Ewing, Thomas Jr.

EWING, Thomas, (son of Thomas Ewing [1789-1871]), a Representative from Ohio; born in Lancaster, Fairfield County, Ohio, August 7, 1829; pursued preparatory studies; private secretary to President Taylor in 1849 and 1850; was graduated from Brown University, Providence, R.I., in 1854; studied law; was admitted to the bar in 1855 and commenced practice in Cincinnati, Ohio; moved to Leavenworth, Kans., in 1856; member of the Leavenworth constitutional convention of 1858; delegate to the peace convention held in Washington, D.C., in 1861 in an effort to devise means to prevent the impending war; chief justice of the supreme court of Kansas in 1861 and 1862, when he resigned; recruited the Eleventh Regiment, Kansas Volunteer Cavalry, and was commissioned its colonel on September 15, 1862; brigadier general of Volunteers March 13, 1863; brevetted major general of Volunteers; practiced law in Washington, D.C., until 1871, when he returned to Lancaster, Ohio; member of the Ohio State constitutional convention in 1873 and 1874; elected as a Democrat to the Forty-fifth and Forty-sixth Congresses (March 4, 1877-March 3, 1881); declined to be a candidate for renomination in 1880; unsuccessful candidate for Governor of Ohio in 1879; moved to New York City in 1881, where he engaged in the practice of law until his death there on January 21, 1896; interment in Oakland Cemetery, Yonkers, N.Y.

EWING, Thomas,  (father of Thomas Ewing [1829-1896]), a Senator from Ohio; born near West Liberty, Ohio County, Va. (now West Virginia), December 28, 1789; moved to Ohio with his parents in 1792; pursued preparatory studies; graduated from Ohio University at Athens in 1816; studied law; admitted to the bar in 1816 and commenced practice in Lancaster, Ohio; elected as an Anti-Jacksonian to the United States Senate and served from March 4, 1831, to March 3, 1837; unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1836; chairman, Committee on Public Lands (Twenty-fourth Congress); appointed Secretary of the Treasury by President William Henry Harrison and served from March 5 to September 13, 1841; appointed Secretary of the Interior by President Zachary Taylor 1849-1850; appointed as a Whig to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Thomas Corwin and served from July 20, 1850, to March 3, 1851; unsuccessful candidate for election to the United States Senate in 1851; resumed the practice of law in Lancaster; delegate to the peace convention held in Washington, D.C., in 1861 in an effort to devise means to prevent the impending war; appointed Secretary of War by President Andrew Johnson in February 1868, but the Senate refused to confirm the appointment; died in Lancaster, Ohio, October 26, 1871; interment in St. Mary’s Cemetery.