Martin Russell THAYER, Congress, PA (1819-1906)

THAYER, Martin Russell, a Representative from Pennsylvania; born in Dinwiddie County, near the city limits of Petersburg, Va., January 27, 1819; attended the Mount Pleasant Classical Institute in Amherst, Mass., and Amherst College; moved with his father to Philadelphia, Pa., in 1837; was graduated from the University of Pennsylvania at Philadelphia in 1840; studied law; was admitted to the bar in 1842 and commenced practice in Philadelphia; commissioner to revise the revenue laws of Pennsylvania in 1862; elected as a Republican to the Thirty-eighth and Thirty-ninth Congresses (March 4, 1863-March 3, 1867); chairman, Committee on Private Land Claims (Thirty-eighth and Thirty-ninth Congresses); declined to be a candidate for renomination in 1866; resumed the practice of law; judge of the district court of Philadelphia 1867-1874; president judge of the court of common pleas of Philadelphia from 1874 until his resignation in 1896; elected by the judges of the common pleas court prothonotary of Philadelphia in 1896; also engaged in literary pursuits; died in Philadelphia, Pa., October 14, 1906; interment in St. James the Less Church Cemetery.

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