Hosea Townsend

Hosea Townsend
Judge for the Southern District of the United States Court for the Indian Territory
In office 1897 – November 16, 1907
Appointed by	William McKinley Theodore Roosevelt
Preceded by	Constantine B. Kilgore
Succeeded by	Position disestablished
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Colorado's at-large district
In office March 4, 1889 – March 3, 1893
Preceded by	George G. Symes
Succeeded by	District inactive
Personal details
Born	(1840-06-16)June 16, 1840 Greenwich, Ohio, U.S.
Died	March 4, 1909(1909-03-04) (aged 68) Ardmore, Oklahoma, U.S.
Resting place	Woodlawn Cemetery, Norwalk, Ohio
Military service
Allegiance	United States

Hosea Townsend (June 16, 1840 – March 4, 1909) was an American attorney and politician who served two terms as a U.S. Representative from Colorado from 1889 to 1893.^[1]

Appointed by Presidents McKinley and Roosevelt, he was a United States judge for the southern district of the Indian Territory from 1897 to 1907.

Born on a farm in Greenwich, Ohio, his parents were Hiram and Eliza Townsend.^[2][3] His father came to New London, Ohio from Massachusetts in 1816.^[4] Townsend attended the common schools and Western Reserve College, Cleveland, Ohio, in 1860.^[1]

He was a student at the Western Reserve College at the outbreak of the American Civil War.^[2] He enlisted in the Second Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Cavalry, in 1861. He was promoted to lieutenant.^[1] He was stationed at Fort Gibson in Indian Territory during part of the war.^[3] He contracted a case of typhoid fever and resigned in 1863 due to a disability.^[1][3]

He studied law and was admitted to the bar in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1864^[1] or 1865.^[2][3] He began practicing law in Memphis, Tennessee in 1865.^[1] He served as member of the State house of representatives in 1869.^[1] He practiced law in Memphis until 1881.^[3]

He moved to Colorado in 1879 and settled in Silver Cliff in 1881.^[1] He made and lost a fortune in the mining business.^[2]

Townsend was elected as a Republican to the Fifty-first and Fifty-second Congresses (March 4, 1889 – March 3, 1893). He was an unsuccessful candidate for renomination in 1892.

He served as delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1892.^[1] He was a United States judge for the southern district of the Indian Territory from 1897 to 1907.^[1] He served on the Court of Appeals.^[3] He was first appointed by President William McKinley and he was re-appointed by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1902 and 1906.^[5] Oklahoma achieved statehood in 1907 and the Indian Territory court was closed.^[2] He remained in Ardmore and practiced law.^[2]

Townsend had a forceful personality. In one case, a Seventh Day Adventist refused to perform jury duty on a Sunday, and Townsend found him in contempt of court. He discharged a jury that returned a verdict with which he disagreed saying it was "discharged for the term, and I never want to see any of you in my court again." Yet he extended leniency to a bootlegger whose family needed him at home to keep food on the table.

— Von Russell Creel^[2]

He married Anna Augusta Barnes on November 28, 1865^[4] and they had two children, John Barnes Townsend and Anna Bell Townsend.^[3][4] After they moved to Ardmore, Oklahoma of the Indian Territory, Anna decided that the area needed a library and obtained funding from Andrew Carnegie about 1903. The Ardmore Carnegie Library was opened on October 1, 1906. Anna and Hosea donated 800 books for the library.^[5]

He died in Ardmore, Oklahoma on March 4, 1909. He was interred in Woodlawn Cemetery, Norwalk, Ohio.^[1] Anna died in 1915.^[5]

• Hosea Townsend at Find a Grave