Ohio Biographies



Caleb Blood Smith


Caleb Blood Smith, a Representative from Indiana; born in Boston, Massachusetts, April 16, 1808; moved with his parents to Ohio in 1814; attended Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, 1825-1826; studied law; was admitted to the bar in 1828 and commenced practice in Connersville, Fayette County, Indiana; founded and edited the Indiana Sentinel in 1832; member of the Indiana State House of Representatives, 1833-1837, 1840, and 1841, and served as speaker in 1836; unsuccessful candidate for the Twenty-seventh Congress in 1841; elected as a Whig to the Twenty-eighth and to the two succeeding Congresses {March 4-1843-March 3, 1849}; chairman, Committee on Territories {Thirtieth Congress}; appointed by President Zachary Taylor a member of the board to investigate claims of American citizens against Mexico; moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, and practiced his profession; member of the peace convention of 1861 held in Washington, D.C. in an effort to devise means to prevent the impending war; appointed Secretary of the Interior in the Cabinet of President Abraham Lincoln and served from March 5, 1861 to January 1, 1863, when he resigned to become judge of the United States District Court for the District of Indiana, in which capacity he served until his death in Indianapolis, Marion County, Indiana, January 7, 1864; interment in the City Cemetery, Connersville, Indiana.

 

From Biographical Directory of the American Congress 1774-1996, Joel D. Treese, CQ Staff Directories, Inc., 1997

 


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