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Leslie W. Russell

American politician

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 18, 2026
Entity authorityQ6531197 ↗
Source-derived summary

Leslie Wead Russell (April 15, 1840 – February 3, 1903) was an American lawyer and politician.

Life

Russell was the son of Assemblyman John Leslie Russell (1805–1861) and Mary Sybil (Wead) Russell (ca. 1812–1870). He was educated at Canton Academy, and at age 16 began to teach school. Then he studied law at Albany, New York and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He was admitted to the bar in 1861, and commenced practice in Canton, NY. On October 19, 1864, he married Harriet Jane Lawrence (1843–1931), and they had six children two of whom died in infancy.

Russell was a delegate to the New York State Constitutional Convention of 1867. In 1869, he was elected District Attorney of St. Lawrence County, and County Judge in 1877. He was New York Attorney General from 1882 to 1883, elected at the New York state election, 1881.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Leslie W. Russell” as american politician. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA productive starting point for separating a subject’s documented career from later reputation and commemoration. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1840, 1903, 1805, 1861—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1840-04-15. The account is most persuasive where Leslie, Russell and American can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as american politician. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 18, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6531197. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1840, 1903, 1805 and 1861.

Critical limits

A concise life account rarely captures disputed attribution, private networks or the changing language used to describe a career. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Leslie W. Russell”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Leslie W. Russell primary sources, Leslie W. Russell archive and Leslie research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Leslie W. Russell”?
  2. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
  3. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Leslie W. Russell” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.