State Historical Society of Missouri

WARNER, William, a Representative and a Senator from Missouri; born in Shullsburg, Lafayette County, Wis., June 11, 1840; worked in lead mines as a child and sporadically attended school; taught school and studied law at Lawrence University and the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor; admitted to the bar in 1861 and commenced practice in Kansas City, Mo.; enlisted in 1862 in the Thirty-third Regiment, Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry; was mustered out at the close of the Civil War with the rank of major; returned to Kansas City, Mo., in 1865 and resumed the practice of law; city attorney 1867; circuit attorney 1868; mayor of Kansas City 1871; elected as a Republican to the Forty-ninth and Fiftieth Congresses (March 4, 1885-March 3, 1889); was not a candidate for renomination in 1888; elected commander in chief of the Grand Army of the Republic in 1888; unsuccessful Republican candidate for Governor in 1892; United States district attorney for the western district of Missouri 1882-1884, 1898, 1902-1905; unsuccessful Republican candidate for governor of Missouri in 1892; elected as a Republican to the United States Senate in 1905 and served from March 18, 1905, to March 3, 1911; was not a candidate for reelection; chairman, Committee on the Mississippi and its Tributaries (Sixtieth and Sixty-first Congresses); resumed the practice of law; appointed as civilian member of the Board of Ordnance and Fortifications; member of the Board of Managers of the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers; died in Kansas City, Mo., October 4, 1916; interment in Elmwood Cemetery.