Ormsby Brunson THOMAS, Congress, WI (1832-1904)

THOMAS, Ormsby Brunson, a Representative from Wisconsin; born in Sandgate, Bennington County, Vt., August 21, 1832; moved with his parents to Wisconsin in 1836; attended the common schools and Burr Seminary, Manchester, Vt.; was graduated from the National Law School, Poughkeepsie, N.Y., in 1856; was admitted to the bar in Albany, N.Y., in 1856 and commenced practice in Prairie du Chien, Wis.; district attorney of Crawford County, Wis.; served in the Union Army during the Civil War as captain of Company D, Thirty-first Regiment, Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry; member of the State assembly in 1862, 1865, and 1867; served in the State senate in 1880 and 1881; elected as a Republican to the Forty-ninth, Fiftieth, and Fifty-first Congresses (March 4, 1885-March 3, 1891); chairman, Committee on War Claims (Fifty-first Congress); was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1890 to the Fifty-second Congress; resumed the practice of law in Prairie du Chien, Wis., and died there October 24, 1904; interment in Evergreen Cemetery.

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