William W. Wilshire

Biography Born in Shawneetown, Illinois, Wilshire was educated in the country schools. He spent three years in California engaged in gold mining, from 1852 to 1855, when he returned to his home in Port Byron and engaged in the coal mining and mercantile business. He studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1859.

Wilshire entered the Union Army as major in the One Hundred and Twenty-sixth Regiment, Illinois Volunteer Infantry, and served from July 16, 1862. Following the Siege of Vicksburg, his regiment was sent to Arkansas and on the Little Rock Campaign under Major General Frederick Steele's force. He resigned July 16, 1864 because of health reasons.

After the war, he relocated to the capital city of Little Rock, Arkansas, and commenced the practice of law, becoming partners with Elbert H. English. He was appointed solicitor general of the state in 1867. After adoption of the 1868 Arkansas Constitution, Wilshire was appointed by new Governor of Arkansas Powell Clayton as the first chief justice of the Arkansas Supreme Court under the new constitution. Wilshire resigned in 1871 to resume his law practice and enter elective politics.

After defeat, Wilshire returned to Arkansas and decided to run for Congress again, this time as a Democrat. Again running for the , but now challenging incumbent William J. Hynes due to redistricting, Wilshire was elected to the Forty-fourth Congress (March 4, 1875 – March 3, 1877). He was not a candidate for renomination in 1876. He engaged in the practice of law in Washington, D.C., where he pursued claims on behalf of the Cherokee Nation against the government. He died in Washington August 19, 1888 and was interred at Mount Holly Cemetery in Little Rock.