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Willis Arnold Gorman was born in Kentucky on January 12, 1816. His early career was as a lawyer and state legislator (Democrat) in Indiana. During the Mexican War he raised and commanded an Indiana rifle battalion and an infantry regiment, and subsequently was elected to two terms in the U.S. Congress. President Franklin Pierce appointed him Governor of Minnesota in May 13, 1853, and he served in that office until 1857. He was subsequently a delegate to the state constitutional convention (1857) and was elected to the first state legislature (1858).

At the outset of the Civil War he commanded the First Minnesota Infantry Volunteers (April-October, 1861) until his promotion to brigadier general. Following his discharge from military service in 1864, he practiced law in St. Paul in partnership with Cushman K. Davis. In 1869 he was appointed St. Paul city attorney, and held that office until his death on May 20, 1876.

Sources: Minnesota Biographies, pp. 267- 268; Minnesota in the Civil and Indian Wars, Vol. I, p. 14; William Watts Folwell, A History of Minnesota (St. Paul, rev. 1956), Vol. I, pp. 377-383; Theodore C. Blegen, Minnesota, A History of the State (1963), pp. 171, 240-242, 293.