KEIFER, Joseph Warren, a Representative
from Ohio; born near Springfield, Bethel Township, Clark County, Ohio, January
30, 1836; attended the common schools and Antioch College, Yellow Springs, Ohio;
studied law; was admitted to the bar and began practice in Springfield, Ohio,
January 12, 1858; enlisted in the Union Army on April 19, 1861; commissioned
major in the Third Ohio Volunteer Infantry April 27, 1861; lieutenant colonel
February 12, 1862; colonel of the One Hundred and Tenth Ohio Volunteer Infantry
September 30, 1862; brevetted brigadier general of Volunteers October 19, 1864;
promoted to major general April 9, 1865; mustered out June 27, 1865; resumed the
practice of law in July 1865; member of the State senate in 1868 and 1869;
commander of the Ohio Department of the Grand Army of the Republic in 1871 and
1872; trustee of Antioch College; delegate to the Republican National Convention
in 1876; elected as a Republican to the Forty-fifth and to the three succeeding
Congresses (March 4, 1877-March 3, 1885); Speaker of the House of
Representatives (Forty-seventh Congress); chairman, Committee on Rules
(Forty-seventh Congress); unsuccessful candidate for renomination in 1884; was a
major general of Volunteers in the Spanish-American War from June 9, 1898, to
May 12, 1899; first commander in chief of the Spanish War Veterans in 1900 and
1901; elected to the Fifty-ninth, Sixtieth, and Sixty-first Congresses (March 4,
1905-March 3, 1911); unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1910 to the
Sixty-second Congress; resumed his law practice; president of the Lagonda
National Bank of Springfield, Ohio, for more than fifty years; died in
Springfield, Ohio, April 22, 1932; interment in Ferncliff Cemetery.
Bibliography
DAB.
-- Biographical
Data courtesy of the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.