James Sheakley

James Sheakley ( born April 24, 1829 in Sheakleyville, Mercer County, Pennsylvania, † December 11, 1917 in Greenville, Mercer County, Pennsylvania) was an American Democratic politician.

Career

James Sheakley was born on 24 April 1829 in Sheakleyville, Mercer County, Pennsylvania. He attended community schools and the Meadville (Pa. ) Academy. Sheakley learned the trade of carpenter and then moved in 1851 to California, where he followed the gold mining. Later he returned to Pennsylvania, where he settled in 1855 in Greenville. There, he worked on commercial activities, which he pursued in 1864 the production and transportation of petroleum. He was also the 1864-1868 school principal in Greenville, Pennsylvania.

Sheakley decided in 1875 to pursue a political career by being elected as a Democrat to the forty-fourth U.S. Congress, where he served from March 4, 1875 to March 3, 1877. In 1876 his candidacy for re- election to the forty-fifth Congress he suffered a defeat. In July 1887, he was appointed by President Cleveland to the U.S. Commissioner of schools in Alaska, an office which he held for five years. During this time he studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1888 in the United States District Court of Alaska. After that, he was a delegate to the 1892 Democratic National Convention. The following year, 1893, he was elected to the territorial governor of the District of Alaska, an office which he held until 1897. He then returned in 1898 back to Greenville, Pennsylvania, where he was elected in 1909 as mayor of Greenville, an office which he held until 1913. Sheakley in 1914 was elected justice of the peace, and remained so until his death on December 10, 1917 in Greenville, Pennsylvania. He was buried in Shenango Valley Cemetery.