Robert Bruce VAN VALKENBURGH, Congress, NY (1821-1888)

VAN VALKENBURGH, Robert Bruce, a Representative from New York; born in Prattsburg, Steuben County, N.Y., September 4, 1821; attended Franklin Academy, Prattsburg, N.Y.; studied law; was admitted to the bar and commenced practice in Bath, N.Y.; member of the State assembly in 1852 and again in 1857 and 1858; was in command of the recruiting depot in Elmira, N.Y., and organized seventeen regiments for the Civil War; elected as a Republican to the Thirty-seventh and Thirty-eighth Congresses (March 4, 1861-March 3, 1865); chairman, Committee on Militia (Thirty-seventh and Thirty-eighth Congresses); served as colonel of the One Hundred and Seventh Regiment, New York Volunteer Infantry, and was its commander at the Battle of Antietam; Acting Commissioner of Indian Affairs in 1865; appointed Minister Resident to Japan January 18, 1866, and served until November 11, 1869; settled in Florida; appointed associate justice of the State supreme court on May 20, 1874, and served until his death in Suwanee Springs, near Live Oak, Suwanee County, Fla., August 1, 1888; interment in Old St. Nicholas Cemetery, on the south side of the St. Johns River, south of Jacksonville, Fla.

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