John Curtiss Underwood (March 14, 1809 - December 7, 1873) was a lawyer, Abolitionist politician, and federal judge.
Underwood graduated from Hamilton College in 1832 and was a founding member of the Alpha Delta Phi society. He practiced law from 1839-1856. Originally from New York, he married a granddaughter of Edward B. Jackson (whose brother John G. Jackson and great-nephew John Jay Jackson, Jr. were also federal judges), and they had a farm i...
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John Curtiss Underwood (March 14, 1809 - December 7, 1873) was a lawyer, Abolitionist politician, and federal judge.
Underwood graduated from Hamilton College in 1832 and was a founding member of the Alpha Delta Phi society. He practiced law from 1839-1856. Originally from New York, he married a granddaughter of Edward B. Jackson (whose brother John G. Jackson and great-nephew John Jay Jackson, Jr. were also federal judges), and they had a farm in Clarke County. In 1856 he was a delegate to the Republican convention that nominated John C. Fremont for president. He took a position as Secretary of the Emigrant Aid and Homestead Society from 1856-1861. He left Virginia in 1857 because he was threatened for his abolitionist views.
In 1861 he declined an offer to serve as U.S. consul at Callao, Peru, but accepted instead the office of fifth auditor in the United States Department of the Treasury, at which he served from 1861 to 1864.
Given a recess appointment by Abraham Lincoln and later...
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