Graham Newell FITCH, Congress, IN (1809-1892)

FITCH, Graham Newell, (grandfather of Edwin Denby), a Representative and a Senator from Indiana; born in LeRoy, Genesee County, N.Y., December 5, 1809; attended Middlebury Academy and Geneva (N.Y.) College; studied medicine and completed his medical course at the College of Physicians and Surgeons; commenced practice in Logansport, Ind., in 1834; member, State house of representatives in 1836 and 1839; professor of anatomy at the Rush Medical College, Chicago, Ill., 1844-1848, and at the Indianapolis (Ind.) Medical College in 1878; elected as a Democrat to the Thirty-first and Thirty-second Congresses (March 4, 1849-March 3, 1853); was not a candidate for renomination in 1852; resumed the practice of medicine; elected to the United States Senate to fill a vacancy in the term beginning March 4, 1855, and served from February 4, 1857, to March 3, 1861; was not a candidate for reelection in 1860; chairman, Committee on Printing (Thirty-fifth and Thirty-sixth Congresses); raised the Forty-sixth Regiment, Indiana Volunteer Infantry, during the Civil War and served as its colonel 1861-1862, when he resigned because of injuries received in action; resumed the practice of medicine in Logansport, Ind.; died in Logansport, Ind., November 29, 1892; interment in Mount Hope Cemetery.

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