John Milton THAYER, Congress, NE (1820-1906)

THAYER, John Milton, (uncle of Arthur Laban Bates), a Senator from Nebraska; born in Bellingham, Mass., January 24, 1820; graduated from Brown University, Providence, R.I., in 1841; studied law; admitted to the bar and practiced; editor of a journal; moved to Nebraska in 1854, engaged in agricultural pursuits, and practiced law in Omaha; brigadier general and major general of the Territorial forces operating against the Pawnee Indians 1855-1861; member, Territorial State senate 1860; delegate to the State constitutional convention in 1860; during the Civil War served in the Union Army as colonel and then brigadier general of the First Regiment, Nebraska Volunteer Infantry; brevetted major general of Volunteers in 1865; member of the State constitutional convention in 1866; upon the admission of Nebraska as a State into the Union was elected as a Republican to the United States Senate and served from March 1, 1867, to March 3, 1871; unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1871; chairman, Committee on Enrolled Bills (Forty-first Congress); appointed by President Ulysses S. Grant as Governor of the Territory of Wyoming 1875-1879; Governor of Nebraska 1887-1891; resumed the practice of law in Lincoln, Nebr., and died there March 19, 1906; interment in Wyuka Cemetery.

Bibliography

American National Biography; Dictionary of American Biography; Curtis, Earl G. “John Milton Thayer.” Nebraska History 29 (March/June 1948): 134-50.

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