Joseph VANCE, Congress, OH (1786-1852)

VANCE, Joseph, a Representative from Ohio; born in Catfish (now Washington), Washington County, Pa., March 21, 1786; moved with his father to Vanceburg, Ky., in 1788 and to Urbana, Ohio, in 1805; engaged in agricultural pursuits; captain of a rifle company in 1811 and 1812; during the War of 1812 served successively as major, colonel, brigadier general, and major general of Ohio Militia; member of the State house of representatives in 1812, 1813, 1815, 1816, 1818, and 1819; delegate to the State constitutional convention in 1820; engaged in mercantile pursuits at Urbana and Perrysburg, Ohio; laid out the city of Findlay in Hancock County; elected to the Seventeenth Congress; reelected to the Eighteenth through Twenty-second Congresses and reelected as an Anti-Jacksonian to the Twenty-third Congress (March 4, 1821-March 3, 1835); chairman, Committee on Military Affairs (Nineteenth Congress); unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1834 to the Twenty-fourth Congress; Governor of Ohio 1836-1838; member of the State senate 1840-1841; elected as a Whig to the Twenty-eighth and Twenty-ninth Congresses (March 4, 1843-March 3, 1847); chairman, Committee on Claims (Twenty-eighth and Twenty-ninth Congresses), Committee on Manufactures (Twenty-ninth Congress); was not a candidate for renomination in 1846; delegate to the Whig National Convention in 1848; delegate to the State constitutional convention in 1851; died near Urbana, Champaign County, Ohio, August 24, 1852; interment in Oak Dale Cemetery.

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