User:Generalissima/William P. Dole

Early life and career

William Palmer Dole was born in Danville, Vermont on December 3, 1811, to Enoch and Harriet Dexter Dole, and was taken to his parents' home in New Hampshire when he was a few months old. In 1813, the family moved to Bedford, New Hampshire, and then to Hamilton, Ohio in 1818. In 1821, they settled down at a homestead at Coleman's Grove, two miles north of Terre Haute, Indiana, where Dole attended school. Having no interest in farming, he left home in 1821 to work as a grocer in Clinton, Indiana. In addition to his dry goods and grocery store, he worked as a pork packer. He made a series of eight flatboat trips to New Orleans during this period, traveling down the Wabash, Ohio, and Mississippi rivers, selling produce "at all the points from Memphis to New Orleans."

Dole married Susannah Rush on February 15, 1833. They had two children: a daughter named Persis around 1836, and a son named William around 1838. Susannah died soon afterwards, and Dole married her cousin Jane Bryson sometime before 1840.

Early political career

In 1838, Dole was elected to the Indiana House of Representatives as a Whig, one of two representatives from Vermillion County. He was elected to the Indiana Senate in 1844, serving as a state senator until 1851. He was known for his humor as a politician; when Governor James Whitcomb made a speech calling on legislators to do what God would want done, Dole responded with a motion to send the matter to the clergy for further action.

Dole moved to Paris, Illinois around 1854, following the extension of railroads into eastern Illinois, where he partnered with William Kile to open a dry goods store named Kile and Dole. While in Illinois, he became involved with the early Republican Party. He served as a delegate to the 1860 Republican National Convention in Chicago, where he worked alongside David Davis to negotiate support for Abraham Lincoln from the Pennsylvania and Indiana delegations. It was negotiated with the Indiana delegation that Hoosier Caleb Blood Smith would be appointed as Secretary of the Interior in exchange for Dole's appointment as Commissioner of Indian Affairs. Dole received a number of letters of recommendation from Indiana and Illinois politicians, leading Lincoln to send his nomination to the Senate on March 8, 1861. He was confirmed on March 12.

References

Bibliography

• Britten, T. A. (2016). "Abraham Lincoln as Great Father: A Look at Federal Indian Policy, 1861–1865". American Indian Culture and Research Journal. 40 (3). doi:10.17953/aicrj.40.3.britten.
• Davis, Charles (February 2014). "Kile and Dole: And Their Wabash & Erie Canal Connection" (PDF). The Hoosier Packet. 13 (2). Canal Society of Indiana.
• Kelsey, Harry (1979). "William P. Dole (1861–1865)". In Kvasnicka, Robert M.; Viola, Herman J. (eds.). The Commissioners of Indian Affairs, 1824-1977. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
• Kelsey, Harry (Fall 1975). "Abraham Lincoln and American Indian Policy". Lincoln Herald. 77 (3).
• Hofsommer, Donovan L. (Fall 1973). "William Palmer Dale, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, 1861-1865". Lincoln Herald. 75 (3).
• Kelsey, Harry (July 1971). "William P. Dole and Mr. Lincoln's Indian Policy". Journal of the West. 10 (3).
• Carmony, Donald F.; Gray, Marion H. (1971). "William P. Dole: Wabash Valley Merchant and Flatboatman". Indiana Magazine of History. 67 (4) – via JSTOR.

Further reading

• Moulton, G. E. (1974). "Chief John Ross and William P. Dole: a Case Study of Lincoln's Indian Policy"". In Fischer, LeRoy H. (ed.). The Civil War Era in Indian Territory. Los Angeles: L. L. Morrison.