History of Andover, (Ashtabula County) Ohio United States of America

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Schuyler Colfax, statesman, was born in New York city, March 23, 1823; son of Schuyler and Hannah (Stryker) Colfax; grandson of Gen. William and Hetty (Schuyler) Colfax, and of Peter and ??- (De La Mater) Stryker; and a descendant from William Colfax who came from England and settled in Wethersfield, Conn., before 1643; from Glaude and Hester (Du Bois) Le Maister, who came from Brittany, were married in Amsterdam and settled in Harlem, New Amsterdam; and from Jacob Gerriste Strycker, who came to New Amsterdam in 1652 from Holland. His maternal grandfather was a captain of Washington's life-guards, and his grandmother a daughter of Gen. Philip Schuyler. His father, a clerk in the Mechanics' bank in New York city, died Oct. 20, 1822, before Schuyler was born, and his mother afterward married George W. Mathews. Schuyler attended the best private schools and served as a clerk in the store of his step-father. In 1836 the family removed to New Carlisle, Ind., where Schuyler was appointed by his step-father in 1841 deputy auditor of St. Joseph county, with his office at South Bend. He became interested in journalism and served for two years as reporter of the state senate for the State Journal, Indianapolis. In 1844, in company with A. W. West, he purchased the Free Press, published at South Bend, and changed its name in 1845 to the St. Joseph Valley Register, making it a Whig organ, and the paper and its editor acquired a state reputation. In the Whig national convention of 1848 he was a delegate and one of the secretaries. In 1850 he was a member of the state convention to revise the constitution, and voted against the legal exclusion of free colored men from Indiana. In 1851 he made his first political canvass, for representative in the 33rd congress against Dr. Graham N. Fitch, met seventy speaking appointments, but failed of an election. He was a delegate-at-large to the Whig national convention of 1852; declined renomination as representative in 1853, but in 1855 accepted the Republican nomination. He was a representative in the 34th and six succeeding congresses, 1855-69, serving as speaker of the house throughout the 38th, 39th and 40th congresses, and gaining renown as an effective party leader and legislator. As chairman of the committee on post-offices and post-roads he greatly advanced the mail facilities and gave to the growing region beyond the Mississippi its first daily mail service. In 1861 he championed the cause of General Fr?mont when his Missouri campaign was criticised in the house by Gen. Frank P. Blair. In 1862 he introduced the bill afterward adopted and made a part of the statute law, punishing as felons fraudulent contractors speculating on the necessities of the government. He left the speaker's chair on April 8, 1864, in order to move the expulsion of Representative Long of Ohio for words spoken in debate, in which the offending representative had favored the recognition of the Southern Confederacy. His resolution did not pass until modified so as to make it a resolution of censure rather than expulsion. Temperance associations found in Mr. Colfax an able advocate, and he advanced legislation looking to the carrying out of such reforms. In the Republican national convention of 1868, upon the nomination of Gen. U. S. Grant as the party candidate for the presidency, Mr. Colfax was made the candidate for the vice-presidency on the first ballot. This transferred him on March 4, 1869, to the chair of the presiding officer of the senate, in which position he served throughout the 41st and 42nd congresses. His apparent encouragement of the Liberal Republican movement of 1872 induced the leaders of that wing of the party to mention his name in connection with the Presidency, and this fact, although in no way encouraged or approved by Mr. Colfax, was sufficient to weaken him before the regular convention at Philadelphia and he was defeated in the vice-presidential contest. The friends of Mr. Greeley, upon his death in November, offered to Mr. Colfax the editorship of the New York Tribune, which he declined. The congressional investigation of the methods and practices of the cr?dit mobilier of America and the connection of members of congress with the enterprise, together with the allotment of shares of stock to representatives in congress for the purpose of controlling legislation, resulted in the report of the house judiciary committee in 1873, that so far as the investigation implicated Mr. Colfax, the house had no ground to impeach him, as the offence, if committed, was before his election to the vice-presidency. He strenuously denied the charges made before the committee, and his friends remained ever faithful. The charge was based on the evidence of a check payable to "S. C. or bearer," and it proved to have been paid to another person; but the imputation, coming from those whom he had supposed to be his friends, hurt him so keenly that he retired to South Bend, Ind., and thereafter devoted himself to the lecture platform. His more popular lectures were "Across the Continent," and "Abraham Lincoln," the first being his experiences in a journey to San Francisco and return, made in the summer of 1865; and the-second of peculiar interest to the public on account of the personal friendship that had existed between the lecturer and his subject. He was a regent of the Smithsonian institution. He also actively engaged in the cause of Odd Fellowship and the Odd Fellows of Indianapolis, Ind., erected to his memory a bronze statue in University park, unveiled May 18, 1887. Col. O. J. Hollister prepared a "Life of Colfax," published in 1886. He was married Oct. 10, 1844, to Evelyn E., daughter of Col. Ralph Clark of Argyle, N.Y. She died at Newport, R. I., in July, 1863, and he was married at Andover, Ohio, Nov. 18, 1867, to Ellen M., daughter of Theodore L. Wade, and niece of Benjamin F. Wade, U.S. senator from Ohio. Schuyler Colfax died in Mankato, Minn., Jan. 13, 1885.

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

History of Andover, (Ashtabula County) Ohio

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