1851 in the United States

List of events

* 1850
* 1849
* 1848
*   *

|  | 1851

the United States |

* 1852
* 1853
* 1854
*   *

|
|
|

Decades:|

* 1830s
* 1840s
* 1850s
* 1860s
* 1870s

See also:|

*   * History of the United States (1849–1865)
* Timeline of United States history (1820–1859)
* List of years in the United States

1851 in the United States

1851 in U.S. states
States

* Alabama
*   *   * Arkansas
* California
*   * Connecticut
* Delaware
* Florida
* Georgia
*   *   * Illinois
* Indiana
* Iowa
*   * Kentucky
* Louisiana
* Maine
* Maryland
* Massachusetts
* Michigan
*   * Mississippi
* Missouri
*   *   *   * New Hampshire
* New Jersey
*   * New York
* North Carolina
*   * Ohio
*   *   * Pennsylvania
* Rhode Island
* South Carolina
*   * Tennessee
* Texas
*   * Vermont
* Virginia
*   *   * Wisconsin

*   *   *   *   *

Washington, D.C.
List of years in the United States by state or territory

* v
* t
* e

Events from the year 1851 in the United States.

## Incumbents

[edit]

### Federal government

[edit]

* President: Millard Fillmore (W-New York)
* Vice President: vacant
* Chief Justice: Roger B. Taney (Maryland)
* Speaker of the House of Representatives:

Howell Cobb (D-Georgia) (until March 4)
Linn Boyd (D-Kentucky) (starting December 1)

* Congress: 31st (until March 4), 32nd (starting March 4)

Governors and lieutenant governors

### Governors

[edit]

* Governor of Alabama: Henry W. Collier (Democratic)
* Governor of Arkansas: John Selden Roane (Democratic)
* Governor of California: Peter Hardeman Burnett (Democratic) (until January 9), John McDougall (Democratic) (starting January 9)
* Governor of Connecticut: Thomas H. Seymour (Democratic)
* Governor of Delaware: William Tharp (Democratic) (until January 21), William H. H. Ross (Democratic) (starting January 21)
* Governor of Florida: Thomas Brown (Whig)
* Governor of Georgia: George W. Towns (Democratic) (until November 5), Howell Cobb (Democratic) (starting November 5)
* Governor of Illinois: Augustus C. French (Democratic)
* Governor of Indiana: Joseph A. Wright (Democratic)
* Governor of Iowa: Stephen P. Hempstead (Democratic)
* Governor of Kentucky: John L. Helm (Democratic) (until September 2), Lazarus W. Powell (Democratic) (starting September 2)
* Governor of Louisiana: Joseph Marshall Walker (Democratic)
* Governor of Maine: John Hubbard (Democratic)
* Governor of Maryland: Philip F. Thomas (Democratic) (until January 6), Enoch Louis Lowe (Democratic) (starting January 6)
* Governor of Massachusetts: George N. Briggs (Democratic) (until January 11), George S. Boutwell (Democratic) (starting January 11)
* Governor of Michigan: John S. Barry (Democratic)
* Governor of Mississippi:
* until February 3: John A. Quitman (Democratic)
* February 3-November 4: John I. Guion (Democratic)
* starting November 24: James Whitfield (Democratic)
* Governor of Missouri: Austin Augustus King (Democratic)
* Governor of New Hampshire: Samuel Dinsmoor, Jr. (Democratic)
* Governor of New Jersey: Daniel Haines (Democratic) (until January 21), George F. Fort (Democratic) (starting January 21)
* Governor of New York: Washington Hunt (Whig) (starting January 1)
* Governor of North Carolina: Charles Manly (Whig) (until January 1), David Settle Reid (Democratic) (starting January 1)
* Governor of Ohio: Reuben Wood (Democratic)
* Governor of Pennsylvania: William F. Johnston (Whig)
* Governor of Rhode Island: Henry B. Anthony (Whig) (until May 6), Philip Allen (Democratic) (starting May 6)
* Governor of South Carolina: John Hugh Means (Democratic)
* Governor of Tennessee: William Trousdale (Democratic) (until October 16), William B. Campbell (Whig) (starting October 16)
* Governor of Texas: Peter Hansborough Bell (Democratic)
* Governor of Vermont: Charles K. Williams (Whig)
* Governor of Virginia: John B. Floyd (Democratic)
* Governor of Wisconsin: Nelson Dewey (Democratic)

### Lieutenant governors

[edit]

