Oliver Phelps (politician)

Oliver Phelps (born October 21, 1749 in Poquonock , Hartford County , Colony of Connecticut , †  February 21, 1809 in Canandaigua , New York ) was an American politician . Between 1803 and 1805 he represented New York State in the US House of Representatives .

Career

Oliver Phelps grew up during the British colonial era. He attended preparatory school and then worked in Granville ( Massachusetts ) in trade. In the 1770s he joined the revolutionary movement. During the War of Independence he was employed as a Deputy Commissary in the food supply of the Continental Army . After the war, he settled in Massachusetts. Between 1778 and 1780, in addition to his military activities, he was also a member of the House of Representatives from Massachusetts . In 1779 and 1780 he took part as a delegate to the local constitutional convention. In 1785 he was a member of the Massachusetts Senate . A year later he was appointed to the governor's staff .

Phelps was also involved in the founding of the Phelps & Gorham Syndicate in 1788 . For this company he worked as a representative in the western part of New York. Since then he has lived in this state, where he was engaged in land speculation on a larger scale. In the meantime he got into big financial problems with these ventures. As a result, he had to sell a large part of his own property that he had acquired in the meantime. Between 1789 and 1793 he was First Judge in Ontario County . In 1802 he moved to Canandaigua. Politically, he joined the Democratic Republican Party founded by Thomas Jefferson .

In the congressional election of 1802 Phelps was elected to the US House of Representatives in Washington, DC , in the then newly established 17th  electoral district of New York , where he took up his new mandate on March 4, 1803. Until March 3, 1805, he was able to complete a legislative period in Congress . During his tenure as Congressman in 1803 , the Louisiana Purchase made by President Jefferson, the United States was significantly expanded. In 1804 the twelfth amendment was ratified. In the same year, Oliver Phelps applied unsuccessfully for the office of lieutenant governor of New York. He died on February 21, 1809 in Canandaigua, where he was also buried.

Web links

• Oliver Phelps in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)