William Franklin Switzler


William Franklin Switzler was an American notable lawyer, journalist, publisher, and historian from Columbia, Missouri.

Biography

William F. Switzler was born in Fayette County, Kentucky. In 1826, his family moved west to Fayette, Missouri.
He studied law under local Boone County, Missouri attorneys Abiel Leonard,, and James Sidney Rollins, and practiced it for several years. In 1841, he started editing the newspaper Columbia Patriot in Columbia, Missouri, eventually liking it and going into the business and practice of journalism. He also printed another paper of the Columbia Statesman ; later in his life he also edited the Chillicothe Constitution / Constitution-Tribune and the Missouri Democrat.
During the American Civil War, in 1863, he was appointed a provost marshal for the 9th District of Missouri, supporting the Union cause of the North.
Following the war, he served as a state Missouri [House of Representatives|Representative] in the Missouri House of Representatives, the lower chamber of the General Assembly of Missouri, for Boone County, Missouri, at the old Missouri State Capitol in the state capital of Jefferson City.
Twice,, Switzler ran for a seat in the United States House of Representatives, the lower chamber of the Congress of the United States, unsuccessfully.
In 1885, during the administration of Democrat and 22nd President Grover Cleveland,, he was appointed Chief of the Bureau of Statistics, and worked / resided in the national federal capital city of Washington, D.C. during that time.
In 1879, he researched, wrote and edited / published Switzler's illustrated history of Missouri, from 1541 to 1877 about the long then three centuries / 336 years of Missouri's colonial, territorial and state history. Three years later in 1882, followed — a History of Boone County, Missouri.
He died May 24, 1906 in Columbia, Missouri, aged 87 years old. Switzler was buried in the Columbia Cemetery at Columbia,, Missouri.
His papers and historical / biographical documents for the period of 1836-1905, are preserved by the State [Historical Society of Missouri], in their collections also in Columbia, Missouri.

Family

He married Mary Jane Royall of Columbia, Missouri in 1843, and they had three children.

Legacy

on the David R. Francis Quadrangle on the campus of the University of Missouri at Columbia, is named after him.

Works

  • Switzler, William F., et al. . St. Louis: C. R. Barns. 1879.
  • Switzler, William F. . St. Louis, Western Historical Company, 1882.