Morgan Ringland WISE, Congress, PA (1825-1903)

WISE, Morgan Ringland, a Representative from Pennsylvania; born in West Bethlehem, Washington County, Pa., June 7, 1825; attended the public schools; taught school; crossed the Plains and engaged in gold mining in California in 1850; while there volunteered, under Major Stammins, to defend the miners against the depredations of the Indians; returned to Pennsylvania, and was graduated from Waynesburg College, Pennsylvania, in 1856; engaged in agricultural pursuits; member of the State house of representatives from 1874 to 1878; elected as a Democrat to the Forty-sixth and Forty-seventh Congresses (March 4, 1879-March 3, 1883); chairman, Committee on Manufactures (Forty-sixth Congress); was not a candidate for renomination in 1882; moved to Arizona and engaged in cattle raising; consular agent at Nogales, Mexico, from February 20, 1888, to May 31, 1900; died in Coraopolis, Pa., on April 13, 1903; interment in Greenmount Cemetery, Waynesburg, Pa.

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