Born in Oxford County on November 29, 1817, William Tripp was educated in the common schools and at the Maine Wesleyan Seminary at Kents Hill.
Starting his professional life as a teacher, he turned to the practice of law and was admitted to the bar at the age of twenty-one.
County Attorney for Oxford from 1850 to 1854, he became a prominent lawyer in Wilton before embarking on a political career.
In 1841 he was a member of the Maine House of Representatives and a member of the Maine Senate in 1848 and 1849, serving for the latter year as that body’s presiding officer.
In 1852, Tripp left the State of Maine and moved to Dubuque, Iowa where he opened a law practice.
In 1857 he moved to Sioux City where he continued to practice law until the outbreak of the Civil War when he organized Company B of the Dakota Volunteers, serving with that organization under General Sully in protecting the frontier against Indian attacks.
He was appointed Surveyor General of Dakota under President Andrew Johnson, holding that post until the election of General Grant.
Opening his law practice again in the city of Yankton he was City Attorney when he died. His Dakota Herald obituary refers to him as General Tripp and mentions that he was buried from his law office in accordance with his request.
He died on March 29, 1878 at the age of sixty-one.