James Overton BROADHEAD, Congress, MO (1819-1898)

BROADHEAD, James Overton, a Representative from Missouri; born in Charlottesville, Va., May 29, 1819; attended the high school in Albemarle County and the University of Virginia at Charlottesville; moved to Missouri in 1837; studied law; was admitted to the bar in 1842 and commenced practice in Bowling Green, Pike County, Mo.; delegate to the State constitutional conventions in 1845, 1861, 1863, and 1875; member of the State house of representatives in 1846 and 1847; served in the State senate 1850-1853; moved to St. Louis in 1859 and continued the practice of law; appointed United States attorney for the eastern district of Missouri in 1861; commissioned by President Lincoln as lieutenant colonel of Volunteers and appointed provost marshal general of Missouri in 1863; delegate to the Democratic National Conventions in 1868 and 1872; appointed by President Grant as special United States attorney to assist in the prosecution of the so-called “whisky ring” at St. Louis in 1876; president of the American Bar Association in 1878; elected as a Democrat to the Forty-eighth Congress (March 4, 1883-March 3, 1885); was not a candidate for renomination in 1884; appointed a special commissioner on French spoliation claims by President Cleveland in 1885; Minister to Switzerland 1893-1897; died in St. Louis, Mo., August 7, 1898; interment in Bellefontaine Cemetery.

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