Hiram V. Willson

Who was Hiram V. Willson?

Hiram V. Willson was a United States federal judge.

Willson was born April, 1808 in Hamilton County, New York. He graduated from Hamilton College in 1832, and studied law in the office of Jared Willson of Canandaigua, New York. He continued his studies at the office of Francis Scott Key in Washington, D.C.. He moved to Painesville, Ohio in 1833, was admitted to the bar, and formed a partnership with Henry B. Payne at Cleveland, Ohio in 1834.

In 1852, Willson was nominated by the Democrats for United States House of Representatives, but lost to his law partner Edward Wade of the Free Soil Party. In 1854, the Cleveland Bar Association sent Willson to lobby Congress to divide the state of Ohio into two Federal Judicial Districts. The effort was successful.

On February 10, 1855, Willson was nominated by President Franklin Pierce to a new seat on the United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio created by 10 Stat. 604. He was confirmed by the United States Senate on February 20, 1855, and received his commission the same day. He served until his death, in Cleveland.

His most famous case was the trial of the Oberlin–Wellington Rescue conspirators, in 1858.