ABBOTT, Josiah Gardner, a Representative from Massachusetts;
born in Chelmsford, Middlesex County, Mass., November 1, 1814;
attended the Chelmsford Academy, Concord, Mass.;
graduated from Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass., 1832;
LL.D., Williams College, Williamstown, Mass., 1862, teacher;
lawyer, private practice;
member of the Massachusetts state house of representatives, 1836;
member of the Massachusetts state senate, 1841-1842;
aide to Massachusetts Governor Marcus Morton, 1843;
master in chancery, 1850-1855;
member of the Massachusetts state constitutional convention, 1853;
justice of the superior court, Suffolk County, Mass., 1855-1858;
overseer of Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass., 1859-1865;
several times was the unsuccessful Democratic candidate for United States Senator;
declined an appointment to the supreme court bench in 1860;
declined the Democratic nomination for attorney general in 1861;
successfully contested as a Democrat the election of Rufus S. Frost to the Forty-fourth Congress (July 28, 1876-March 3, 1877);
was not a candidate for renomination in 1876;
member of the Electoral Commission created by the act of Congress approved January 29, 1877, to decide
the presidential election of 1876;
died on June 2, 1891, in Wellesley Hills, near Boston, Mass.;
interment in St. Mary’s Cemetery, Newton Lower Falls, Mass.
