1855 in the United States

Decades:	1830s ; 1840s ; 1850s ; 1860s ; 1870s ;
See also:	History of the United States (1849–1865) ; Timeline of the history of the United States (1820-1859) ; List of years in the United States ;

Last updated September 25, 2025

Incumbents

Federal government

President: Franklin Pierce (D-New Hampshire)
Vice President: vacant
Chief Justice: Roger B. Taney (Maryland)
Speaker of the House of Representatives: Linn Boyd (D-Kentucky)
Congress: 33rd (until March 4), 34th (starting March 4)

Governors and lieutenant governors
Governors Governor of Alabama: John A. Winston (Democratic) Governor of Arkansas: Elias Nelson Conway (Democratic) Governor of California: John Bigler (Democratic) Governor of Connecticut: Henry Dutton (Whig) (until May 2), William T. Minor (Know Nothing) (starting May 2) Governor of Delaware: William H. H. Ross (Democratic) (until January 16), Peter F. Causey (Know Nothing) (starting January 16) Governor of Florida: James E. Broome (Democratic) Governor of Georgia: Herschel V. Johnson (Democratic) Governor of Illinois: Joel Aldrich Matteson (Democratic) Governor of Indiana: Joseph A. Wright (Democratic) Governor of Iowa: James W. Grimes (Whig) Governor of Kentucky: Lazarus W. Powell (Democratic) (until September 4), Charles S. Morehead (Know Nothing) (starting September 4) Governor of Louisiana: Paul Octave Hébert (Democratic) Governor of Maine: William G. Crosby (Whig) (until January 3), Anson Morrill (Republican) (starting January 3) Governor of Maryland: Thomas W. Ligon (Democratic) Governor of Massachusetts: Emory Washburn (Whig) (until January 4), Henry Gardner (Know Nothing) (starting January 4) Governor of Michigan: Andrew Parsons (Democratic) (until January 3), Kinsley S. Bingham (Republican) (starting January 3) Governor of Mississippi: John J. McRae (Democratic) Governor of Missouri: Sterling Price (Democratic) Governor of New Hampshire: Nathaniel B. Baker (Democratic) (until June 7), Ralph Metcalf (Know Nothing) (starting June 7) Governor of New Jersey: Rodman M. Price (Democratic) Governor of New York: Myron H. Clark (Whig) (starting January 1) Governor of North Carolina: Warren Winslow (Democratic) (until January 1), Thomas Bragg (Democratic) (starting January 1) Governor of Ohio: William Medill (Democratic) Governor of Pennsylvania: William Bigler (Democratic) (until January 16), James Pollock (Whig) (starting January 16) Governor of Rhode Island: William W. Hoppin (Whig) Governor of South Carolina: James Hopkins Adams (Democratic) Governor of Tennessee: Andrew Johnson (Democratic) Governor of Texas: Elisha M. Pease (Democratic) Governor of Vermont: Stephen Royce (Whig)/(Republican) Governor of Virginia: Joseph Johnson (Democratic) Governor of Wisconsin: William A. Barstow (Democratic) Lieutenant governors Lieutenant Governor of California: Samuel Purdy (Democratic) Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut: Alexander H. Holley (Whig) (starting January 4), William Field (Free Soil) (starting January 4) Lieutenant Governor of Illinois: Gustavus Koerner (Democratic) Lieutenant Governor of Indiana: Ashbel P. Willard (Democratic) Lieutenant Governor of Kentucky: vacant (until September 4), James Greene Hardy (Know Nothing) (starting September 4) Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana: Robert C. Wickliffe (Democratic) Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts: William C. Plunkett (political party unknown) (until month and day unknown), Simon Brown (political party unknown) (starting month and day unknown) Lieutenant Governor of Michigan: George Griswold (Democratic) (until month and day unknown), George Coe (Republican) (starting month and day unknown) Lieutenant Governor of Missouri: Wilson Brown (Democratic) (until August 27), vacant (starting August 27) Lieutenant Governor of New York: Henry Jarvis Raymond (Whig) (starting January 1) Lieutenant Governor of Ohio: James Myers (Democratic) Lieutenant Governor of Rhode Island: John J. Reynolds (political party unknown) (until month and day unknown), Anderson C. Rose (political party unknown) (starting month and day unknown) Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina: Richard de Treville (Democratic) Lieutenant Governor of Texas: David Catchings Dickson (Democratic) (until month and day unknown), Hardin Richard Runnels (Democratic) (starting month and day unknown) Lieutenant Governor of Vermont: Ryland Fletcher (Republican) Lieutenant Governor of Virginia: Shelton Leake (Democratic) Lieutenant Governor of Wisconsin: James T. Lewis (Republican)

Events

January – Klamath and Salmon River War: In Klamath County, California, hostility between settlers and the local Native Americans becomes violent. The California State Militia and U.S. Army intervene, ending the war in March.
January 23 – The first bridge over the Mississippi River opens in what is now Minneapolis, Minnesota (a crossing made today by the Hennepin Avenue Bridge).
January 26 – The Point No Point Treaty is signed in the Washington Territory.
February 12 – Michigan State University (the "pioneer" land-grant college) is established.
February 15 – The North Carolina General Assembly incorporates the Western North Carolina Railroad to build a rail line from Salisbury to the western part of the state.^[1]
February 22 – Pennsylvania State University is founded as the Farmers' High School of Pennsylvania.
March 3 – The U.S. Congress appropriates $30,000 to create the U.S. Camel Corps.
March 16 – Bates College is founded by abolitionists in Lewiston, Maine.
March 30 – Elections are held for the first Kansas Territory legislature. Missourian 'Border Ruffians' cross the border in large numbers to elect a pro-slavery body.

