Fernando WOOD, Congress, NY (1812-1881)

WOOD, Fernando, (brother of Benjamin Wood), a Representative from New York; born in Philadelphia, Pa., June 14, 1812; attended the public schools; moved with his father to New York City in 1820; was engaged in business as a shipping merchant in 1831; elected as a Democrat to the Twenty-seventh Congress (March 4, 1841-March 3, 1843); unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1842 to the Twenty-eighth Congress; appointed by Secretary of State John C. Calhoun dispatch agent for the State Department at the port of New York; reappointed to the position by Secretary of State James Buchanan and served from 1844 to 1847; unsuccessful candidate for mayor of New York in 1850 and in 1867; retired as a shipping merchant in 1850; mayor of New York City in 1855-1858, 1861, and 1862; elected as a Democrat to the Thirty-eighth Congress (March 4, 1863-March 3, 1865); unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1864 to the Thirty-ninth Congress; elected to the Fortieth and to the seven succeeding Congresses and served from March 4, 1867, until his death at Hot Springs, Ark., February 14, 1881, before the beginning of the Forty-seventh Congress, to which he had been reelected; chairman, Committee on Ways and Means (Forty-fifth and Forty-sixth Congresses); censured by the Fortieth Congress on January 15, 1868, for use of unparliamentary language; interment in Trinity Cemetery, New York City.

Bibliography

Mushkat, Jerome. Fernando Wood: A Political Biography. Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press, 1990.

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