Barnard, Daniel Dewey (11 September 1796–24 April 1861), lawyer, congressman, and diplomat, was born in East Hartford, Connecticut, the son of Timothy Barnard, a county judge, and Phebe Dewey. Barnard’s early years were spent on the family farm near Hartford, Connecticut. When he was twelve the family moved to Mendon, New York (near Rochester). His formal education started with a year at Lenox Academy, after which he transferred to Williams College, where he graduated in 1818....
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Barnard, Daniel Dewey (1796-1861), lawyer, congressman, and diplomat
Sherry H. Penney
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Barnard, Daniel Dewey (1796-1861)
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Daniel Barnard. Courtesy of the Library of Congress (LC-USZ62-99337).
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Beck, James Montgomery (09 July 1861–12 April 1936), lawyer, solicitor general, and congressman
James N. Giglio
Beck, James Montgomery (09 July 1861–12 April 1936), lawyer, solicitor general, and congressman, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the son of James Nathan Beck, the owner of a small music publishing company, and Margaretta C. Darling. Coming from modest financial means, Beck inherited his father’s interest in music and the family’s Moravian antiwar and communitarian heritage, which contributed to his early pacifism and anticorporation viewpoints. Following matriculation at Philadelphia’s Episcopal Academy, Beck graduated from Moravian College in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, in 1880. After reading law, he began legal practice in 1884. From 1888 to 1892, he served as assistant U.S. attorney for eastern Pennsylvania. In 1890 he married Lilla Mitchell, daughter of a Philadelphia businessman, with whom he had two children....
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Beck, James Montgomery (09 July 1861–12 April 1936)
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James M. Beck. Courtesy of the Library of Congress (LC-USZ62-94556).
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Bidlack, Benjamin Alden (1804-1849), lawyer, legislator, and diplomat
Edward L. Lach, Jr.
Bidlack, Benjamin Alden (08 September 1804–06 February 1849), lawyer, legislator, and diplomat, was born in Paris, Oneida County, New York, the son of Benjamin Bidlack, a pioneer farmer, and Lydia Alden Bidlack. After his family relocated to Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, Bidlack completed his education at local public schools and the Wilkes-Barre Academy. Intent on a career in law, he studied law in the office of Garrick Mallery, a local attorney, and was appointed deputy attorney for Luzerne County shortly after gaining admittance to the state bar. After an early marriage to Fanny Stewart ended shortly after it began (for reasons that are not known), Bidlack married Margaret Wallace on 8 September 1829. The couple had seven children....
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Blount, James Henderson (1837-1903), lawyer, congressman, and special diplomatic envoy
Robert S. La Forte
Blount, James Henderson (12 September 1837–08 March 1903), lawyer, congressman, and special diplomatic envoy, was born near the village of Clinton, Jones County, Georgia, the son of Thomas Blount and Mary Ricketts, planters. Blount, whose parents died during his childhood, was raised in the household of his older half-brother, David Blount. He attended private schools in Clinton, Georgia, and Tuscaloosa, Alabama, before graduating with honors from the University of Georgia in 1858. He read law and was admitted to the Georgia bar in 1859, and after a brief practice in Clinton, joined the firm of Anderson and Simmons in nearby Macon....
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Bradbury, Theophilus (1739-1803), lawyer, jurist, and congressman
William Pencak
Bradbury, Theophilus (13 November 1739–06 September 1803), lawyer, jurist, and congressman, was born in Newbury (now Newburyport), Massachusetts, the son of Theophilus Bradbury, a wealthy sea captain, and Ann Woodman. Graduated from Harvard College in 1757, he moved to Falmouth (now in Maine but a part of Massachusetts until 1820), where he briefly taught school. When courts were organized in Cumberland and Lincoln counties in 1761, Bradbury was the first man admitted to the bar. Bradbury’s knowledge of the law and effective, dignified courtroom manner led to his appointment as collector of the excise on liquor, tea, coffee, and china in Maine for the province. In 1762 he married Sarah Jones; they had seven children....
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Briggs, George Nixon (1796-1861), lawyer, congressman, and governor
Sylvia B. Larson
Briggs, George Nixon (12 April 1796–12 September 1861), lawyer, congressman, and governor, was born in Adams, Massachusetts, the son of blacksmith Allen Briggs, a veteran of the revolutionary war, and Nancy Brown. As with many settlers in the Berkshire area of Massachusetts, the Briggses had moved north from Rhode Island and were earnest Baptists (although Nancy Briggs had come from a Huguenot family). At age thirteen Briggs, one of twelve siblings, was apprenticed to Quaker John Allen, a hatter in White Creek, New York. He returned home in 1811 to help his father and attended grammar school for about a year. In 1813 he studied law with Ambrose Kasson (also spelled Kapen) of Adams, Massachusetts; the following year he moved to the office of Luther Washburn in Lanesboro. During his apprenticeship in White Creek, Briggs, then a Quaker, had experienced a conversion at a revival and thereby became a Baptist. While studying law in Lanesboro and helping to found a Baptist church there, he met Harriet Hall, whom he married in May 1818; they would have at least two children....
