James Stewart MARTIN, Congress, IL (1826-1907)

MARTIN, James Stewart, a Representative from Illinois; born in Estillville (now Gate City), Scott County, Va., August 19, 1826; attended the common schools and Emory and Henry College, Emory, Va.; moved to Salem, Marion County, Ill., in 1846; served during the Mexican War in Company C, First Regiment of Illinois Volunteers; studied law; was admitted to the bar in 1861 and commenced practice in Salem, Ill.; clerk of Marion County Court; during the Civil War served in the Union Army; commissioned colonel of the One Hundred and Eleventh Regiment, Illinois Volunteer Infantry, September 18, 1862; brevetted brigadier general of Volunteers February 26, 1865; honorably mustered out June 7, 1865; judge of Marion County Court; appointed by President Grant as United States pension agent April 13, 1869; elected as a Republican to the Forty-third Congress (March 4, 1873-March 3, 1875); unsuccessful candidate for reelection; commissioner of the Southern Illinois Penitentiary at Menard in 1879; died in Salem, Ill., November 20, 1907; interment in East Lawn Cemetery.

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