John Witcher

John Witcher

John Seashoal Witcher (born July 15, 1839 in Cabell County , Virginia , †  July 8, 1906 in Salt Lake City , Utah ) was an American politician . Between 1869 and 1871 he represented the third electoral district of the state of West Virginia in the US House of Representatives .

Career

John Witcher was born in 1839 in Cabell County, which was then part of Virginia and later became part of the state of West Virginia, which was founded in 1863. He attended the public schools in his home country. In 1861 he was employed as an administrative clerk at the district court. During the civil war , Witcher rose from lieutenant to lieutenant colonel in the Union Army between 1861 and 1865. On June 30, 1865, he was honorably discharged from military service.

Witcher became a member of the Republican Party . In 1865 he was elected to the West Virginia House of Representatives; between 1866 and 1869 he was Secretary of State, acting official of the state government. In 1868 he was elected to the US House of Representatives in Washington, DC in the third district of West Virginia , where he succeeded Daniel Polsley on March 4, 1869 . But since he was defeated by the Democrat Frank Hereford in the following elections in 1870 , he was only able to complete one legislative period in Congress until March 3, 1871 .

After his time in Congress, Witcher was appointed by US President Ulysses S. Grant to head the Federal Treasury in the third tax district of West Virginia; he held this office between April 1, 1871 and October 1, 1876. From 1878 to 1880 he was a pension agent of the federal government in Washington. He then served with the rank of major between 1880 and 1899 as paymaster in the US Army . John Witcher spent his old age in Salt Lake City, where he died in July 1906.

Web links

• John Witcher in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)

• John Witcher in the database of Find a Grave (English)