Biography

12/20/1779 - 06/23/1865

WILKINS, William, a Representative from Allegheny and Butler Counties; born, December 20, 1779 in Carlisle, Cumberland County, Pa.; attended, Dickinson College; lawyer (1801-1865); unsuccessful campaign, Pennsylvania House of Representatives (1808, 1809, 1813, 1817); president, Bank of Pittsburgh; elected as a Federalist to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives for the 1819-1820 and 1820-1821 term; resigned from the House, December 18, 1820; gubernatorial appointee, judge, 5^th District, Pennsylvania (1821-1824); federal judge, Western District of Pennsylvania (1824-1831); elected, United States Congress (1829, 1843-1844); elected, United States Senate (1831-1834); United States Minister to Russia (1834-1835); United States Secretary of War (1844-1845); elected, Pennsylvania State Senate (1856-1858); died, June 23, 1865 in Homewood (now Pittsburgh), Allegheny County, Pennsylvania; interred, Homewood Cemetery, Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania.