Alexander Ramsey

Alexander Ramsey ( born September 8, 1815 to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, † April 22, 1903 in St. Paul, Minnesota ) was an American politician.

Biography

Ramsey was in 1843 elected as a member of the Whig Party in Pennsylvania in the House of Representatives of the United States, where he remained until 1847. Subsequently, he was from 1849 to 1853 the first governor of Minnesota Territory. Two years later he became mayor of St. Paul. In 1860, Ramsey was the second governor of the newly created State of Minnesota. This office he held until 1863 and resigned it when he was chosen for the Republicans in the U.S. Senate. After he was re-elected, Ramsey remained senator until 1875. U.S. President Rutherford B. Hayes appointed him in 1879 as Minister of War of the United States; he remained until the end of Hayes ' term of office on March 4, 1881 in the Cabinet.

From 1882 to 1886 Ramsey served as Chairman of the Edmunds Commission, which dealt with the problem of polygamy among the Mormons in Utah Territory. In 1887 he was a delegate of his country at the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the U.S. Constitution. From 1891 until his death in 1903 he was the Minnesota Historical Society serving as the president.

Ramsey was the son of Congressman Michael Hutchinson Jenks (1785-1867) from Pennsylvania.

Appreciation

After the Ramsey Ramsey County and the Alexander Ramsey Park in Redwood Falls, which is Minnesota's largest city park, were named.