Thomas Ewing Autographs, Memorabilia & Collectibles

Thomas Ewing (1789-1871) served as U.S. Senator from Ohio from 1831-1837. President William Henry Harrison appointed him Secretary of the Treasury March 5, 1841. Harrison died on April 4, 1841 and was succeeded by Vice President John Tyler. Ewing served until September 13, 1841, when Tyler's Cabinet, with the notable exception of Secretary of State Daniel Webster, resigned in protest to a Tyler veto of a financial bill. Ewing was the first U.S. Secretary of the Interior, appointed by President Zachary Taylor, serving from March 8, 1849 to July 23, 1850. He resigned to return to the Senate, filling an unexpired term but defeated for re-election. Ewing was the foster father of Union general William Tecumseh Sherman (who was baptized in Ewing's home), and later Sherman's father in law. His son, Thomas Ewing, Jr., was also a Union general in the Civil War. President Andrew Johnson nominated Ewing for another Cabinet post, Secretary of War, in 1868, but the Senate, enraged at the firing of Secretary William Stanton, refused to consider his nomination.