Artist: Robert Wadsworth Grafton (1876–1936)
William Freeman Vilas
VILAS, WILLIAM FREEMAN (1840–1908), inducted by 1920
William Freeman Vilas was born in Vermont but moved to Madison, Wisconsin, as a boy. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin in 1858 and Albany (New York) Law School in 1860, enlisting in the Union Army during the Civil War. Lt. Col. Vilas led the 23d Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry in the Vicksburg campaign, and a bronze statue of him is featured in Vicksburg National Military Park (MS). Following the war, he was a professor of law at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and years later, also served as a regent of the university. He helped institute the first winter course in agriculture for farmers’ sons there and lobbied for agriculture legislation. A longtime member of the Democratic National Committee, he was chairman of the 1884 national convention and worked on the party platform.
Although he was elected to the Wisconsin legislature in 1885, the newly elected President Grover Cleveland appointed Vilas to the position of United States Postmaster General. He served from 1885 to 1888 and then served as Secretary of the Interior from 1888 to 1889. After leaving the Cabinet, William F. Vilas was elected to the United States Senate, 1891 to 1897. In his final years, Senator Vilas practiced law and was involved in projects to build the United States Congressional Library, the Wisconsin State Historical Library, and a new statehouse for Wisconsin. His portrait was hung at the University of Wisconsin Hall of Fame in 1913, but the date of the original Saddle & Sirloin painting is currently unknown.
Source: Saddle & Sirloin Guidebook 2026, p. 194