Thomas L. Hamer

Thomas L. Hamer

Thomas Lyon Hamer (born July 1800 in Northumberland County , Pennsylvania , †  December 2, 1846 in Monterrey , Mexico ) was an American politician . Between 1833 and 1839 he represented the state of Ohio in the US House of Representatives .

Career

Thomas Hamer attended the public schools in his home country. In 1817 he came to Ohio where he worked as a teacher. After studying law and being admitted to the bar in 1821, he began working in this profession in Georgetown . In the 1820s he joined the movement around the future President Andrew Jackson and became a member of the Democratic Party founded by this in 1828 . In the years 1825, 1828 and 1829 he sat as a member of the House of Representatives from Ohio , whose speaker he was in 1829 as the successor to Edward King .

In the congressional election of 1832 , Hamer was elected to the United States House of Representatives in Washington, DC in the fifth constituency of Ohio , where he succeeded William Russell on March 4, 1833 . After two re-elections, he was able to complete three legislative terms in Congress by March 3, 1839 . Until 1837 these were determined by the discussions about the politics of President Jackson. As a congressman, Thomas Hamer nominated the young Ulysses S. Grant for his admission to the United States Military Academy at West Point .

During the Mexican-American War , Hamer became a Brigadier General in the American Forces in July 1846. He took an active part in the fighting. In the fall of 1846 he was re-elected to Congress. At that time he was still in the military in Mexico, where he died unexpectedly on December 2, 1846. Therefore, he could no longer take up his mandate in the US House of Representatives. On March 2, 1847, he was posthumously awarded a sword of honor by Congress, which was given to his relatives. He was buried in Georgetown. His nephew Thomas Ray Hamer (1864–1950) became a congressman for Idaho .

Web links

• Thomas L. Hamer in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)

• Thomas L. Hamer in the database of Find a Grave (English)