George W. Lakin

George W. Lakin (March 29, 1816 – September 13, 1884) was an American schoolteacher and lawyer, originally from Maine, who became a pioneer leader of Wisconsin. He was a member of the second Wisconsin Constitutional Convention, a member of the 1st Wisconsin Legislature, and United States Attorney for the District of Wisconsin.

Early life and education George W. Lakin was born in Harrison, in Cumberland County, Maine, in March 1816. He attended public schools until about 14 years old, then went to Bridgton Academy in North Bridgton, Maine, then to the Maine Wesleyan Seminary in Readfield, from which he graduated in June 1837.

He tutored or taught school during his five years at Wesleyan; after graduating, his schoolmate of Elihu B. Washburne invited him to come teach school in East Livermore, Maine, where he lived for some time at the home of Washburn's father, Israel Washburn. The following February, he was elected to serve in the first session of the Wisconsin State Senate, representing all of Grant County.

In the Fall of 1849, he was named United States Attorney for Wisconsin by President Zachary Taylor. He served in the office through to the end of the term of Millard Fillmore.

After public office He moved to Milwaukee in 1854, and derived a significant proportion of his business from the lawyers in the western part of Wisconsin and in the Galena, Illinois, and Dubuque, Iowa, regions who had contended with him in the past.

In January 1855, Lakin was one of the defense attorneys involved in the defense of John Ryecraft (one of the people who helped free runaway slave Joshua Glover), arguing that the defendant, in freeing a slave, acted in accord with the higher law.

He died of Tuberculosis at his home in Milwaukee on September 13, 1884. On June 2, 1847, he married Statira C. Clark, "late of Danville, Me." in Potosi. They had three children, Fannie, Mildred and Charles.