”Members of the House of Representatives on Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington” (detail), engraving after Valerian Gribayedoff, Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, 1894, Collection of U.S. House of Representatives

BYNUM, William Dallas, a Representative from Indiana; born near Newberry, Greene County, Ind., June 26, 1846; attended the country schools, and was graduated from the University of Indiana at Bloomington in 1869; studied law; was admitted to the bar in 1872 and commenced practice in Washington, Ind.; served as the first city clerk; city attorney of Washington 1871-1875; mayor of Washington 1875-1879; moved from Daviess County to Indianapolis in 1880; member of the State house of representatives 1881-1885, and served as speaker in 1885; elected as a Democrat to the Forty-ninth and to the four succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1885-March 3, 1895); served for some time as whip of the Democratic minority; censured by the House of Representatives on May 17, 1890, for the use of unparliamentary language; unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1894 to the Fifty-fourth Congress; was active in the organization of the National (Gold-Standard) Democratic Party in 1896, and was chairman of its national committee 1896-1898; settled in Washington, D.C.; appointed by President McKinley in 1900 a member of the commission to codify the United States criminal laws and served until 1906; retired from the practice of law; died in Indianapolis, Ind., October 21, 1927; interment in Oak Grove Cemetery, Washington, Ind.