15 Facts About Edward McPherson

Edward McPherson was an American newspaper editor and politician who served two terms in the United States House of Representatives, as well as multiple terms as the Clerk of the House of Representatives.

Edward McPherson studied law and botany at Pennsylvania College, graduating in 1848 as valedictorian.

In Thaddeus Stevens' firm in Lancaster, McPherson became a Whig.

Edward McPherson left the law practice due to illness and moved to Harrisburg, editing the Harrisburg American in 1851, and the Lancaster Independent Whig.

Edward McPherson inherited his father's farm west of town along the Chambersburg Turnpike in 1858 and was elected to the 36th and 37th United States Congresses.

Edward McPherson was a member of the Republican National Committee in 1860.

Edward McPherson organized Company K of the First Pennsylvania Reserves at the beginning of the American Civil War, and was defeated in the 1862 reelection when his House of Representatives district was expanded to include opposing Radical Republicans in Somerset County.

Edward McPherson presided over the Republican National Convention in 1876, and President Hayes appointed him as director of the United States Bureau of Engraving and Printing.

Edward McPherson was the American editor of the Almanach de Gotha.

Edward McPherson again served as Clerk of the House of Representatives from December 1881 to December 1883 and for a third time from December 1889 to December 1891.

Edward McPherson diverted printing contracts away from Radical Republican newspapers and to moderate newspapers instead.

Edward McPherson diverted the contracts from the Jacksonville Florida Times to Florida Union in Florida, Albion W Tourgee's Union Register to William Woods Holden's Raleigh Daily Standard in North Carolina, and gave contracts to two newspapers edited by former Confederate officers.

Edward McPherson initially granted a contract to The New Orleans Tribune, a black-owned newspaper supported by Radicals, but revoked it in 1868 at the request of Thomas W Conway.

Edward McPherson was interred at Evergreen Cemetery in Adams County, Pennsylvania.

In 1941, the papers of Edward McPherson were added to the Library of Congress, [1] and his published works include:.