Henry R. Pease


Henry Roberts Pease was a United States Senator from Mississippi.

Life and politics

Born in Winsted, Connecticut, he received a normal-school training, engaged in teaching from 1848 to 1859, studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1859 and commenced practice in Washington, D.C. During the Civil War he entered the Union Army as a private in 1862 and attained the rank of captain; he was superintendent of education of Louisiana while that State was under military rule and was appointed superintendent of education of freedmen in Mississippi in 1867. In 1869 he was elected State superintendent of education of Mississippi, and was elected as a Republican to the U.S. Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Adelbert Ames and served from February 3, 1874, to March 4, 1875; he was not a candidate for reelection. In 1875, he was postmaster of Vicksburg, Mississippi, and he established and edited the Mississippi Educational Journal.
Pease moved to Dakota in 1881 and settled in Watertown where he was receiver of the United States land office there from 1881 to 1885. From 1895 to 1896 he served one term as a member of the South Dakota Senate, representing Marshall and Roberts Counties. He died in Watertown in 1907; interment was in Mount Hope Cemetery.