Ewing family

Biographical Note

Thomas Ewing (1789-1871)

• 1789, Dec. 28: Born near West Liberty, Ohio County, Va.
• 1792: Moved with family to Marietta, Ohio
• 1798: Moved with family to Ames Township, Athens County, Ohio
• 1809 - 1812 : Worked intermittently at the Kanawha, Va., saltworks
• 1812 - 1815 : Attended Ohio University, Athens, Ohio
• 1815 - 1816 : Studied law in the office of Philemon Beecher, Lancaster, Ohio; admitted to the bar in 1816
• Circa 1817 - 1822 : Prosecuting attorney, Fairfield County, Ohio
• 1820: Married Maria Wills Boyle
• 1823: Defeated as a candidate for the Ohio legislature
• 1829: Adopted William T. Sherman
• 1830: Elected to United States Senate on Whig ticket
• 1836: Appointed William T. Sherman to United States Military Academy, West Point, N.Y. Defeated in bid for reelection to the Senate; resumed his law practice at Lancaster, Ohio
• 1841: Appointed secretary of the treasury by William Henry Harrison, resigning when Harrison's successor, John Tyler, vetoed a bill for rechartering the Bank of the United States; resumed law practice
• 1849: Appointed by Zachary Taylor to organize the Home Department (later Department of the Interior)
• 1850: Appointed to the United States Senate to complete the unexpired term of Thomas Corwin who became secretary of the treasury
• 1851: Retired from public service, resuming his law practice
• 1851 - 1869 : Practiced law, largely before the Supreme Court of the United States
• 1861: Appointed delegate to the Peace Convention, Washington, D.C.
• 1871, Oct. 26: Died, Lancaster, Ohio

Thomas Ewing (1829-1896)

• 1829, Aug. 7: Born, Lancaster, Ohio
• 1848: Private secretary to Zachary Taylor
• 1852 - 1854 : Attended Brown University, Providence, R.I.
• 1854 - 1857 : Lived in Cincinnati, Ohio; attended Cincinnati Law School; admitted to bar in 1855
• 1856: Married Ellen Ewing Cox
• 1857: Moved to Leavenworth, Kans., where he practiced law as a member of the firm of Ewing, Sherman, and McCook
• 1858 - 1861 : Instrumental in exposing voting frauds under the Lecompton constitution and in bringing Kansas into the Union as a free state
• 1861: Elected the first chief justice of the Kansas Supreme Court; represented Kansas at the Peace Convention, Washington. D.C.
• 1862: Resigned as chief justice; appointed colonel of the Eleventh Kansas Volunteers
• 1863, Mar.: Promoted to brigadier general after the Battle of Prairie Grove, Ark.
• 1863 - 1864 : Assigned to command the border district which included Kansas and the western part of Missouri; issued Order No. 11 (25 Aug. 1863) which depopulated counties in Missouri in an effort to rout outlaws hiding there
• 1864: Assigned to command the St. Louis, Mo., district Participated in the Battle of Pilot Knob, St. Louis, Mo.
• 1865: Resigned commission; breveted major general Defended Samuel Bland Arnold, Edward Spangler, and Samuel Mudd on charges of conspiracy to assassinate Abraham Lincoln
• 1865 - 1870 : Practiced law, Washington, D.C.
• 1870: Moved to Lancaster, Ohio
• 1873 - 1874 : Member of the Constitutional Convention of Ohio
• 1877 - 1881 : Represented the Lancaster, Ohio, congressional district in the United States House of Representatives
• 1879: Ran unsuccessfully as Democratic candidate for governor of Ohio
• 1882: Moved to Yonkers, N.Y.
• 1882 - 1896 : Practiced law, New York, N.Y.
• 1896, Jan. 21: Died, New York, N.Y.

Thomas Ewing (1862-1942)

• 1862, May 21: Born, Leavenworth, Kans.
• 1879 - 1881 : Attended the College of Wooster, Wooster, Ohio
• 1882 - 1888 : Student and tutor at Columbia University's School of Mines and Law School, New York, N.Y.
• 1888 - 1890 : Assistant examiner, Patent Office, Washington, D.C.
• 1890: LL.B., Georgetown University, Washington, D.C.
• 1891: Admitted to the bar, New York, N.Y.
• 1891 - 1913 : Practiced law in New York, N.Y., specializing in patent law
• 1894: Married Anna Phillips Cochran
• 1902: Published Jonathan, A Tragedy (New York: Funk & Wagnalls Co. 148 pp.)
• 1913 - 1917 : Commissioner of patents
• 1917: Resigned as commissioner of patents; resumed law practice in New York, N.Y.
• 1917 - 1942 : Practiced law in New York, residing in Yonkers, N.Y.
• 1942, Dec. 7: Died, Yonkers, N.Y.

From the guide to the Thomas Ewing Family Papers, 1757-1941, (bulk 1815-1896), (Manuscript Division Library of Congress)