Pusey, William H. M.

Born: 1826-07-29 Washington County, Pennsylvania

Died: 1900-11-15 Council Bluffs, Iowa

Flourished: 1847 to 1856 Springfield, Illinois

William H. M. Pusey was a lawyer, banker, state legislator, and U.S. representative. Pusey graduated from Washington and Jefferson College in Pennsylvania in 1847. He moved from Pennsylvania to Sangamon County, Illinois, where he studied law and became acquainted with Abraham Lincoln. Pusey earned admittance to the bar but did not engage in an extensive law practice. In 1856, Pusey moved to Council Bluffs, Iowa, where he pursued a career in banking alongside his brother-in-law, Thomas Officer. In 1857, Pusey won election, as a Democrat, to the Iowa Senate, serving in that body from 1858 to 1862. In 1860, Pusey owned real property valued at $16,000 and had a personal estate of $10,000. Following the Civil War, Pusey represented the Ninth Iowa Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives, winning election as a Democrat in 1882 and serving from March 1883 to March 1885.

Pusey married Sarah Ellen Officer in June 1849 in Washington County, Pennsylvania. He was survived by three children.

Biographical Directory of the American Congress 1774-1996 (Alexandria, VA: CQ Staff Directories, 1997), 1696; Benjamin F. Gue, History of Iowa from the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century (New York: Century History, 1903), 4:217-18; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Ward 4, Council Bluffs, Pottowattamie County, IA, 44; The Daily NonPareil (Council Bluffs, IA), 16 November 1900, 4:2; Gravestone, Walnut Hill Cemetery, Council Bluffs, IA.