William Bishop (politician)
William Bishop (1817 – May 2, 1879) was an American businessman, military officer and politician in the 19th century. He served as the State Treasurer of Missouri from 1865 to 1869. Biography William H. Bishop was born in Martinsburg, Virginia, but moved with his family to McLean County, Illinois as a child. His father, also named William, was a veteran of the War of 1812. William H. moved to Missouri as an adult and by 1846 was living in Clark County, Missouri where he became a wealthy land and commodities speculator. By the time of the 1860 United States Census, Bishop had real estate holdings valued at $20,000, a substantial sum in that era. In March 1861 he attended the first inauguration of Abraham Lincoln in hopes of receiving a political appointment. At the outbreak of the American Civil War he was living in the Mississippi river port of Alexandria, Missouri. In June 1861 Union General Nathaniel Lyon asked him to help organize several units of Missouri Home Guards to protect the state from pro-Confederate Missouri State Guards and rebel guerrilla activity. Bishop challenged his friend David Moore for command of the newly formed 1st Northeast Missouri Home Guards, but