William VANDEVER, Congress, IA (1817-1893)

VANDEVER, William, a Representative from Iowa and from California; born in Baltimore, Md., March 31, 1817; attended the common schools and pursued an academic course; moved to Illinois in 1839 and to Iowa in 1851; studied law; was admitted to the bar in 1852 and commenced practice in Dubuque, Iowa; elected as a Republican to the Thirty-sixth and Thirty-seventh Congresses and served from March 4, 1859, to September 24, 1861, when he was mustered into the Union Army as colonel of the Ninth Regiment, Iowa Volunteer Infantry, never having resigned his seat in Congress; promoted to brigadier general of Volunteers in 1862 and brevetted a major general in 1865; member of the peace convention of 1861 held in Washington, D.C., in an effort to devise means to prevent the impending war; resumed the practice of law in Dubuque, Iowa; appointed United States Indian inspector by President Grant in 1873, and served until 1877; moved to San Buenaventura, Calif., in 1884; elected as a Republican from California to the Fiftieth and Fifty-first Congresses (March 4, 1887-March 3, 1891); was not a candidate for renomination in 1890; died in Ventura, Calif., July 23, 1893; interment in Ventura Cemetery.

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