An Illustrated Congressional Manual. The United States Red Book, 1896, (detail), Collection of U.S. House of Representatives

BLUE, Richard Whiting, a Representative from Kansas; born near Parkersburg, Wood County, Va. (now West Virginia), September 8, 1841; worked on a farm in the summertime and studied in the select schools of that locality during the winter season; attended Monongalia Academy, Morgantown, Va., in 1859 and Washington (Pa.) College until his enlistment, on June 29, 1863, as a private in Company A, Third Regiment, West Virginia Volunteer Infantry, during the Civil War; became second and then first lieutenant of the company; honorably discharged May 22, 1866, at Leavenworth, Kans., when he returned to Grafton, W.Va.; taught school; studied law; was admitted to the bar in Virginia, and commenced practice in Linn County, Kans., in 1871; probate judge of Linn County 1872-1876; county attorney 1876-1880; member of the State senate 1880-1888; elected as a Republican to the Fifty-fourth Congress (March 4, 1895-March 3, 1897); unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1896 to the Fifty-fifth Congress; engaged in the practice of law until his death in Bartlesville, Washington County, Okla., January 28, 1907; interment in Pleasanton Cemetery, Pleasanton, Linn County, Kans.