Jerome Bunty CHAFFEE, Congress, CO (1825-1886)

CHAFFEE Jerome Bunty , a Delegate from the Territory of Colorado and a Senator from Colorado; born in Niagara County, N.Y., April 17, 1825; attended the public schools of Lockport, N.Y.; moved to Adrian, Mich., in 1844, where he taught school and clerked in a store; moved in 1852 to St. Joseph, Mo., and later to Elmwood, Kans., where he engaged in banking and the real-estate business; moved to the Territory of Colorado in 1860 and engaged in mining and stamp-mill operations at Lake Gulch, Gilpin County; member, Territorial house of representatives 1861-1863, and served in 1863 as speaker of the house; one of the founders of the city of Denver; president of the First National Bank of Denver 1865-1880; elected as a Republican Delegate to the Forty-second and Forty-third Congresses (March 4, 1871-March 3, 1875); upon the admission of Colorado as a State into the Union was elected as a Republican to the United States Senate and served from November 15, 1876, to March 3, 1879; was not a candidate for reelection; chairman of the Republican State executive committee in 1884; died in Salem Center, Westchester County, N.Y., March 9, 1886; interment in Adrian Cemetery, Adrian, Lenawee County, Mich.

Bibliography

Dictionary of American Biography; West, Elliott. 'Jerome B. Chaffee and the McCook-Elbert Fight.' Colorado Magazine 46 (Spring 1969): 145-65.

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