Thomas Brackett REED, Congress, ME (1839-1902)
REED, Thomas Brackett, a Representative from Maine; born in Portland, Cumberland County, Maine, October 18, 1839; attended the public schools; was graduated from Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine, in 1860; studied law; acting assistant paymaster, United States Navy, from April 19, 1864, to November 4, 1865; was admitted to the bar in 1865 and commenced practice in Portland, Maine; member of the State house of representatives in 1868 and 1869; served in the State senate in 1870; attorney general of Maine 1870-1872; city solicitor of Portland 1874-1877; elected as a Republican to the Forty-fifth and to the eleven succeeding Congresses and served from March 4, 1877, to September 4, 1899, when he resigned; chairman, Committee on the Judiciary (Forty-seventh Congress), Committee on Rules (Fifty-first, Fifty-fourth, and Fifty-fifth Congresses); Speaker of the House of Representatives (Fifty-first, Fifty-fourth, and Fifty-fifth Congresses); moved to New York City and engaged in the practice of his profession; died in Washington, D.C., on December 7, 1902; interment in Evergreen Cemetery, Portland, Maine.
Bibliography
Offenberg, Richard Stanley. âThe Political Career of Thomas Brackett Reed.â Ph.D. diss., New York University, 1963; Robinson, William A. Thomas B. Reed: Parliamentarian. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1930; Tuchman, Barbara. âEnd of a Dream.â In The Proud Tower, pp. 134-94. New York: Bantam Books, 1966.Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present