An Illustrated Congressional Manual. The United States Red Book, 1896, (detail), Collection of U.S. House of Representatives

WARNER, Vespasian, a Representative from Illinois; born in Mount Pleasant (now Farmer City), De Witt County, Ill., April 23, 1842; moved with his parents to Clinton, Ill., in 1843; attended the common and select schools in Clinton and Lombard University, Galesburg, Ill.; studied law in Clinton; enlisted as a private in Company E, Twentieth Regiment, Illinois Volunteer Infantry, June 13, 1861; promoted to sergeant June 23, 1861, second lieutenant February 4, 1862, captain and commissary of subsistence February 10, 1865; brevetted major March 13, 1865, and was mustered out July 13, 1866; was graduated from the law department of Harvard University in 1868; was admitted to the bar the same year and commenced the practice of law in Clinton, Ill.; elected as a Republican to the Fifty-fourth and to the four succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1895-March 3, 1905); chairman, Committee on Revision of the Laws (Fifty-fifth through Fifty-eighth Congresses); served as Commissioner of Pensions from March 4, 1905, to November 25, 1909; engaged in business in Clinton, Ill., as a banker and realty owner and agent; died in Clinton, De Witt County, Ill., on March 31, 1925; interment in Woodlawn Cemetery.