Joseph Reed Ingersoll (1786 - 1868)

Born 14 Jun 1786 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States

Ancestors

Died 20 Feb 1868 at age 81 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States

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Biography

A graduate of Princeton University, then known as the College of New Jersey. He studied law and was admitted to the bar in June of 1807.

Enjoyed riding horseback almost daily, which he often did before breakfast.

He was elected to Congress as a Whig in 1834, representing Pennsylvania. This first stay in congress was brief, but he returned and served from 1841 to 1849. He practiced law in the interim. In 1852, President Millard Fillmore sent him to the United Kingdom as the U.S. Minister. He served about a year, and then retired to private life, devoting himself to literary pursuits.

He died in Philadelphia in 1868. Interment in St. Peter's Protestant Episcopal Churchyard.

Married Ann Wilcocks and had three children, none of whom had issue. He outlived all of them and spent many years as a childless widower.

He was a communicant at the Protestant Episcopal Church in Philadelphia, and held a deep and sincere religious conviction.

His obituary included this account of his personality: "Of Mr. Ingersoll personally and socially it may be said that he was a gentleman in the truest sense of the word. His manners were elegant and refined. His conversation easy and interesting. His house was the seat of open and liberal hospitality - his board the constant scene of intellectual enjoyment. He was fond of entertaining strangers. His charity may be termed munificent. He considered it a duty and a privilege to give; it was a pleasure to him, whether in a subscription to some public object, or in strictly private alms - when the left hand knoweth not what the right hand doeth - he was free - free to a fault. Perhaps it is best to err on the right side."

Sources

• Find A Grave: Memorial #6906175
• Wikidata: Item Q4904809, en:Wikipedia
• A Philadelphia Perspective: The Civil War Diary of Sidney George Fisher

By Sidney George Fisher, Jonathan W. White, p. 278

• Obituary Notice of Joseph Reed Ingersoll, by George Sharswood, Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, Vol. 10, No. 80 (Jul., 1868), pp. 513-522