Aaron Thomas BLISS, Congress, MI (1837-1906)

BLISS, Aaron Thomas, a Representative from Michigan; born in Peterboro, Madison County, N.Y., May 22, 1837; attended the common schools; employed as a clerk in a store in Morrisville, N.Y., in 1853 and 1854; attended a select school in Munnsville, N.Y., in 1854; moved to Bouckville, N.Y., in 1855 and engaged in mercantile pursuits; enlisted as a private in the Tenth Regiment, New York Volunteer Cavalry, October 1, 1861; served three years, being confined six months of this time in the prisons of Andersonville, Charleston, Macon, and Columbia; rose while in the service from private to captain; moved to Saginaw, Mich., in December 1865 and engaged in the manufacture of lumber; member of the State senate in 1882; appointed aide-de-camp on the staff of Governor Alger in 1885; held the same position on the staff of the commander in chief of the Grand Army of the Republic in 1888; elected as a Republican to the Fifty-first Congress (March 4, 1889-March 3, 1891); unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1890 to the Fifty-second Congress; resumed the lumber business and also engaged in banking; department commander of the Grand Army of the Republic in Michigan in 1897; Governor of Michigan 1900-1904; died in Milwaukee, Wis., September 16, 1906, while on a visit for medical treatment; interment in Forest Lawn Cemetery, Saginaw, Mich.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present