Colin M. Ingersoll Explained

Colin Macrae Ingersoll
State:Connecticut
District:2nd
Term Start:March 4, 1851
Term End:March 3, 1855
Predecessor:Walter Booth
Successor:John Woodruff
Office2:Connecticut Adjutant General
Term Start2:1867
Term End2:1868
Predecessor2:Charles T. Stanton
Successor2:Samuel E. Merwin, Jr.
Term Start3:1870
Term End3:1871
Predecessor3:Samuel E. Merwin, Jr.
Successor3:Samuel E. Merwin, Jr.
Birth Date:11 March 1819
Birth Place:New Haven, Connecticut, U.S.
Death Place:New Haven, Connecticut, U.S.
Resting Place:Grove Street Cemetery
Alma Mater:Trinity College
Yale Law School
Party:Democratic
Parents:Ralph Isaacs Ingersoll
Margaret Van den Heuvel
Relatives:Charles R. Ingersoll (brother) Jan Cornelis van den Heuvel (grandfather)

Colin Macrae Ingersoll (March 11, 1819 – September 13, 1903) was a Connecticut attorney, politician, and military leader. He served as a member of the United States House of Representatives for two terms in the 1850s.[1]

Early life

Ingersoll was born in New Haven, Connecticut on March 11, 1819, to diplomat and U.S. Representative Ralph Isaacs Ingersoll and Margaret (née Van den Heuvel) Ingersoll. His brother was Charles Roberts Ingersoll, who served as the 47th Governor of Connecticut.

His paternal grandfather was Jonathan Ingersoll, a judge of the Supreme Court and Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut up until his death in 1823.[2] His maternal grandfather was Jan Cornelis Van den Heuvel, a Dutch born plantation owner and politician who served as governor of the Dutch province of Demerara from 1765 to 1770 and later became a merchant in New York City with the Dutch West India Company.[3]

He pursued academic studies in New Haven, and graduated from Trinity College in 1839. Ingersoll was a founding member of the Phi Kappa Society while an undergraduate. This secret society would later become the school’s current chapter of the Alpha Delta Phi. He graduated from Yale Law School, was admitted to the bar in 1841, and practiced in New Haven.[1]

Career

In 1843, Ingersoll served as clerk of the Connecticut State Senate. When his father was Minister to Russia, Colin Ingersoll was appointed Secretary of the legation at St. Petersburg serving in 1847 and 1848. He was acting Chargé d'Affaires in 1848.[1]

In 1850, Ingersoll was elected as a Democrat to the 32nd United States Congress. He served in Congress from March 4, 1851, was reelected two years later and served in the Thirty-third Congress until March 3, 1855.[1]

After leaving Congress he resumed the practice of law. Ingersoll served as adjutant general of Connecticut from 1867 to 1868 and again from 1870 to 1871.

Personal life

In 1853, Ingersoll married Julia Harriet Pratt, the daughter of Abigail P. (née Watson) Pratt and Zadock Pratt, a U.S. Representative from New York who built the largest tannery in the world at its time and built the town of Prattsville. Their children included:

Ingersoll died of pneumonia in New Haven, Connecticut on September 13, 1903.[4] He was interred in New Haven's Grove Street Cemetery.[1] [5]

Notes and References

  1. Web site: INGERSOLL, Colin Macrae - Biographical Information . bioguide.congress.gov . . 7 September 2018.
  2. Book: Selleck, A.M. . Rev. Charles Melbourne . Norwalk . 1896 . 331 . 7 September 2018 . en.
  3. Book: Brown . Henry Collins . Valentine's Manual of the City of New York . 1917 . Valentine Company . 163 . 7 September 2018 . en.
  4. News: Colin M. Ingersoll Dead: Pneumonia Carries Off a Man Prominent in Connecticut for Half a Century . . September 14, 1903 .
  5. Book: Cutter, William Richard . 1913 . New England Families, Genealogical and Memorial . 3 . New York, NY . Lewis Historical Publishing Company . .