1837

Events from the year **1837 in the United States**.

## Incumbents

### Federal Government

* President: Andrew Jackson (D-TN) (until March 4), Martin Van Buren (D-NY) (starting March 4)
* Vice President: Martin Van Buren (D-NY) (until March 4), Richard Mentor Johnson (D-KY) (starting March 4)
* Chief Justice: Roger B. Taney (MD)
* Speaker of the House of Representatives: James K. Polk (D-TN)
* Congress: 24th (until March 4), 25th (starting March 4)

Governors
* Governor of Alabama:
	+ until July 17: Clement Comer Clay (Democratic)
	+ July 17-November 30: Hugh McVay (Democratic)
	+ starting November 30: Arthur P. Bagby (Democratic)
* Governor of Arkansas: James Sevier Conway (Democratic)
* Governor of Connecticut: Henry W. Edwards (Democratic)
* Governor of Delaware: Charles Polk Jr. (Whig) (until January 17), Cornelius P. Comegys (Whig) (starting January 17)
* Governor of Georgia: William Schley (Democratic) (until November 8), George R. Gilmer (Whig) (starting November 8)
* Governor of Illinois: Joseph Duncan (Whig)
* Governor of Indiana: Noah Noble (Whig) (until December 6), David Wallace (Whig) (starting December 6)
* Governor of Kentucky: James Clark (Whig)
* Governor of Louisiana: Edward Douglass White Sr. (Whig)
* Governor of Maine: Robert P. Dunlap (Democratic)
* Governor of Maryland: Thomas W. Veazey (Whig)
* Governor of Massachusetts: Edward Everett (Whig)
* Governor of Michigan: Stevens T. Mason (Democratic) (starting January 26)
* Governor of Mississippi: Charles Lynch (Democratic)
* Governor of Missouri: Lilburn W. Boggs (Democratic)
* Governor of New Hampshire: Isaac Hill (Democratic)
* Governor of New Jersey: Philemon Dickerson (Democratic) (until October 27), William Pennington (Whig) (starting October 27)
* Governor of New York: William L. Marcy (Democratic)
* Governor of North Carolina: Edward Bishop Dudley (Whig)
* Governor of Ohio: Joseph Vance (Whig)
* Governor of Pennsylvania: Joseph Ritner (Anti-Masonic)
* Governor of Rhode Island: John Brown Francis (Democratic)
* Governor of South Carolina: Pierce Mason Butler (Democratic)
* Governor of Tennessee: Newton Cannon (Whig)
* Governor of Vermont: Silas H. Jennison (Whig)
* Governor of Virginia: Wyndham Robertson (Whig) (until March 31), David Campbell (Democratic) (starting March 31)

Lieutenant Governors
* Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut: Ebenezer Stoddard (Democratic-Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Illinois: William H. Davidson (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Indiana: David Wallace (Whig) (until December 6), David Hillis (Whig) (starting December 6)
* Lieutenant Governor of Kentucky: Charles A. Wickliffe (Democratic-Republican) (starting August 31)
* Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts: George Hull (Whig)
* Lieutenant Governor of Mississippi: vacant
* Lieutenant Governor of Missouri: Franklin Cannon (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of New York: John Tracy (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Rhode Island: Jeffrey Hazard (political party unknown) (until month and day unknown), Benjamin Babock Thurston (political party unknown) (starting month and day unknown)
* Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina: William DuBose (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Vermont: David M. Camp (Whig)

## Events

* January 6 – DePauw University founded in Greencastle, Indiana.
* January 26 – Michigan admitted becomes the 26th U.S. state.
* February 4 – Seminoles attack Fort Foster.
* February 8 – Richard Mentor Johnson becomes the only Vice President of the United States chosen by the United States Senate.
* February 15 – Knox College founded in Galesburg, Illinois.
* February 16 - Lake County was organized by the Indiana General Assembly.
* February 25
	+ In Philadelphia, The Institute for Colored Youth (ICY) is founded as the first institution for the higher education of coloreds.
	+ Thomas Davenport obtains the first United States patent on an electric motor.
* March 1 – Victor Séjour's short story "Le Mulâtre", the earliest known work of African American fiction, is published in the French abolitionist journal *Revue des Colonies*.
* March 4
	+ Martin Van Buren is sworn in as the 8th President of the United States, and Richard Mentor Johnson is sworn in as Vice President of the United States.
	+ Chicago is granted a city charter by Illinois.
* May 10 – Panic of 1837: New York City banks fail, and unemployment reaches record levels.
* May 17 – The Little, Brown and Company publishing house opens its doors in Boston.
* June 5 – Houston, Texas, is granted a city charter.
* June 11 – The Broad Street Riot occurs in Boston, Massachusetts, fueled by ethnic tensions between the Irish and the Yankees.
* July 1 – Charles W. King sets sail on the American merchant ship *Morrison*. In the Morrison incident, he is turned away from Japanese ports with cannon fire.
* July 31 – Groundbreaking ceremony for St. Charles College, the first Jesuit college established in the South.
* October 1 – First publication of *The United States Magazine and Democratic Review*.
* October 21 – General Thomas Jesup captures Seminole leader Osceola under pretext of negotiations.
* November 7 – In Alton, Illinois, abolitionist printer Elijah P. Lovejoy is shot and killed by a pro-slavery mob while he attempts to protect his printing shop from being destroyed a fourth time.
* November 8 – Mary Lyon founds *Mount Holyoke Female Seminary*, which will later become Mount Holyoke College.
* December 1 – John Deere begins his agricultural implement manufacturing business, John Deere, in Grand Detour, Illinois.

## Memoriam

* June 29 – Nathaniel Macon, politician (aged 79; Warrenton, NC, USA)
* August 17 – John Floyd, 25th Governor of Virginia (aged 54; Sweet Springs, VA (Now WV), USA)
* September 28 – David Barton, U.S. Senator from Missouri from 1821 to 1831 (aged 53; Boonville, MO, USA)
* October 1 – Robert Clark, politician (aged 60; Monroe, MI, USA)
* October 9 – Oliver H. Prince, U.S. Senator from Georgia from 1828 to 1829 (aged 50; Ocracoke Inlet, NC, USA)
* November 7 – Elijah P. Lovejoy, abolitionist (aged 34; Alton, IL, USA)
* November 11 – Thomas Green Fessenden, poet (aged 66; Boston, MA, USA)