WASHBURN, William Barrett, senator, born in Winchendon, Massachusetts, 31 January, 1820; died in Springfield, Massachusetts, 5 October, 1887. He was graduated at Yale in 1844, and became a manufacturer at Greenfield, Massachusetts, where he was for many years president of the National bank, and which he represented in both branches of the legislature in 1850-'4. He was identified with the Republican party from its organization in 1856, and at the beginning of the civil war contributed liberally to the National cause. In 1862 he was sent to congress as a Republican, and he was returned biennially till on 1 January, 1872, he resigned his seat to become governor of Massachusetts. This office he resigned also during his third term to fill the vacancy that was made in the United States senate by the death of Charles Sumner, serving from 1 May, 1874, till 3 March, 1875, when he withdrew from public affairs. Besides holding many offices of trust under corporate societies, he was a trustee of Yale, of the Massachusetts agricultural college, and of Smith college, of which he was also a benefactor, and a member of the board of overseers of Amherst from 1864 till 1877. Harvard conferred the degree of EL. D. upon him in 1872. By his will he made the American board, the American home missionary society, and the American missionary association residuary legatees, leaving to each society about $50,000. He was also a great benefactor of the Greenfield public library. He died suddenly while attending a session of the American board of commissioners for foreign missions, of which he was a member.