
illiam Hendricks, Governor
of Indiana from 1822 to 1825 was born at Ligonier, Westmoreland County,
Pennsylvania, in 1783. His parents were Abraham Hendricks and Ann (Jamison)
Hendricks, descendants from old families of New Jersey. William Hendricks
was educated at Cannonsburg, Pennsylvania, and shortly after his graduation,
in 1810, went to Cincinnati, Ohio, where he studied law in the office of
Mr. Carry, supporting himself in the meantime by teaching school. In 1814,
he removed to Indiana, and located at Madison, which continued to be his
home during the rest of his life. He began the practice of law at Madison,
where he was also identified with journalism for some time, and shortly after
his removal to the state, he was made secretary of the territorial legislature
at Vincennes. In June 1816, he was appointed secretary of the constitutional
convention, and in August of the same year was elected as the first and sole
representative to congress from the newly created state, serving three successive
terms. He discharged the duties of his high position with so much acceptability
that at the end of his third term, 1822, he was elected governor of the state
without opposition. Before the expiration of his term as governor, the
legislature elected him a senator of the United States, and on February 12,
1825, he filed his resignation as governor. In 1831, he was re-elected, and
at the expiration of this term, in 1837, he retired to private life and never
afterward took upon himself the cares of public office. In 1840 he was one
of the state electors on the Van Buren ticket, and it was during the campaign
of that year the he contracted a disease from which he suffered the remainder
of his life. Gov. Hendricks was a man of imposing appearance. He was six
feet in height, handsome in face and figure, and had a ruddy complexion.
He was easy in manner, genial and kind in disposition, and was a man who
attracted the attention of all and won the warm friendship of many. He was
brought up in the Presbyterian faith, early united with that church, and
lived a consistent, earnest, Christian life. The Indiana Gazette of 1850
has the following mention of him: "Gov. Hendricks was for many years by far
the most popular man in the state. He had been its sole representative in
congress for six years, elected on each occasion by large majorities, and
no member of that body, probably, was more attentive to the interests of
the state he represented, or more industrious in arranging all the private
or local business entrusted to him. He left no letter unanswered, no public
office or document did he fail to visit or examine on request; with personal
manners very engaging, he long retained his popularity." He died May 16,
1850.
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