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Brown, John (1757-1837), lawyer, congressman, and U.S. senator from Kentucky
Stephen Aron
Brown, John (12 September 1757–28 August 1837), lawyer, congressman, and U.S. senator from Kentucky, was born in Staunton, Virginia, the son of John Brown, a prominent Presbyterian minister in the Shenandoah Valley, and Margaret Preston, whose brother William Preston held a number of important government posts in western Virginia. Schooled at his father’s Liberty Hall Academy, which later became Washington and Lee University, the younger John Brown continued his education at Princeton, his father’s alma mater. Brown’s tenure at Princeton was interrupted by the Revolution. When ...
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Butterworth, Benjamin (1837-1898), lawyer and congressman
Leonard Schlup
Butterworth, Benjamin (22 October 1837–16 January 1898), lawyer and congressman, was born in Hamilton, Butler County, Ohio, the son of William Butterworth, a farmer and schoolteacher, and Elizabeth Linton. After completing preparatory training at local public schools and the Lebanon Academy in Maineville, Butterworth attended Ohio University. He studied law with Durbin Ward and William M. Ramsey in Cincinnati and graduated from the Cincinnati Law School in 1861. A Quaker who fought in the Civil War with the rank of major, Butterworth in 1863 married Mary E. Seiler. They had four children. Butterworth was appointed assistant U.S. district attorney for southern Ohio in 1868, serving under Warner Bateman. Although he was appointed district attorney in 1870, he resigned the position shortly thereafter to resume his law practice with a cousin, George S. Bailey. Living in a strongly Democratic district, Butterworth in 1871 was nominated by local Republicans for the Ohio Senate, and he came within 126 votes of winning the election. Two years after this narrow defeat, he carried the same district by a majority of eighty-six votes and represented Warren and Butler counties in the state senate from 1873 to 1875....
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Calhoun, William Barron (1796-1865), lawyer, writer, and politician
Sylvia B. Larson
Calhoun, William Barron (29 December 1796–08 November 1865), lawyer, writer, and politician, was born in Boston, Massachusetts, the son of Andrew Calhoun, a merchant, and Martha Chamberlain. His father was one of the founders of Boston’s Park Street Church. Calhoun was prepared for college by Harvard graduate William Wells, then he attended Yale, graduating in 1814. While a senior at Yale, Calhoun was one of the editors of a student publication, the ...
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Carlile, John Snyder (1817-1878), lawyer and politician
Bruce Tap
Carlile, John Snyder (16 December 1817–24 October 1878), lawyer and politician, was born in Winchester, Virginia; his parents’ names are unknown. He was educated at home by his mother. His father died when Carlile was young, and at the age of fourteen Carlile worked in a country store as a clerk to help support his mother. When he was seventeen he started his own business as a merchant, but that failed, leaving Carlile in debt. He paid his debts in full, even after all legal obligations had ceased....
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Cheves, Langdon (1776-1857), lawyer, congressman, and financier
Marion A. Brown
Cheves, Langdon (17 September 1776–26 June 1857), lawyer, congressman, and financier, was born in Bull Town Fort, South Carolina, the son of Alexander Chivas (or Chivis) of Buchan, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, and Mary Langdon. It is not known when or why he changed the spelling of his last name. Alexander Chivas had migrated to America in 1762 and established himself as a frontier trader. A Loyalist supporter, he lost his livelihood during the Revolution and moved to the low country. Cheves’s mother, daughter of supporters of the colonial rebellion, died in 1779, and Langdon’s aunt, Mrs. Thomas Cheves, cared for young Langdon. He attended Andrew Weed’s school, and in 1785 his father took him to Charleston. He continued his formal schooling briefly but then pursued vigorous independent study. He apprenticed in a shipping merchant’s office, gaining experience in business and finance by keeping the firm’s accounts. He read for the law with Judge William Marshall and was admitted to the bar in 1797. Successful as a Charleston lawyer, he moved into the political arena. His first elected office was as warden of his city ward in 1802; he then served from 1802 to 1809 in the state legislature and became attorney general in 1809. He won national office in 1810 when he ran for Congress on the Republican ticket. In 1806 he married Mary Elizabeth Dulles; they had fourteen children. In addition to the law and politics, Cheves enjoyed success in designing and building houses and in farming....