* Lieutenant Governor of California: John McDougall (Democratic) (until January 9), David C. Broderick (Democratic) (starting January 9)
* Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut: Charles H. Pond (Democratic) (until month and day unknown), Green Kendrick (Whig) (starting month and day unknown)
* Lieutenant Governor of Illinois: William McMurtry (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Indiana: James H. Lane (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Kentucky: vacant (until September 2), John Burton Thompson (political party unknown) (starting September 2)
* Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana: Jean Baptiste Plauche (Whig)
* Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts: John Reed, Jr. (political party unknown) (until January 11), Henry W. Cushman (political party unknown) (starting January 11)
* Lieutenant Governor of Michigan: William M. Fenton (Democratic) (until month and day unknown), vacant (starting month and day unknown)
* Lieutenant Governor of Missouri: Thomas Lawson Price (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of New York: Sanford E. Church (Democratic) (starting January 1)
* Lieutenant Governor of Rhode Island: Thomas Whipple (political party unknown) (until May 6), William Beach Lawrence (political party unknown) (starting May 6)
* Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina: Joshua John Ward (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Texas: John Alexander Greer (Democratic) (until August 4), James Wilson Henderson (Democratic) (starting August 4)
* Lieutenant Governor of Vermont: Julius Converse (Whig)
* Lieutenant Governor of Wisconsin: Samuel W. Beall (Democratic)

## Events

[edit]

### January–March

[edit]

* January 15 - Christian Female College, later Columbia College, receives its charter from the Missouri General Assembly.
* January 23 - The flip of a coin determines whether a new city in the Oregon Territory is named after Boston, Massachusetts, or Portland, Maine, with Portland winning.
* January 28 - The Illinois General Assembly grants a charter to create Northwestern University.

### April–June

[edit]

* April 9 - San Luis, the oldest permanent settlement in the state of Colorado, is founded by settlers from Taos, New Mexico.
* April 28 - Santa Clara College is chartered in Santa Clara, California.
* May-August - The Great Flood of 1851 causes extensive damage in the Midwest; the town of Des Moines is virtually destroyed.
* May 6 - John Gorrie of Apalachicola, Florida is granted Patent No. 8080 for a machine to make ice.
* May 15 – Alpha Delta Pi sorority, the first secret society for women, is founded at Wesleyan College in Macon, Georgia.
* May 29 - Sojourner Truth delivers the first version of her "Ain't I a Woman?" speech, at the Women's Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio.

### July–September

[edit]

* July 10 - The University of the Pacific is chartered as California Wesleyan College in Santa Clara, California.
* August 1 - Virginia closes its Reform Constitutional Convention deciding that all white men have the right to vote.
* August 3 - The filibustering Lopez Expedition departs New Orleans for Cuba.
* August 4 - Henry W. Collier is reelected the 14th governor of Alabama defeating James Shields.
* August 22 - The yacht America of the New York Yacht Club wins the first America's Cup race, off the coast of England.
* September 15 - Saint Joseph's University is founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
* September 18 - The New York Times is founded.

### October–December

[edit]

* October 15 - The City of Winona, Minnesota is founded.
* November 13 - The Denny Party lands at Alki Point, the first settlers of what later becomes Seattle, Washington.
* November 14 - Herman Melville's novel Moby-Dick; or The Whale is published in the U.S. by Harper & Brothers, New York, after being first published on October 18 in London by Richard Bentley, in 3 volumes as The Whale.
* December 29 - The first YMCA opens in Boston, Massachusetts.

### Undated

[edit]

* Western Union is founded as the New York and Mississippi Valley Printing Telegraph Company.
* House sparrows first released in the U.S., in Brooklyn.
* Stephen Foster's minstrel song "Old Folks at Home" is first published.
* Hope College is established in Holland, Michigan, as the Pioneer School by Dutch immigrants.

### Ongoing

[edit]

* California Gold Rush (1848–1855)

## Births

[edit]

