James B. McKean

James Bedell McKean (born August 5, 1821 in Bennington , Vermont , † January 5, 1879 in Salt Lake City , Utah ) was an American officer , lawyer and politician . Between 1859 and 1863 he represented New York State in the US House of Representatives . The US Senator Samuel McKean was his uncle.

Career

James Bedell McKean was born in Bennington, Bennington County , about six and a half years after the end of the British-American War . The family moved to New York. McKean had an academic career. He taught several times in county schools and was for some time a professor at Jonesville Academy . In 1842 he was Superintendent of the Common Schools in Halfmoon . McKean was named colonel in the 144th  regiment of the New York National Guard in 1844 . He studied law . He was admitted to the bar in 1849 and then began practicing at Ballston Spa , Saratoga County . He moved to Saratoga Springs in 1851 . Between 1854 and 1858 he was a district judge in Saratoga County. Politically, he belonged to the Republican Party .

In the congressional election of 1858 for the 36th Congress , McKean was elected to the United States House of Representatives in Washington, DC , in the 15th constituency of New York , where he succeeded Edward Dodd on March 4, 1859 . After a successful re-election in 1860 , he left the Congress on March 3, 1863 . As a Congressman, he chaired the Committee on Expenditures in the Department of State during his two terms .

During the Civil War he set up the 77th regiment of the New York Volunteers in 1861 and served there as a colonel until his officer license was returned on July 27, 1863. He was appointed Treaty Commissioner in Honduras in 1865 . President Ulysses S. Grant appointed him Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Utah Territory in 1870 - a position he held until 1875. He died on January 5, 1879 in Salt Lake City. His body was then interred in Mount Olivet Cemetery .

literature

• Franklin Benjamin Hough, "The New York civil list," Weed, Parsons and Co., 1858, p. 364.

Web links

• James B. McKean in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)

• James B. McKean in the database of Find a Grave (English)
• Biography of James B. McKean , The Boston History Company, publishers 1899