Oliver Phelps

Oliver Phelps ( born October 21, 1749 Poquonock, Hartford County, Connecticut, † February 21, 1809 in Canandaigua, New York ) was an American politician. Between 1803 and 1805 he represented the State of New York in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Career

Oliver Phelps grew up during the British colonial period. He attended preparatory schools and then worked in Granville (Massachusetts ) in the trade. In the 1770s he joined the revolutionary movement. During the Revolutionary War he served as Deputy Commissary in the food supply of the Continental Army. After the war he settled in Massachusetts. Between 1778-1780 he was next to his military activity also a member of the House of Representatives from Massachusetts. In the years 1779 and 1780, he participated as a delegate to the local constitutional conventions. In 1785 he was a member of the Massachusetts Senate. A year later he was appointed to the staff of the Governor.

Phelps was also involved in the 1788 saw the foundation of the Phelps & Gorham Syndicate. For this company he was working as a representative in the western part of New York. Since then he has lived in this State, where he was employed on a larger scale with land speculation transactions. In the meantime, he came with these things in great financial problems. Thus he had a large part of his own land, which he had now acquired, re-sell. Between 1789 and 1793, he was the first judge in the Ontario County. In 1802 he moved to Canandaigua. Politically, he joined, founded by Thomas Jefferson Democratic- Republican Party.

In the congressional elections of 1802 Phelps was in the then newly established 17th electoral district of New York in the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington DC chosen, where he took up his new mandate on March 4, 1803. Until March 3, 1805 he was able to complete a term in Congress. During his time as a congressman, the territory of the United States has been considerably enlarged in 1803 by the investments made by President Jefferson Louisiana Purchase. 1804, the Twelfth Amendment to the Constitution was ratified. That same year, Oliver Phelps competed unsuccessfully for the office of Lieutenant Governor of New York. He died on February 21, 1809 in Canandaigua, where he was also buried.