Thesis
Carpetbagger trailblazers in the Pacific Northwest: the lives of Simon Barclay Conover and William Farrand Prosser
Washington State University
Master of Arts (MA), Washington State University
2010
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/104957
Abstract
This study is focused on two important examples, William Farrand Prosser and Simon Barclay Conover, of a distinct element of immigration into the Pacific Northwest. Both Prosser (1834-1911) and Conover (1840-1908) were Union Army veterans who served in the Civil War, and following that conflict were engaged in their respective political careers in the Reconstruction-era South. They, like a number of other carpetbaggers (white men of northern birth who became Republican politicians in southern Reconstruction governments) left the South as Republicans fell from power there, moved west and then played significant roles in the development of the areas of the American West in which they settled. This work presents biographical and interpretive detail on two former carpetbaggers, both of whom played major roles in the state of Washington. Simon Conover, after serving as a carpetbagger U.S. senator from Florida, left the South to settle in Port Townsend, Washington, where he practiced medicine. He became active in the political arena of his new home as the first president of the board of regents of what today is Washington State University. Colonel William Prosser served as a carpetbagger congressman from Tennessee, moved to Washington Territory, served in the 1889 Washington state constitutional convention, wrote The History of the Puget Sound Country, and settled a town which today bears his name. Conover and Prosser represented, in both the South and the West, forces of order, federal government influence, and development. The telling of their stories has been aided greatly by a generous travel grant from the Department of History at Washington State University. That funding made possible research in manuscript collections at the Benton County Historical Museum in Prosser, Washington; at the Tennessee State Archives in Nashville; at the Florida State Archives in Tallahassee; and at the University of Washington Archives in Seattle.
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Details
- Title
- Carpetbagger trailblazers in the Pacific Northwest
- Creators
- Michael John Schwartz
- Contributors
- Michael John Schwartz (Degree Supervisor)Richard L. Hume (Degree Supervisor)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- History, Department of
- Theses and Dissertations
- Master of Arts (MA), Washington State University
- Publisher
- Washington State University; [Pullman, Washington] :
- Identifiers
- 99900525380901842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Thesis