Thomas Clarke Theaker Explained

Thomas Clarke Theaker
State:Ohio
District:17th
Term Start:March 4, 1859
Term End:March 3, 1861
Preceded:William Lawrence
Succeeded:James R. Morris
Office2:Commissioner of United States Patent Office
Term Start2:August 17, 1865
Term End2:January 20, 1868
Preceded2:David P. Holloway
Succeeded2:Elisha Foote
Appointer2:Andrew Johnson
Party:Republican
Birth Date:4 February 1812
Birth Place:York, Pennsylvania, US
Death Place:Oakland, Maryland, US
Restingplace:Weeks Cemetery, Bridgeport, Ohio, US

Thomas Clarke Theaker (February 4, 1812 – July 16, 1883) was an American politician who served one term as U.S. Congressman from 1859 to 1861. He also served as commissioner of the United States Patent Office from 1865 to 1868.

Biography

Theaker was a native of York, Pennsylvania, but moved to Bridgeport, Ohio, in 1830, where he became a wheelwright and machinist.

Elected as a Republican to represent the Seventeenth Congressional District of Ohio in the Thirty-Sixth Congress, he failed to win re-election in 1860, but was appointed to a seat on the U.S. Patent Office's Board of Appeals.

On August 15, 1865, he was appointed commissioner of the Patent Office, a post he held until his resignation in January 1868.