Peter Victor DEUSTER, Congress, WI (1831-1904)

DEUSTER Peter Victor , a Representative from Wisconsin; born near Aix la Chapelle, Rhenish Prussia, February 13, 1831; pursued an academic course; immigrated to the United States with his parents, who settled on a farm near Milwaukee, Wis., in May 1847; worked in a printing office; moved to Port Washington, Wis., in 1854 and edited a newspaper; also served simultaneously as postmaster, clerk of the circuit court, clerk of the land office, and notary public; returned to Milwaukee in 1856 and edited the Milwaukee See-Bote, a Democratic daily paper, until 1860, when he became proprietor; member of the State assembly in 1863; served in the State senate in 1870 and 1871; elected as a Democrat to the Forty-sixth, Forty-seventh, and Forty-eighth Congresses (March 4, 1879-March 3, 1885); chairman, Committee on Expenditures on Public Buildings (Forty-sixth Congress); unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1884 to the Forty-ninth Congress; resumed newspaper interests; appointed chairman of a commission to diminish the Umatilla Indian Reservation in Oregon in 1887; appointed consul at Crefeld, Germany, February 19, 1896, and served until a successor was appointed October 15, 1897; died in Milwaukee, Wis., December 31, 1904; interment in Calvary Cemetery.

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