Preceded by office established | Name Peter Van Resigned March 4, 1869 Political party Unionist Party | |
 | ||
Born September 7, 1808New York, New York ( 1808-09-07 ) Died April 15, 1872, Parkersburg, West Virginia, United States | ||
Previous office Senator (WV) 1863–1869 | ||
Peter Godwin Van Winkle (September 7, 1808 – April 15, 1872) was an American lawyer, businessman and politician. 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.
Contents
Early and family life
Born in New York City to an established family, Van Winkle completed preparatory studies, studied law, and was admitted to the bar. He married Juliet Rathbone, the eldest daughter of William Palmer Rathbone (1784 - 1862) and his wife Martha Ming Valleau Rathbone (1793 - 1846), an influential family in West Virginia. Four years later, the Van Winkles had moved to Parkersburg, Virginia (now West Virginia). They had three children who survived to adulthood before Julia Van Winkle's death: Rathbone Van Winkle (1834 - 1870), Godwin Van Winkle (1836 - 1883), and Mary Van Winkle Blackford (1838 - 1927).
Career
After further studies locally with lawyer and General John Jay Jackson Sr., Van Winkle began his legal practice in Parkserburg in 1835. He was president of the town board of trustees from 1844 until 1850. In 1850, Wood County voters also elected him to represent at the Virginia State constitutional convention in 1850. He was treasurer and later president of the Northwestern Virginia Railroad Co. beginning in 1852.
After Virginia seceded from the Union, much to the distress of many in its northwestern corner, Wood County voters elected Van Winkle to the second Wheeling Convention in 1861. He helped organize the Restored Government of Virginia and also served in 1862 as an influential delegate to the convention which framed the constitution of West Virginia. He was also elected to the first session of the West Virginia House of Delegates in 1863. When West Virginia was admitted as a State into the Union, voters elected Van Winkle as a Unionist to the U.S. Senate, where he served from August 4, 1863, to March 3, 1869. While in the Senate, Van Winkle was chairman of the Committee on Pensions (Fortieth Congress).
During President Andrew Johnson's impeachment trial, Van Winkle broke party ranks, along with six other Republican senators and voted for acquittal. These seven Republican senators were disturbed by how the proceedings had been manipulated in order to give a one-sided presentation of the evidence. Senators William Pitt Fessenden, Joseph S. Fowler, James W. Grimes, John B. Henderson, Lyman Trumbull, Peter G. Van Winkle, and Edmund G. Ross of Kansas, who provided the decisive vote, defied their party and public opinion and voted against impeachment (which failed by one vote). After the trial, Senator Benjamin Butler conducted hearings concerning widespread reports that Republican senators had been bribed to vote for Johnson's acquittal. In Butler's hearings, and subsequent inquiries, some evidence indicated that some acquittal votes were acquired by promises of patronage jobs and cash cards. West Virginia Governor Arthur Boreman was elected to succeed Van Winkle.
Van Winkle also served as a delegate to the Southern Loyalist Convention at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1866.
Death and legacy
Van Winkle died in Parkersburg in 1872, survived by a son and daughter. He was buried beside his wife (whom he had survived by nearly three decades) in Riverview Cemetery.
Marshall Van Winkle, Peter Van Winkle's grandnephew, was a U.S. Representative from New Jersey in the Fifty-ninth Congress.
His former home at Parkersburg, now known as the Peter G. Van Winkle House, is a contributing property in the Julia-Ann Square Historic District., it's known as.