Born in New York City to an established family, Van Winkle completed preparatory studies, studied law, and was admitted to the bar. He married Juliet Rathbone, the eldest daughter of William Palmer Rathbone and his wife Martha Ming Valleau Rathbone, an influential family in western Virginia who were developing the oil field at Burning Springs. Four years later, the Van Winkles had moved to Parkersburg, Virginia. They had three children who survived to adulthood before Julia Van Winkle's death: Rathbone Van Winkle, Godwin Van Winkle, and Mary Van Winkle Blackford.
Career
After further studies locally with lawyer and General John Jay Jackson Sr., Van Winkle began his legal practice in Parkersburg in 1835. He was president of the townboard of trustees from 1844 until 1850. In 1850, Wood County voters also elected Van Winkle to represent at the Virginia Stateconstitutional convention in 1850. He was treasurer and later president of the Northwestern Virginia Railroad Co. beginning in 1852 through the American Civil War as discussed below. After Virginia seceded from the Union, much to the distress of many in its northwestern corner, Wood County voters elected Van Winkle to the second Wheeling Convention in 1861. He helped organize the Restored Government of Virginia and also served in 1862 as an influential delegate to the convention which framed the constitution of West Virginia. He was also elected to the first session of the West Virginia House of Delegates in 1863. When West Virginia was admitted as a State into the Union, voters elected Van Winkle as a Unionist to the U.S. Senate, where he served from August 4, 1863, to March 3, 1869. While in the Senate, Van Winkle was chairman of the Committee on Pensions. During President Andrew Johnson's impeachment trial, Van Winkle broke party ranks, along with nine other Republican senators and voted for acquittal. These 10 Republican senators were disturbed by how the proceedings had been manipulated in order to give a one-sided presentation of the evidence. Senators James Dixon, James Rood Doolittle, William Pitt Fessenden, Joseph S. Fowler, James W. Grimes, John B. Henderson, Lyman Trumbull, Peter G. Van Winkle, Daniel S. Norton, and Edmund G. Ross of Kansas, who provided the decisive vote, defied their party and public opinion and voted against impeachment. After the trial, Congressman Benjamin Butler conducted hearings concerning widespread reports that Republican senators had been bribed to vote for Johnson's acquittal. In Butler's hearings, and subsequent inquiries, some evidence indicated that some acquittal votes were acquired by promises of patronage jobs and cash. West Virginia GovernorArthur Boreman was elected to succeed Van Winkle. Van Winkle also served as a delegate to the Southern Loyalist Convention at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1866.
