William H Bissell., governor of Illinois, born near Cooperstown, N. Y., April 25, 1811, died in Springfield, 111., March 18, 1860. He took the degree of M. D. at the Jefferson medical college, Philadelphia, in 1835, practised medicine two years at Painted Post, N. Y., removed to Monroe county, 111., in 1837, was elected to the state legislature in 1840, and there earned distinction as a forcible and ready debater. He subsequently studied and practised law, and was elected prosecuting attorney of St. Clair county in 1844. He served in the Mexican war in 1846 as colonel of the 2d Illinois volunteers, and distinguished himself at Buena Vista. On his return home in 1849 he was elected without opposition a representative in congress, in which capacity he served till 1855, resisting the repeal of the Missouri compromise, though he had previously acted with the democratic party, and gaining much reputation in the North by his defiant bearing in a controversy with Jefferson Davis respecting the comparative bravery of northern and southern soldiers. Davis challenged him, and he accepted the challenge, selecting muskets as the weapons to be used, at so short a distance as to make the duel probably fatal to both parties. Finally the quarrel was compromised and the challenge withdrawn.

In 1856 he was elected governor of Illinois by the republicans, and died before the expiration of his term.