Isaac Samuels PENNYBACKER, Congress, VA (1805-1847)

PENNYBACKER, Isaac Samuels, (cousin of Green Berry Samuels), a Representative and a Senator from Virginia; born at Pine Forge, near Newmarket, Shenandoah County, Va., September 3, 1805; attended an “old field” school and the Winchester Law School; admitted to the bar and commenced practice in Harrisonburg, Rockingham County, Va.; elected as a Democrat to the Twenty-fifth Congress (March 4, 1837-March 3, 1839); judge of the United States District Court for the Western District of Virginia 1839-1845; declined the office of United States Attorney General offered him by President Martin Van Buren and that of justice of the supreme court of Virginia; elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy in the term beginning March 4, 1845, caused by the failure of the legislature to elect, and served from December 3, 1845, until his death; chairman, Committee on Claims (Twenty-ninth Congress); regent of the Smithsonian Institution; died in Washington, D.C., January 12, 1847; interment in Woodbine Cemetery, Harrisonburg, Va.

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