History of East Las Vegas, (San Miguel County) New Mexico United States of America

Our database does not include an historic photo for East Las Vegas, (San Miguel County) New Mexico, do you have one you would like to contribute? Contact Us!

John James Ingalls, senator, was born in Middleton, Mass., Dec. 29, 1833; son of Elias Theodore and Eliza (Chase) Ingalls; grandson of Theodore and Ruth (Flint) Ingalls; and a descendant of Edmund Ingalls, who, with his brother Francis, came with Endicott from England in 1629 and founded Lynn, Mass.; and of Aquilla Chase, who settled in New Hampshire in 1630. When fourteen years old he contributed both in prose and verse to the Carpet Bag, to the Knickerbocker Magazine, to the Boston Transcript and to the local papers of Haverhill, where he was brought up and prepared for college. He was graduated at Williams in 1855, studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1857. He removed to Sumner, Kan., in October, 1858, where he joined the Free-soil party, and the next year was a delegate to the Wyandotte constitutional convention. He was secretary of the territorial council in 1860; secretary of the state senate in 1861; state senator from Atchison county in 1862, and was defeated in 1863, and again in 1864, for election as lieutenant-governor. He was married, in 1861, to Anna Cheeseborough, of New York city. In 1872 he refused nomination for representative in congress. He joined the state militia and held the ranks of major, lieutenant-colonel and judge advocate, 1863-65. He edited the Atchison Champion, aided in founding the Kansas Magazine, and became well-known as a writer by his "Blue Grass" and "Catfish Aristocracy," published first in its pages. In 1873 he was a candidate for U.S. senator, as successor to Senator S.C. Pomeroy, and he was almost unanimously elected, after a state senator on the floor had denounced Pomeroy as the giver of a large bribe to secure the state senator's vote. Ingalls took his seat, March 4, 1873, and was twice re-elected, his last term in the senate expiring March 3, 1891. He was chairman of the committee on the District of Columbia and a member of the judiciary, pensions, quadro-cen-tennial and rules committees. He succeeded John Sherman as president of the U.S. senate pro tempore, and served as such from 1887 to 1891. In 1891, in the contest for re-election, he was defeated by William Alfred Peffer, of Topeka, a member of the Populist party. He received the degree of LL.D. from Williams college in 1884. After leaving the senate he engaged in lecturing and in literature. Suffering from an affliction of the throat he travelled in Arizona and New Mexico in 1899-1900, where, in July, 1900, his wife and sons, Ellsworth and Sheffield, joined him. He died at East Las Vegas, N.M., Aug. 16, 1900.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

History of East Las Vegas, (San Miguel County) New Mexico

Biographies: