Wisconsin editor, attorney, and politician Edwin Hurlbut was born in New Milford, Connecticut on October 10, 1817. He was educated at home, studied law under David Wilmot, and was admitted to the bar in 1848.
Moving to Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, Hurlbut became a prominent attorney, notary public, and one of the incorporators of the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad. During the Civil War he served as second lieutenant of the Oconomowoc Cavalry, Wisconsin State Militia. Returning to Waukesha County, he resumed his legal career and in 1875 founded the Wisconsin Free Press. Throughout his career he belonged to and held offices in numerous legal and editorial organizations.
Hurlbut's involvement in politics began when he joined the Free Soil party in his early twenties. He also belonged to a Wisconsin anti-slavery group which met in Madison in 1854 to start what became the Republican Party. It was his resolution, “That all political differences should be held in abeyance until the purpose of the meeting has been accomplished,” that established the climate in which this group emerged as a new party. Hurlbut also helped draft the 1856 platform of the American Party of Wisconsin, a Free Soil party. Bolting from the Republican Party in 1872 to support Horace Greeley, Hurlbut returned in 1889 to the party he had helped found.
He died in Wisconsin in 1905.
