Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Shellabarger, Samuel

SHELLABARGER, Samuel, b. in Clark county, Ohio, 10 Dec., 1817; d. 6 Aug., 1896. He was graduated at Miami in 1842, studied law under Gen. Samson Mason, was admitted to the bar in 1847, was a member of the first legislature in Ohio that met under the present constitution, and in 1860 was elected to congress as a Republican. He took his seat in a special session that met in accordance with President Lincoln's call, on 4 July, 1861, and served in 1861-'3, in 1865-'9, and in 1870-'3. He was chairman of the committees on commerce, that on charges by Frey against Roscoe Conkling, and that on the provost-marshal's bureau, and was on the special committees on the assassination of President Lincoln, civil service, and the New Orleans riots. He was U.S. minister to Portugal in 1869-'70, and in 1874-'5 was one of the civil service commission. He then resumed the practice of his profession in Washington, D.C.