Orville Hitchcock PLATT, Congress, CT (1827-1905)

PLATT, Orville Hitchcock, a Senator from Connecticut; born in Washington, Litchfield County, Conn., July 19, 1827; attended the common schools and graduated from the Gunnery Academy, Washington, Conn.; studied law in Litchfield, Conn.; admitted to the bar in 1850 and commenced practice in Towanda, Pa.; moved to Meriden, Conn., in 1850 and continued to practice law; clerk of the State senate 1855-1856; secretary of State of Connecticut 1857; member, State senate 1861-1862; member, State house of representatives in 1864, 1869, and served as speaker in the latter year; State’s attorney for New Haven County 1877-1879; elected as a Republican to the United States Senate in 1879; reelected in 1885, 1891, 1897 and 1903 and served from March 4, 1879, until his death; chairman, Committee on Patents (Forty-seventh through Forty-ninth and Fifty-fourth and Fifty-fifth Congresses), Committee on Pensions (Forty-seventh Congress), Committee on Territories (Fiftieth through Fifty-second Congresses), Committee on Cuban Relations (Fifty-sixth through Fifty-eighth Congresses), Committee on the Judiciary (Fifty-eighth and Fifty-ninth Congresses); died in Meriden, Conn., April 21, 1905; interment in Washington (Conn.) Cemetery on the Green.

Bibliography

American National Biography; Dictionary of American Biography; Coolidge, Louis. An Old Fashioned Senator: Orville H. Platt. 1910. Reprint. Port Washington, N.Y.: Kennikat, 1971; Smith, Edwina C. ”Conservatism in the Gilded Age: The Senatorial Career of Orville H. Platt.” Ph.D. dissertation, University of North Carolina, 1976.

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