Usher, John P.

Born: 1816-01-09 Madison County, New York

Died: 1889-04-13 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

John P. Usher was a lawyer, state legislator, state attorney general, federal government official, and U.S. secretary of the interior. Born in Brookfield, New York, Usher received a common school education and then read law in the office of Henry Bennett in New Berlin, New York. Admitted to the bar in 1839, Usher moved to Terre Haute, Indiana, in 1840 and opened a law practice. He rode the circuit in Indiana and Illinois, often joining with or opposing Abraham Lincoln in the argument of cases. In January 1844, Usher married Margaret Patterson, with whom he had four sons. He served a term in the Indiana General Assembly from 1850 to 1851. Upon the formation of the Republican Party in Indiana, Usher became an enthusiastic supporter, running unsuccessfully for Congress in 1856 on the Republican ticket. In November 1861, he received appointment as attorney general of Indiana, but he resigned four months later to become assistant secretary of the interior. In December 1862, Secretary of the Interior Caleb B. Smith resigned, and Usher assumed the post on January 8, 1863. As secretary of the interior, Usher wrote comprehensive reports on the benefits of the Homestead Act, larger Indian reservations and appropriations for indigenous peoples, taxes of the net profits of gold and silver mines, and public lands. He also proposed and supported plans for the colonization of African Americans--plans which did not come to fruition. President Lincoln's decision to appoint Hugh McCulloch--a fellow Indianian-- secretary of treasury removed Indiana's claim to a place on the cabinet, and Usher resigned on March 5, 1865, effective May 15, 1865. Usher left political life and resumed his law practice, moving his family to Lawrence, Kansas, where he became chief counsel for the Union Pacific Railroad--a position he held until his death.

Talbot Faulkner Hamlin, " Usher John Palmer," Dictionary of American Biography (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1964), 10:134-35; Elmo R. Richardson and Alan W. Farley, John Palmer Usher: Lincoln's Secretary of the Interior (Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 1960), 21, 23, 29-31, 36, 47-48, 78-79; For Lincoln’s legal cases involving Usher, search Participant, “Usher, John P.,” Martha L. Benner and Cullom Davis et al., eds., The Law Practice of Abraham Lincoln: Complete Documentary Edition, 2d edition (Springfield: Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, 2009), https://lawpracticeofabrahamlincoln.org/; Gravestone, Oak Hill Cemetery, Lawrence, KS.