Asa Packer

Asa Packer ( born December 29, 1805 in Mystic, New London County, Connecticut, † May 17, 1879 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) was an American businessman and politician. From 1853 to 1857 he represented the State of Pennsylvania in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Career

Asa Packer attended the public schools of his home. In 1820, he moved to Springfield in Pennsylvania, where he served an apprenticeship as a carpenter. In 1833 he settled in Mauch Chunk. There he first worked in the trade; Later he operated a shipyard for the construction of canal boats. He was also active in the coal processing and rail business. At the same time he proposed as a member of the Democratic Party launched a political career. In the years 1842 and 1843 he sat as an MP in the House of Representatives from Pennsylvania; 1843 to 1844 he was associate judge in Carbon County. In 1852, he built the railway company Lehigh Valley Railroad, which he was president at the time of his death.

In the congressional elections of 1852 Packer in the 13th electoral district of Pennsylvania was in the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington DC chosen, where he became the successor of James Gamble on March 4, 1853. After a re-election he was able to complete in Congress until March 3, 1857 two legislative sessions. These were shaped by the events leading up to the Civil War. In 1856 he gave up another candidacy.

After the end of his time in the U.S. House of Representatives Asa Packer took his previous activities on again. He also founded the Lehigh University in Bethlehem. In 1869 he ran unsuccessfully for the office of Governor of Pennsylvania. A year earlier he had already applied unsuccessfully for his party's nomination as a presidential candidate. He died on 17 May 1879 in Philadelphia.