Page:Autobiographies and portraits of the President, cabinet, Supreme court, and Fifty-fifth Congress (IA autobiographiesp02neal).pdf/233



, of Carson City, was born in Lyons, Wayne County, N. Y. August 9, 1827; removed with his parents, while a small child, to Mesopotamia Township, Trumbull County, Ohio: attended Lyons Union School and Farmington Academy: was teacher of mathematics in the former school while yet a pupil: with the little money thus earned and the assistance of James C. Smith, one of the judges of the supreme court of New York, he entered Yale College, remaining there till the winter of 1849 50, when, attracted by the gold discoveries in California, he found his way thither, arriving at San Francisco in May, 1850: he immediately engaged in mining with pick and shovel in Nevada County, and in this way accumulated some money: in the spring of 1852 he commenced the study of law under John R. McConnell, and in December following was appointed district attorney, to which office he was elected at the general election of the next year; in 1854 was appointed attorney-general of California: in 1860 he removed to Virginia City, Nev., where he was largely engaged in early mining litigation and in the development of the Comstock lode: was chosen a member of the Territorial council in 1861; in 1863 was elected a member of the constitutional convention: was elected United States Senator in 1864 and reëlected in 1869: in 1875 he resumed the practice of law in Nevada, California, and the Pacific Coast generally, and was thus engaged when elected to the United States Senate, as a Republican, in 1887, to succeed James G. Fair, Democrat, and took his seat March 4, 1887: was reëlected in 1893. His term of service will expire March 3, 1899.