Russell Alexander ALGER, Congress, MI (1836-1907)

ALGER Russell Alexander , a Senator from Michigan; born in Lafayette Township, Medina County, Ohio, February 27, 1836; worked on a farm; attended Richfield Academy, Summit County, Ohio; taught country school; studied law in Akron, Ohio; admitted to the bar in March 1859; moved to Grand Rapids, Mich., and engaged in the lumber business; moved to Detroit; served in the Union Army during the Civil War 1861-1865; brevetted as a major general, United States Volunteers; resumed the lumber business; elected Governor of Michigan in 1884; declined renomination in 1886; presidential elector on the Republican ticket in 1888; was appointed Secretary of War in the Cabinet of President William McKinley on March 5, 1897, and resigned August 1, 1899; appointed and subsequently elected as a Republican to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the death of James McMillan, and served from September 27, 1902, until his death in Washington, D.C., January 24, 1907; chairman, Committee on the Pacific Railroads (Fifty-ninth Congress); interment in Elmwood Cemetery, Detroit, Mich.

Bibliography

Dictionary of American Biography; Bell, Rodney E. "A Life of Russell Alexander Alger." Ph.D. dissertation, University of Michigan, 1975; U.S. Congress. Memorial Addresses for Russell Alexander Alger. 59th Cong., 2nd sess. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1907.

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