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| Image courtesy of Library of Congress |
MOORHEAD, James Kennedy, a Representative from Pennsylvania; born in Halifax, Dauphin County,
Pa., September 7, 1806; attended the common schools; served an apprenticeship
at the tanners trade, after which he became a canal contractor; superintendent
and supervisor on the Juniata Canal in 1828; projected and established the
first passenger packet line on the Pennsylvania Canal in 1835; appointed
adjutant general of Pennsylvania in 1838; constructed the Monongahela
Navigation Canal and was president of the company twenty-one years; president
of the Atlantic & Ohio Telegraph Co., which later became the Western Union
Telegraph Co.; elected as a Republican to the Thirty-sixth and to the four
succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1859-March 3, 1869); chairman, Committee on
Manufactures (Thirty-eighth and Thirty-ninth Congresses); declined to be a
candidate for renomination in 1868; resumed his former business activities;
delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1868; was an unsuccessful
candidate for election to the United States Senate in 1880; president of the
chamber of commerce of Pittsburgh from 1877 until his death; died in
Pittsburgh, Pa., March 6, 1884; interment in Allegheny Cemetery.
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