John Irving RINAKER, Congress, IL (1830-1915)

RINAKER John Irving , a Representative from Illinois; born in Baltimore, Md., November 1, 1830; moved with his parents to Springfield, Ill., in December 1836; attended the Illinois College for one term and was graduated from McKendree College, Lebanon, Ill., in 1851; studied law; was admitted to the bar in 1854 and commenced practice in Carlinville, Ill.; raised and organized the One Hundred and Twenty-second Regiment, Illinois Volunteer Infantry, in 1862; commissioned colonel September 4, 1862; commanded a brigade in the Sixteenth Corps of the Army of the Tennessee, and was brevetted brigadier general February 13, 1865; delegate to the Republican National Conventions in 1876 and 1884; chairman of the Board of Railroad and Warehouse Commissioners of Illinois 1885-1889; successfully contested as a Republican the election of Finis E. Downing to the Fifty-fourth Congress and served from June 5, 1896, to March 3, 1897; unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1896 to the Fifty-fifth Congress; returned to Carlinville, Ill., and resumed the practice of law; died in Eustis, Lake County, Fla., January 15, 1915; interment in the City Cemetery, Carlinville, Ill.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present