Edwin H. Conger
Edwin Hurd Conger ( born March 7, 1843 Knox County, Illinois, † May 18 1907 in Pasadena, California ) was an American diplomat and politician. Between 1885 and 1890 he represented the state of Iowa in the U.S. House of Representatives. Conger was also U.S. ambassador to Brazil, China and Mexico.
Career
Edwin Conger attended until 1862 the Lombard University in Galesburg. During the Civil War he entered the Union army from the simple soldiers to Brevet Major. After a subsequent law degree from Albany Law School in Albany (New York) and in 1866 made his admission to the bar he began to practice in his new profession in Galesburg. In 1868 he moved to Dexter in Iowa, where he worked in the banking industry and animal husbandry. In the years 1877 and 1879 Conger was elected Treasurer of Dallas County. He was then in 1880 and 1882 also Minister of Finance of Iowa.
Conger was a member of the Republican Party. In 1884 he was in the seventh election district of Iowa in the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington DC chosen, where he became the successor of Hiram Y. Smith on March 4, 1885. After two re- elections he could remain until his resignation on October 3, 1890 in Congress. Between 1889 and 1890 he was chairman of the Committee on Coinage, Weights and Measures.
Congers resignation came after he had been appointed by U.S. President Benjamin Harrison as ambassador to Brazil. This office he was able to hold until 1893. The took office this year, Democratic President Grover Cleveland then replaced him with Thomas Larkin Thompson. Following the election of Republican William McKinley as President diplomatic career Congers went on. In 1897, he released Thompson as ambassador to Brazil again. In January 1898 he was appointed as the successor of Charles Harvey Denby ambassador to China. This office he held until 1905. Doing so, he became involved in 1900 in the Boxer Rebellion. In 1905, President Theodore Roosevelt staggered him also as ambassador to Mexico. But this office he held only from March to August 1905. As wanted to send a special mission to China it to the President, Conger refused this office. He died on May 18, 1907 in Pasadena, and was also buried there.