John Van Voorhis
Biography




 
John Van Voorhis (October 22, 1826 - October 20, 1905) was a United States 
Representative from New York. Born in Decatur, Otsego County, he pursued an
academic course, studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1851 and commenced
practice in Elmira, Chemung County. He was a member of the board of education in
1857, was city attorney in 1859, and was appointed collector of internal revenue
for the twenty-eighth district of New York and held that office from September
1, 1862 to March 31, 1863. He was a delegate to the Republican National
Convention in 1864 and was elected as a Republican to the Forty-sixth and Forty
-seventh Congresses, holding office from March 4, 1879 to March 3, 1883. During
the Forty-seventh Congress he was chairman of the Committee on Mines and Mining.
He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1882 to the Forty-eighth
Congress and resumed the practice of law in Rochester. He was elected to the
Fifty-third Congress, holding office from March 4, 1893 to March 3, 1895; he was
then an unsuccessful candidate for renomination in 1894 to the Fifty-fourth
Congress. Van Voorhis resumed the practice of law in Rochester and died there in 1905;
interment was in Mount Hope Cemetery.
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