April – Cincinnati riots of 1855: Tension between nativists and German-American immigrants in Cincinnati breaks out into territorial street fighting on election day.
May 17 – The Mount Sinai Hospital is dedicated (as the Jews' Hospital) in New York City; it opens to patients on June 5.
June 6 – Portland Rum Riot: A crowd gathers at a storehouse believed to hold alcohol in Portland, Maine. The militia is called in and fires on the crowd to disperse the crowd, killing one person.
June 28 – The Sigma Chi fraternity is founded at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.
July 1 – Quinault Treaty signed, Quinault and Quileute cede their land to the United States.
July 2 – The Kansas Territorial Legislature convenes in Pawnee and begins passing proslavery laws.
July 4 – Walt Whitman's poetry collection Leaves of Grass is published in Brooklyn.
July 6 – The Kansas Territorial Legislature meets for the last time in Pawnee, voting to relocate to Shawnee, closer to the border of slave state Missouri.
July 16 – U.S. Indian commissioner Isaac Stevens signs the Hellgate treaty with Native Americans living in modern-day western Montana.
August 6 – Bloody Monday: Protestant mobs attack Irish and German Catholics on an election day in Louisville, Kentucky, causing 22 deaths.
September 3 – First Sioux War: Battle of Ash Hollow – U.S. forces defeat a band of Brulé Lakota in present-day Garden County, Nebraska.
October 5 – Yakima War: Battle of Toppenish Creek – In the Yakima River Valley, a band of Yakama warriors forces a company of U.S. soldiers to retreat in the first battle of the War.
October 28–31 – 1855 Fiji expedition: The U.S. Navy dispatches the USS John Adams to Viti Levu, Fiji, to protect American interests. One American sailor is killed and two Marines are wounded.^[2]
November 1 – 31 people are killed in the Gasconade Bridge train disaster in Missouri.
November 9–10 – Yakima War: Battle of Union Gap – American soldiers attack a Yakama village, forcing the village to retreat.
November 21 – Large-scale Bleeding Kansas violence begins with events leading to the Wakarusa War between antislavery and proslavery forces.

Ongoing

Samuel Colt incorporates his business as the Colt's Patent Firearms Manufacturing Company and opens a new factory, the Colt Armory, in Hartford, Connecticut. Horace Smith and Daniel B. Wesson form the Volcanic Repeating Arms Company in New England.
California Gold Rush (1848–1855)
Bleeding Kansas (1854–1860)
Third Seminole War (1855–1858)
Yakima War (1855–1858)

Births

February 4 – George Cope, painter (died 1929)
February 23 – Jonathan Bourne, Jr., U.S. Senator from Oregon from 1907 to 1913 (died 1940)
June 14 – Robert M. La Follette, U.S. Senator from Wisconsin (died 1925)
June 17 – Janet Cook Lewis, portrait painter, librarian, and bookbinder (died 1947)
July 29 – Bowman Brown Law, politician (died 1916)
August 4 – Jay Hunt, film director (died 1932)
September 2 – M. Hoke Smith, U.S. Senator from Georgia from 1911 to 1920 (died 1931)
October 21 – Howard Hyde Russell, temperance activist (died 1946)
October 23 – James S. Sherman, 27th vice president of the United States from 1909 to 1912 (died 1912)
October 26 – Jessie Wilson Manning, American author and lecturer
November 5 – Eugene V. Debs, union leader (died 1926)^[3]
November 6 – Annie Keeler, early woman physician (died 1927)
December 10 – August Spies, labor activist and newspaper editor (died 1887)
December 28 – John William Wood, Sr., North Carolinan politician, founder of Benson, North Carolina (died 1928)

Deaths

March 8 – William Poole, founder of the street gang the Bowery Boys and leader of the Know Nothing political movement (born 1821)
March 25 – Thomas Fitzgerald, United States Senator from Michigan from 1848 till 1849. (born 1796)
March 28 – William S. Archer, United States Senator from Virginia from 1841 till 1847. (born 1789)
May 7 – Walter T. Colquitt, United States Senator from Georgia from 1843 till 1848. (born 1799)
June 29 – John Gorrie, physician, scientist, inventor, and humanitarian (born 1803)
August 18 – Thomas Metcalfe, United States Senator from Kentucky from 1848 till 1849. (born 1780)

References

↑ "Railroad — Western North Carolina Railroad". North Carolina Business History. historync.org. 2006. Archived from the original on October 30, 2013. Retrieved May 9, 2013.
↑ Casualties: U. S. Navy and Marine Corps Archived 2007-06-05 at the Wayback Machine
↑ "Eugene Victor Debs 1855-1926". Eugene V. Debs Foundation. Archived from the original on May 9, 2011. Retrieved April 23, 2011.

External links

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[1] "Railroad — Western North Carolina Railroad". North Carolina Business History. historync.org. 2006. Archived from the original on October 30, 2013. Retrieved May 9, 2013.

[2] Casualties: U. S. Navy and Marine Corps Archived 2007-06-05 at the Wayback Machine

[3] "Eugene Victor Debs 1855-1926". Eugene V. Debs Foundation. Archived from the original on May 9, 2011. Retrieved April 23, 2011.

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1855 in the United States

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