Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Bartley, Mordecai

BARTLEY, Mordecai, governor of Ohio, b. in Fayette co., Pa., 16 Dec., 1783; d. in Mansfield, Ohio, 10 Oct., 1870. He attended school, and worked on his father's farm until 1809, when he moved to Ohio. In the War of 1812 he served in the northwest, under Gen. Gen. Harrison, as captain and adjutant. He settled in Richland co. in 1814, and remained there until 1834, when he removed to Mansfield and engaged in mercantile pursuits. Mr. Bartley was elected to the Ohio senate in 1817, and in 1818 was chosen, by the legislature, registrar of the land-office of the Virginia military district school lands. He resigned his registrarship in 1823, having been elected member of congress, where he remained until 3 March, 1831. In 1844 he was elected governor of Ohio on the whig ticket. During the Mexican war, when the president issued his call for troops, Gov. Bartley, though opposed to the war, promptly responded, superintending their organization in person. In 1846 he retired to private life, declining a renomination. He remained a whig until the disruption of that party, and subsequently acted with the republicans.