Full Name:
- Edson Baldwin Olds
Birth Date:
- June 3, 1802
Birth Location:
- Marlboro, Vermont
Parents:
- Joseph and Sally (Whitney) Olds
Education:
- University of Pennsylvania (1824)
Occupation:
- Physician, politician
Career Summary:
- U.S. Congressman
Spouse:
- Anna Maria Carolus (1824)
Place of Death:
- Lancaster, Ohio
Date of Death:
- January 24, 1869
Place of Burial:
- Forest Cemetery at Circleville, Ohio
Significance:
- Edson Olds moved to Ohio about 1820 and taught school.
- Edson Olds graduated from the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania in 1824 and began practicing of medicine in Kingston, Ohio.
- On June 18, 1824, Edson Olds married Anna Maria Carolus. The couple had eight children, six of whom survived infancy.
- Edson Olds moved to Circleville, Ohio, in 1828.
- Edson Olds practiced medicine in Circleville, Ohio until 1837, when he engaged in the general produce business and mercantile pursuits.
- Edson Olds served as a member of the Ohio House of Representatives in 1842, 1843, 1845, and 1846.
- Edson Olds served in the Ohio Senate 1846-1848 and was its presiding officer in 1846 and 1847.
- Edson Olds was elected as a Democrat to the Thirty-first, Thirty-second, and Thirty-third Congresses (March 4, 1849 – March 3, 1855).
- During the Thirty-second and Thirty-third Congresses, Edson Olds served as chairman of the Committee on the Post Office and Post Roads.
- Edson Olds was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1854 to the Thirty-fourth Congress.
- Edson Olds moved to Lancaster, Ohio, in 1857.
- Edson Olds was an outspoken opponent of the Civil War and the Lincoln administration.
- On August 12, 1862, federal officials arrested Edson Olds for disloyalty and imprisoned him in Fort Lafayette, New York.
- Although he was never formally charged with a crime or tried in a court of law, Edson Olds was imprisoned at Fort Lafayette, in New York, for four months—twenty-two days of which he spent in solitary confinement.
- Edson Olds was released from imprisonment at Fort Lafayette, in New York on December 12, 1862.
- While in prison, Fairfield and Hocking County voters elected Edson Olds to the Ohio House of Representatives.
- After his release from prison, Edson Olds served in the Ohio House of Representatives from 1862 to 1866.
- In June 1863, Olds and swore out a warrant for Governor Tod’s arrest and filed a lawsuit against him for kidnapping, but he dropped his complaint several months later.