Thomas Warren BENNETT, Congress, ID (1831-1893)

BENNETT, Thomas Warren, a Delegate from the Territory of Idaho; born in Union County, Ind., February 16, 1831; attended the common schools and was graduated from the law department of the Indiana Asbury (now De Pauw) University in July 1854; was admitted to the bar in 1855 and commenced practice in Liberty, Union County, Ind.; elected a member of the State senate in 1858 and resigned in 1861, upon the outbreak of the Civil War, to enter the Union Army; was commissioned a captain in the Fifteenth Regiment, Indiana Volunteer Infantry, in April 1861; became major of the Thirty-sixth Regiment in September 1861; colonel of the Sixty-ninth Regiment in August 1862 and was appointed brigadier general in March 1865; returned to Richmond, Ind.; again elected a member of the State senate, in October 1864, and served until March 1867; mayor of the city of Richmond, Ind., in 1869 and 1870; in September 1871 was appointed Governor of the Territory of Idaho by President Grant and served until December 4, 1875, when he resigned, having been elected to Congress; presented credentials as an Independent Member-elect to the Forty-fourth Congress and served from March 4, 1875, to June 23, 1876, when he was succeeded by Stephen S. Fenn, who contested his election; was not a candidate for renomination in 1876; resumed the practice of law in Richmond, Ind.; again served as city mayor 1877-1883 and 1885-1887; died in Richmond, Wayne County, Ind., February 2, 1893; interment in Earlham Cemetery.

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