Lore, Charles Brown

LORE, Charles Brown, a Representative from Delaware; born in Odessa, New Castle County, Del., March 16, 1831; attended the public schools and Middletown Academy, Delaware; was graduated from Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pa., in June 1852; studied law; was admitted to the bar of New Castle County, Del., in 1861 and practiced; clerk of the State house of representatives in 1857; during the Civil War served as commissioner of the draft for New Castle County, Del., in 1862; attorney general of Delaware 1869-1874; elected as a Democrat to the Forty-eighth and Forty-ninth Congresses (March 4, 1883-March 3, 1887); was not a candidate for renomination; appointed chief justice of the supreme court of Delaware in 1893; reappointed in 1897 for a term of twelve years but retired in 1909; member of the code commission in 1909 and 1910; died in Wilmington, Del., March 6, 1911; remains were cremated and the ashes deposited in the Methodist Church Cemetery.

Charles Lore was born in Odessa, Delaware on March 16, 1831 the son of Eldad and Priscilla Henderson Lore.  He was prepared at Middletown Academy in Delaware and then entered Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania in 1848.  He was a member of the Union Philosophical Society and graduated with his class in June, 1852.

He went on to study the law and after a time as the clerk of the Delaware House of Representatives in 1857, was called to the bar in his home county of New Castle in 1861.  He was the draft commissioner for the county during the Civil War.  His political career blossomed after the conflict.  By 1869 he was attorney-general of Delaware, serving till 1874 and then served two terms as a Democrat in the United States Congress between 1883 and 1887.  In 1893, he was named as the chief justice of the state supreme court and was re-appointed in 1897.

He had married Rebecca Bates of Mount Holly, New Jersey on July 7, 1862.  He was a life long Methodist.  His health deteriorating, he retired from the bench in 1909.  Charles Brown Lore died in Wilmington, Delaware on March 6, 1911, ten days before his eightieth birthday.