Theodore Prentiss

Theodore Prentiss (September 10, 1818 – August 3, 1906) was an American lawyer, Democratic politician, and Wisconsin pioneer. He was the first mayor of Watertown, Wisconsin, and represented Jefferson County for one year in the Wisconsin State Assembly.

Biography Prentiss was born on September 10, 1818, in Montpelier, Vermont. He attended the University of Vermont, studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1844. He moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin Territory, in the Fall of 1844, and finally settled at Watertown the following February.

He practiced law in Watertown and became involved in the work of organizing a state government. He was one of only three people to be elected as a delegate to both Wisconsin constitutional conventions. The first, in 1846, produced a constitution that was rejected by voters. The second, in the Winter of 1847–1848, produced the Constitution of Wisconsin ratified in 1848, which allowed Wisconsin to be admitted as the 30th U.S. state.

After Watertown was incorporated as a city in 1853, Prentiss was elected the first mayor, and was re-elected in 1854. In 1860, he was elected as Watertown's representative to the Wisconsin State Assembly, running on the Democratic Party ticket.

On December 4, 1855, Theodore Prentiss married Martha Jane Perry. They were the parents of three children.

Prentiss died on August 3, 1906, in Watertown, after a disease of several months. He was buried at Oak Hill Cemetery in Watertown.