Representative William Simonton

William Simonton (February 12, 1788 – May 17, 1846) was a physician, local official, and Whig member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania. He was born in West Hanover Township, Pennsylvania, near Harrisburg, to Dr. William Simonton and Jane Wiggins, into a family already associated with the medical profession through his father. Growing up in what was then a largely rural part of Dauphin County, he was raised in an environment shaped by the early political and social development of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in the post-Revolutionary era.

Simonton pursued formal medical education at a time when such training was still relatively uncommon in the United States. He attended the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, one of the nation’s earliest and most prominent medical schools, and graduated in 1810. Following his graduation, he returned to central Pennsylvania, where he combined the practice of medicine with agricultural pursuits, residing on his farm near Hummelstown, Pennsylvania. In this dual role as physician and farmer, he became a well-known figure in his community, providing medical care while also engaging in the economic life of the region.

Simonton’s involvement in public affairs began at the local level. In 1823 he was elected auditor of Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, a position in which he served for three years. As county auditor, he was responsible for overseeing and reviewing public accounts, a role that reflected both the trust placed in him by his neighbors and his growing interest in public administration and finance. During this period, he became identified with reform-minded elements in Pennsylvania politics, particularly in matters of public education and governmental accountability.

An early advocate of public education, Simonton was one of the original supporters of the free-school system established by the Pennsylvania act of 1834. This legislation laid the foundation for a statewide system of publicly funded schools, a controversial and transformative measure in the state’s history. His support for the act aligned him with those who believed that broader access to education was essential to the civic and economic advancement of the Commonwealth, and it helped to define his public reputation as a proponent of educational reform.

Building on his local prominence and reform credentials, Simonton was elected as a Whig to the Twenty-sixth and Twenty-seventh Congresses, serving in the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania. His tenure in Congress spanned the early 1840s, a period marked by significant national debates over economic policy, internal improvements, and the role of the federal government—issues central to the Whig Party’s platform. As a Whig representative, he was part of a political movement that favored a stronger congressional role in shaping national policy, support for infrastructure and economic development, and, in many cases, the expansion of educational opportunities.

Simonton’s later years were spent in the same region of Pennsylvania where he had been born and had built his career. He died in South Hanover Township, Pennsylvania, on May 17, 1846. He was interred in the Old Hanover Cemetery, north of Shellsville, Pennsylvania, a burial ground associated with some of the area’s early families and community leaders. His family continued to have an impact beyond Pennsylvania; one of his sons, Ashbel Green Simonton, became a Presbyterian minister and is noted as the first missionary to settle a Protestant church in Brazil, extending the family’s influence into international religious and missionary work.