James POLLOCK, Congress, PA (1810-1890)

POLLOCK James , a Representative from Pennsylvania; born in Milton, Pa., September 11, 1810; attended the Kirkpatrick Private School at Milton; was graduated from Princeton College in 1831; studied law; was admitted to the bar in Northumberland County, Pa., in 1833 and practiced in Milton, Pa.; appointed deputy attorney general for Northumberland County in 1836; judge of the court of common pleas; elected as a Whig to the Twenty-eighth Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Henry Frick; reelected to the Twenty-ninth and Thirtieth Congresses and served from April 5, 1844, to March 4, 1849; was not a candidate for renomination in 1848; appointed president judge of the eighth judicial district on January 15, 1851, and served until the judgeship became an elective office; Governor of Pennsylvania 1855-1858; declined a renomination; member of the peace convention of 1861 held in Washington, D.C., in an effort to devise means to prevent the impending war; Director of the Mint in Philadelphia 1861-1866 and 1869-1873; was the originator of the motto ``In God we trust'' for all coins of the United States large enough to contain the same; naval officer at Philadelphia in 1879; appointed chief supervisor of election in 1886; died in Lock Haven, Clinton County, Pa., April 19, 1890; interment in Milton Cemetery; Milton, Pa.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present