Orris Sanford FERRY, Congress, CT (1823-1875)

FERRY, Orris Sanford, a Representative and a Senator from Connecticut; born in Bethel, Fairfield County, Conn., August 15, 1823; pursued preparatory studies and graduated from Yale College in 1844; studied law; admitted to the bar in 1846 and practiced; appointed judge of probate in 1849; member, State senate 1855-1856; prosecuting attorney for Fairfield County 1856-1859; unsuccessful candidate for election in 1856 to the Thirty-fifth Congress; elected as a Republican to the Thirty-sixth Congress (March 4, 1859-March 3, 1861); unsuccessful candidate for reelection to the Thirty-seventh Congress; entered the Union Army in 1861 as colonel of the Fifth Regiment, Connecticut Volunteer Infantry; brigadier general of United States Volunteers 1862-1865; elected as a Republican to the United States Senate in 1866; reelected in 1873, and served from March 4, 1867, until his death in Norwalk, Conn., November 21, 1875; chairman, Committee to Audit and Control the Contingent Expenses (Forty-first Congress), Committee on Patents (Forty-second through Forty-fourth Congresses), Committee on Pensions (Forty-second Congress), Committee on Education and Labor (Forty-fourth Congress); interment in Norwalk Cemetery.

Bibliography

Dictionary of American Biography; U.S. Congress. Memorial Addresses for Orris Sanford Ferry. 44th Cong., 1st sess., 1875-1876. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1876.

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