US Congressman. He was born in Ithaca, New York, to Chester Walbridge and his wife Mary Walbridge. He later moved to the state of Ohio with his parents while still a child and settled in the Toledo, Ohio, area in 1836. He attended the local public schools there and eventually went on to study at the University of Ohio in Athens, Ohio. He studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1842, and set up his practice in Toledo, Ohio. Appointed as a Brigadier General in the United States Militia in 1843, he then moved to New York City and then to Buffalo, New York, where he became involved in the mercantile business. While living in Buffalo, New York, he entered politics and served as a Member on the Board of Aldermen. He then moved back to New York City and continued his interests in the mercantile business in 1847. He then ran for a seat in the United States Congress and won. A Democrat, he then served New York's 3rd District (representing the 33rd Congress) in the United States House of Representatives from 1853 to 1855. He declined to be a candidate for renomination in 1854. After his term in the United States Congress ended, he again returned to New York City to resume his mercantile business. In 1857, he married Jane Maria Hayes. In 1862, he was an unsuccessful Union Candidate for election to the 38th Congress. From 1861 to 1865, during the American Civil War, he supported and helped then-President Abraham Lincoln with the organizing of recruitment drives and supplies. He also served as President of the International Commercial Convention, which was held in Detroit, Michigan, on July 11, 1865, and was elected as a Delegate to the Southern Loyalist Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1866. He passed away following a brief illness at the Astor Hotel in New York, New York, at the age of 49. His funeral was attended by the likes of President Ulysses S. Grant and General William Tecumseh Sherman, as well as many members of the United States Congress, and other prominent men and women. He was buried in the Glenwood Cemetery in Washington, D.C. His wife Jane Maria passed away in 1874 and she was buried beside him. He was related to the famous Walbridge political family that included Henry Sanford Walbridge, Ebenezer William Walbridge, John Jay Walbridge, David Safford Walbridge, John Hill Walbridge, Henry E. Walbridge, Cyrus Packard Walbridge, and Clair Hiram Walbridge.