Joseph Warren KEIFER, Congress, OH (1836-1932)

KEIFER, Joseph Warren, a Representative from Ohio; born near Springfield, Bethel Township, Clark County, Ohio, January 30, 1836; attended the common schools and Antioch College, Yellow Springs, Ohio; studied law; was admitted to the bar and began practice in Springfield, Ohio, January 12, 1858; enlisted in the Union Army on April 19, 1861; commissioned major in the Third Ohio Volunteer Infantry April 27, 1861; lieutenant colonel February 12, 1862; colonel of the One Hundred and Tenth Ohio Volunteer Infantry September 30, 1862; brevetted brigadier general of Volunteers October 19, 1864; promoted to major general April 9, 1865; mustered out June 27, 1865; resumed the practice of law in July 1865; member of the State senate in 1868 and 1869; commander of the Ohio Department of the Grand Army of the Republic in 1871 and 1872; trustee of Antioch College; delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1876; elected as a Republican to the Forty-fifth and to the three succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1877-March 3, 1885); Speaker of the House of Representatives (Forty-seventh Congress); chairman, Committee on Rules (Forty-seventh Congress); unsuccessful candidate for renomination in 1884; was a major general of Volunteers in the Spanish-American War from June 9, 1898, to May 12, 1899; first commander in chief of the Spanish War Veterans in 1900 and 1901; elected to the Fifty-ninth, Sixtieth, and Sixty-first Congresses (March 4, 1905-March 3, 1911); unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1910 to the Sixty-second Congress; resumed his law practice; president of the Lagonda National Bank of Springfield, Ohio, for more than fifty years; died in Springfield, Ohio, April 22, 1932; interment in Ferncliff Cemetery.

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