Charles UPSON, Congress, MI (1821-1885)

UPSON, Charles, a Representative from Michigan; born in Southington, Conn., March 19, 1821; attended the district and select schools of Southington; taught school in Farmington, Conn., 1840-1842; studied law at the Yale Law School in 1844; removed to Constantine, St. Joseph County, Mich., in 1845; taught school in 1846 and 1847; deputy county clerk of St. Joseph County in 1847; admitted to the bar in 1847 and commenced practice in Kalamazoo, Mich.; county clerk in 1848 and 1849; prosecuting attorney 1852-1854; member of the State senate in 1855 and 1856; moved to Coldwater, Mich., in 1856 and continued the practice of law; member of the State board of railroad commissioners in 1857; attorney general of Michigan in 1861 and 1862; elected as a Republican to the Thirty-eighth, Thirty-ninth, and Fortieth Congresses (March 4, 1863-March 3, 1869); chairman, Committee on Expenditures in the Department of the Navy (Fortieth Congress); was not a candidate for renomination in 1868; judge of the fifteenth circuit court from 1869 until his resignation December 31, 1872; member of the commission to revise the State constitution in 1873; declined appointment as Commissioner of Indian Affairs in 1876; mayor of the city of Coldwater in 1877; again a member of the State senate in 1880; resumed the practice of his profession; died in Coldwater, Mich., September 5, 1885; interment in Oak Grove Cemetery.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present