Background
Pickering was born in Yorkshire, England. On 9 March 1824 in Albion he married Martha, daughter of Richard Flower and sister of Edward Fordham Flower.
Pickering was born in Yorkshire, England. On 9 March 1824 in Albion he married Martha, daughter of Richard Flower and sister of Edward Fordham Flower.
He graduated from Oxford University in 1820.
The following year he moved to Edwards County, Illinois, acquiring property and involving himself in various businesses in the area of Albion, Illinois. They had five children, who in turn have left many descendants, before she died on 28 December 1838. He never remarried. He served in the Illinois House of Representatives from 1842 to 1852 and was a delegate to Republican National Convention from Illinois, 1860.
In 1862 President Lincoln offered him the choice of being either part of the United States Ministry in England or Governor of the Washington territory, known at the time as the territory of Columbia.
Pickering chose the governorship, and he moved to the territorial capital, Olympia, in June 1862, and served as governor until 1866. On September 4, 1864, he sent the first message over a transcontinental telegraph line.
Under the leadership of Territorial Governor William Pickering, state government took responsibility for the care of the mentally illinois After his term, he moved back to Illinois, where he died in 1873.