William H. Upson

Who was William H. Upson?

William Hanford Upson was a nineteenth-century politician, lawyer and judge from Ohio.

Upson was born in Worthington, Ohio. His parents were Dr. Daniel Upson and Polly Wright. He attended Tallmadge Academy, pursued in classical studies and graduated from Western Reserve College in 1842. He studied law at the Painesville, Ohio office of Reuben Hitchcock, followed by a year at Yale Law School. He was admitted to the bar in 1845, commencing practice in Akron, Ohio in 1846. He served as prosecuting attorney of Summit County, Ohio from 1848 to 1850, was a member of the Ohio Senate from 1853 to 1855 and was a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1864. Upson was elected a Republican to the United States House of Representatives in 1868, serving from 1869 to 1873, not being a candidate for renomination in 1872. There, he served as chairman of the Committee on Private Land Claims from 1871 to 1873. Afterward, he was once again a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1876, was appointed an Associate Justice of the Ohio Supreme Court in 1883 and was elected judge of the circuit court of Ohio in 1884, serving until 1894.