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AYER, Richard Small, a Representative from Virginia; born in Montville, Waldo County, Maine, October 9, 1829; attended the common schools; was engaged for a number of years in agricultural and mercantile pursuits; during the Civil War enlisted in 1861 in the Union Army as a private in Company A, Fourth Regiment, Maine Volunteer Infantry; subsequently promoted to first lieutenant and was mustered out as a captain on March 22, 1863, for disability; settled in Virginia in 1865 and located near Warsaw; delegate to the Virginia constitutional convention in 1867-1868; upon the readmission of the State of Virginia to representation was elected as a Republican to the Forty-first Congress and served from January 31, 1870, until March 3, 1871; was not a candidate for renomination in 1870; engaged in agricultural pursuits; returned to Montville, Maine; member of the State house of representatives in 1888; died in Liberty, Waldo County, Maine, December 14, 1896; interment in Mount Repose Cemetery, Montville, Maine.