William Hendricks

William Hendricks (Ligonier Valley, Westmoreland County, Pa., November 12, 1782 – Madison, Ind., May 16, 1850) was a Democratic-Republican member of the House of Representatives from 1816 to 1822, Governor of Indiana from 1822 to 1825, and member of the U.S. Senate from 1825 to 1837. He was the uncle of Thomas Andrews Hendricks.

William Hendricks attended the common schools and graduated from Jefferson College (later Washington and Jefferson College), Washington, Pa., in 1810. He was school teacher from 1810-1812 while studying law in Cincinnati, Ohio; admitted to the bar and practiced; moved to Madison, Indiana Territory, in 1813; became a printer and owner of the second printing press set up in the Territory; proprietor of the Western Eagle; elected to the territorial legislature in 1813 and 1814, and was chosen speaker of the Assembly in 1814; territorial printer; secretary of the first State constitutional convention in 1816; upon the admission of Indiana as a State into the Union was elected to the Fourteenth Congress; reelected to the Fifteenth, Sixteenth, and Seventeenth Congresses and served from December 11, 1816, until his resignation July 25, 1822, to become Governor; Governor of Indiana 1822-1825, when he resigned to become a Senator; elected to the United States Senate in 1824; reelected in 1830 and served from March 4, 1825, to March 3, 1837; unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1836; chairman, Committee on Roads and Canals (Twenty-first through Twenty-fourth Congresses); resumed the practice of law in Madison, Ind.; trustee of Indiana University at Bloomington 1829-1840.