Watson Carvosso SQUIRE, Congress, WA (1838-1926)

SQUIRE, Watson Carvosso, a Senator from Washington; born in Cape Vincent, Jefferson County, N.Y., May 18, 1838; attended the public schools, Falley Seminary, Fulton, N.Y., and Fairfield Seminary, Herkimer County, N.Y.; graduated from Wesleyan University, Middletown, Conn., in 1859; principal of the Moravia (N.Y.) Institute; during the Civil War enlisted in Company F, Nineteenth Regiment, New York Volunteer Infantry, in 1861; promoted to the rank of first lieutenant, and was mustered out the same year; graduated from the Cleveland Law School in 1862; admitted to the bar the same year and commenced practice in Cleveland, Ohio; raised a company of sharpshooters, of which he was commissioned captain; made judge advocate of the district of Tennessee, with headquarters in Nashville; discharged with the rank of captain in 1865 and subsequently brevetted major, lieutenant colonel, and colonel; subsequently employed with the Remington Arms Co.; purchased large holdings in the Territory of Washington in 1876 and moved to Seattle in 1879; Governor of the Territory of Washington 1884-1887; upon the admission of Washington as a State into the Union in 1889 was elected as a Republican to the United States Senate; reelected in 1891, and served from November 20, 1889, to March 3, 1897; unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1897; chairman, Committee on Coast Defenses (Fifty-second and Fifty-fourth Congresses), Committee on Transportation Routes to the Seaboard (Fifty-second Congress); retired from the practice of law and devoted his time to management of his properties in Seattle; organizer and president of the Union Trust Co. and the Squire Investment Co.; died in Seattle, Wash., June 7, 1926; interment in Washelli Cemetery.

Bibliography

Dictionary of American Biography; Shapiro, Scott Evan. “Watson C. Squire: Senator from Washington, 1889-97.” Bachelor’s honors thesis, Wesleyan University, 1992.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present