1858 in the United States

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 ;

Last updated March 25, 2025

Incumbents

Federal government

Governors and lieutenant governors
Governors Governor of Alabama: Andrew B. Moore (Democratic) Governor of Arkansas: Elias Nelson Conway (Democratic) Governor of California: J. Neely Johnson (Know Nothing) (until January 8), John B. Weller (Democratic) (starting January 8) Governor of Connecticut: Alexander H. Holley (Republican) (until May 5), William A. Buckingham (Republican) (starting May 5) Governor of Delaware: Peter F. Causey (Know Nothing) Governor of Florida: Madison S. Perry (Democratic) Governor of Georgia: Joseph E. Brown (Democratic) Governor of Illinois: William Henry Bissell (Republican) Governor of Indiana: Ashbel P. Willard (Democratic) Governor of Iowa: James W. Grimes (Whig) (until January 13), Ralph P. Lowe (Republican) (starting January 13) Governor of Kentucky: Charles S. Morehead (Know Nothing) Governor of Louisiana: Robert C. Wickliffe (Democratic) Governor of Maine: Joseph H. Williams (Republican) (until January 6), Lot M. Morrill (Democratic) (starting January 6) Governor of Maryland: Thomas W. Ligon (Democratic) (until January 13), Thomas H. Hicks (Know Nothing)/(Republican) (starting January 13) Governor of Massachusetts: Henry Gardner (Know Nothing) (until January 7), Nathaniel Prentice Banks (Republican) (starting January 7) Governor of Michigan: Kinsley S. Bingham (Republican) Governor of Minnesota: Samuel Medary (Democratic) (until May 24), Henry H. Sibley (Democratic) (starting May 24) Governor of Mississippi: William McWillie (Democratic) Governor of Missouri: Robert Marcellus Stewart (Democratic) Governor of New Hampshire: William Haile (Republican) Governor of New Jersey: William A. Newell (Republican) Governor of New York: John Alsop King (Republican) (until end of December 31) Governor of North Carolina: Thomas Bragg (Democratic) Governor of Ohio: Salmon P. Chase (Republican) Governor of Pennsylvania: James Pollock (Whig) (until January 19), William F. Packer (Democratic) (starting January 19) Governor of Rhode Island: Elisha Dyer (Republican) Governor of South Carolina: Robert Francis Withers Allston (Democratic) (until December 10), William Henry Gist (Democratic) (starting December 10) Governor of Tennessee: Isham G. Harris (Democratic) Governor of Texas: Hardin R. Runnels (Democratic) Governor of Vermont: Ryland Fletcher (Republican) (until October 10), Hiland Hall (Republican) (starting October 10) Governor of Virginia: Henry A. Wise (Democratic) Governor of Wisconsin: Coles Bashford (Republican) (until January 4), Alexander W. Randall (Republican) (starting January 12) Lieutenant governors Lieutenant Governor of California: Robert M. Anderson (Know Nothing) (until month and day unknown), John Walkup (Democratic) (starting month and day unknown) Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut: Alfred A. Burnham (Republican) (until May 5), Julius Catlin (Republican) (starting May 5) Lieutenant Governor of Illinois: John Wood (Republican) Lieutenant Governor of Indiana: Abram A. Hammond (Democratic) Lieutenant Governor of Iowa: Oran Faville (Republican) (starting month and day unknown) Lieutenant Governor of Kentucky: vacant Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana: William F. Griffin (Democratic) Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts: Henry W. Benchley (Republican) (until January 7), Eliphalet Trask (Republican) (starting January 7) Lieutenant Governor of Michigan: George Coe (Republican) Lieutenant Governor of Minnesota: William Holcombe (Democratic) (starting May 24) Lieutenant Governor of Missouri: Hancock Lee Jackson (Democratic) Lieutenant Governor of New York: Henry R. Selden (Republican) (until end of December 31) Lieutenant Governor of Ohio: Thomas H. Ford (Democratic) (until January 11), Martin Welker (Democratic) (starting January 11) Lieutenant Governor of Rhode Island: Thomas G. Turner (political party unknown) Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina: Gabriel Cannon (Democratic) (until December 10), M. E. Carn (Democratic) (starting December 10) Lieutenant Governor of Texas: Francis R. Lubbock (Democratic) Lieutenant Governor of Vermont: James M. Slade (Republican) (until October 10), Burnham Martin (Republican) (starting October 10) Lieutenant Governor of Virginia: William Lowther Jackson (Democratic) Lieutenant Governor of Wisconsin: Arthur MacArthur, Sr. (Democratic) (until January 4), Erasmus D. Campbell (Democratic) (starting January 4)

Events

February 6 – A fight, the 1858 Congressional brawl, breaks out on the floor of the U.S. House between Representatives of the Northern and Southern states.^[1]

March 4 – A speech by James Henry Hammond in the United States Senate promotes the idea of "King Cotton" and the "mudsill theory" in support of slave labor.
April 19 – The United States and the Yankton Sioux Tribe sign a treaty.^[2]
May 11 – Minnesota is admitted as the 32nd U.S. state (see History of Minnesota).
May 19 – The Marais des Cygnes massacre is perpetrated by pro-slavery forces in Bleeding Kansas.
June 16 – Abraham Lincoln makes his "House Divided" Speech at the State Capitol in Springfield, Illinois, on accepting the Republican Party nomination for a seat in the U.S. Senate.
July – Forty-Niners stream into the Rocky Mountains of the western United States during the Pike's Peak Gold Rush.
July 8 – The Paulist Fathers, a Roman Catholic society of apostolic life for men, is founded in New York City by Isaac Hecker.
July 29 – Treaty of Amity and Commerce (United States–Japan) ("Harris Treaty") signed on the deck of USS Powhatan in Edo (modern-day Tokyo) Bay.
August 16 – U.S. President James Buchanan inaugurates the new trans-Atlantic telegraph cable by exchanging greetings with Queen Victoria. However, a weak signal forces a shutdown of the service on September 1.
August 21 – The first of the seven Lincoln–Douglas debates is held.
September 1–2 – 'Staten Island Quarantine War'.
September 14 – Fordyce Beals patents his six shooter revolver which will be produced by E. Remington & Sons of Ilion, New York as the Remington Model 1858.
November 17 – Denver is founded.
December 8 – Rensselaer, Indiana is incorporated.

