Businessman lawyer politician senator
Peter G. Van Winkle was the second son of Peter and Phebe (Godwin) Van Winkle. He was born on September 7, 1808, in New York City, and came from an old Knickerbocker family, the American progenitor of which, Jacob Van Winkle, settled in New Netherland about 1634.
What formal education he received was obtained in the primary and secondary schools of his native city.
In early manhood, he moved to Parkersburg, Virginia, where he began the study of law and in 1835 was admitted to the bar.
Although actively engaged in his profession, Van Winkle was at one time or another recorder of the town, a member of its governing board of trustees, and president of this board a position equivalent to that of the mayor. Beginning in 1852, he served as treasurer and later as president of the Northwestern Virginia Railroad Company, which, in connection with the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, built and operated a line from Grafton to the Ohio River. He was also for a number of years an attorney and lobbyist for the Baltimore & Ohio.
Peter was a member of the Virginia constitutional convention of 1850-51, though he seems not to have played a conspicuous role in its proceedings. He did, however, take a prominent part in the convention held at Wheeling in June 1861, in which sat representatives from northwestern Virginia. This convention passed an ordinance providing for the reorganization of the government of Virginia on a basis of loyalty to the Union. The government thus created was to supersede that centering at Richmond. Francis H. Pierpont was chosen a governor, and Van Winkle was selected as a member of his advisory council. This convention at an adjourned session (in August) also passed an ordinance which provided for the division of Virginia and the creation of what became the state of West Virginia. A constitutional convention was assembled at Wheeling on November 26, 1861.
When the government of West Virginia was organized, he was a member of the first legislature and had an important part in the legislation enacted by it. In August 1863, he was one of the two chosen United States senators; he drew the long term and so served for six years.
Leaving Washington at the end of his term, Van Winkle spent the three remaining years of his life at Parkersburg.
Van Winkle was one of the leading members of this body and had much to do with the framing of the constitution. He urged the inclusion in West Virginia of the counties in the extreme eastern section, mainly in order that the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad should be entirely on West Virginia and Maryland soil. In the Senate, his record on routine policies must have impressed the leadership of the Republican party favorably, for he became a member of the important finance committee and chairman of the committee on pensions. For many years a leading officer of the Northwestern Virginia Railroad, he became one of the founders of West Virginia and a United States Senator.
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Though Van Winkle went along with his party in voting for the Thirteenth and Fifteenth Amendments, he refused to follow its leaders on some measures of prime importance. In a rather lengthy speech in opposition to the repeal of the Fugitive Slave Law, he declared himself in favor of turning over the government of the Southern states to the loyal local citizens, though they might formerly have been disloyal, and of withdrawing from that section all federal soldiers as soon as safety should permit.
Peter also opposed the granting of citizenship to the freedmen, believing that the majority of them were not equal to this responsibility. Consistent with this view, he voted against the Fourteenth Amendment in opposition to the wishes of a large majority of his party. His greatest offense against party regularity, however, was his refusal to vote for conviction in the impeachment proceedings against President Johnson. This defiance of the leadership of his party was loudly condemned in West Virginia; the Wheeling Intelligencer referred to him as "West Virginia's Betrayer, " and declared that there was not a loyal citizen in the state who had not been misrepresented by that vote.
With feeling so strong against him, there was no prospect of his being returned to the Senate, and so he did not become a candidate for reelection.
Peter's career as a whole, while not a brilliant one, was characterized by exceptional courage and independence of spirit.
In 1831, Van Winkle married Juliette, daughter of William P. and Martha Rathbun, of Paramus, Bergen County, New Jersey, by whom he had several children.
26 November 1782 - 16 March 1871
8 May 1820 - 2 November 1897
8 May 1820 - November 1897
14 April 1814 - 3 June 1873
9 July 1812 - 10 February 1844
13 August 1838 - 2 February 1927
18 July 1836 - 22 September 1883
4 July 1834 - 18 March 1870
