Colbath Family

Jeremiah Colbath

Jeremiah Colbath was born in Farmington in 1812. He later had his name legally changed to Henry Wilson. Born into poor circumstances, he had little schooling but improved his knowledge by reading history and biography - nearly 1000 volumes by 1833. He went to Natick, Massachusetts and learned shoemaking, but his health made it necessary to give that up so he took a trip to Washington, D.C. observing the federal government and slavery in Maryland and the District of Columbia. He became a strong anti-slavery advocate. To further his education, in the winter of 1836, he attended the Wolfeboro and Tuftonboro Academy and also taught at Mink Brook. He boarded with Samuel Avery who helped and encouraged him and who was his lifelong friend. Henry Wilson became a man of high moral character and he was a lifelong abstainer. Leaving Wolfeboro, he returned to the shoe business in Natick and produced in his shoe career 664,000 pairs. He was elected to the Massachusetts legislature and became a Brigadier-General in the state militia. He was later elected to the U.S. Senate where he was chairman of the Militia Committee during the Civil War. He was elected Vice President of the United States in 1872, but died before completing his term in 1875. His body lay in state in the Capitol rotunda upon orders of President Grant. Henry Wilson is a proud part of Wolfeboro history.

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