Methodist clergyman, educator, b. Brattleboro, Vt. He joined the Methodist Episcopal Church in western New York in 1830, and in 1834 was licensed to preach. He studied for two years at Genesee Wesleyan Seminary, Lima, N.Y., and in 1838 was admitted to the itinerancy. Sampson served various posts in Michigan and Indiana, and in 1842 was transferred to Wisconsin, with headquarters successively at Milwaukee, Kenosha, and Fond du Lac. In 1846, as presiding elder at the Green Bay mission district, Sampson received an offer from Amos A. Lawrence of Boston through his agent, Reeder Smith (q.v.), to donate $10,000 to establish a Methodist college in Wisconsin if the state Methodists would raise an equal sum. Largely through the efforts of Sampson, Reeder Smith, and Henry R. Colman (q.v.), the money was secured. Appleton was chosen as the site for the new college, and in Nov., 1849, instruction was begun at Lawrence College. As principal of the preparatory department (1849-1853), Sampson was educational head of the new institution. He continued to teach at Lawrence until 1858, and was also active in Appleton church affairs, preaching the town's first sermon (1848), and organizing its first church. In 1861 he returned to full-time preaching and served various pastorates in Wisconsin until his retirement in 1882. He spent the last years of his life in retirement in Tacoma, Wash. M. M. Quaife, Wis. (4 vols., Chicago, 1924); Wis. Mag. Hist., 6, 7, 8; P. S. Bennett and J. Lawson, Hist. of Methodism in Wis. (Cincinnati, 1890); J. W. Stearns, ed., Columbian Hist. of Educ. in Wis. ([Milwaukee] 1893).

The Wisconsin Historical Society has manuscripts related to this topic. See the catalog description of the Biographical Sketch of William Harkness Sampson for details.

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[Source: Dictionary of Wisconsin biography]