Serranus Clinton HASTINGS, Congress, IA (1813-1893)

HASTINGS, Serranus Clinton, a Representative from Iowa; born in Watertown, Jefferson County, N.Y., November 22, 1813; completed a preparatory course at Gouverneur Academy and was graduated from Hamilton College; principal of Norwich Academy in 1834; moved to Lawrenceburg, Ind., in 1835; edited the Indiana Signal in 1836; studied law; was admitted to the bar in 1837 and commenced practice in what is now Burlington, Iowa; when Iowa was made a separate Territory served as a member of the Territorial council 1838-1846 and was president of the council one session; upon the admission of Iowa as a State into the Union was elected as a Democrat to the Twenty-ninth Congress and served from December 28, 1846, to March 3, 1847; was not a candidate for renomination; chief justice of the supreme court of Iowa in 1848; resigned in 1849 and moved to Benicia, Calif.; chief justice of the supreme court of California 1849-1851; attorney general of the State in 1851; at the end of his term of two years retired to private life; founded and endowed Hastings College of Law in the University of California in 1878; engaged in the real estate business; died in San Francisco, Calif., February 18, 1893; interment in St. Helena Cemetery, St. Helena, Calif.

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