Biography
			Representative from Massachusetts;  born in Blandford, Hampden County, Mass., December 25, 1804;  moved to Northampton with his parents in 1807;  attended the local schools; was graduated from Yale College in 1823;  studied law;  was admitted to the bar and commenced practice in Springfield in 1828;  member of the State house of representatives in 1833, 1835, 1836, 1838, and 1841, serving as speaker in 1841;  member of the State senate in 1838 and 1839;  elected as a Whig to the Twenty-ninth, Thirtieth, and Thirty-first Congresses (March 4, 1845-March 3, 1851); was not a candidate for renomination in 1850;  resumed the practice of law in Springfield;  chairman of the Republican National Convention at Chicago in 1860;  director of the Union Pacific Railroad Co.; delegate to the Union National Convention at Philadelphia in 1866;  died in Springfield, Hampden County, Mass., July 16, 1870;  interment in Springfield Cemetery.
			
Courtesy of Biographical Directory of the United States Congress