lawyer, politician, Congressman, b. Sherburne, N.Y. He graduated from Yale College (1838) and Harvard Law School (1841). He was admitted to the bar and moved to Milwaukee in the same year. A law partnership formed in 1842 with Asahel Finch, Jr. (q.v.), was expanded in 1857 to include H. M. Finch and B. K. Miller; at the time of Lynde's death, this was the city's oldest law firm. Lynde was a specialist in commercial and admiralty law. A Democrat, he served as attorney general of Wisconsin Territory (1845), U.S. district attorney for Wisconsin Territory (1846-1848), and U.S. Congressman (1848-1849). Lynde was mayor of Milwaukee (1860-1861), served in the state Assembly (1866), and the Senate (1869-1870). Again elected to Congress, he served from 1875 to 1879. He was one of the managers of the Belknap impeachment trial. Biog. Dir. Amer. Cong. (1928); Wis. Reports, 66 (1886), pp. xxix-xxxviii; J. R. Berryman, ed., Bench and Bar of Wis. (2 vols., Chicago, 1898); Milwaukee Sentinel, Dec. 19, 1885.

The Wisconsin Historical Society has manuscripts related to this topic. See the catalog description of the William Pitt Lynde Documents for details.

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[Source: Dictionary of Wisconsin biography]