Powers Moulton

Powers Gormer Moulton (August 9, 1829 – December 21, 1904) was an American farmer, Republican politician, and Wisconsin pioneer. He was a member of the Wisconsin State Assembly, representing La Crosse County during the 1870 and 1871 terms.

Biography Powers Moulton was born August 9, 1829, in Trenton, New York. He received a common school education in New York before moving west with his parents in 1846. They settled in Lake County, Illinois, where they were some of the earliest settlers at Waukegan. Through his father, he became involved in the Democratic Party in Illinois, but he and his father would later split with the party over slavery. They both became staunch Republicans after that party was established in the 1850s.

Some time in the late 1850s, Powers Moulton moved north into Wisconsin, and settled at the town of Onalaska, in La Crosse County. Shortly after his arrival, he was elected as a town assessor for 1859 and was re-elected in 1860. He was subsequently elected justice of the peace in 1862, and town treasurer in 1863.

In 1864, he volunteered for service in the Union Army during the fourth year of the American Civil War. He was enrolled as a private in the 1st Wisconsin Heavy Artillery Regiment and was later promoted to corporal. He served with the regiment in Virginia until the end of the war.

After leaving the Assembly, he was elected town chairman in 1874, and served another term as justice of the peace in 1881. He was buried at Onalaska City Cemetery.

Personal life and family

Powers Moulton was one of six children born to Josiah Powers and his wife Chloe (née Greene). Chloe was a sister of Judge Powers Greene, a veteran of the War of 1812, and one of the pioneer settlers of South Bend, Indiana. Josiah Powers often used the title "colonel" due to a commission in the New York militia granted by Governor William L. Marcy in the 1830s.

The Moultons were direct descendants of Robert Moulton, a shipbuilder who emigrated to the Massachusetts Bay Colony from England in 1629.