Pomeroy, Theodore Medad, 1824-1905
Biographical notes:
Theodore Medad Pomeroy (December 31, 1824 – March 23, 1905) was an American businessman and politician from New York who served as the 26th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives for one day, from March 3, 1869, to March 4, 1869, the shortest American speakership term in history. He represented New York's 24th congressional district in the United States House of Representatives from 1861 to 1869. He also served as the mayor of Auburn, New York, from 1875 to 1876, and in the New York State Senate from 1878 to 1879.
Theodore Medad Pomeroy was born on December 31, 1824. He spent his childhood in Elbridge, New York, where he went to live when he was nine years old.
He was educated at the Monroe Academy and at 15, entered Hamilton College as a Junior, as students under 13 were not admitted. He graduated in 1842 at age 17 and was ranked in the first division of 6 in a class of 24.
In May 1843, at the age of 18, he left his parents' home and moved to Auburn, where he entered the firm of Beach & Underwood as a law student. William H. Seward was counsel for the firm as he had just finished serving as the Governor of New York from 1838 to 1842. Christopher Morgan and Samuel Blatchford, who later became an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, became associated with the firm. On May 23, 1846, he was admitted to practice as an attorney in the state of New York.
In 1847, he was elected by the Whig Party as clerk of Auburn and in 1851, he was nominated by the Whigs and was elected district attorney. He was reelected again in 1853 and served a second term. At the end of his second term he was chosen to be a Member of the New York Assembly by the Republicans to represent the second district of Cayuga and served in the legislature in 1857 but declined renomination.
On September 4, 1855, while serving his second term as District Attorney, he married Elizabeth Leitch Watson (1835–1892). Together, they had five children.
In September 1860, Pomeroy was nominated and elected by the Republican party to represent the 25th Congressional district, composed of the counties of Cayuga and Wayne, in the House of Representatives. On July 4, 1861, he took his seat at the extra session of the 37th Congress convened by President Abraham Lincoln, right after the start of the Civil War.
He was nominated by acclamation in 1862, 1864, and 1866 from the 24th Congressional district which comprised the counties of Cayuga, Wayne and Seneca. On March 3, 1869, Pomeroy's final full day in office at the close of the 40th Congress, Schuyler Colfax, who was to be sworn into office as vice president the next day, resigned as speaker of the House. Upon his resignation, the House passed a motion declaring Pomeroy duly elected speaker in place of Colfax. In office for one day, his is the shortest tenure of any speaker of the U.S. House.
After leaving Congress, Pomeroy was briefly out of politics. He returned to public life in the mid-1870 and was elected mayor of Auburn, New York, serving from 1875 to 1876, then as a member of the New York State Senate (25th D.) in 1878 and 1879.
Pomeroy retired from public life in 1879 and lived at 168 Genesee Street in Auburn, where he died in 1905. Harriet Tubman (1822–1913) was a close friend of the family who helped care for the Pomeroy children. She attended his funeral and it was reported that only her flowers and letter were placed on his casket and buried with him.
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Subjects:
- Legislators
Occupations:
- Bankers
- Lawyers
- Politicians
- Representatives, U.S. Congress
- Speakers of the House, U.S. Congress
- State politicians
Places:
- NY, US
- NY, US
- NY, US
- NY, US
- DC, US
- Virginia (as recorded)
- United States (as recorded)
- Saint Helena Island (S.C.) (as recorded)
- South Carolina (as recorded)
- Fort Monroe (Va.) (as recorded)
- United States (as recorded)
