(This reproduction was printed from a digital file created...)
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Willis Arnold Gorman was the only son of David L. and Elizabeth Gorman, both of Irish descent. He was born on January 12, 1816, near Flemingsburg, Kentucky.
In 1835, he removed with his parents to Bloomington, Indiana.
Gorman studied law and was admitted to the bar but soon ventured into politics; in 1837 and 1838, he was clerk and in 1839-40 enrolling secretary, of the Indiana Senate, and for three terms, 1841-44, a member of the Indiana House of Representatives.
The law school of Indiana University was opened in 1842 at Bloomington and Gorman was granted its degree of LL. B. in 1845.
At the outbreak of the Mexican War, Gorman enlisted as a private, was chosen a major in the 3rd Indiana Regiment, and was seriously injured at Buena Vista. When his regiment’s term expired he returned to Indiana only to enlist again and be chosen colonel of a new regiment which participated in the capture of Huamantla and in the battles of Atlixco, Puebla, and Tlaxcala.
In 1848, he was governor of Puebla. From 1849 to 1853, he was a Democratic representative in Congress from Indiana, and in 1852, he actively supported Pierce for the presidency.
As a reward, he was appointed governor of Minnesota Territory, whither he moved in May 1853. He soon became a leader in territorial politics.
As governor, he was also superintendent of Indian affairs and negotiated several treaties, under one of which he removed the Sioux from near St. Paul to the upper Minnesota River.
In 1857, at the end of his term, Gorman began practising law in St. Paul. He was a member of the conference committee appointed to make one constitution out of the Democratic and Republican drafts.
In 1859, he was elected to the state legislature and in 1860 was a candidate for presidential elector on the Douglas ticket. At the outbreak of the Civil War, he was commissioned colonel of the 1st Minnesota Volunteers.
For gallantry at the battle of Bull Run he was made brigadiergeneral in September 1861. He served also at Ball’s Bluff, South Mountain, and Antietam.
In 1862, he commanded a military division in Arkansas. Mustered out in 1864, he resumed his law practise in St. Paul in partnership with Cushman K. Davis, his aide during much of the war. In 1869, he became St. Paul's city attorney and held that position until his death.
During the Mexcian American War, Gorman established a law practice in Bloomington. In 1853, President Franklin Pierce appointed him the second Territorial Governor of Minnesota serving until 1857 and was a member of the Minnesota State House of Representatives, 1857 to 1859. He participated in the Peninsula Campaign, at the Battle of Antietam and commanded the District of Eastern Arkansas.
(This reproduction was printed from a digital file created...)
As delegate to a constitutional convention, Gorman took an active part in the Democratic branch after partisan feeling had split the convention into two groups holding separate sessions.
He was opposed to a proposition, coming up in both wings, to seek boundaries different from those provided by Congress, although the change might have benefited him financially.
Gorman believed that in granting land for railroads the Territory should reserve at least three per cent, of gross earnings in lieu of general taxation, and to his stand is due Minnesota’s system of taxing railroads.
While admittedly honest as an official, Gorman was not averse to making money through political maneuvers. A bill was introduced in the legislature to remove the capital from St. Paul to St. Peter where the St. Peter Company, in which he was a stockholder, promised to erect territorial buildings.
The measure passed both houses and Gorman would have signed it, but the chairman of the committee on enrolled bills disappeared with the bill and the session ended before he was found.
Gorman was a gifted man. He was a fine and strikingly handsome person, with an impressive manner, with great natural endowments as an orator, and with much force and energy of character.
Once, at a meeting of the committee, construing a remark of a Republican member as a personal insult, he broke his cane over that gentleman’s head.
Gorman was twice married: in January 1836, to Martha Stone of Bloomington, Indiana, who died in 1864, and on April 27, 1865, to Emily Newington of St. Paul.
