Wilson S. Bissell

Wilson Shannon Bissell (December 31, 1847 – October 6, 1903) was an American politician from New York and considered one of the foremost Democratic leaders of Western New York. and Isabella Jeanette (née Hally) Bissell. His older brother, Arthur D. Bissell, was the president of the New York State Bankers Association and president of the People's Bank of Buffalo. He was of Scotch-Irish ancestry.

He prepared at Hopkins Grammar School in New Haven, Connecticut, and graduated from Yale University in 1869 and was a member of Skull and Bones.

Career Following his graduation from Yale, he began the study of law in Buffalo with Lanning, Cleveland & Folsom. Bissell entered Democratic Party politics as a candidate for presidential elector in 1888. He served as Postmaster General under Cleveland from 1893 to 1895. In 1896, he was a delegate to the 1896 Democratic National Convention.

Apgar's Corners in Tewksbury Township, New Jersey, was renamed in 1893 to the village of Bissell in an effort to sway him into ordering that a post office be created in the settlement. A small post office building (no longer in existence) was established soon thereafter.

From 1902 until his death in 1903, Bissell served as the Chancellor of the University of Buffalo.

Personal life On February 6, 1890, Bissell married Louise Fowler Sturges of Geneva, New York. After a funeral at Trinity Episcopal Church in Buffalo (where former President Cleveland was a pallbearer), his body was cremated and his ashes were buried in the family lot at Forest Lawn Cemetery, Buffalo.