William Vandever

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William Vandever (March 31, 1817 – July 23, 1893) was a United States Representative from California and Iowa, and a general in the Union Army during the American Civil War.

Vandever was born in Baltimore, Maryland, where he attended the common schools and pursued an academic course. He moved to Illinois in 1839 and to Iowa in 1851. He studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1852 and commenced practice in Dubuque, Iowa. He was elected as a Republican to the Thirty-sixth and Thirty-seventh Congresses and served from March 4, 1859, to September 24, 1861. He was a member of the peace conference of 1861 held in Washington, D.C., in an effort to devise means to prevent the impending war.

He was mustered into the Union Army as colonel of the 9th Iowa Volunteer Infantry Regiment, never having resigned his seat in Congress. He was promoted to brigadier general of Volunteers in 1862 and brevetted a major general in 1865.

He resumed the practice of law in Dubuque and was appointed United States Indian inspector by President Ulysses S. Grant in 1873, and served until 1877. Vandever moved to San Buenaventura, California in 1884. He was elected as a Republican from California to the Fiftieth and Fifty-first Congresses (March 4, 1887 – March 3, 1891). He was not a candidate for renomination in 1890.

He died in Ventura, California, in 1893 and was buried in Ventura Cemetery.

• William Vandever at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress

[edit] References

• William Vandever at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress