Gilbert M. Woodward

Gilbert Motier Woodward (December 25, 1835 – March 13, 1914) was an American lawyer and politician. He served one term in the United States House of Representatives, representing Wisconsin's 7th congressional district. He was also the 16th mayor of La Crosse, Wisconsin, and the Democratic nominee for Governor of Wisconsin in 1886. During the American Civil War he served as a Union Army officer in the famed Iron Brigade of the Army of the Potomac.

Early life Woodward was born December 25, 1835, in Washington, D.C., and was educated in the common schools. He learned the printing trade working as an apprentice in Baltimore, and worked as a printer and proofreader in Baltimore, Upper Marlboro, and Washington, until 1860. In Washington, he spent most of his time working for the historic National Intelligencer newspaper.

In February 1860 he moved west to Wisconsin and settled at La Crosse. He studied law in the office of Isaac E. Messmore and was admitted to the bar in 1861.

He was promoted to first sergeant in September 1861, after the First Battle of Bull Run.

In the next month, their captain was killed at the Battle of South Mountain and Woodward was promoted to first lieutenant. With his regiment, he went on to participate in the Battle of Antietam in September, then the Battle of Fredericksburg in December 1862 and the Battle of Chancellorsville in the Spring of 1863. While serving as district attorney, he formed a law partnership with Samuel S. Burton in 1868, which continued until 1876. In the Spring election of 1874, he was narrowly elected mayor of La Crosse, defeating a Republican-Temperance unity ticket led by Sylvester Nevins. He was subsequently elected city attorney and served from 1876 through 1882.

Woodward ran for United States House of Representatives in 1882 and received the Democratic nomination on the first ballot of their convention. The 7th congressional district was a safe Republican seat through the 1870s, but the redistricting of 1882 moved three-term incumbent Herman L. Humphrey into a different congressional district. Woodward won the general election in an upset with 48% of the vote, as the Prohibition Party candidate took 7%.

After leaving office he resumed his law practice in La Crosse, but remained active in the Democratic Party. At the 1886 Democratic State Convention, former congressman and Union Army colonel Gabriel Bouck was largely expected to accept the party's nomination for Governor of Wisconsin, but unexpectedly sent a letter declining the nomination at the start of the convention. Charles Jonas of Racine was considered a strong candidate for the nomination, but was damaged by an aggressive pressure campaign driven by Labor and Socialist activists from Milwaukee. Woodward's name was ultimately proposed to the convention by congressman and power-broker Edward S. Bragg, who had served with Woodward in the Iron Brigade. Woodward was warmly received by the convention and nominated by acclamation.

Woodward was defeated in the general election as Republican Jeremiah McLain Rusk won his third term as governor. Woodward's last significant political activity was serving as chairman of the Wisconsin delegation to the 1888 Democratic National Convention.

The next year he formed a law partnership with J. W. Losey, known as Losey & Woodward, and devoted most of the remainder of his life to his legal career. He was known as a frequent litigant in front of the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

Electoral history Wisconsin Senate (1872)

U.S. House of Representatives (1882, 1884)

Wisconsin Governor (1886)