lawyer, politician, insurance executive, b. Mount Pleasant, Pa. He studied law, and in 1843 was admitted to the N.Y. bar. In 1849 he moved to Wisconsin, settling in Milwaukee where he set up a law practice and held local political offices. A Democrat, Palmer was state assemblyman (1853, 1860, 1862, 1873) and state senator (1867-1868). He also served as Milwaukee County judge (1873-1874), and in 1863 was the unsuccessful Democratic candidate for governor. Palmer had begun his career in the insurance field as early as 1858, when he was elected a trustee of the Wisconsin Mutual Life Insurance Co. then located in Janesville. Palmer was instrumental in removing the company from Janesville to Milwaukee, where it was reorganized as the Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co. (1859) with Palmer named as legal adviser and a member of its executive committee. He was president of this organization from 1874 until shortly before his death (1874- 1908). Who's Who in Amer., 4 (1906); H. F. Williamson and O. A. Smalley, Northwestern Mutual Life (Evanston, Ill., 1957); J. G. Gregory, Hist. of Milwaukee (4 vols., Chicago, 1931); Milwaukee Journal, May 7, 1909.

The Wisconsin Historical Society has manuscripts related to this topic. See the catalog description of the Henry L. Palmer Genealogy for details.

View newspaper clippings at Wisconsin Local History and Biography Articles.

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[Source: Dictionary of Wisconsin biography]