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Senate Years of Service: 1861-1867 Party: Republican
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HARRIS, Ira, (grandfather of Henry Riggs Rathbone),
a Senator from New York; born in Charleston, Montgomery County, N.Y., May
31, 1802; attended the district school and Homer (N.Y.) Academy; graduated from Union College,
Schenectady, N.Y., in 1824; studied law in Albany; admitted to the bar in 1827 and commenced
practice in Albany; member, State assembly 1845-1846; delegate to the State constitutional
convention in 1846; member, State senate 1847; upon the organization of the Albany Law School in
1850 was engaged as lecturer on equity jurisprudence; justice of the State supreme court 1847-1859;
elected as a Republican to the United States Senate and served from March 4, 1861, to March 3,
1867; unsuccessful candidate for reelection; chairman, Committee on Private Land Claims
(Thirty-seventh through Thirty-ninth Congresses); delegate to the State constitutional convention in
1867; professor in the Albany Law School from 1867 until his death; died in Albany, N.Y.,
December 2, 1875; interment in Rural Cemetery, Colonie, near Watervliet, Albany County, N.Y.
BibliographyDictionary of American Biography; Memorial of Ira Harris. Albany: Joel Munsell, 1876.
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