|
|
|
|
|
Rufus Wheeler Peckham (1809-1873)This article is about the member of the U.S. House of Representatives; for his son of the same name who served on the U.S. Supreme Court, see Rufus Wheeler Peckham. Rufus Wheeler Peckham (1809 - 1873) was a judge and congressman from New York, and the father of a U.S. Supreme Court justice. Peckham was born in Rensselaerville, New York in Albany County, on December 20, 1809. He graduated from Union College at Schenectady in 1827, and after studying law was admitted to the bar in 1830. He served as the district attorney of Albany County from 1838 to 1841. Peckham was elected as a Democrat to the United States House of Representatives from New York's 14th District, serving in the Thirty-third Congress from March 4, 1853 until March 3, 1855. During his term, he was the chairman of the U.S. House Committee on Revolutionary Claims. Peckham afterwards resumed the practice of law and was elected as a justice of the New York Supreme Court for the Third Judicial District, serving from 1861 until 1869. He then served as an associate judge of the New York Court of Appeals from May 17, 1870, until his death. Peckham and his second wife were among 226 passengers and crew of the steamer Ville de Havre lost at sea, while en route to southern France to improve his failing health. The ship sank after colliding with the Scottish vessel, the Loch Earn, in the north Atlantic Ocean on November 22, 1873. His remains were never found, and his cenotaph was erected at Albany Rural Cemetery in Menands, New York. Peckham had two sons by his first wife. Rufus Wheeler Peckham (1838 - 1909) followed in his namesake father's footsteps as a lawyer and in three of the positions that his father had held in New York: as the Albany district attorney (1869 - 1972), as a New York Supreme Court judge (1883 - 1886), and as a judge on the New York Court of Appeals (1886 - 1895). The younger Peckham never went into Congress, however, but served on the Supreme Court of the United States from 1895 until his death. Peckham's older son, Wheeler Hazard Peckham (1833 - ?), was also a lawyer who practiced in New York City. Wheeler was also nominated to the Court but the Senate failed to confirm him. External links Peckham, Rufus Wheeler Peckham, Rufus Wheeler Peckham, Rufus Peckham, Rufus Peckham, Rufus
|
 |
|
| Copyright 2005-2009 OnPedia.com. All Rights Reserved |
|
|