Isaac Stephenson (June 18, 1829March 15, 1918) was an American politician of the Republican Party who represented Wisconsin as both a United States representative and a United States senator. He was born in the community of Yorkton, near Fredericton in the colony of New Brunswick (now in Canada, but a British colony at the time). His parents were Isaac Stephenson (1791–1874), a lumberman and farmer born in Ireland of Scotch-Irish ancestry, and Elizabeth (Watson) Stephenson (1793–1838), who was born in London. Lumberman Stephenson worked in lumbering activities in the eastern U.S. for several years, principally in Maine, close to Canada. In 1845 he moved to Wisconsin, where for a time he managed absentee timber properties, but soon entered the lumber business for himself. In 1858 he settled permanently in Marinette, where he steadily expanded his lumbering operations, especially during the Civil War. Although Stephenson suffered heavy losses in the Peshtigo Fire of 1871, he recouped. He was one of the wealthiest lumbermen in the Great Lakes area, with real-estate holdings in Marinette, Green Bay, Milwaukee, and the booming town of Chicago, and throughout the Great Lakes. He also owned vast acreages of pine lands in northern Wisconsin and Michigan which were yet to be harvested. Political career Stephenson joined the Republican Party, which was popular among his class in the northern tier of states. His wealth and economic power made him a powerful figure in local and state politics. He was elected to several offices, including town supervisor, county board chairman, and justice of the peace. Next Stephenson was elected as a member of the Wisconsin State Assembly (1866, 1868). In 1882, he was elected to the Forty-Eighth Congress, and then reelected to the Forty-Ninth and Fiftieth Congresses (serving March 4, 1883 – March 3, 1889). He represented Wisconsin's newly created 9th congressional district. He was not a candidate for re-election in 1888. In 1899 he was unsuccessful in his bid to win election through the state legislature as a United States senator from Wisconsin (as was the process at the time). Early Progressive leader In 1900 he threw his support and substantial financial backing behind Robert M. La Follette, Sr., in his successful campaign for the Wisconsin governorship, and for a number of years was a prominent adviser to the Progressive faction of the Republican party, and a liberal contributor to its campaign funds. In the 1904 progressive-stalwart split,