Thomas Weston Tipton (August 5, 1817November 26, 1899) was a Senator from

Nebraska Nebraska ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Ka ...

Biography

Tipton was born in

Cadiz, Ohio Cadiz ( ) is a village in Harrison County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. The population was 3,051 at the 2020 census. History Cadiz was founded in 1803 at the junction of westward roads from Pittsburgh and Washington, Pennsylvania ...

, and attended

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Meadville, Pennsylvania Meadville is a city in Crawford County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. The population was 13,050 at the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census. The first permanent settlement in Northwestern Pennsylvania, Meadville is withi ...

. He pursued classical studies and graduated from Madison College,

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, in 1840. He studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1844. He was a member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in 1845. He was appointed to a position in the United States Land Office from 1849 to 1852; he then resumed the practice of law in

McConnelsville, Ohio McConnelsville is a village in and the county seat of Morgan County, Ohio, United States, on the east bank of the Muskingum River. Located southeast of Zanesville and northwest of Marietta, the population was 1,667 at the 2020 census. His ...

, in 1853. He was ordained a minister of the

Methodist Episcopal Church The Methodist Episcopal Church (MEC) was the oldest and largest Methodist denomination in the United States from its founding in 1784 until 1939. It was also the first religious denomination in the US to organize itself nationally. In 1939, th ...

in 1856. Around 1859, he moved to

Brownville, Nebraska Brownville is a village in Nemaha County, Nebraska, United States. The population was 142 at the 2020 census. History Established in 1854 and incorporated in 1856, Brownville was the largest town in the Nebraska Territory, with a population ...

and joined the Congregational Church. He was a member of the 1859 Nebraska constitutional convention and the

Nebraska Territory The Territory of Nebraska was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from May 30, 1854, until March 1, 1867, when the final extent of the territory was admitted to the Union as the state of Nebraska. The Nebrask ...

council in 1860. During the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

, Tipton was appointed chaplain of the First Regiment, Nebraska Volunteer Infantry 1861–1865. He was the assessor of internal revenue for Nebraska in 1865, and a member of the State constitutional convention in 1867. Upon the admission of Nebraska as a State into the Union, he was elected as a Republican to the

United States Senate The United States Senate is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the upper house, with the United States House of Representatives, U.S. House of Representatives being the lower house. Together, the Senate and ...

in 1867. Tipton was reelected in 1869 and served from March 1, 1867, to March 3, 1875. "Tipton looks the Radical all over, but doesn't always act it," a Washington correspondent wrote in 1868. "There is not another man in the Senate whose appearance goes so far to make up the beau ideal of unpolished earnestness. Full six feet in height, straight as an arrow, with long brown hair combed back from his forehead till it touches his coat collar, a pair of eyes that never look, but always glare or stare, and seem ready to jump from their sockets through the gold-rimmed spectacles in front of them, when their owner gets excited, which occurs every time he speaks in debate; a low forehead, a sharp nose and a mouth and chin which tell of bull-dog courage and determination, these, and the matter and manner of his speeches in the Senate, remind the student of history of what might have been the leader of the Barebones Parliament two hundred years ago."Cincinnati Commercial, March 19, 1868. Tipton had been elected as a Republican and voted for the conviction of President Andrew Johnson in the 1868 impeachment trial. By 1872, however, he had fallen out of favor with the Grant Administration and became a strong critic of the president's policies. Endorsing the Liberal Republican movement and favoring Horace Greeley for president that year, he effectively read himself out of the party. After that, he resumed the practice of law and was an unsuccessful candidate for

Governor of Nebraska The governor of Nebraska is the head of government of the U.S. state of Nebraska as provided by the fourth article of the Constitution of Nebraska. The officeholder is elected to a four-year term, with elections held two years after presidential ...

in the election of 1880. He died in

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

, November 26, 1899, and was interred in

Rock Creek Cemetery Rock Creek Cemetery is an cemetery with a natural and rolling landscape located at Rock Creek Church Road, NW, and Webster Street, NW, off Hawaii Avenue, NE, in the Petworth (Washington, D.C.), Petworth neighborhood of Washington, D.C., across ...

References

*Tipton, Thomas. ''Forty Years of Nebraska At Home and In Congress''. Lincoln: State Journal Co., 1902.

External links

Congressional biography
Grant asks Schurz to play on a Flute

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tipton, Thomas Weston 1817 births 1899 deaths People from Cadiz, Ohio Burials at Rock Creek Cemetery Republican Party United States senators from Nebraska Nebraska Republicans Members of the Nebraska Territorial Legislature Members of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives Pennsylvania Republicans Allegheny College alumni People of Nebraska in the American Civil War People from Brownville, Nebraska People from McConnelsville, Ohio 19th-century members of the Pennsylvania General Assembly 19th-century United States senators