George Whitfield SCRANTON, Congress, PA (1811-1861)
SCRANTON, George Whitfield, (second cousin of Joseph Augustine Scranton), a Representative from Pennsylvania; born in Madison, New Haven County, Conn., May 11, 1811; attended the common schools and Leeâs Academy; moved to Belvidere, N.J., in 1828 and became a teamster; subsequently engaged in mercantile pursuits; from 1835 to 1839 was interested in agricultural pursuits and in the latter year engaged in the manufacture of iron, and began experimenting with the practicability of smelting ore by means of anthracite coal in Slocum (now Scranton), Pa.; founder of the Lackawanna Iron & Coal Co. and the city of Scranton, Pa.; projected and constructed the Northumberland division of the Lackawanna Railroad; president of two railroad companies; elected as a Republican to the Thirty-sixth and Thirty-seventh Congresses and served from March 4, 1859, until his death in Scranton, Pa., March 24, 1861; interment in Dunmore Cemetery.
Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present
