• Source: Byron Delano Hamlin

    • Byron Delano Hamlin was an American politician from Pennsylvania who served in the State Senate as a member of the Democratic party, representing the 18th district from 1853 to 1855.


    Biography


    Hamlin was born on May 7, 1824 in Sheshequin in Bradford County to Doctor Asa Hamlin and Asenath Delano. Byron was the youngest of seven children, and Asa Hamlin ran a strict puritan household, with little amusements. His sister Jenette married Moses Crow, a Reverend and professor at Allegheny College in Meadville, who invited Byron to attend school there. However, Moses and Jenette would die of Typhoid fever in 1843, with Byron's brother Orlo convincing him to drop out and start practicing law, and by 1846 he was named to the bar of McKean County. In June of 1833 he moved to Smethport in McKean County where he would spend the rest of his life, initially working odd jobs including as a mailman while he attended Smethport Academy. In 1844 he married Harriet née Holmes.
    In 1848 the McKean County Democratic party recommended Hamlin run for a seat in the State House, as he was involved in the party since he was a youth, but he refused. In 1853 he was elected to the Pennsylvania Senate as a Democrat and served as Speaker of the Pennsylvania Senate in 1854 before losing his re-election bid in 1855. In 1854 he was named to the board of the Bradford Hospital, and spent the rest of his life engaged in various business ventures and as a corporate attorney.
    At the outbreak of the American Civil War Hamlin volunteered to join the Union Army but following his medical evaluation was deemed unfit for service. Instead he worked as a recruiter for the Bucktail Regiment during the duration of the war. In 1868 he was offered being named President Judge of the counties of Clearfield, Clinton, and Centre, but declined the post. In 1882 despite his initial protests, he ran on the Democratic ticket for the State House, however, would lose the election.
    Hamlin died on September 4, 1907 at the age of 83, and is buried in the Rose Hill Cemetery in Smethport.


    Personal life


    Hamlin had three children; Delano Richmond Hamlin, Jenette Hamlin Redfield, Mary Hamlin Forrest. Hamlin's house is a part of the Smethport Mansion District, a local historical district run by the borough.


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