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Senate Years of Service: 1859-1861 Party: Democrat
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LANE, Joseph, (father of La Fayette Lane and grandfather of Harry Lane),
a Delegate and a Senator from Oregon; born in Buncombe County, N.C.,
December 14, 1801; moved with his parents to Henderson, Ky., in 1810; attended the common
schools; worked in a general store; moved to Vanderburg County, Ind., in 1821 and farmed; elected
to the first of several terms in the State house of representatives in 1822; member, State senate
1844-1846; during the Mexican War, led a brigade in several battles; brevetted major general in
1847; appointed by President James Polk to be governor of the Territory of Oregon 1849-1850,
when he resigned; unsuccessful candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1852; elected
as a Delegate from the Territory to the Thirty-second and to the three succeeding Congresses and
served from June 21, 1851, until February 14, 1859, when the Territory became a State; upon the
admission of Oregon as a State into the Union in 1859 was elected as a Democrat to the United
States Senate and served from February 14, 1859, to March 3, 1861; did not seek reelection in
1860, having become a candidate for Vice President; chairman, Committee on Engrossed Bills
(Thirty-sixth Congress), Committee on Revolutionary Claims (Thirty-sixth Congress); unsuccessful
candidate for Vice President of the United States on the Democratic ticket in 1860; died in Roseburg,
Oreg., April 19, 1881; interment in the Masonic Cemetery.
BibliographyDictionary of American Biography;
Hendrickson, James. Joe Lane of Oregon. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1967;
Kelley, Margaret Jean. The Career of Joseph Lane, Frontier Politician. Ph.D. dissertation, Catholic
University of America, 1941.
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