Martin L. Kimball

Martin Luther Kimball (September 24, 1826 – March 18, 1891) was an American lawyer, Republican politician, and Wisconsin pioneer. He was a member of the Wisconsin Senate, and was the first representative of the 29th State Senate district, serving in the 1857 and 1858 sessions. His name is often abbreviated as

Biography M. L. Kimball was born in September 1826, in Leyden, New York. He was raised on his father's farm and then sent to Williston Seminary in Easthampton, Massachusetts, to prepare for college. He attended Hamilton College, in Clinton, New York, graduating in 1849.

That same year, he moved to the new state of Wisconsin. He studied law for a year under James M. Keep in Beloit, Wisconsin, and finished his legal education in the law office of Finch and Synde in Milwaukee. He was admitted to the bar in Milwaukee in 1851. He served a two-year term and did not run for re-election in 1858. He was the youngest member of the Senate at the time, being 30 years old when sworn in, but nevertheless was appointed to the judiciary committee. Reuel Kimball was a Presbyterian minister and had served as a paymaster for the United States Army during the War of 1812. One of Martin Kimball's older brothers, Alonzo Kimball, also came to Wisconsin and became a prominent citizen and mayor of Green Bay, Wisconsin.

Martin Kimball married Mary Buttrick of Clinton, New York, in 1852, but the marriage lasted only ten years and produced no children. Mary Buttrick died in 1862. Less than a year later, Kimball married Frances Ann Richards, a daughter of Reverend William Mason Richards, of Berlin, Wisconsin. This second marriage produced eight children and lasted until the end of Kimball's life.

In addition to his legal and political work, Kimball was a member of the Congregational church, and was active in the Temperance movement in Wisconsin.

Martin L. Kimball died suddenly on March 18, 1891, in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.