John Bear Doane Cogswell (1829-1889), the son of Rev. Nathaniel and Susan Doane Cogswell, was born on 6 June 1829 in Yarmouth, Mass. He married, on 19 August 1858, Mary Abbot Trumbull (1837-1864). They had one daughter: Mary Louisa Trumbull Cogswell (1861-1957), who married Edwin Melville Roberts (1880- ). John B. D. Cogswell died on 11 June 1889 at Haverhill, Mass.
John B. D. Cogswell prepared for college at Phillips Academy in Andover, Mass., graduated from Dartmouth in 1850, and received the degree of LL.B. from Harvard in 1852. He read law in the office of Emory Washburn (1800-1877) in Worcester, Mass., was admitted to the bar in 1853, and practiced law in Worcester until late 1857. He removed to Milwaukee, Wis., and practiced there until 1870. He then returned to Yarmouth and practiced there until 1880. He was a representative to the Massachusetts General Court from Worcester in 1857 and was U.S. District Attorney for Wisconsin, 1861 to 1866. He was again a representative in the Massachusetts legislature from the Yarmouth district, 1871 to 1873, and served from 1877 to 1879 as state senator from the Cape district, during which time he was president of the Senate. Cogswell retired from public life in 1880 and pursued his interest in history by writing various essays on historical subjects and preparing the Memoir of Rufus Choate.
From the description of Papers, 1839-1897. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 207125688