Ongoing

Bleeding Kansas (1854–1860)
Third Seminole War (1855–1858)
Utah War (1857–1858)

Births

January 6 – Albert Henry Munsell, painter, teacher of art and inventor of the Munsell color system (died 1918)
January 9 – Elizabeth Gertrude Britton, botanist (died 1934)
January 11 – Harry Gordon Selfridge, department store magnate (died 1947)
February 6 – Jonathan P. Dolliver, U.S. Senator from Iowa from 1900 to 1910 (died 1910)
February 15 – John Joseph Montgomery, glider pioneer (died 1911)
February 19 – Charles Alexander Eastman, Native American author, physician, reformer and co-founder of Boy Scouts of America (died 1939)
February 28 – Richard P. Ernst, U.S. Senator from Kentucky from 1921 to 1927 (died 1934)
March 9 – Gustav Stickley, furniture designer and architect (died 1942)
March 12 – Adolph Ochs, newspaper publisher (died 1935)
March 24 – Elia Goode Byington, newspaper proprietor, editor, and manager (died 1936)
March 30 – DeWolf Hopper, musical theater performer (died 1935)
April 23 – Leonor F. Loree, railroad executive (died 1940)
April 29 – Georgia Hopley, journalist, political figure and temperance advocate (died 1944)
June 17 – Mary F. Hoyt, first woman appointed to the U.S. federal civil service, in 1883 (died 1958)
June 20 – Charles Waddell Chesnutt, African American author, essayist and political activist (died 1932)
June 28 – Otis Skinner, actor (died 1943)
July 1 – Velma Caldwell Melville, editor and writer (died 1924)
August 18 – Thomas S. Rodgers, admiral (died 1931)
September 1 – Andrew Jackson Zilker, philanthropist (died 1934)
September 12 – J. H. Smith, politician and pioneer (died 1956)
September 30 – Estelle M. H. Merrill, journalist (died 1908)
October 2 – Emma Amelia Cranmer, prohibition reformer and suffragist (died 1937)
October 7 – Joseph E. Ransdell, U.S. Senator from Louisiana from 1913 to 1931 (died 1954)
October 12 – John L. Sullivan, heavyweight boxer (died 1918)
October 15 – William Sims, admiral (died 1936)
October 27 – Theodore Roosevelt, 26th president of the United States from 1901 to 1909, 25th vice president of the United States from March to September 1901 (died 1919)
October 30 – Wilson Eyre, architect (died 1944)
November 8 – Lawrence Yates Sherman, U.S. Senator from Illinois from 1913 to 1921 (died 1939)
November 21 – Charles A. Towne, U.S. Senator from Minnesota from 1900 to 1901 (died 1928)
November 26 – Katharine Drexel, Roman Catholic foundress, first American canonized as a saint, in 2000 (died 1955)
December 15 – Elizabeth Eggleston Seelye, biographer (died 1923)
December 24 – Harriet Pritchard Arnold, author (died 1901)
December 25 – Herman P. Faris, temperance movement leader (died 1936)
December 31 – Harry Stewart New, U.S. Senator from Indiana from 1917 to 1923 (died 1937)
Unknown – Sarah Jim Mayo, Washoe basket weaver (died 1918)

Deaths

January 10 – Hezekiah Augur, sculptor and inventor (born 1791)
March 4 – Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry, naval officer (born 1794)
April 10 – Thomas Hart Benton, U.S. Senator from Missouri from 1821 to 1851 (born 1782)
August 23 – Calvin Willey, U.S. Senator from Connecticut from 1825 to 1831 (born 1776)
September 17 – Dred Scott, slave (born c. 1795)
September 21 – Arthur P. Bagby, U.S. Senator from Alabama from 1837 to 1841 (born 1794)
November 16 – Robert Hanna, U.S. Senator from Indiana from 1831 to 1832 (born 1786)
December 14 – Michael Woolston Ash, U.S. Representative from Pennsylvania from 1835 to 1837 (born 1789)
December 18 – Thomas Holley Chivers, poet and physician (born 1809)

References

↑ "The Most Infamous Floor Brawl in the History of the U.S. House of Representatives | US House of Representatives: History, Art & Archives". history.house.gov. Retrieved March 24, 2025.
↑ "Treaty with the Yankton Sioux, 1858". Archived from the original on July 14, 2010. Retrieved October 27, 2009. Provided by the Oklahoma State University Library from Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties (Vol. II) compiled and edited by Charles J. Kappler, 1904.

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[1] "The Most Infamous Floor Brawl in the History of the U.S. House of Representatives | US House of Representatives: History, Art & Archives". history.house.gov. Retrieved March 24, 2025.

[2] "Treaty with the Yankton Sioux, 1858". Archived from the original on July 14, 2010. Retrieved October 27, 2009. Provided by the Oklahoma State University Library from Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties (Vol. II) compiled and edited by Charles J. Kappler, 1904.

[1]

[2]

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1858 in the United States

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