Page:Men of Mark in America vol 2.djvu/427

 JAMES WOLCOTT WADSWORTH ADSWORTH, JAMES WOLCOTT, soldier, farmer, legislator, member of the lower house of congress from the thirty-fourth New York district, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, October 12, 1846, son of General James S. and Mary (Wharton) Wadsworth. He was educated in the public schools, and at a college preparatory school, at New Haven, Connecticut, for entrance to Yale college; but instead of going to college he entered the army, in 1864, serving until the close of the Civil war as aide-de-camp on the staff of General G. K. Warren. For distinguished service at the battle of Five Forks, April 1, 1865, he received the brevet rank of major in the United States army. After the war he took up his residence in Geneseo, New York, where he managed the family estate, and during the years 1875, 1876, and 1877, he was supervisor of the town. The following year he was elected to the New York state assembly, in which he was continued two terms; and from 1880 to 1881, he was comptroller of the state of New York. In the latter year he was elected to congress from the Geneseo district, and has served as a member of the forty-seventh, forty-eighth, fifty-second, fifty-third, fifty-fourth, fifty- fifth, fifty-sixth, fifty-seventh and fifty-eighth Congresses, and has been reelected to the fifty-ninth Congress. He is the present chairman of the important house committee on Agriculture, and a member of the committee on the District of Columbia.

On September 14, 1876, he was married to Louise, daughter of William R. and Louisa (Johnson) Travers of New York. Their oldest son is, in 1906, speaker of the New York assembly.