Elisha Mathewson (April 18, 1767October 14, 1853) was a

United States senator The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and powe ...

from

Rhode Island Rhode Island (, like ''road'') is a state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is the smallest U.S. state by area and the seventh-least populous, with slightly fewer than 1.1 million residents as of 2020, but it ...

Youth and career

Born in

Scituate, Rhode Island Scituate () is a town in Providence County, Rhode Island, United States. The population was 10,384 at the 2020 census. History Scituate was first settled in 1710 by emigrants from Scituate, Massachusetts. The original spelling of the town's na ...

, Mathewson pursued an academic course and was justice of the peace of Scituate. He engaged in agricultural pursuits and in 1821 was a member of the

Rhode Island House of Representatives The Rhode Island House of Representatives is the lower house of the Rhode Island General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Rhode Island, the upper house being the Rhode Island Senate. It is composed of 75 members, elected ...

, and served as speaker during that period. He was a member of the

Rhode Island Senate The Rhode Island Senate is the upper house of the Rhode Island General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Rhode Island, the lower house being the Rhode Island House of Representatives. It is composed of 38 Senators, each of wh ...

in 1822, and was elected as a

Democratic-Republican The Democratic-Republican Party, known at the time as the Republican Party and also referred to as the Jeffersonian Republican Party among other names, was an American political party founded by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison in the early ...

to the U.S. Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of

James Fenner James Fenner (January 22, 1771April 17, 1846) was an American politician who served as a United States Senator as well as the 7th, 11th and 17th Governor of Rhode Island (on three occasions). He was the son of Arthur Fenner, the fourth governor ...

and served from October 26, 1807, to March 3, 1811. Mathewson resumed agricultural pursuits and died in Scituate in 1853; interment was on his farm at the north end of Moswansicut Lake, Scituate.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mathewson, Elisha 1767 births 1853 deaths Members of the Rhode Island House of Representatives Rhode Island state senators United States senators from Rhode Island People from Scituate, Rhode Island Rhode Island Democratic-Republicans Democratic-Republican Party United States senators Speakers of the Rhode Island House of Representatives