lawyer, politician, b. Hardwick, Mass. He learned the printing trade in Vermont, edited and published the weekly Vermont Journal for a few years, studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1833. In 1835 he moved to Ohio, where he practiced law. In 1842 he moved to Wisconsin, settling first in Racine, and in 1843 in Elkhorn. He was Walworth County probate judge (1847-1850). Aligning himself at first with the abolitionists, Spooner joined the Republican party after its organization in 1854. He was state assemblyman (1850, 1851, 1857, 1861) and state senator (1862-1863). In 1863 he was elected lieutenant governor, serving in this capacity from 1864 to 1870. In 1872, Spooner supported Horace Greeley for the presidency, and in 1876 broke with his party completely to head the Wisconsin electoral ticket for Democratic presidential candidate Samuel J. Tilden. J. R. Berryman, ed., Bench and Bar of Wis. (2 vols., Chicago, 1898); C. R. Tuttle, Illus. Mist.... Wis. (Boston, 1875); Madison Wis. State Journal, Nov. 20, 1877; WPA field notes.Learn More
Dictionary of Wisconsin History
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[Source: Dictionary of Wisconsin biography]
