William Pickering (March 15, 1798 – April 22, 1873) was an English-born American politician who served as the fifth governor of Washington territory, from 1862 to 1866. He was a member of the Republican Party.

Biography

Pickering was born in Yorkshire, England. He graduated from

Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...

in 1820. The following year he moved to

Edwards County, Illinois Edwards County is a county located in the U.S. state of Illinois. As of the 2020 census, the population was 6,245. Its county seat is Albion. History Edwards County was named for Ninian Edwards, the governor of the Illinois Territory, and, l ...

, acquiring property and involving himself in various businesses in the area of

Albion, Illinois Albion is a city in and the county seat of Edwards County, Illinois, United States. The population was 1,971 at the 2020 census. The city was named "Albion" after an ancient and poetic reference to the island of Great Britain. History The sett ...

. On 9 March 1824 in Albion he married Martha Flower (1800–1838), daughter of Richard Flower and sister of Edward Fordham Flower. They had five children before she died on 28 December 1838. He never remarried. He served in the

Illinois House of Representatives The Illinois House of Representatives is the lower house of the Illinois General Assembly. The body was created by the first Illinois Constitution adopted in 1818. The House under the constitution as amended in 1980 consists of 118 representativ ...

from 1842 to 1852 and was a delegate to Republican National Convention from Illinois, 1860. In 1862 President

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offered him the choice of being either part of the United States Ministry in England or Governor of the Washington territory, known at the time as the territory of Columbia. Pickering chose the governorship, and he moved to the territorial capital, Olympia, in June 1862, and served as governor until 1866. On September 4, 1864, he sent the first message over a transcontinental telegraph line. Under the leadership of Territorial Governor William Pickering, the government took responsibility for the care of the mentally ill. Lacking funds to build a hospital, the state contracted for the care of the mentally ill with the Sisters of Charity (now the Sisters of Providence), but, because of lack of funds, it was 19 months before the Sisters began to receive payment.About DSHS – A History of Human Services
/ref> Pickering was an active member of St. John's Episcopal Church in Olympia, serving in a leadership role in its founding as a parish in 1866. After his term, he moved back to Illinois, where he died in 1873.

Biography

References

Further reading