Sweeney, George

Life Span
to
Dickinson Connection
Class of 1815
    Full name
    George Sweeney
    Place of Birth
    Burial Place
    Birth Date Certainty
    Exact
    Death Date Certainty
    Exact
    Gender
    Male
    Race
    White
    Sectional choice
    North
    Origins
    Free State
    Family
    Editor's note: His surname appears in the Congressional Biography as "George Sweeny" and in the College's 1877 announcement of his death as "George Sweney." Reed's 1905 Alumni Record names him as a"Sweney."
    Education
    Dickinson (Carlisle College)
    Occupation
    Politician
    Attorney or Judge
    Political Parties
    Democratic
    Government
    US House of Representatives
    Local government

    George Sweeney (Dickinson Chronicles)

    Scholarship
    George Sweeney was born on November 1, 1796 near Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.  He entered Dickinson College in Carlisle, twenty five miles to the north, and graduated with the class of 1815.  Following his graduation, he studied law in Gettysburg and was admitted to the bar there in 1820.

    For ten years Sweeney practiced law in Gettysburg and then moved west to Bucyrus in Crawford County, Ohio in 1830.  He was named as the prosecutor of Crawford in 1837 and then was elected in the fall of 1838 as a Democrat to the Twenty-sixth Congress from his district, the 14th of Ohio.  Although Sweeney was re-elected to the Twenty-seventh Congress in 1840, he was not a candidate in 1842.  He moved for a time to Geneseo, Illinois to practice law in 1853, but returned to Bucyrus in 1856.  Sweeney was once again elected as district attorney for Crawford County before he retired.

    Sweeney gave up his profession in later years to concentrate on the literary and scientific pursuits that had interested him his whole life.  On October 10, 1877, George Sweeney died in Bucyrus, Ohio and was buried in the Oakwood Cemetery there.  He was eighty years old.
    John Osborne and James W. Gerencser, eds., “George Sweeney,” Dickinson Chronicles, http://chronicles.dickinson.edu/encyclo/s/ed_sweeneyG.htm.

    George Sweeny (Congressional Biographical Directory)

    Reference
    SWEENY, George, a Representative from Ohio; born near Gettysburg, Pa., February 22, 1796; pursued academic studies and was graduated from Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pa.; studied law; was admitted to the bar and commenced practice in Gettysburg in 1820; moved to Bucyrus, Crawford County, Ohio, in 1830; prosecuting attorney of Crawford County in 1838; elected as a Democrat to the Twenty-sixth and Twenty-seventh Congresses (March 4, 1839-March 3, 1843); was not a candidate for renomination in 1842; resumed the practice of his profession; moved to Geneseo, Henry County, Ill., in 1853, and continued the practice of law; returned to Bucyrus, Ohio, in 1856; was again elected prosecuting attorney of Crawford County; retired from the practice of his profession and engaged in literary and scientific pursuits; died in Bucyrus, Ohio, October 10, 1877; interment in Oakwood Cemetery.
    "Sweeny, George," Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1774 to Present, http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=S001105.
    How to Cite This Page: "Sweeney, George," House Divided: The Civil War Research Engine at Dickinson College, https://hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu/index.php/node/6677.