LAWRENCE, William, Congress, OH (1819-1899)

LAWRENCE, William, a Representative from Ohio; born in Mount Pleasant, Ohio, June 26, 1819; attended the common schools and Tidball’s Academy, near Knoxville, Tenn.; taught school in Pennsville and McConnelsville, Ohio; was graduated from Franklin College, New Athens, Ohio, in 1838 and from the Cincinnati Law School in 1840; was admitted to the bar in 1840 and practiced in Zanesville, Ohio, and later in McConnelsville; moved to Bellefontaine in 1841 and continued the practice of law; studied medicine 1841-1843; commissioner of bankruptcy for Logan County in 1842; prosecuting attorney of Logan County in 1845; editor of the Logan Gazette 1845-1847; member of the State house of representatives in 1846 and 1847; served in the State senate 1849-1851 and 1854; supreme court reporter in 1851; judge of the court of common pleas and of the district court from 1857 to 1864, when he resigned; one of the editors of the Western Law Monthly 1859-1862; during the Civil War entered the Union Army in 1862 as colonel of the Eighty-fourth Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry; appointed United States district judge of Florida in 1863 but declined to accept the office; elected as a Republican to the Thirty-ninth, Fortieth, and Forty-first Congresses (March 4, 1865-March 3, 1871); unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1870 to the Forty-second Congress; organized the Bellefontaine National Bank in 1871, of which he was president; elected to the Forty-third and Forty-fourth Congresses (March 4, 1873-March 3, 1877); chairman, Committee on War Claims (Forty-third Congress); unsuccessful candidate for renomination in 1876; First Comptroller of the United States Treasury 1880-1885; elected president of the National Wool Growers’ Association in 1891; died in Kenton, Ohio, May 8, 1899; interment in Bellefontaine Cemetery, Bellefontaine, Ohio.

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