Biography

11/12/1791 - 05/21/1871

PHILSON, William, a Representative from Cambria and Somerset Counties; born, November 12, 1791 in Berlin, Somerset County, Pa.; merchant; innkeeper; unsuccessful campaign, sheriff, Somerset County (1816); elected, sheriff, Somerset County (1819-1822); unsuccessful campaign, Pennsylvania House of Representatives (1823); elected as a Democrat to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives for the 1824-1825 and 1825-1826 terms; not a candidate for reelection to the House for the 1826-1827 term; clerk to the commissioners, Somerset County (1828); appointed, justice of the peace, Somerset County (1835); appointed, prothonotary, clerk of courts, register or wills and recorder of deeds, Somerset County (1839); elected, school director, Somerset (1840); elected, delegate, National Democratic Convention (1840); unsuccessful campaign, United States Congress (1841); plantation owner, Laurens County, SC; merchant (1855); appointed, Commissioner of Roads, Laurens County (1856); elected, delegate, Democratic State Convention, SC (1856, 1860); died, May 21, 1871 in Clinton, Laurens County, South Carolina; interred, Duncan Creek Presbyterian Church Cemetery, Clinton, Laurens County, South Carolina.