View source for Diedrich Willers Jr.

{{short description|American politician}}

[[Image:Diedrich Willers.jpeg|right|300px]]

'''Diedrich Willers Jr.''' (November 3, 1833 – June 25, 1908) was a [[United States Democratic Party|Democratic]] politician from [[Varick, New York|Varick]], [[New York (state)|New York]] who served as [[Secretary of State of New York]]. Born to a working class German immigrant family, his political fortune was a notable example of the effect of civil service reform.<ref name=sketches />

==Early life==

Born in rural [[Varick, New York]], he was the sixth of eight children of Reverend Diedrich Willers [[D.D.]] (1798–1883), an immigrant from [[Bremen, Germany]].  His father fought in the [[Hanoverian Army]] at the [[Battle of Waterloo]] in 1815, immigrated to [[Baltimore, Maryland]] in 1819, and began preaching to various [[Seneca County, New York]] congregations in 1821,<ref name=sketches>{{cite book|title=Life Sketches of Government Officers and Members of the Legislature of the State of New York for 1875|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OYoDAAAAYAAJ|last=Boone|first=H.H|author2=Theodore Pease Cook|publisher=J. Munsell|year=1875}}</ref> and was also notable as a critic of [[Mormonism]].<ref>{{cite journal|publisher=New York History|last=Quinn|first=D. Michael, trans. and ed|url=http://www.boap.org/LDS/Early-Saints/DWillers.html|volume=54|issue=July 1973|pages=317–33|access-date=2008-04-05|title=The First Months of Mormonism: A Contemporary View by Rev. Diedrich Willers|archive-date=2008-12-07|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081207010121/http://www.boap.org/LDS/Early-Saints/DWillers.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>  His mother was born in [[New Holland, Pennsylvania]] of [[Pennsylvania Dutch]] stock.<ref name=sketches />

Willers' early life was one of toil; he divided his time between working on the family farm in the summers and attending district school in the winter.  With the exception of two terms at the Seneca Falls Academy, he had no schooling other than district school.<ref name=sketches />  He began teaching at the district school at age 16, and at age 22 entered the printing business, but was forced to abandon that pursuit due to ill health.<ref name=sketches />

==Political career==
He was destined by his father for the ministry, but took an early interest in politics.  Having managed to obtain at intervals a law degree from [[Albany Law School]], he was admitted to the bar, but never actively practiced as an attorney.<ref name=sketches />  By the age of 21, Willers was a Hard-Shell [[United States Democratic Party|Democrat]], supporting the election of [[Greene C. Bronson]] for governor in 1854.<ref name=sketches />  He was appointed to a clerkship in [[New York Secretary of State]] [[Gideon J. Tucker]]'s office in 1857, and held this position during the succeeding terms of [[David R. Floyd-Jones]] and [[Horatio Ballard]] until 1863, when Governor [[Horatio Seymour]] appointed him as his personal secretary.<ref name=sketches />

He later returned to farming in Varick, where he was chairman of the board of supervisors in 1865 and 1866.  In March 1867, Willers was appointed by President [[Andrew Johnson]] as Second Auditor of the Treasury, for which he went to [[Washington, D.C.]], but he returned to [[New York (state)|New York]] upon the success of the Democrats in the 1867 state elections, resulting in his appointment as Deputy Secretary of State.<ref name=sketches />  He was the Democratic candidate for Secretary of State in [[New York state election, 1871|1871]] despite the objections of nearly all of the older or managing party politicians, but lost the election in a down year for the Democrats.  He was again nominated in [[New York state election, 1873|1873]], and this time won,<ref name=sketches /> serving from 1874 to 1875. He was a member of the [[New York State Assembly]] (Seneca Co.) in [[101st New York State Legislature|1878]].<ref>[http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/NYMONROE/2001-04/0986323596 Notice transcribed from ''Rochester Democrat & Chronicle''], [[Rochester, Monroe County, New York]] ed. of July 7, 1903</ref>

He was Deputy Secretary of State under [[Frederick Cook (American politician)|Frederick Cook]], retiring at the end of 1889,<ref>[https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1889/11/29/106214583.pdf in NYT on November 29, 1889]</ref> and there was talk of nominating Willers for Secretary of State again, but he declined due to declining health.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1889/09/18/archives/mr-willers-not-a-candidate.html?sq=%22diedrich+willers%22&scp=2&st=p|title=Mr. Willers Not a Candidate|work=[[The New York Times]]|date=September 18, 1889}}</ref>

He died in [[Varick, New York]] on June 25, 1908.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1908/06/26/archives/diedrich-willers-dead.html?sq=%22diedrich+willers%22&scp=1&st=p|title=Diedrich Willers Dead|work=The New York Times|date=June 26, 1908}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*[http://rmc.library.cornell.edu/EAD/htmldocs/RMM00652.html Guide to the Willers Family Papers, 1820-1908]

{{s-start}}
{{s-off}}
{{succession box | before= [[G. Hilton Scribner]] | title = [[New York Secretary of State]] | years = 1874–1875 | after = [[John Bigelow]]}}
{{s-par|us-ny-hs}}
{{succession box | before = Albert L. Childs | title = [[New York State Assembly]] <br>Seneca County | years = 1878 | after = [[David H. Evans]]}}
{{s-end}}

{{New York Secretary of State}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Willers, Diedrich Jr.}}
[[Category:1833 births]]
[[Category:1908 deaths]]
[[Category:Secretaries of state of New York (state)]]
[[Category:People from Seneca County, New York]]
[[Category:Members of the New York State Assembly]]
[[Category:19th-century members of the New York State Legislature]]