Columbia Lancaster

Columbia Lancaster

Columbia Lancaster (born August 26, 1803 in New Milford , Connecticut , †  September 15, 1893 in Vancouver , Washington ) was an American politician . Between 1853 and 1855 he represented the Washington Territory as a delegate in the US House of Representatives .

Career

In 1817, Columbia Lancaster moved with his parents to Canfield , Ohio , where he attended public schools. In 1824 he moved to Detroit , Michigan . After studying law and being admitted to the bar in 1830, he began to work in his new profession in Centerville . The territorial governor Lewis Cass , who was in office until 1831, appointed him prosecutor in this territory. He also became a member of the Territorial House of Representatives.

In 1847 Lancaster moved to the Willamette Valley in the Oregon Territory , which at that time also included the areas of the later state of Washington. In his new home he was appointed Provisional Chief Justice between 1847 and 1849 by Governor George Abernathy . He then moved to the area at the mouth of the Lewis River in what is now Washington State.

Lancaster was a member of the Democratic Party . In 1848 he ran unsuccessfully as a congressional delegate for the Oregon Territory. Between 1850 and 1852 he was a member of the government council of this area. After the establishment of the Washington Territory in 1853, Lancaster was elected as its first delegate to Congress in Washington, DC . There he took up his new mandate on April 12, 1854. Like all delegates, he had no official voting rights there. By March 3, 1855, he ended the current legislative period in the US House of Representatives. For the congressional elections of 1854 Lancaster was no longer nominated by his party.

After serving in the US House of Representatives, Lancaster returned to the Washington Territory. In 1862 he became a board member of the University of Washington at Seattle . At that time he was also involved in the Puget Sound & Columbia River Railroad rail project. Columbia Lancaster died in September 1893 in Vancouver, Washington State, founded in 1889.

Web links

• Columbia Lancaster in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)

• Columbia Lancaster in the database of Find a Grave (English)