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Culberson, David Browning (1830-1900), attorney and U.S. congressman
Alwyn Barr
Culberson, David Browning (29 September 1830–07 May 1900), attorney and U.S. congressman, was born in Troup County, Georgia, the son of David B. Culberson, a Baptist minister, and Lucy Wilkinson. He attended Brownwood Institute in La Grange, Georgia. After moving to Tuskegee, Alabama, he studied law with William P. Chilton, the chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court. Following his admittance to the bar in 1851, he began to practice law in Dadeville, Alabama. In 1852 he married Eugenia Kimbal. They had two children who survived and four children who died at early ages. In 1856 the Culbersons migrated west to Upshur County, Texas, where he resumed his career as an attorney....
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Dalzell, John (1845-1927), attorney and congressman
Laura Rundell
Dalzell, John (19 April 1845–02 October 1927), attorney and congressman, was born in New York City, the son of Samuel Dalzell, a Scotch-Irish immigrant and shoemaker, and Mary McDonnell. When John was two years old, his family moved to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he attended public school and the Western University of Pennsylvania (now the University of Pittsburgh). He left to attend Yale University, from which he received his B.A. in 1865. In 1867 he married Mary Louise Duff; they had five children....
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Dana, Samuel Whittelsey (1760-1830), lawyer, congressman, and U.S. senator
John R. Van Atta
Dana, Samuel Whittelsey (13 February 1760–21 July 1830), lawyer, congressman, and U.S. senator, was born in Wallingford, Connecticut, the son of James Dana, a staunchly “Old Light” Congregational minister, and Catherine Whittelsey. In 1775, at age fifteen, Samuel graduated with high honors from Yale College. Moving to the vibrant Connecticut River port of Middletown, an affluent center for the West Indies trade, Dana read law under Judge J. T. Hosmer. He joined the Connecticut bar in 1778 and connected himself to the wealthy, and decidedly Federalist, mercantile community around him. He enhanced his reputation with a brigadier generalship in the Connecticut militia. Dana served in the Connecticut Assembly from 1789 until late 1796, when voters in the Middletown district elected him to replace ...
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Doddridge, Philip (1773-1832), attorney and congressman
John R. Van Atta
Doddridge, Philip (17 May 1773–19 November 1832), attorney and congressman, was born in Bedford County, Pennsylvania, the son of John Doddridge and Mary Wells, farmers. Growing up on his family’s farm, young Philip experienced little if any formal education before being sent to Johnson’s School in Charlestown, Virginia (now Wellsburg, West Virginia). Without benefit of a college education, he studied law on his own, was admitted to the Virginia bar in 1797, and began a lucrative but physically grueling practice consisting mostly of land title litigation. Routine cases required trips on horseback over perilous roads into Ohio and western Pennsylvania. As his reputation grew, he was called more often to cross the Alleghenies and the Blue Ridge to the Virginia Court of Appeals in Richmond, a punishing journey of 300 miles. Later, Doddridge appeared from time to time before the U.S. Supreme Court. In 1800 he married Julia Parr Musser of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. They raised their six children on a comfortable 56-acre estate overlooking the Ohio River....
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Drayton, William (1776-1846), attorney and member of Congress
A. V. Huff , Jr.
Drayton, William (30 December 1776–24 May 1846), attorney and member of Congress, was born in St. Augustine, East Florida, the son of William Drayton, a chief justice of the province, and Mary Motte. In 1778 his parents went to England. His mother died there, and Drayton was left in the care of Dr. Andrew Turnbull, who raised him and whose son, ...
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Ewing, Thomas, Jr. (1829-1896), soldier, lawyer, and congressman
William E. Parrish
Ewing, Thomas, Jr. (07 August 1829–21 January 1896), soldier, lawyer, and congressman, was born in Lancaster, Ohio, the son of Thomas Ewing (1789–1871), a lawyer, and Maria Boyle. His foster brother was William T. Sherman, who had been raised by the Ewings. Ewing attended Lancaster Academy and later had a year of schooling in Brownsville, Pennsylvania, at the home of his cousin ...
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Findlay, James (1770-1835), congressman, lawyer, and merchant
Andrew Cayton
Findlay, James (12 October 1770–28 December 1835), congressman, lawyer, and merchant, was born in Mercersburg, Franklin County, Pennsylvania, the son of Samuel Findlay and Jane Smith. Little is known about Findlay’s early life, including his father’s occupation. Apparently, he grew up in comfortable circumstances and had some formal education. But when his father suffered a major financial setback, probably as the result of a fire, James and his two older brothers had to fend for themselves. Like many other young Americans in postrevolutionary America, Findlay decided to seek fame and fortune elsewhere. In 1793 he and his wife, Jane Irwin, moved to Virginia and then to Kentucky, before finally settling in Cincinnati....
