Alpheus Felch was born on September 28, 1804, and died on June 13, 1896. He was the fifth governor of Michigan and served as a U.S. Senator from Michigan.

Early life

Felch was born in Limerick, which is now part of Maine but was then part of Massachusetts. He became an orphan at the age of three and lived with his grandfather, Abijah Felch, who was a soldier in the American Revolution. He attended Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter, New Hampshire, and graduated from Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, in 1827. He studied law and was allowed to practice law in Bangor, Maine. He worked as a lawyer in Houlton, Maine, from 1830 to 1833.

Political career

Felch moved to Monroe, Michigan, in 1833 and continued working as a lawyer. In 1835, he served as an aide to General Joseph Brown during the organization of troops for the Ohio–Michigan Boundary Dispute, also known as the Toledo War. He was elected to the Michigan State House of Representatives three times, serving from 1835 to 1837. In 1838, he was appointed state bank commissioner and resigned in 1839. During his time as bank commissioner, he worked to reveal frauds that had occurred because of a law allowing many banks to operate without proper oversight. He had opposed this law, which was later ruled unconstitutional by the Michigan Supreme Court. He briefly served as state auditor general in 1842 before being named an associate justice of the Michigan Supreme Court in 1842. He held this position until 1845, when he resigned to become governor of Michigan. He served as governor from 1846 to 1847, during which time state laws were updated, and the state capital was moved to Lansing.

Felch resigned as governor on March 3, 1847, after being elected by the Michigan legislature as a Democrat to the U.S. Senate. He served in the 30th, 31st, and 32nd Congresses from March 4, 1847, to March 3, 1853. In the U.S. Senate, he chaired the committee on public lands for four years.

In March 1853, President Franklin Pierce appointed Felch to a land claims commission in California to resolve disputes over land rights from the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which ended the Mexican–American War. He led the commission until 1856. That year, he returned to live in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and ran for governor again but lost to the Republican candidate, Kinsley S. Bingham. He later returned to his law career and taught as the Tappan Professor of Law at the University of Michigan from 1879 to 1883.

Death and legacy

He passed away at his home in Ann Arbor, Michigan, at the age of 91. He is buried in Forest Hill Cemetery with his wife, Lucretia.

Alpheus Felch is the person after whom Felch Township, Michigan, is named. Felch Park, located on the campus of the University of Michigan, is also named in his honor.