John Luther Vance (July 19, 1839 – June 10, 1921) was a

U.S. Representative 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 c ...

from

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

Biography

Vance was born in

Gallipolis, Ohio Gallipolis ( ) is a chartered village in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Gallia County. The municipality is located in Southeast Ohio along the Ohio River about 55 miles southeast of Chillicothe and 44 miles northwest of Charlesto ...

and attended the public schools and Gallia Academy, Ohio. He graduated from the

Cincinnati Law School The University of Cincinnati College of Law was founded in 1833 as the Cincinnati Law School. It is the fourth oldest continuously running law school in the United States — after Harvard, the University of Virginia, and Yale — and the first in ...

in April 1861, and was

admitted to the bar An admission to practice law is acquired when a lawyer receives a license to practice law. In jurisdictions with two types of lawyer, as with barristers and solicitors, barristers must gain admission to the bar whereas for solicitors there are dist ...

the same year.

Civil War service

He enlisted in April 1861 in the

Union Army During the American Civil War, the Union Army, also known as the Federal Army and the Northern Army, referring to the United States Army, was the land force that fought to preserve the Union (American Civil War), Union of the collective U.S. st ...

and served successively as captain, major, and lieutenant colonel in the

4th West Virginia Volunteer Infantry Regiment The 4th West Virginia Infantry Regiment was an infantry regiment that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War. Service The 4th West Virginia Infantry Regiment was mustered into Federal service on June 17, 1861, at Grafton, Po ...

until he mustered out in December 1864.

Postbellum

After the war he established and published the Gallipolis ''Bulletin'' in 1867 and commenced the practice of law in

, in 1870. He served as delegate to the

1872 Democratic National Convention The 1872 Democratic National Convention was a presidential nominating convention held at Ford's Grand Opera House on East Fayette Street, between North Howard and North Eutaw Streets, in Baltimore, Maryland on July 9 and 10, 1872. It resulted in ...

and was elected as a

Democrat Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to: Politics *A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people. *A member of a Democratic Party: **Democratic Party (United States) (D) **Democratic ...

to the Forty-fourth Congress (March 4, 1875 – March 3, 1877). He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1876 to the Forty-fifth Congress and resumed his former newspaper business. He served as president of the Ohio River Improvement Association from shortly after 1877 until his death. He died in

, on June 10, 1921, and was interred in Pine Street Cemetery. Vance was married to Emily F. Shepard of Gallipolis on October 4, 1866. They had four children. Vance was a member of the

Masonic Freemasonry or Masonry refers to Fraternity, fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of Stonemasonry, stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their inte ...

fraternity, and the

Grand Army of the Republic The Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) was a fraternal organization composed of veterans of the Union Army (United States Army), Union Navy (U.S. Navy), and the Marines who served in the American Civil War. It was founded in 1866 in Decatur, Il ...

References

Retrieved on 2008-11-05 {{DEFAULTSORT:Vance, John Luther 1839 births 1921 deaths People from Gallipolis, Ohio Ohio lawyers Union Army officers 19th-century American newspaper editors University of Cincinnati College of Law alumni Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Ohio Journalists from Ohio 19th-century American lawyers