Alexander Ramsey
American politician (1815-1903)
Alexander Ramsey (September 8, 1815 – April 22, 1903) was an American politician, who became the first Minnesota Territorial governor and later became a U.S. Senator. He served as a Whig and Republican over a variety of offices between the 1840s and the 1880s.
Early years and family
Born in Hummelstown, Pennsylvania, on September 8, 1815, Ramsey was the eldest of five children born to Thomas Ramsey and Elizabeth Kelker (also Kölliker or Köllker). Ramsey was of Scottish and German ancestry.. His father was a blacksmith who committed suicide, at age 42, when he went bankrupt in 1826, after signing for a note of a friend. Ramsey lived with his uncle in Harrisburg, after his family split up to live with relatives. His brother Justus Cornelius Ramsey served in the Minnesota Territorial Legislature.
Ramsey first studied carpentry at Lafayette College but left during his third year. He read law with Hamilton Alricks, and attended Judge John Reed's law school in Carlisle (now Penn State-Dickinson Law) in 1839. He was admitted to the Pennsylvania bar in 1839.
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