* January 17 - A. B. Frost, illustrator (died 1928)
* January 19 - David Starr Jordan, ichthyologist, educator, eugenicist and peace activist (died 1924)
* January 24 - Marcus A. Smith, U.S. Senator from Arizona from 1912 to 1921 (died 1924)
* February 2 - Ella Giles Ruddy, author and essayist (died 1917)
* February 9 - Nora Trueblood Gause, humanitarian (died 1955)
* February 13 - Joseph B. Murdock, U.S. Navy admiral and New Hampshire politician (died 1931)
* March 14 - John Sebastian Little, politician, congressman (died 1916)
* March 19 - William Henry Stark, business leader (died 1936)
* March 26 - John Eisenmann, Cleveland architect (died 1924)
* April 13
* Robert Abbe, surgeon (died 1928)
* Helen M. Winslow, editor, author and publisher (died 1938)
* May 14 - Anna Laurens Dawes, author and suffragist (died 1938)
* May 15 - Lillian Resler Keister Harford, church organizer and editor (died 1935)
* May 21 - Moses E. Clapp, U.S. Senator from Minnesota from 1901 to 1917 (died 1929)
* May 29 - Fred Dubois, U.S. Senator from Idaho from 1891 to 1897 and from 1901 to 1907 (died 1930)
* June 24 - Stuyvesant Fish, entrepreneur (died 1923)
* August 12 - Frank O. Briggs, U.S. Senator from New Jersey from 1907 to 1913 (died 1913)
* August 14 - Doc Holliday, born John H. Holliday, gunfighter, gambler and dentist (died 1887)
* September 7 - David King Udall, politician (died 1938)
* September 13 - Walter Reed, army physician, bacteriologist (died 1902)[1]
* September 21 - Fanny Searls (died 1939), doctor and botanist.[2]
* October 5 - Thomas Pollock Anshutz, painter and educator (died 1912)
* October 13 - Charles Sprague Pearce, painter (died 1914)
* October 20 - George Gandy, entrepreneur (died 1946)
* November 16
* Minnie Hauk, operatic soprano (died 1929)
* William Elbridge Sewell, naval officer and Governor of Guam (died 1904)
* December 9 - Thomas H. Paynter, U.S. Senator from Kentucky from 1907 to 1913 (died 1921)
* December 10 - Melvil Dewey, born Melville Dewey, librarian (died 1931)
* December 30 - Asa Griggs Candler, businessman and politician (died 1929)
* Albery Allson Whitman, African American poet (died 1901)

## Deaths

[edit]

* January 17 - Thomas Lincoln, farmer and father of President of the United States Abraham Lincoln (born 1778)
* January 27 - John James Audubon, naturalist and illustrator (born 1785 in Saint-Domingue)
* January 31 - David Spangler Kaufman, Congressman from Texas (born 1813)
* February 3 - Benjamin Williams Crowninshield, Congressman from Massachusetts, secretary of U.S. Navy (born 1772)
* March 11 - George McDuffie, 55th Governor of South Carolina from 1842 to 1846 (born 1790)
* May 3 - Thomas Hickman Williams, U.S. Senator from Mississippi from 1838 to 1839 (born 1801)
* May 22 - Mordecai Manuel Noah, Jewish playwright, diplomat, journalist and utopian (born 1785)
* June 21 - Martin Chester Deming, American businessman and politician (b. 1789)[3]
* July 6 - Thomas Davenport, electrical engineer (born 1802)
* August 24 - James McDowell, politician (born 1795)
* September 10 - Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, minister, educator, co-founder of the first permanent school for the deaf in North America (born 1787)
* September 11 - Sylvester Graham, nutritionist and inventor (born 1794)
* September 14 - James Fenimore Cooper, historical novelist (born 1789)
* September 24 - Lucius Lyon, U.S. Senator from Michigan from 1843 to 1845 (born 1800)
* November - Willis Buell, politician and portrait painter (born 1790)

## See also

[edit]

* Timeline of United States history (1820–1859)

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Miller, Dean (January 1, 2014). Immunologists and Virologists. Cavendish Square Publishing, LLC. p. 86\. ISBN 978-1-62712-562-8.
2. ^ Tiehm, Arnold (1985). "Fanny Searls (1851-1939)". Brittonia. 37 (1): 41. doi:10.1007/BF02809668. S2CID 87755152.
3. ^ Wiley, Edgar J. (1917). Catalogue of Officers and Students of Middlebury College in Middlebury, Vermont, 1800-1915. Middlebury: Middlebury College. pp. 22–23.22-23&rft.pub=Middlebury+College&rft.date=1917&rft.aulast=Wiley&rft.aufirst=Edgar+J.&rft_id=https://books.google.com/books?id=TapBAAAAYAAJ&dq;=%22martin+chester+deming%22&pg;=PA22&rfr_id=info:sid/en.wikipedia.org:1851+in+the+United+States" class="Z3988">

## External links

[edit]

* Media related to 1851 in the United States at Wikimedia Commons

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Years in the United States

18th century|

* 1776
* 1777
* 1778
* 1779
* 1780
* 1781
* 1782
* 1783
* 1784
* 1785
* 1786
* 1787
* 1788
* 1789
* 1790
* 1791
* 1792
* 1793
* 1794
* 1795
* 1796
* 1797
* 1798
* 1799
* 1800

