Henry Putnam

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Henry Clay Putnam (January 17, 1846 – July 7, 1913) was an American businessman, farmer, and Republican politician in Wisconsin. Born in Newark, Ohio, he moved with his family to Green County, Wisconsin, as a child and grew up in Decatur.

At 17, he joined the Union Army during the Civil War, serving as a private and later a corporal in the 1st Wisconsin Cavalry. He fought near Chattanooga and took part in battles at Mossy Creek and Dandridge, as well as in Sherman’s Atlanta campaign and Wilson’s Raid. He mustered out in 1865 and returned home.

After the war, Putnam worked as a traveling salesman, then in the lumber business and as a farmer. In the 1890s he became vice president of the Green County Bank in Brodhead. He entered public life as a Republican, serving as president of the village of Brodhead in 1883 and 1884. He was elected to the Wisconsin State Assembly, serving from 1891 to 1895 (representing Green-Lafayette 2nd district, then Green district due to redistricting), and then to the Wisconsin State Senate from 1895 to 1899, representing the 17th district (Green County). He did not seek re-election in 1898.

Putnam died at his home in Brodhead in 1913. He remained active in the Wisconsin chapter of the Grand Army of the Republic after the war. He was married to Frances Sutherland, who died in 1895; their only child, Essie, died in infancy.