George Maxwell ROBESON, Congress, NJ (1829-1897)

ROBESON, George Maxwell, (nephew of George Clifford Maxwell), a Representative from New Jersey; born at Oxford Furnace, near Belvidere, Warren County, N.J., March 16, 1829; pursued an academic course and was graduated from Princeton College in 1847; studied law; was admitted to the bar in 1850 and practiced in Newark and subsequently in Camden; appointed prosecuting attorney for Camden County in 1858; was active in organizing the State troops for service in the Civil War and was commissioned brigadier general by Governor Parker; elected attorney general of New Jersey in 1867 and served until his resignation June 22, 1869; appointed Secretary of the Navy in the Cabinet of President Grant and served from June 25, 1869, to March 12, 1877; resumed the practice of law in Camden, N.J.; elected as a Republican to the Forty-sixth and Forty-seventh Congresses (March 4, 1879-March 3, 1883); chairman, Committee on Expenditures in the Department of the Navy (Forty-seventh Congress); unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1882 to the Forty-eighth Congress; resumed the practice of law in Trenton, N.J., where he died September 27, 1897; interment in Belvidere Cemetery, Belvidere, N.J.

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