 10, 1849" Wisconsin Express January 30, 1849; p. 4, col. 4
  4. Wisconsin Historical Society, Wisconsin Architecture and History Inventory, "Otis Colwell House", "Kenosha", "Kenosha County", "Wisconsin", "Reference Number 9508"
  5. "In the Footsteps of the Keepers" Kenosha History Center, n.d.; p. 2


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