SPINNER, Francis Elias

1802–1890

Concise Biography

SPINNER, Francis Elias, a Representative from New York; born in Mohawk, German Flats, Herkimer County, N.Y., January 21, 1802; was educated by his father; served an apprenticeship at both harness making and candy making; engaged in mercantile pursuits in 1824; entered the State militia and was subsequently promoted to the rank of major general; appointed deputy sheriff in 1829; sheriff of Herkimer County 1834-1837; appointed one of the commissioners for the construction of the State lunatic asylum at Utica in 1838; engaged in banking as cashier and later president of the Mohawk Bank; State inspector of turnpikes; commissioner and supervisor of schools; appointed auditor and deputy naval officer in charge of the port of New York in 1845 and served four years; elected as a Democrat to the Thirty-fourth Congress and as a Republican to the Thirty-fifth and Thirty-sixth Congresses (March 4, 1855-March 3, 1861); chairman, Committee on Accounts (Thirty-sixth Congress); was not a candidate for renomination in 1860 to the Thirty-seventh Congress; appointed by President Lincoln as Treasurer of the United States and served from March 16, 1861, until his resignation on July 1, 1875; successfully urged the employment of women in the Treasury Department; died in Jacksonville, Fla., December 31, 1890; interment in Mohawk Cemetery, Mohawk, N.Y.

View Record in the Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress

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External Research Collections

Cornell University
Carl A. Kroch Library

Ithaca, NY
Papers: 1823-1889. 724 items and 3 volumes. Correspondence, accounts books, and other papers, chiefly relating to county politics and militia.

Library of Congress
Manuscript Division

Washington, DC
Papers: 1792-1908. Herman K. Crofoot collection. 4 containers. Correspondence, scrapbooks, photographs, autographs, printed matter, and clippings, relating to his political, financial, and personal activities. Finding aid in library.
Papers: 1874, 1878, undated. 3 items.

New-York Historical Society

New York, NY
Papers: 1855-1885. 26 items.
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Bibliography / Further Reading

Crofoot, H. K. "Autographs of Francis E. Spinner." Numismatist 62 (May 1949): 286-90.

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