Stanley MATTHEWS, Congress, OH (1824-1889)

MATTHEWS, Stanley, (uncle of Henry Watterson), a Senator from Ohio; born in Cincinnati, Ohio, July 21, 1824; attended the public schools; graduated from Kenyon College, Gambier, Ohio, in 1840; studied law; admitted to the bar in 1842 and commenced practice in Maury County, Tenn., the same year; returned to Cincinnati in 1844; appointed assistant prosecuting attorney of Hamilton County in 1845; editor of the Cincinnati Herald 1846-1849; clerk of the State house of representatives 1848-1850; judge of the court of common pleas of Hamilton County 1850-1852; member, State senate 1856-1857; appointed by President James Buchanan as United States district attorney for southern Ohio in 1858 and served until his resignation in March 1861; during the Civil War served as lieutenant colonel and then colonel with the Ohio Volunteers; resigned in the spring of 1863; resumed the practice of law in Cincinnati; judge of the Cincinnati superior court from 1863 until his resignation in July 1864; Republican presidential elector in 1864 and 1868; unsuccessful candidate for election in 1876 to the Forty-fifth Congress; was counsel before the electoral commission in 1877; elected as a Republican to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of John Sherman and served from March 21, 1877, to March 3, 1879; was not a candidate for renomination in 1878; appointed by President Rutherford Hayes as Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court in 1881, but was not confirmed; was renominated by President James Garfield, confirmed by the Senate May 12, 1881, and served until his death in Washington, D.C., March 22, 1889; interment in Spring Grove Cemetery, Cincinnati, Ohio.

Bibliography

Dictionary of American Biography; Jager, Ronald. “Stanley Matthews for the Supreme Court: Lord Roscoe’s Downfall.” Cincinnati Historical Society Bulletin 38 (Fall 1980): 191-208.

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