Elisha WHITTLESEY, Congress, OH (1783-1863)

WHITTLESEY, Elisha, (uncle of William Augustus Whittlesey and cousin of Frederick Whittlesey and Thomas Tucker Whittlesey), a Representative from Ohio; born in Washington, Conn., October 19, 1783; in early youth moved with his parents to Salisbury, Conn.; attended the common schools at Danbury; studied law in Danbury; was admitted to the bar of Fairfield County and practiced in Danbury and Fairfield County; also practiced in New Milford, Conn., in 1805; moved to Canfield, Mahoning County, Ohio, in 1806; practiced law and taught school; prosecuting attorney of Mahoning County; served as military and private secretary to Gen. William Henry Harrison and as brigade major in the Army of the Northwest in the War of 1812; member of the State house of representatives in 1820 and 1821; elected to the Eighteenth through Twenty-second Congresses, elected as an Anti-Masonic candidate to the Twenty-third Congress, and elected as a Whig to the Twenty-fourth and Twenty-fifth Congresses and served from March 4, 1823, to July 9, 1838, when he resigned; chairman, Committee on Claims (Twenty-first through Twenty-fifth Congresses); Sixth Auditor of the Treasury from March 18, 1841, until December 18, 1843, when he resigned and resumed the practice of law in Canfield; appointed general agent of the Washington Monument Association in 1847; appointed by President Taylor as First Comptroller of the Treasury and served from May 31, 1849, to March 26, 1857, when he was removed by President Buchanan; was reappointed by President Lincoln April 10, 1861, and served until his death in Washington, D.C., January 7, 1863; interment in the Canfield Village Cemetery, Canfield, Mahoning County, Ohio.

Bibliography

Davison, Kenneth E. “Forgotten Ohioan: Elisha Whittlesey, 1783-1863.” Ph.D. diss., Western Reserve University, 1953.

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