History of West Liberty, (Ohio County) West Virginia United States of America

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Thomas Ewing, senator, was born at West Liberty, Va., Dec. 28, 1789; son of George and Rachel (Harris) Ewing; and grandson of Thomas and Phoebe (Sayre) Ewing and of Nathaniel and Abigail (Padgett) Harris. His father, a native of New Jersey, who settled in Virginia, was a soldier in the American Revolution, was at Brandywine and Valley Forge, and removed to Waterford, Ohio, in 1792, afterward settling in what was set off as Ames township, Athens county. He was educated at home, and after 1808 he pursued his studies at night while working in the Kanawha salt works. He used his earnings in paying his tuition at college. He was graduated at the Ohio university, Athens, in 1815, the first college man in western America to receive the degree of A.B., and he was admitted to the bar in 1816. He practised law at Lancaster, Ohio, 1816-31, and served as a Whig in the U.S. senate, 1831-37. In congress he supported the Clay protective tariff, advocated lower postage rates, and framed the recharter of the U.S. banks and the force bill. He was a chief instrument in the settlement of the Ohio boundary question in 1836 and the reorganization of the general land office. He opposed the "specie circular" of the U.S. treasury and denied the right of the department to discriminate as to the kinds of money receivable for public lands. In 1841 President Harrison appointed him secretary of the treasury in his cabinet, which portfolio he resigned soon after the accession of President Tyler and was succeeded, Sept. 13, 1841, by Walter Forward. He was selected by President Taylor to organize the "home department," and thus became secretary of the interior in 1849. He advised in his first report the construction of a railroad to the Pacific and the establishment of a U.S. mint in California. Upon the death of President Taylor in 1850 he resigned his cabinet position and was appointed by Governor Wood to the seat in the U.S. senate made vacant by the resignation of Thomas Corwin to become secretary of the treasury in President Fillmore's cabinet. Upon the expiration of this term, March 3, 1851, he resumed the practice of law at Lancaster, Ohio. He was a delegate to the peace convention of 1861 and gave his support to the Union cause during the civil war. On Feb. 22, 1868, President Johnson nominated him as secretary of war in his cabinet, but the senate refused to confirm the nomination on the ground that under the tenure of office act the removal of Secretary Stanton was illegal. He received the degree of A.M. from Ohio university in 1825 and was a trustee of that institution, 1824-32. He was married in 1820 to Maria Wills, daughter of Hugh Boyle, an Irish political refugee of 1791, and their daughter, Ellen Boyle, was married, May 1, 1850, to Lieut. William Tecumseh Sherman, U.S.A., a ward of her father who was afterward the great military hero and the leader in Sherman's march to the sea. Senator Ewing died in Lancaster, Ohio, Oct. 26, 1871.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

History of West Liberty, (Ohio County) West Virginia

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