Jonathan JENNINGS, Congress, IN (1784-1834)

JENNINGS, Jonathan, a Delegate from the Territory of Indiana and a Representative from Indiana; born in Hunterdon County, N.J., in 1784; moved about the year 1790 to Fayette County, Pa., with his parents, who settled near Dunlap’s Creek; attended a grammar school conducted by Rev. John McMillin at Canonsburg, Pa.; moved to Indiana Territory in 1806 and settled at Jeffersonville; studied law and commenced the practice of law; moved to Vincennes in 1807; was admitted to the bar and continued his legal profession; clerk to the receiver of public money; became assistant to the clerk of the house of representatives of the Territorial government in 1807; engaged in newspaper work in 1808; moved to Clark County in 1809 and settled in Charlestown; elected a Delegate to the Eleventh and to the three succeeding Congresses and served from November 27, 1809, to December 11, 1816, when the Territory was admitted as a State into the Union; delegate to the State constitutional convention in 1816 and served as president; elected Governor of Indiana in December 1816 and served until 1822; member of the commission to negotiate a treaty with the Indians for lands in 1818; elected as a Republican to the Seventeenth Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of William Hendricks; reelected as a Jackson Republican to the Eighteenth Congress; reelected as an Adams candidate to the Nineteenth and Twentieth Congresses; elected as an Anti-Jacksonian to the Twenty-first Congress; and served from December 2, 1822, to March 3, 1831; unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1830; retired to his farm and engaged in agricultural pursuits; in 1832 served as a commissioner to negotiate with the Indians for the purchase of lands in northern Indiana and southern Michigan; died near Charlestown, Ind., July 26, 1834; interment in Charlestown Cemetery.

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