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Senate Years of Service: 1887-1899; 1901-1904 Party: Republican; Republican
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QUAY, Matthew Stanley, a Senator from Pennsylvania; born in Dillsburg, York County, Pa., on September
30, 1833; attended Beaver and Indiana Academies and graduated from Jefferson College,
Canonsburg, Pa., in 1850; taught school; studied law; admitted to the bar in 1854 and commenced
practice in Beaver, Pa.; prothonotary of Beaver County 1856-1860; during the Civil War, served as a
colonel of the One Hundred and Thirty-fourth Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteers, lieutenant colonel,
assistant commissary general, military State agent at Washington, private secretary to the Governor,
and major and chief of transportation and telegraphs; awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor in
1888 for voluntarily resuming duty, although out of active service, on the eve of the Battle of
Fredericksburg, Virginia, December 13, 1862; member, State house of representatives 1865-1867;
owned and edited the Beaver Radical 1867-1872; secretary of the Commonwealth 1872-1878,
1879-1882; recorder of the city of Philadelphia; State treasurer 1885-1887; elected in 1887 as a
Republican to the United States Senate; reelected in 1893 and served from March 4, 1887, to March
3, 1899; unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1899; appointed by the Governor to the United
States Senate to fill the vacancy in the term commencing March 4, 1899, caused by the failure of the
legislature to elect; presented his credentials on December 4, 1899, but the Senate did not seat him and
referred the matter to the Committee on Privileges and Elections; resolution of the Senate on April 24,
1900, declared him not entitled to the seat; elected on January 15, 1901, to fill the existing vacancy,
and served from January 16, 1901, until his death; chairman, Committee to Examine Branches of the
Civil Service (Fiftieth Congress), Committee on Transportation Routes to the Seaboard (Fifty-first
and Fifty-second Congresses), Committee on the Library (Fifty-second Congress), Committee on
Public Buildings and Grounds (Fifty-fourth and Fifty-fifth Congresses), Committee on the
Organization, Conduct, and Expenditures of Executive Departments (Fifty-seventh and Fifty-eighth
Congresses); died in Beaver, Pa., May 28, 1904; interment in Beaver Cemetery.
BibliographyDictionary of American Biography;
Kehl, James. Boss Rule in the Gilded Age: Matt Quay of Pennsylvania. Pittsburgh:
University of Pittsburgh Press, 1981; U.S. Congress. Memorial Addresses. 58th
Cong., 3d sess., 1904-1905. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1905.
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