Richard Coulter (March 1788April 21, 1852) was a Jacksonian 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, ...

. Richard Coulter was born in

Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania Westmoreland County is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 364,663. The county seat is Greensburg. Formed from, successively, Lancaster, Northumberland, and later Bedford co ...

, a son of state commissioner Eli Coulter and Priscilla Small (1766–1826). Richard attended Jefferson College. He studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1811, and commenced the practice of his profession in

Greensburg, Pennsylvania Greensburg is a city in and the county seat of Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, United States, and a part of the Pittsburgh Metro Area. The city lies within the Laurel Highlands and the ecoregion of the Western Allegheny Plateau (ecoregion), W ...

where he became chief burgess. He was a member of the

Pennsylvania House of Representatives The Pennsylvania House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameral Pennsylvania General Assembly, the legislature of the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. There are 203 members, elected for two-year terms from single member districts. It ...

from 1816 to 1820. He then returned to his law practice. In 1826 Coulter was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in the Twentieth Congress and reelected as a Jacksonian to the Twenty-first through Twenty-third Congresses. He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in

1834 Events January–March * January – The Wilmington and Raleigh Railroad is chartered in Wilmington, North Carolina. * January 1 – Zollverein (Germany): Customs charges are abolished at borders within its member states. * January 3 � ...

to the Twenty-fourth Congress. He was elected judge of the

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania is the highest court in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania's Unified Judicial System. It also claims to be the oldest appellate court in the United States, a claim that is disputed by the Massachusetts Supreme ...

and served from 1846 until his death in 1852 in Greensburg. Interment was in St. Clair Cemetery. His namesake nephew Richard Coulter was an

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

general 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 ...

Sources

The Political Graveyard
* "From Major General to Major Stockholder", by Jennifer Sopko, ''Westmoreland History'', Summer 2007, page 12. 1788 births 1852 deaths Justices of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania Members of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives Washington & Jefferson College alumni Pennsylvania state court judges Jacksonian members of the United States House of Representatives from Pennsylvania 19th-century American politicians {{Pennsylvania-Representative-stub