Joseph_W._Mansur

Joseph W. Mansur

Joseph W. Mansur

American politician

Joseph Warren Mansur (December 7, 1808 – February 4, 1892) was an American lawyer, politician, and investor. He represented Lowell, Massachusetts in the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1837, and in 1852 represented Fitchburg.[1][2] He served in the Massachusetts Senate representing Middlesex in 1840 and Worcester District in 1854.[1][2][3][4][5] He later moved to Michigan where he owned and edited the Kalamazoo Gazette in 1862-65.[6]

Mansur was born in Pembroke, New Hampshire, the son of Aaron Mansur and Rebecca Warren. He studied at Phillips Academy and graduated from Harvard College and Law School in 1831.[2][7][8] He later settled in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, where he owned a textile mill, and served as director in two local companies and as Postmaster (1859- Sept. 1861).[4] He married Anna Stewart Fitzpatrick,[9] an Irish immigrant,[10] and they had five children, of whom three survived to adulthood.

In addition to his terms in the state legislature, Mansur also held local office, ran unsuccessfully for US Congress in 1842,[11] and ran unsuccessfully for statewide office on the Democratic ticket in 1860. Mansur's eulogy of Daniel Webster (who died in 1852) won him note.[12]

In the early 1860s Mansur moved to Michigan, and in November 1862 bought the Kalamazoo Gazette.[13][14] He sold the paper some time after April 1865.[15]

Mansur later lived in Sandwich, Ontario and Lennoxville, Quebec, before returning to Massachusetts where he lived in Duxbury and Milton.[2][7][16] He died in Milton in February 1892.[5][12][17][18]

References

  1. [1]
    Charles Cowley, 1868, A History of Lowell, 2nd Revised Ed., Boston: Lee & Shepard.
  2. [2]
    Charles Carroll Carpenter, 1903, Biographical Catalogue of the Trustees, Teachers and Students of Phillips Academy, Andover, 1778-1830, Andover Press. p. 139
  3. [3]
    Executive and Legislative Departments of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 1854. Boston, 1854.
  4. [4]
    William A.Emerson, 1903, Fitchburg Past and Present
  5. [5]
    The Harvard Graduates Magazine, Vol. 1, 1892-93. pp. 320-1 (The brief obituary indicates he served in the Massachusetts Senate in 1857, a date not corroborated by other sources consulted.)
  6. [6]
    Samuel W. Durant, 1880, History of Kalamazoo County, Michigan, Philadelphia: Everts & Abbott. pp. 263-4.
  7. [7]
    C.W. Sever, 1888, Catalogue of the Officers and Students of the Law School of Harvard University, 1817-1887, Harvard Law School.
  8. [8]
    Charles Warren, 1908, History of the Harvard Law School and of early legal conditions in America, New York: Lewiston Publishing Co.
  9. [9]
    DAR Lineage Book, Vol. 11, p. 201, #10524
  10. [10]
    Per US Census records
  11. [11]
    George Boutwell, 1896, Reminiscences of Sixty Years in Public Affairs, Vol. 1, New York: McClure, Phillips & Co.
  12. [12]
    "Death Notices," The Newtown Register, Thursday, February 18, 1892
  13. [13]
    Michigan State Gazetteer and Business Directory for 1863-4, 2nd edition.
  14. [14]
    Kalamazoo Gazette, Nov. 7, 1862
  15. [15]
    The April 21, 1865 edition of the Gazette was the last available issue bearing Mansur's name as editor and proprietor. The actual date on which he sold the paper is not certain.
  16. [16]
    "New England News," Boston Weekly Journal, Thursday, Feb. 3, 1887
  17. [17]
    Norfolk County Gazette, Feb. 13, 1892
  18. [18]
    Some sources have his place of death as Hyde Park. However a contemporary note from a Samuel A. Green (15 Feb. 1892) on file at the Harvard University Archives indicates that it was actually Milton.
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