Representative Gideon Olin

Gideon Olin (November 2, 1743 – January 21, 1823) was an American politician who served as a United States Representative from Vermont. He was born in East Greenwich, in the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, to John and Susannah Pierce Olin. His formal education was limited, and in his youth he engaged primarily in agricultural pursuits. In 1776 he moved north to what would become the State of Vermont and settled in Shaftsbury, where he became one of the early settlers and is regarded as one of the founders of Vermont.

Olin quickly emerged as a political and civic leader in the nascent Vermont community. In 1777 he was a delegate to the Windsor Convention, which enacted the constitution that established the Vermont Republic as an independent entity. He entered legislative service soon thereafter, becoming a member of the Vermont House of Representatives in 1778, and again from 1780 to 1793 and in 1799. From 1788 to 1793 he served as Speaker of the Vermont House, presiding over the legislature during a formative period in which Vermont’s institutions and laws were being consolidated in anticipation of admission to the Union.

During the American Revolutionary War, Olin also held military responsibilities. He was appointed a major in the Second Regiment under Colonels Samuel Herrick and Ebenezer Walbridge and served on the frontier, contributing to the defense and security of the region. Following the war, he continued his public service in the judiciary, serving as an assistant judge of the Bennington County Court from 1781 to 1798. He was a delegate to the Vermont state constitutional conventions in 1791 and 1793, which addressed the state’s constitutional framework around the time of Vermont’s admission to the United States in 1791. In addition, he served as a member of the Governor’s Council from 1793 to 1798, participating in the executive deliberations of the new state government.

As a member of the Republican Party—then commonly known as the Democratic-Republican Party—representing Vermont, Olin was elected to the national legislature at a time of significant political development in the early republic. He was elected as a Democratic-Republican to the Eighth and Ninth Congresses and served in the United States House of Representatives from March 4, 1803, to March 3, 1807. During his two terms in Congress, he contributed to the legislative process during a critical period in American history, participating in the democratic process and representing the interests of his Vermont constituents as the nation confronted issues of expansion, governance, and party realignment.

After completing his congressional service, Olin returned to Vermont and continued to hold important judicial and civic posts. He served as chief justice of the Bennington County Court from 1807 to 1811, further extending his long involvement in Vermont’s legal and governmental institutions. He was also among the founders of the University of Vermont, reflecting his interest in the advancement of education in the state. In addition to these roles, he resumed his agricultural pursuits in Shaftsbury, maintaining the farming life that had characterized his early years.

Olin’s personal life was rooted in family and community. He married Patience Dwinnell on December 13, 1768. After her death, he later married Lydia Myers Pope, with whom he had five children. His family became part of a broader political lineage in Vermont and beyond. He was the uncle of Henry Olin, and both Henry Olin and Abram Baldwin Olin later served as United States Representatives in the nineteenth century, extending the Olin family’s influence in American public life.

Gideon Olin died in Shaftsbury, Vermont, on January 21, 1823. He was interred at Center Shaftsbury Cemetery in Shaftsbury, Vermont, closing a life that spanned the colonial era, the American Revolution, the independent Vermont Republic, and the early decades of the United States, and that was marked by sustained service in military, legislative, judicial, and educational institutions.