Schuyler Colfax (1823-1885)

Colfax was born on March 23 in New York City, 5 months after his father’s passing from TB. Attending the common schools and clerking in a retail store, young Colfax was bright and intelligent. His mother remarried George Matthews who 2 years later (1836) moved the family to Indiana. At the age of 19, Colfax was hired to be the editor of the South Bend Free Press newspaper. A few years later the young editor (who was anti-slavery) would buy the paper, which became one of the more influential papers in the state during his 18 years as editor.

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Robert Cummings Schenck (1809-1890)

Born in Franklin, Ohio, October 4, 1809, and attended rural schools – and was graduated from Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, in 1827. Schenck became a professor at Miami for 2 years, studied law and practiced in Dayton. He was elected to the Ohio House – then the United States Congress from 1843-1851.

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Lyman Trumbull (1813-1896)

Born in Colchester, Connecticut and was schooled there, then traveled to Georgia to teach school. He studied law, was admitted to the Georgia bar, and later moved to Chicago, Illinois.

Trumbull’s reputation as a lawyer grew and he soon had a thriving practice in Chicago. He was soon elected to the State Legislature and became Illinois’ Secretary of State in the early 1840’s. Trumbull defended blacks in court for free – and his argument during a Supreme Court case cleared the way for Blacks to become free once in Illinois as per the Ordinance of 1787.

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Charles Edward Phelps (1833 – 1908)

Born in Guilford, Windham County, Vermont, May 1, 1833, then moved with his parents to New Jersey in 1837 and to Maryland in 1841. Phelps then pursued classical studies at St. Timothy’s Hall (also attended by J. W. Booth). Phelps graduated from Princeton College in 1852, then attended the law department of Harvard University, admitted to the bar and began his law practice in Baltimore, Maryland in 1855 after a period of foreign travel.

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