William A. Russell (New York)
Encyclopedia
William A. Russell was an American politician from New York
.
and Alida (Lansing) Russell.
He was Sheriff of Washington County from 1850 to 1852.
He was an Inspector of State Prisons
from 1856 to 1858, elected on the American
ticket in 1855
but defeated for re-election in 1858.
Union General David Allen Russell
was his brother.
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
.
Life
He was the son of Congressman David Abel RussellDavid Abel Russell
David Abel Russell was a U.S. Representative from New York.He was born in Petersburg, New York and trained as a lawyer and practiced in Salem, New York. He was appointed Justice of the Peace in 1807. He was District Attorney of the Fourth District from 1813 to 1815...
and Alida (Lansing) Russell.
He was Sheriff of Washington County from 1850 to 1852.
He was an Inspector of State Prisons
New York State Prison Inspector
The Inspector of State Prisons was a statewide elective office created by the New York State Constitution of 1846. At the New York state election, 1847, three Inspectors were elected and then, upon taking office, so classified that henceforth every year one Inspector would be elected to a...
from 1856 to 1858, elected on the American
Know Nothing
The Know Nothing was a movement by the nativist American political faction of the 1840s and 1850s. It was empowered by popular fears that the country was being overwhelmed by German and Irish Catholic immigrants, who were often regarded as hostile to Anglo-Saxon Protestant values and controlled by...
ticket in 1855
New York state election, 1855
The 1855 New York state election was held on November 6, 1855, to elect the Secretary of State, the State Comptroller, the Attorney General, the State Treasurer, the State Engineer, two judges of the New York Court of Appeals, a Canal Commissioner and an Inspector of State Prisons, as well as...
but defeated for re-election in 1858.
Union General David Allen Russell
David Allen Russell
David Allen Russell was a career United States Army officer who served in the Mexican-American War and the American Civil War. He was killed in action as a brigadier general in the Union Army.-Early life:...
was his brother.
Sources
- DEATH LIST OF A DAY in NYT on May 25, 1897, his son's (also named William A. Russell) obit
- Harper's Magazine telling an anecdote of Russell's trip south to take up his duties at the State Prison
- The New York Civil List compiled by Franklin Benjamin Hough (pages 46 and 409; Weed, Parsons and Co., 1858)