George Washington Shonk (April 26, 1850 – August 14, 1900) was a Republican member of the

U.S. House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they ...

from

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

Formative years and family

Born in Plymouth, Pennsylvania, on April 26, 1850, Shonk attended his community's public schools. He then studied at the Wyoming Seminary in Kingston, Pennsylvania, and graduated in 1873 from

Wesleyan University Wesleyan University ( ) is a Private university, private liberal arts college, liberal arts university in Middletown, Connecticut. Founded in 1831 as a Men's colleges in the United States, men's college under the auspices of the Methodist Epis ...

Middletown, Connecticut Middletown is a city located in Middlesex County, Connecticut, United States, Located along the Connecticut River, in the central part of the state, it is south of Hartford, Connecticut, Hartford. In 1650, it was incorporated by English settler ...

. After studying law, he was admitted to the bar of Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, in 1876, after which he practiced law in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Shonk married Ida Elizabeth Klotz (1856–1911) on August 11, 1880. They were the parents of New York Assemblyman Herbert B. Shonk (1881–1930), and Emily Weaver Shonk (1885–1974).

Public service and later years

Shonk was elected as a Republican to the Fifty-second Congress. He declined to be a candidate for renomination in 1892, and resumed the practice of his profession in Wilkes-Barre. He also became interested in

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when dea ...

mining in Pennsylvania.

Death and interment

Shonk died on a business trip to

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

, on August 14, 1900. He was buried in the

Shawnee Cemetery, Plymouth, Pennsylvania Shawnee Cemetery in Plymouth, Pennsylvania, located on 13.5 acres on a hillside overlooking Wyoming Valley, was established by the Shawnee Cemetery Association, and chartered on September 5, 1873. Interments began in the fall of 1873, many of which ...

Sources

The Political Graveyard
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shonk, George Washington 1850 births 1900 deaths People from Plymouth, Pennsylvania Shonk, George W. Wesleyan University alumni Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Pennsylvania 19th-century American legislators 19th-century American lawyers