Cyrus Clay CARPENTER, Congress, IA (1829-1898)

CARPENTER, Cyrus Clay, a Representative from Iowa; born near Harford, Susquehanna County, Pa., November 24, 1829; attended the common schools, and was graduated from Harford Academy in 1853; moved to Iowa in 1854 and engaged in teaching and afterwards in land surveying; studied law but never practiced; county surveyor of Webster County in 1856; member of the State house of representatives 1858-1860; during the Civil War was appointed captain of Volunteers March 24, 1862, lieutenant colonel September 26, 1864, and brevet colonel of Volunteers July 12, 1865; registrar of the State land office 1866-1868; Governor of Iowa 1872-1876; Second Comptroller of the Treasury from January 1876 to September 1877; appointed railroad commissioner of Iowa March 26, 1878; elected as a Republican to the Forty-sixth and Forty-seventh Congresses (March 4, 1879-March 3, 1883); was not a candidate for renomination in 1882 to the Forty-eighth Congress; again served in the State house of representatives 1884-1886; postmaster of Fort Dodge 1889-1893; engaged in the management of his farm and in the real-estate business; died in Fort Dodge, Iowa, May 29, 1898; interment in Oakland Cemetery.

Bibliography

Throne, Mildred. Cyrus Clay Carpenter and Iowa Politics, 1854-1898. Iowa City: State Historical Society of Iowa, 1974.

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