Jacob P. Chamberlain

Jacob Payson Chamberlain (August 1, 1802 – October 5, 1878) was a U.S. Representative from New York during the American Civil War.

Life and career

Jacob P. Chamberlain was born in Dudley, Massachusetts on August 1, 1802. His family moved to western New York in 1807. He was educated there and became a school teacher and farmer and served as Varick's Town Clerk before settling in Seneca Falls, New York, where he began a business career.^[1][2]

Chamberlain owned and operated farms, flour mills, malthouses, distilleries and woolen mills, and was one of the original organizers of the first bank in Seneca Falls.^[3]

Originally a Bucktail Democrat, he later became a Whig, and joined the Republican Party when it was founded in the mid-1850s.^[4] He served in several local offices, including school board member and village president.^[5]

Chamberlain was an active supporter of the Methodist Episcopal Church.^[6]

In 1848 he attended the Seneca Falls Convention and was one of the signers of the Declaration of Sentiments which called for equal rights for women.^[7]

He was a member of the New York State Assembly in 1859.^[8]

Chamberlain was elected as a Republican to the Thirty-seventh Congress (March 4, 1861 – March 3, 1863).^[9] He was not a candidate for renomination and returned to his business and farming interests.

Death and burial

He died in Seneca Falls, New York, October 5, 1878^[10][11] and was interred in Restvale Cemetery.^[12]

Family

Chamberlain had an uncle named Jacob Chamberlain, and a cousin, Jacob M. Chamberlain. They lived in the same area, and they are sometimes confused with each other in records and documents.^[13]

References

1. John T. Hubbell; James W. Geary; Jon L. Wakelyn (1995). Biographical Dictionary of the Union Northern Leaders of the Civil War. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 90. ISBN 978-0-313-20920-8.
2. Seneca Falls Historical Society, Jacob P. Chamberlain, Papers Read Before the Seneca Falls Historical Society, 1906, pages 54 to 58
3. James Hilton Manning (1917). Century of American Savings Banks Pub. Under the Auspices of the Savings Banks Association of the State of New York in Commemoration of the Centenary of Savings Banks in America. B. F. Buck. p. 24.
4. William D. Murphy (1859). Biographical Sketches of the State Officers and Members of the Legislature of the State of New York, in 1859. C. Van Benthuysen. p. 141.
5. Blake Aaron Willey, The Origins of the Kuney Family in America, Volume 2, 2001, page 62
6. Manual of the Churches of Seneca County With Sketches of Their Pastors, 1895-96. Courier. 1896. p. 147.
7. Frances T. Barbieri; Kathy Jans-Duffy (2009). Seneca Falls. Arcadia Publishing. p. 31. ISBN 978-0-7385-6588-0.
8. HUTCHINS, S.C. (1869). CIVIL LIST AND FORMS OF GOVERNMENT OF THE COLONY AND STATE OF NEW YORK. COMPILED FROM OFFICIAL AND AUTHENTIC SOURCES. p. 489.
9. United States Congressional Serial Set. U.S. Government Printing Office. 1913. p. 538.
10. Thomas William Herringshaw (1909). Herringshaw's National Library of American Biography Contains Thirty-five Thousand Biographies of the Acknowledged Leaders of Life and Thought of the United States; Illustrated with Three Thousand Vignette Portraits. American Publishers' Association. p. 587.
11. New York Times, Death notice, Jacob P. Chamberlain, October 6, 1878
12. Thomas E. Spencer (1998). Where They're Buried A Directory Containing More Than Twenty Thousand Names of Notable Persons Buried in American Cemeteries, with Listings of Many Prominent People who Were Cremated. Genealogical Publishing Com. p. 234. ISBN 978-0-8063-4823-0.
13. National Park Service, Biography, Jacob P. Chamberlain, Women's Rights National Historical Park, accessed January 21, 2013

External resources

• United States Congress. "Jacob P. Chamberlain (id: C000278)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. Retrieved on 2009-5-12
• Jacob P. Chamber\lain at Find A Grave

 This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.