Thomas Robert BARD, Congress, CA (1841-1915)

BARD, Thomas Robert, a Senator from California; born in Chambersburg, Franklin County, Pa., December 8, 1841; attended the common schools; graduated from the Chambersburg Academy in 1858; studied law, but before completing his studies secured a position with the Pennsylvania Railroad Co., later becoming assistant to the superintendent of the Cumberland Valley Railroad; engaged in the grain business at Hagerstown, Md.; during the early part of the Civil War served as a volunteer Union scout during the invasions of Maryland and Pennsylvania by the Confederates; moved to Ventura County, Calif., in 1864; member of the board of supervisors of Santa Barbara County 1868-1873; laid out the town of Hueneme; one of the commissioners appointed to organize Ventura County in 1871; director of the State board of agriculture 1886-1887; elected as a Republican to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy in the term beginning March 4, 1899, and served from February 7, 1900, to March 3, 1905; unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1904; chairman, Committee on Fisheries (Fifty-seventh Congress), Committee on Irrigation (Fifty-eighth Congress); died at his home, “Berylwood,” in Hueneme, Ventura County, Calif., March 5, 1915; interment in the family cemetery on his estate.

Bibliography

Hutchinson, William Henry. Oil, Land, and Politics: The California Career of Thomas R. Bard. 2 vols. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1965.

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