Biography
Representative and a Senator from Pennsylvania; born in Tioga Township, Tioga County, Pa., July 28, 1838; attended the common schools and received private instruction; attended the University of Lewisburg (later Bucknell University), Pa., 1857-1859; taught school 1859-1861; during the Civil War served in the Union Army as a lieutenant and captain in the One Hundred and Thirty-sixth Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry; studied law; admitted to the bar in 1864 and practiced in Tioga County; district attorney of Tioga County 1868-1871; edited the Tioga County Agitator in 1870; member, State house of representatives 1872-1876; elected as a Republican to the Forty-fifth and Forty-sixth Congresses (March 4, 1877-March 3, 1881); elected to the United States Senate and served from March 4, 1881, to March 3, 1887; chairman, Committee on the Mississippi and Its Tributaries (Forty-seventh Congress), Committee on Pensions (Forty-seventh through Forty-ninth Congresses); judge of the court of common pleas of the fourth Pennsylvania district 1888-1899; judge of the superior court of Pennsylvania and served one session; died in Wellsboro, Tioga County, Pa., August 20, 1907; interment in Wellsboro Cemetery.
Courtesy of Biographical Directory of the United States Congress