William Darius BISHOP, Congress, CT (1827-1904)
BISHOP, William Darius, a Representative from Connecticut; born in Bloomfield, Essex County, N.J., September 14, 1827; pursued preparatory studies; was graduated from Yale College in 1849; studied law; was admitted to the bar but did not practice, instead carrying on his fatherâs railroad enterprises which involved the construction of the Naugatuck and the New York and New Haven Railroads in Connecticut and the railroad between Saratoga Springs and Whitehall in New York; founder of the Eastern Railroad Association and its president until the time of his death; elected as a Democrat to the Thirty-fifth Congress (March 4, 1857-March 3, 1859); chairman, Committee on Manufactures (Thirty-fifth Congress); unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1858 to the Thirty-sixth Congress; commissioner of patents from May 23, 1859, to January 1860; vice president and president of the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad Co.; member of the State house of representatives in 1866 and 1871; served in the State senate in 1877 and 1878; died in Bridgeport, Conn., Feb. 4, 1904; interment in Mountain Grove Cemetery.
Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present
