HON. WILLIAM COTHREN
WOODBURY: Attorney-at-Law
William Cothren, son of William and Hannah Cothren, was born at Farmington, Me., Nov. 28, 1819. In his ancestral lines he is the descendant of a soldier in King Philip’s war, 1676; a soldier in the war between England and France, 1744-5; a lieutenant in the war of the revLolution; and a sergeant in the war of 18I2. He prepared for college at Farmington academy, and graduated at Bowdoin College in 1843. He received his second degree, in course, at the same college, in 1846, and the degree of Master of Arts, ad eundem, at Yale University, in 1847. He studied law under the direction of Hon. Robert Goodenough of Farmington, Me., and Hon. Charles Phelps of Woodbury, in this state. He settled in Woodbury in 1844, and was admitted to the bar at Litchfield county in October, 1845. He entered upon a large and successful practice at Woodbury, and has continued in practice there ever since. He ranks among the leading lawyers of the state. As a citizen he has ever been public spirited and generous. He has lent his voice and pecuniary aid to every monument or other public improvement during his time. He was elected a county commissioner for Litchfield county in 1851. In 1855 he was elected senator for the old sixteenth district, by the face of the returns, received his certificate, and took his seat in the senate. During the session his seat was successfully contested by his opponent, on a ground which ever since has been held universally untenable, both in Congress and in the several states where the qnestion has been raised. He served as a member of the lower house in 1882. In April, 1856, he was admitted an attorney and counselor of the United States circuit court, and on the 8th of March, 1865, he was admitted an attorney and counselor of the supreme court of the United States. He was elected corresponding member of the New England Historic-Genealogical Society, at Boston, Mass., May 5, 1847, and a member of the Connecticut Historical Society, Nov. 23, 1852, of which for many years he was a vice-president; an honorary member of the Old Colony Historical Society, at Plymouth, Mass., April 24, 1854; a corresponding member of the Wisconsin Historical Society, Jan. 17, 1855; a corresponding member of the Vermont Historical Society, Feb. 3, 1860; a corresponding member of the Maine Historical Society, Sept. 18, 1861; elected worshipful master of King Solomon’s Lodge, No. 7, of F. and A. M., in December, 1852, which office he held two years; a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society, Alpha of Maine, Sept. 20,1873; a member of the Sons of the American Revolution in 1889; and a member of the First Congregational church in Woodbury, July 7, 1850. He has held the offices of justice of the peace and notary public during all his professional life. On the 3d of September, 1849, he was married to Mary Jane Steele, a descendant of Hon. John Steele, first secretary of the colony of Connecticut, and of Rev. Benjamin Colton of West Hartford, a descendant of George Colton, the first of the name in Connecticut. They have had one child, who died young. He was one of the organizers of the republican party, and has been somewhat active in its interests, but has never been a chronic office-seeker. During the civil war he was a zealous and active supporter of the Union cause, giving a large share of his time, and more of his means than he could well afford. He was, during the whole contest, a member of the committees for the enlistment of men, and the care of their families, and was eminently the soldier’s friend, and has so continued ever since. From the twentieth year of his age he has been a contributor, in prose and verse, to the press and magazines of the day. A short time after his settlement in Woodhury he turned his attention to the collection of the historical data of the town, the result of which has been the publication of an elaborate history of the town, in three volumes of twenty-five hundred pages. The first volume was issued in 1854, and was the pioneer work, in its scope and completeness, as a full history of a New England town, that had been issued. He has also published numerous legal and historical pamphlets.
Source: Illustrated Popular Biography of Connecticut - 1891, Compiled and Published by J. A. Spalding, Hartford Conn., Press of the Case, Lockwood and Brainard Company, 1891
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