James B. McKean

James Bedell McKean (* August 5, 1821 in Bennington, Vermont; † 5 January 1879 in Salt Lake City, Utah) was an American officer, lawyer and politician. Between 1859 and 1863 he represented the State of New York in the U.S. House of Representatives. U.S. Senator Samuel McKean was his uncle.

Career

James Bedell McKean was born about six and a half years after the end of the British - American War in Bennington in Bennington County. The family moved to New York. McKean pursued an academic career. He taught several times at district schools and was for a time one of the professors at the Jonesville Academy. In 1842 he was Superintendent of the Common Schools in Half Moon. McKean was elected in 1844 to the Colonel of the 144th Regiment of the National Guard of New York. He studied law. His admission to the bar he received in 1849 and then began in Ballston Spa in Saratoga County to practice. He moved in 1851 to Saratoga Springs. Between 1854 and 1858 he was a district judge in Saratoga County. Politically, he was a member of the Republican Party.

In the congressional elections of 1858 for the 36th Congress McKean was in the 15th electoral district of New York in the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington DC chosen, where he became the successor of Edward Dodd on March 4, 1859. After a successful re-election in 1860, he retired after March 3, 1863 from the Congress. As a Congressman he had presided over the Committee on Expenditures in the Department of State during his two terms.

During the Civil War he presented in 1861 to the 77th Regiment of New York Volunteers and served in the regiment until the return of his officer patent on July 27, 1863 as the Colonel. He was appointed in 1865 to the Treaty Commissioner in Honduras. President Ulysses S. Grant appointed him in 1870 as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Utah Territory - a position which he held until 1875. On January 5, 1879, he died in Salt Lake City. His body was then buried in the Mount Olivet Cemetery.