Governor Joseph Trumbull

JOSEPH TRUMBULL, grandson of Colonial Connecticut Governor Jonathan Trumbull Sr. (1769-1784) and nephew of Connecticut Governor Joseph Trumbull Jr. (1797-1809) was born in Hartford, Connecticut, on December 7, 1782. He graduated from Yale University in 1801, studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1803. Trumbull had a successful law practice in Hartford, Connecticut, where he also served as president of the Hartford Bank from 1828 to 1839. He entered politics in 1832, serving as a member of the Connecticut House of Representatives, an office he held again in 1848. Two years later, he was chosen to fill a vacancy in the U.S. House of Representatives and served from 1834 to 1835, and again from 1839 to 1843. Trumbull won the 1849 Whig gubernatorial nomination, and was elected Governor of Connecticut by a legislative vote of 122 to 110. During his tenure, the state normal school was founded. Trumbull did not seek reelection, but continued to stay active in public service. He returned to the Connecticut House of Representatives, serving in 1851. Governor Joseph Trumbull, who was granted an honorary LL.D. degree from Yale University in 1849, died on August 4, 1861. He is buried in the Old North Cemetery, in Hartford, Connecticut.