Richard Franklin PETTIGREW, Congress, SD (1848-1926)

PETTIGREW, Richard Franklin, a Delegate from the Territory of Dakota and a Senator from South Dakota; born in Ludlow, Windsor County, Vt., July 23, 1848; moved with his parents to Wisconsin in 1854; attended the public schools and Evansville Academy, Evansville, Wis.; entered Beloit College, Beloit, Wis., in 1864; spent one year teaching school and studying law in Iowa; entered the law department of the University of Wisconsin at Madison in 1867; went to Dakota in 1869 in the employ of a United States deputy surveyor; settled in Sioux Falls; admitted to the bar about 1871; practiced law; engaged in surveying and the real estate business; member, Territorial house of representatives 1872; served in the Territorial council 1877, 1879; elected as a Republican Delegate to the Forty-seventh Congress (March 4, 1881-March 3, 1883); unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1882 to the Forty-eighth Congress; member, Territorial council 1885; upon the admission of South Dakota as a State into the Union was elected as a Republican to the United States Senate in 1889; reelected in 1895 and served from November 2, 1889, to March 3, 1901; left the Republican party on June 17, 1896, to join the Silver Republicans; unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1900; chairman, Committee on Indian Affairs (Fifty-fourth and Fifty-fifth Congresses); engaged in the practice of law in New York City; returned to Sioux Falls and was active in politics and business until his death in that city October 5, 1926; interment in Woodlawn Cemetery.

Bibliography

American National Biography; Dictionary of American Biography; Hendrickson, Kenneth Elton, Jr. “The Public Career of Richard F. Pettigrew of South Dakota, 1848-1926.” South Dakota Department of History Report and Historical Collections 34 (1968): 146-311; Pettigrew, Richard F. Imperial Washington: The Story of American Public Life from 1870 to 1920. 1922. Reprint. New York: Arno Press, 1970.

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