abolitionist, politician, clergyman, b. Bristol, N.Y. He was educated in New York and at Middlebury College, Vt. From early youth he participated in reform and religious activities, and while in college became convinced that he should devote his career to the abolitionist cause. In 1836 he joined the American Anti-Slavery Society, and in the succeeding years traveled extensively in New England, New York, and Illinois preaching the frequently unpopular and often-hated abolitionist doctrines. He established antislavery papers in Maine and Connecticut, and was active in the Liberty party. In 1846 he moved to Wisconsin, settling in Waukesha, where in partnership with C. C. Olin he became co-publisher of the American Freeman, an organ of the Liberty party. In 1848 Sherman M. Booth (q.v.) took over the paper and moved it to Milwaukee, although Codding retained his connection with it for several months. He was a delegate from Wisconsin to the national convention of the Liberty party (1848), and the same year ran unsuccessfully for state superintendent of public instruction. In 1849 he left Wisconsin to continue his itinerant antislavery lecturing, and was especially active in Illinois. Returning to Wisconsin in the 1860's, he served as minister of the Unitarian Church at Baraboo (1862- 1866). Proc. State Hist. Soc. Wis., 1894 (1895), 1897 (1898); Baraboo Republic, June 20, June 27, 1866; WPA field notes.

The Wisconsin Historical Society has manuscripts related to this topic. See the catalog description of the Ichabod Codding Sermons for details.

View newspaper clippings at Wisconsin Local History and Biography Articles.

Learn More

Dictionary of Wisconsin History

Explore more than 1,600 people, places and events in Wisconsin history.

[Source: Dictionary of Wisconsin biography]