James LAIRD, Congress, NE (1849-1889)

LAIRD James , a Representative from Nebraska; born in Fowlerville, Livingston County, N.Y., June 20, 1849; in early childhood moved with his parents to Michigan, who settled in Hillsdale County; attended Adrian College; during the Civil War served with the Sixteenth Regiment, Michigan Volunteer Infantry, in the Army of the Potomac from 1862 until 1865, when he was honorably discharged; was graduated from the law department of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor in 1871; was admitted to the bar and engaged in practice in Hastings, Nebr., in 1872; member of the Nebraska constitutional convention in 1875; elected as a Republican to the Forty-eighth and to the three succeeding Congresses and served from March 4, 1883, until his death in Hastings, Adams County, Nebr., August 17, 1889; interment in Parkview Cemetery.

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