Elbridge G. Lapham

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Elbridge Gerry Lapham was a U.S. Senator from New York from 1881-1885.

Lapham was born in Farmington, New York on October 18, 1814. He attended the public schools and the Canandaigua Academy. He studied civil engineering and law and was admitted to the bar in 1844 and practiced in Canandaigua, New York.

He was member of the constitutional convention of New York in 1867. He was elected as a Republican to the Forty-fourth United States Congress and to the three succeeding Congresses and served from March 4, 1875, until his resignation July 29, 1881, having been elected Senator. He was one of the managers appointed by the House of Representatives in 1876 to conduct the impeachment proceedings against ex-Secretary of War William W. Belknap.

He was elected as a Republican to the United States Senate on July 22, 1881, to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Roscoe Conkling and served from August 2, 1881, to March 3, 1885. He was not a candidate for reelection. Elbridge served as the chairman of the Committee on Fish and Fisheries (Forty-eighth United States Congress).

He resumed the practice of law in Canandaigua. He died at “Glen Gerry,” on Canandaigua Lake, January 8, 1890 and was interred in Woodlawn Cemetery in Canandaigua.

Preceded by Roscoe Conkling

U.S. Senator (Class 3) from New York 1881-1885

Succeeded by William M. Evarts

This article incorporates facts obtained from the public domain Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.