James Wolcott Wadsworth

James Wolcott Wadsworth (October 12, 1846 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – December 24, 1926 in Washington, D.C.) was an American farmer, soldier and statesman.

Life

He was the son of Civil War General James S. Wadsworth. He was a major in the Union Army during the Civil War.

He was a member of New York State Assembly (Livingston Co.) in 1878 and 1879. He was New York State Comptroller from 1880 to 1881, elected at the New York state election, 1879.

He was elected to the 47th United States Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Elbridge G. Lapham, and re-elected to the 48th, 52nd, 53rd, 54th, 55th, 56th, 57th, 58th and 59th United States Congresses, serving from December 5, 1881, to March 3, 1885, and from March 4, 1891 to March 3, 1907. In 1906, he was defeated for re-election.

In 1885, he ran again for State Comptroller but was defeated by Democrat Alfred C. Chapin.

He was a delegate to the 1884 and 1904 Republican National Conventions. He was a delegate to the New York State Constitutional Convention of 1915.

James Wolcott

James Wolcott (born December 10, 1952) is an American journalist, known for his critique of contemporary media. Wolcott is the cultural critic for Vanity Fair and contributes to The New Yorker. He also writes a blog.

Background and education

Wolcott was born in Baltimore, Maryland, and raised in a suburban setting. He attended Maryland's Frostburg State College for two years. From there, he moved to New York City, to work at The Village Voice. He is married to Laura Jacobs, a contributing editor at Vanity Fair. He began practicing the Transcendental Meditation technique in 2007.

Career

Since arriving in New York, Wolcott has been a columnist on media and pop culture for such publications as Esquire, Harper's Magazine, The New Yorker, The New York Review of Books, and New York Magazine. He was lured to Vanity Fair by the late Leo Lerman, then the magazine's editor.

Wolcott wrote a novel, The Catsitters, published in 2001. In 2004, he published Attack Poodles and Other Media Mutants, a critique of right-wing media in the United States. In addition, he recently contributed the foreword to Geoffrey Beene's forthcoming book, Identity.

James Wolcott Wadsworth, Jr.

James Wolcott Wadsworth, Jr. (August 12, 1877 – June 21, 1952) was a U.S. Republican politician from New York. He was the son of New York State Comptroller James Wolcott Wadsworth, Sr., and the grandson of Union General James Samuel Wadsworth, Sr.

Biography

Wadsworth attended St. Mark's School, then graduated from Yale in New Haven, Connecticut in 1898, where he was a member of Skull and Bones. He served as a private in the Volunteer Army in the Puerto Rican Campaign during the Spanish-American War. Upon leaving the Army, he entered the livestock and farming business, first in New York and then Texas.

He became active early in Republican politics. He was a member of the New York State Assembly (Livingston Co.) in 1905, 1906, 1907, 1908, 1909 and 1910; and was Speaker from 1906 to 1910.

In 1911, while Wadsworth was on a European tour, he met his aunt, Cornelia Wadsworth Ritchie Adair (1837–1921), the widow of Irish businessman John George Adair. She maintained residences at Glenveagh Castle in Ireland and at the JA Ranch in the Texas Panhandle, which her husband had financed. Mrs. Adair invited Wadsworth to become general manager of the JA, located southeast of Amarillo. The ranch was begun by her second husband, John "Jack" Adair (hence the initials "JA"), and his partner, the legendary Texas cattleman Charles Goodnight. Wadsworth accepted his aunt's offer and ran the ranch until 1915, when he took his U.S. Senate seat. He once joked that he "had no change of clothes for twelve days and fully expected the Board of Health to be after me." Wadsworth was succeeded as JA manager by Timothy Dwight Hobart.