Image courtesy of Moorland–Spingarn Research Center, Howard University

O’HARA, James Edward, a Representative from North Carolina; born in New York City February 26, 1844; pursued an academic course; studied law in North Carolina and at Howard University, Washington, D.C.; engrossing clerk in the constitutional convention of North Carolina in 1868, also in the State house of representatives in 1868 and 1869; chairman of the board of commissioners for Halifax County 1872-1876; was admitted to the bar in 1873 and practiced; member of the State constitutional convention in 1875; unsuccessfully contested the election of William H. Kitchin to the Forty-sixth Congress; elected as a Republican to the Forty-eighth and Forty-ninth Congresses (March 4, 1883-March 3, 1887); unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1886 to the Fiftieth Congress; resumed the practice of law in New Bern, Craven County, N.C., and died there September 15, 1905; interment in Greenwood Cemetery.