George Eliphaz SPENCER, Congress, AL (1836-1893)

SPENCER, George Eliphaz, a Senator from Alabama; born in Champion, Jefferson County, N.Y., November 1, 1836; pursued classical studies; attended Montreal College, Canada; moved to Iowa; secretary of the State senate in 1856; studied law; admitted to the bar in 1857 and practiced; during the Civil War entered the Union Army as a captain, and when he resigned in 1865 was brevetted brigadier general for gallantry on the field; resumed the practice of law in Decatur, Ala.; appointed register in bankruptcy for the fourth district of Alabama 1867; upon the readmission of Alabama to representation in 1868 was elected as a Republican to the United States Senate; reelected in 1872 and served from July 13, 1868, to March 3, 1879; chairman, Committee on the District of Columbia (Forty-fourth Congress), Committee on Military Affairs (Forty-fifth Congress); retired to his ranch in Nevada; died in Washington, D.C., February 19, 1893; interment in Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Va.

Bibliography

American National Biography; Watson, Elbert L. “George Eliphaz Spencer.” In Alabama United States Senators, pp. 73-76. Huntsville, AL: Strode Publishers, 1982; Woolfolk, Sarah Van V. “George E. Spencer: A Carpetbagger in Alabama.” Alabama Review 19 (January 1966): 41-52.

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