Senator Edward Oliver Wolcott

Edward Oliver Wolcott (March 26, 1848 – March 1, 1905) was an American politician and lawyer who represented Colorado in the United States Senate from 1889 to 1901. A member of the Republican Party, he served for 12 years in the Senate during a significant period in American political and economic history, contributing to the legislative process over two terms in office and representing the interests of his Colorado constituents.

Wolcott was born on March 26, 1848, in Longmeadow, Hampden County, Massachusetts. He was one of eleven children of Harriet Amanda (née Pope) Wolcott and the Reverend Samuel Wolcott, D.D., a Congregationalist minister, missionary, and noted writer of hymns. He was a descendant of Oliver Wolcott, a signer of the United States Declaration of Independence, and grew up in a family with a strong tradition of public service and education. Among his siblings was Anna Wolcott Vaile, an educator who later founded the Wolcott School for Girls. During his boyhood the family moved from Massachusetts to Ohio, where he spent much of his early life.

As a teenager, Wolcott served in the Union Army during the American Civil War. He enlisted at age sixteen and served in the 150th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, gaining early exposure to national affairs and public duty. After the war, he pursued higher education, graduating from Yale College. He then studied law at Harvard Law School, from which he graduated in 1875, preparing for a professional career in the rapidly developing American West.

Following his graduation from Harvard Law School in 1875, Wolcott moved to Colorado, where he established a law practice. His legal abilities and growing reputation led to his appointment as a district attorney in Colorado, a position he held from 1876 to 1879. In 1879 he moved to Denver, which became his long-term home and the base of his political career. That same year he entered elective office as a member of the Colorado State Senate, serving from 1879 to 1882. In private practice, particularly in the late 1890s and early 1900s, one of his law partners was Charles W. Waterman, who would later become a United States senator from Colorado.

In 1889, Wolcott was elected to the United States Senate as a Republican to represent Colorado, and at the time of his entry into Congress he was the youngest member of the Senate. He was reelected in 1895, serving continuously from 1889 to 1901. During his Senate career, he became a prominent figure in national debates over monetary policy and economic reform. He was a leading advocate for the coinage of silver, reflecting the interests of his mining-state constituents and the broader free silver movement of the era. In 1897, President William McKinley appointed him chairman of a special commission sent to Europe to report on international bimetallism, an effort to secure international agreement on the use of both gold and silver as monetary standards. In the Senate, Wolcott held important committee assignments, serving as chairman of the Committee on Civil Service and Retrenchment during the 51st and 52nd Congresses, and as chairman of the Committee on Post Office and Post Roads during the 54th, 55th, and 56th Congresses. Known as a popular host and guest in Washington society, he was regarded as an influential and socially prominent member of the Senate during the 1890s.

Wolcott’s political fortunes declined at the turn of the century. Although he had been reelected once, he was denied renomination to the Senate in 1900, effectively ending his congressional and political career. He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1901, 1902, and 1903. After leaving the Senate in 1901, he returned to Colorado and resumed the practice of law, continuing in legal work for the remainder of his life while maintaining his standing as a notable public figure in the state.

In his personal life, Wolcott married Frances Esther (née Metcalfe) Bass in 1890 at St. Paul’s Cathedral in Buffalo, New York, in a ceremony officiated by the Reverend Francis Lobdell. Frances, born in 1851, was the daughter of James Harvey Metcalfe and Erzelia Frances (née Stetson) Metcalfe of Buffalo and the widow of U.S. Representative Lyman K. Bass. Through this marriage, Wolcott became stepfather to Lyman M. Bass, who later served as United States Attorney for the Western District of New York. The marriage ended in divorce in 1899.

Edward Oliver Wolcott died on March 1, 1905, while on vacation in Monte Carlo. His remains were cremated in Paris, France, and his ashes were interred at Woodlawn Cemetery in New York City. His legacy in Colorado is commemorated in the town of Wolcott in Eagle County, which was originally known as Bussells but was renamed in his honor, reflecting his prominence in the state’s political and civic life during the late nineteenth century.