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Selim E. Woodworth

Whig

Date Party Office Votes Result
11-13-1849 Nonpartisan SD-Monterey 252 Win
10-07-1850 Nonpartisan SD-04 0 Win
10-08-1853 Whig Surveyor General 34663 Loss
 

Candidate Biography:

Born: November 15, 1815 in New York, New York
Married: Lisette
Children: Selim II (married his cousin Carrie Wethered), Frederick, Benjamin, William, Lydia, and Samuel
Military Service: USN (Mexican-American War, Civil War)
Died: January 29, 1871 in San Francisco, CA

1851: Member, San Francisco Committee of Vigilance

  • Woodworth was the first State Senator to represent Monterey County after its incorporation.
  • NAVAL VESSEL: The US Navy destroyer USS Woodworth (DD-460) was named for Woodworth.
  • In 1851, Senator Woodworth was commissioned by Governor McDougal to raise a company of Rangers to capture horse thieves in Monterey County. Woodworth caught one horse thief but shot and killed the prisoner when he tried to escape. The bill to California taxpayers: $9000 (History of California, Vol. 7 by Bancroft, page 210)
  • Be Fruitful and Multiply: Woodworth had six children.

Source: History of Political Conventions in California, 1849-1892 by Winfield J. Davis (1893)
Source: San Francisco Committee of Vigilance of 1851 by Porter Garnett (UC Berkeley Press; 1910)
Source: "The Names of the President and Senators of the First Senate of the State of California. Convened at the Capitol of San Jose, December the 15th, One Thousand Eight Hundred and Forty Nine." (1849)