John T. Wait

John T. Wait

John Turner Wait (born August 27, 1811 in New London , Connecticut , †  April 21, 1899 in Norwich , Connecticut) was an American politician . Between 1876 and 1887 he represented the third constituency of the state of Connecticut in the US House of Representatives .

Career

John Wait moved to Norwich with his mother in his youth. There he attended public schools and then Trinity College in Hartford for two years . Then he worked in trade. After studying law and being admitted to the bar in 1836, he began to work in this profession in Norwich. Between 1842 and 1844 and again from 1846 to 1854 Wait was a District Attorney in New London County .

Wait was a member of the Republican Party, founded in 1854 . Between 1854 and 1857 he ran for the office of lieutenant governor of Connecticut four times without success . Between 1865 and 1866 he was a member of the State Senate and in 1866 its acting president. Wait was also elected to the Connecticut House of Representatives in 1867, 1871, and 1873 , and served as its President in 1867.

After the death of Congressman Henry H. Starkweather in 1876, John Wait was elected to the United States House of Representatives in Washington, DC as his successor in the Third District of Connecticut . He took up this mandate on April 12, 1876. After five re-elections, he could remain in Congress until March 3, 1887 . There he saw the end of the reconstruction . In 1886 he turned down another candidacy.

After his time in the US House of Representatives, John Wait returned to work as a lawyer. He died in April 1899 in his hometown of Norwich.

Web links

• John T. Wait in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)

• John T. Wait in the database of Find a Grave (English)
• John T. Wait at The Political Graveyard