19th century|

* 1801
* 1802
* 1803
* 1804
* 1805
* 1806
* 1807
* 1808
* 1809
* 1810
* 1811
* 1812
* 1813
* 1814
* 1815
* 1816
* 1817
* 1818
* 1819
* 1820
* 1821
* 1822
* 1823
* 1824
* 1825
* 1826
* 1827
* 1828
* 1829
* 1830
* 1831
* 1832
* 1833
* 1834
* 1835
* 1836
* 1837
* 1838
* 1839
* 1840
* 1841
* 1842
* 1843
* 1844
* 1845
* 1846
* 1847
* 1848
* 1849
* 1850
* 1851
* 1852
* 1853
* 1854
* 1855
* 1856
* 1857
* 1858
* 1859
* 1860
* 1861
* 1862
* 1863
* 1864
* 1865
* 1866
* 1867
* 1868
* 1869
* 1870
* 1871
* 1872
* 1873
* 1874
* 1875
* 1876
* 1877
* 1878
* 1879
* 1880
* 1881
* 1882
* 1883
* 1884
* 1885
* 1886
* 1887
* 1888
* 1889
* 1890
* 1891
* 1892
* 1893
* 1894
* 1895
* 1896
* 1897
* 1898
* 1899
* 1900

20th century|

* 1901
* 1902
* 1903
* 1904
* 1905
* 1906
* 1907
* 1908
* 1909
* 1910
* 1911
* 1912
* 1913
* 1914
* 1915
* 1916
* 1917
* 1918
* 1919
* 1920
* 1921
* 1922
* 1923
* 1924
* 1925
* 1926
* 1927
* 1928
* 1929
* 1930
* 1931
* 1932
* 1933
* 1934
* 1935
* 1936
* 1937
* 1938
* 1939
* 1940
* 1941
* 1942
* 1943
* 1944
* 1945
* 1946
* 1947
* 1948
* 1949
* 1950
* 1951
* 1952
* 1953
* 1954
* 1955
* 1956
* 1957
* 1958
* 1959
* 1960
* 1961
* 1962
* 1963
* 1964
* 1965
* 1966
* 1967
* 1968
* 1969
* 1970
* 1971
* 1972
* 1973
* 1974
* 1975
* 1976
* 1977
* 1978
* 1979
* 1980
* 1981
* 1982
* 1983
* 1984
* 1985
* 1986
* 1987
* 1988
* 1989
* 1990
* 1991
* 1992
* 1993
* 1994
* 1995
* 1996
* 1997
* 1998
* 1999
* 2000

21st century|

* 2001
* 2002
* 2003
* 2004
* 2005
* 2006
* 2007
* 2008
* 2009
* 2010
* 2011
* 2012
* 2013
* 2014
* 2015
* 2016
* 2017
* 2018
* 2019
* 2020
* 2021
* 2022
* 2023
* 2024
* 2025
* 2026

By U.S. state/territory|

| States|

* Alabama
* Alaska
* Arizona
* Arkansas
* California
* Colorado
* Connecticut
* Delaware
* Florida
* Georgia
* Hawaii
* Idaho
* Illinois
* Indiana
* Iowa
* Kansas
* Kentucky
* Louisiana
* Maine
* Maryland
* Massachusetts
* Michigan
* Minnesota
* Mississippi
* Missouri
* Montana
* Nebraska
* Nevada
* New Hampshire
* New Jersey
* New Mexico
* New York
* North Carolina
* North Dakota
* Ohio
* Oklahoma
* Oregon
* Pennsylvania
* Rhode Island
* South Carolina
* South Dakota
* Tennessee
* Texas
* Utah
* Vermont
* Virginia
* Washington
* West Virginia
* Wisconsin
* Wyoming

|

Washington D.C.|

* Washington, D.C.

Territories|

* American Samoa
* Guam
* Northern Mariana Islands
* Puerto Rico
* U.S. Virgin Islands

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Timeline of United States history

Year|

* Before 1760
* 1760–1789
* 1790–1819
* 1820–1859
* 1860–1899
* 1900–1929
* 1930–1949
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* 1990–2009
* 2010–present

General|

* Civil rights movement
* Civil marriage
* Colonial America
* Conservatism
* Constitution drafting and ratification
* Counterculture in the 1960s
* COVID-19
* 2020
* 2021
* Diplomatic
* Japan–U.S. relations
* Flag
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* September 11
* Statehood
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* Western Frontier

Military|

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Groups|

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* before 1900
* 1900–1949
* 1950–1999
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* 2011–present
* LGBTQ
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Industry|

* Discoveries
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* before 1890
* 1890–1945
* 1991–present
* Railroads
* Space Race

* Years in the United States
* History of the United States
* Outline

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1851 in North America

Sovereign states|

*   *   *   *   *   *   * Costa Rica
*   *   * Dominican Republic
* El Salvador
*   * Guatemala
* Haiti
* Honduras
*   * Mexico
* Nicaragua
* Panama
* Saint Kitts and Nevis
* Saint Lucia
* Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
*   * Trinidad and Tobago
* United States

Dependencies, colonies
and other territories

*   *   * Bermuda
*   * British Virgin Islands
*   *   * Guadeloupe
*   *   *   *   * Newfoundland
*   * Spanish West Indies
*   *

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