Library of Congress

DOOLITTLE, James Rood, a Senator from Wisconsin; born in Hampton, N.Y., January 3, 1815; attended the common schools and Middlebury (Vt.) Academy, and graduated from Hobart College, Geneva, N.Y., in 1834; studied law; admitted to the bar in 1837 and commenced practice in Rochester, N.Y.; moved to Warsaw, N.Y., in 1841; district attorney of Wyoming County, N.Y., 1847-1850; moved to Racine, Wis., in 1851; judge of the first judicial circuit of Wisconsin 1853-1856, when he resigned; the repeal of the Missouri Compromise caused him to leave the Democratic Party; elected as a Republican to the United States Senate in January 1857; reelected in 1863 and served from March 4, 1857, to March 3, 1869; chairman, Committee on Indian Affairs (Thirty-seventh through Thirty-ninth Congresses); left the Republican Party and was an unsuccessful candidate for Governor on the Democratic ticket in 1871; resumed the practice of law in Chicago, Ill., but retained his residence in Racine, Wis.; trustee of the University of Chicago, serving one year as its president, and was for many years a professor in its law school; died in Edgewood, Providence, R.I., July 23, 1897; interment in Mound Cemetery, Racine, Wis.