Joseph Buffington (November 27, 1803 – February 3, 1872) was a Whig 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, ...

. Joseph Buffington was born in West Chester, Pennsylvania. He attended the common schools and graduated from Western University of Pennsylvania, now known as the

University of Pittsburgh The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a public state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The university is composed of 17 undergraduate and graduate schools and colleges at its urban Pittsburgh campus, home to the univers ...

, in 1825. He moved to Butler County, Pennsylvania, and edited a weekly newspaper. He studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1826 and commenced practice in Butler. He moved to

Kittanning, Pennsylvania Kittanning ( pronounced ) is a borough in, and the county seat of, Armstrong County in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. It is situated northeast of Pittsburgh, along the east bank of the Allegheny River. The name is derived from ''Kithanink' ...

, in 1827 and continued the practice of law. Buffington was elected as a Whig to the Twenty-eighth and Twenty-ninth Congresses. He was not a candidate for renomination in

1846 Events January–March * January 5 – The United States House of Representatives votes to stop sharing the Oregon Country with the United Kingdom. * January 13 – The Milan–Venice railway's bridge, over the Venetian Lagoon between ...

. He was appointed president judge of the eighteenth district in 1849 and served until 1851. He declined the appointment as chief justice of the

Utah Territory The Territory of Utah was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from September 9, 1850, until January 4, 1896, when the final extent of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Utah, the 45th state ...

tendered by President

Millard Fillmore Millard Fillmore (January 7, 1800March 8, 1874) was the 13th president of the United States, serving from 1850 to 1853; he was the last to be a member of the Whig Party while in the White House. A former member of the U.S. House of Represen ...

in 1852. He was judge of the tenth district of Pennsylvania from 1855 until his retirement in 1871. He died in Kittanning in 1872. Interment in Kittanning Cemetery.

Sources

The Political Graveyard
1803 births 1872 deaths Pennsylvania lawyers Pennsylvania state court judges University of Pittsburgh alumni Whig Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Pennsylvania 19th-century American politicians 19th-century American judges 19th-century American lawyers {{Pennsylvania-state-judge-stub