Wilbur Fiske SANDERS, Congress, MT (1834-1905)

SANDERS, Wilbur Fiske, a Senator from Montana; born in Leon, Cattaraugus County, N.Y., May 2, 1834; attended the common schools; taught school in New York; moved to Ohio in 1854, where he continued teaching; studied law in Akron, Ohio, and was admitted to the bar in 1856; during the Civil War recruited a company of infantry and a battery of artillery in the summer of 1861 and was commissioned a first lieutenant in the Sixty-fourth Regiment, Ohio Infantry, of which regiment he was made adjutant; assisted in 1862 in the construction of defenses along the railroads south of Nashville; settled in that part of Idaho which later became Montana; engaged in the practice of law and also became interested in mining and stock raising; unsuccessful Republican candidate for election in 1864, 1867, 1880, and 1886 as a Delegate to Congress; member, Territorial house of representatives of Montana 1873-1879; upon the admission of Montana as a State into the Union was elected as a Republican to the United States Senate and served from January 1, 1890, to March 3, 1893; unsuccessful candidate for reelection; chairman, Committee on Enrolled Bills (Fifty-second Congress); died in Helena, Mont., July 7, 1905; interment in Forestvale Cemetery.

Bibliography

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