Thomas McLelland BROWNE, Congress, IN (1829-1891)

1829-1891

BROWNE, Thomas McLelland, a Representative from Indiana; born in New Paris, Preble County, Ohio, April 19, 1829; moved to Indiana in January 1844; attended the common schools; moved to Winchester, Randolph County, Ind., in 1848; studied law; was admitted to the bar in 1849 and commenced practice in Winchester; elected prosecuting attorney for the thirteenth judicial circuit in 1855; reelected in 1857 and 1859; secretary of the State senate in 1861; member of the State senate in 1863; assisted in organizing the Seventh Regiment, Indiana Volunteer Cavalry of the Union Army, and went to the field with that regiment as captain of Company B, August 28, 1863; commissioned lieutenant colonel October 1, 1863; promoted to colonel October 10, 1865, and subsequently commissioned by President Lincoln as brigadier general by brevet March 13, 1865; mustered out February 18, 1866; appointed United States attorney for the district of Indiana in April 1869 and served until his resignation August 1, 1872; unsuccessful candidate for Governor in 1872; delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1876; elected as a Republican to the Forty-fifth and to the six succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1877-March 3, 1891); chairman, Committee on Invalid Pensions (Forty-seventh Congress), Committee on Revision of the Laws (Fifty-first Congress); was not a candidate for renomination in 1890; died in Winchester, Ind., July 17, 1891; interment in Fountain Park Cemetery.

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