WILLIAM J. SEWELL
William J. Sewell, of Camden, was born in Ireland in 1835, and came to this country at an early age; engaged in mercantile pursuits, and at the outbreak of the Civil War was commissioned as captain of the Fifth New Jersey Volunteers; served during the war and was brevetted brigadier-general for distinguished services at Chancellorsville, and major-general for gallant services during the war; was wounded at Chancellorsville and Gettysburg ; after the war he became connected with the railroads in New Jersey, branches of the Pennsylvania railroad system; was elected State senator from Camden County in 1872. reëlected in 1875, and again in 1878, and was president of the senate in the years 1876, 1879, and 1880, when his party was in power; while yet a member of the legislature he was elected to the United States Senate in 1881, as the successor of Senator Theodore F. Randolph, and served until the close of his term, in 1887; was elected as a delegate to the Republican national conventions of 1876, 1880, 1884, 1888, and 1892, and on each occasion was made chairman of his delegation; was one of the national commissioners for New Jersey of the World’s Fair at Chicago; is vice-president of the board of managers of the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers; is in command of the second brigade of the National Guard of New Jersey, and also connected with the management of various banks, trust companies, and philanthropic societies; was again elected to the United States Senate in 1895, to succeed Hon. John R. McPherson. His term of service will expire March 3, 1901.
