Walter Reeves (September 25, 1848 – April 9, 1909) was an American educator, lawyer, and politician who served four terms as a

U.S. Representative The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Article One of th ...

from

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...

from 1895 to 1903.

Biography

Walter Reeves was born near

Brownsville, Pennsylvania Brownsville is a borough in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, United States, first settled in 1785 as the site of a trading post a few years after the defeat of the Iroquois enabled a resumption of westward migration after the American Revolutionary ...

on September 25, 1848. He moved with his parents to Illinois in 1856, where they settled upon a farm in La Salle County. He attended the public schools, and later taught school while studying law. He was

admitted to the bar An admission to practice law is acquired when a lawyer receives a license to practice law. In jurisdictions with two types of lawyer, as with barristers and solicitors, barristers must gain admission to the bar whereas for solicitors there are dist ...

Mount Vernon, Illinois Mount Vernon is a city in Jefferson County, Illinois, United States, and its county seat. The population was 14,600 at the 2020 census. Mount Vernon is the principal city of the Mount Vernon, Illinois micropolitan area, which includes all of ...

, in 1875, and commenced practice in

Streator, Illinois Streator is a city in LaSalle County, Illinois, LaSalle and Livingston County, Illinois, Livingston counties in the U.S. state of Illinois. The city is situated on the Vermilion River (Illinois River tributary), Vermilion River approximately so ...

Congress

Reeves was elected as a Republican to the Fifty-fourth and to the three succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1895 – March 3, 1903). He served as chairman of the Committee on Patents ( Fifty-seventh Congress). He was not a candidate for renomination in 1902. He was an unsuccessful candidate for the Republican nomination for governor in 1900.

Later career and death

After Congress, he resumed the practice of law. He died at his home in

on April 9, 1909, and was interred in Riverview Cemetery.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Reeves, Walter 1848 births 1909 deaths People from Streator, Illinois Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Illinois People from Mount Vernon, Illinois Politicians from Fayette County, Pennsylvania 19th-century members of the United States House of Representatives