Jacob Montgomery THORNBURGH, Congress, TN (1837-1890)

THORNBURGH, Jacob Montgomery, a Representative from Tennessee; born in New Market, Jefferson County, Tenn., July 3, 1837; completed preparatory studies; studied law; was admitted to the bar in 1861 and commenced practice in Jefferson County; during the Civil War entered the Union Army as a private and was promoted to lieutenant colonel of the Fourth Regiment, Tennessee Volunteer Cavalry, July 11, 1863; returned to Jefferson County, Tenn., and practiced law; moved to Knoxville, Tenn., in 1867; appointed attorney general of the third judicial circuit of Tennessee in 1866, and elected in 1868 and 1870; United States commissioner at the International Exposition held at Vienna, Austria, in 1872; elected as a Republican to the Forty-third, Forty-fourth, and Forty-fifth Congresses (March 4, 1873-March 3, 1879); was not a candidate for renomination in 1878; delegate to the Republican National Conventions in 1872, 1876, and 1880; retired from public life and resumed the practice of law in Knoxville, Tenn., where he died September 19, 1890; interment in the Old Gray Cemetery.

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