Page:Autobiographies and portraits of the President, cabinet, Supreme court, and Fifty-fifth Congress (IA autobiographiesp02neal).pdf/209

 THOMAS COLLIER PLATT

, of Owego, was born in Owego, N. Y., July 15, 1833; was prepared for college at the Owego Academy; was a member of the class of 1853 of Yale College, but was compelled to give up the course in that institution on account of ill health; received the honorary degree of M. A, from that college in 1876; entered mercantile life soon after leaving school, and has been in active business since; was president of the Tioga National Bank at its organization; became largely interested in the lumbering business in Michigan; was county clerk of the county of Tioga in 1859, 1860, and 1861; was elected to the Forty-Third and Forty-Fourth Congresses; was elected United States Senator January 18, 1881, and resigned that office May 16 of the same year; was chosen secretary and director of the United States Express Company in 1879, and in 1880 was elected president of the company; was member and president of the board of quarantine commissioners of New York from 1880 till 1888; was delegate to the national Republican conventions of 1876, 1880, 1884, 1888, 1892, and 1896; was president of the Southern Central Railroad; has been a member of the national Republican committee; was elected United States Senator in 1896, and took his seat March 4, 1897. His term of service will expire March 3, 1903.