Silas Wood

Silas Wood

Silas Wood (born September 14, 1769 in West Hills , New York Province, † March 2, 1847 in Huntington , New York ) was an American professor, lawyer , politician and writer. Between 1819 and 1829 he represented New York State in the US House of Representatives .

Career

Silas Wood was born and raised in West Hills, near Huntington , about six years before the Revolutionary War broke out. He enjoyed a good education. He graduated from Princeton College in 1789 and worked there as a professor for five years. He studied law . After receiving his license to practice law, he began practicing in Huntington, where he later served as a prosecutor for a period. He was also a member of the New York State Assembly between 1796 and 1798 and 1800 . Then he moved to Johnstown , where he did real estate business. He later returned to Huntington where he served as a district attorney ( district attorney ) for Suffolk County between 1818 and 1821 . Politically, he belonged to the Democratic Republican Party founded by Thomas Jefferson .

In the congressional elections of 1818 Wood was elected to the US House of Representatives in Washington, DC in the first constituency of New York , where he succeeded Tredwell Scudder and George Townsend on March 4, 1819 , who previously together were the first district in the US - House of Representatives represented. He was re-elected four times in a row. Since he suffered a defeat in his sixth candidacy in 1828, he left the Congress after March 3, 1829 . As a result of a fragmentation of his party before and during the presidency of John Quincy Adams (1825-1829), his political affiliation changed. He was a member of the Adams-Clay Federalists in the 1822 congressional election, the anti-Jacksonian faction in the 1824 congressional election and the Adams faction in the 1826 congressional election . During his time in the US House of Representatives he was 1821-1825 Chairman of the Committee on the issues of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs ( Committee on Expenditures in the Department of State ). After the end of his last tenure, he resumed his practice as a lawyer. He died in Huntington on March 2, 1847, and was then buried in the Old Public Cemetery on Main Street .

Works

• A Sketch of the First Settlement of the Several Towns of Long Island
• A Sketch of the Geography of the Town of Huntington

Honors

The Silas Wood School in Huntington was named in his honor.

Web links

• Silas Wood in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)

• Silas Wood in the database of Find a Grave (English)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Weed, Parsons & Co .: The New York Civil List , 1858, p. 317.