John Palmer Usher
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John Palmer Usher (January 16, 1816 - April 13, 1889) was a U.S. administrator.
Born in Brookfield, New York, Usher trekked west in 1839 to locate in Terre Haute, Indiana in western Indiana where he became a law partner with William D. Griswold, in the firm of Griswold & Usher. An outstanding trial lawyer, Usher traveled the circuit in Indiana and Illinois during the 1840s and 1850s, becoming acquainted with Abraham Lincoln of Springfield, Illinois. While Usher was serving as the elected Indiana Attorney General in March 1862, Lincoln asked Usher to serve as Assistant Secretary of the Interior. Then-secretary Caleb Blood Smith had little interest in the job and, with declining health, delegated most of his responsibilities Usher. When Smith resigned in December, 1862, Usher became Secretary effective January 1, 1863.
Usher served as United States Secretary of the Interior between 1863 and 1865. He was known as genial and courteous, but an unobtrusive secretary.
External links
- [Mr. Lincoln's White House: John Palmer Usher Biography]
- [''The Department of Everything Else: Highlights of Interior History] (1989)
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