Member Biography

John Edgar Reyburn 

Member
Sessions Office Position District Party
1877       5 Republican
1878       5 Republican
1879-1880       5 Republican
1881-1882       5 Republican
1883-1884     Speaker 5 Republican
1885-1886       5 Republican
1887-1888       5 Republican
1889-1890       5 Republican
1891-1892       5 Republican

COUNTIES: Philadelphia  


Biography

02/07/1845 - 01/04/1914


John Edgar Reyburn (R5) Philadelphia County, 1876-1892

Early Life: 

John Edgar Reyburn, born February 7, 1845, New Carlisle, Clark County, Ohio; son of William Stuart and Lydia Reeder Crain Reyburn; attended, Saunders Institute, West Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; University of Pennsylvania; lawyer, 1870-1914; engaged, real estate, Leavenworth, Kansas; elected, Republican, Pennsylvania House of Representatives, 1870, 1873, 1874-1875; not a candidate, reelection, House, 1871, 1876; elected, Republican, Pennsylvania State Senate, 1876-1890; elected, President Pro Tempore, 1883-1884; elected, Republican, United States Congress, 1890-1896, 1906-1907 elected, mayor, city of Philadelphia, 1907-1911; engaged, manufacturing business; married, Margaretta Eleanor Crozier, 1881, three children, Congressman William Stuart, Eleanor Reyburn Harrington and Robert Crozier; died, January 4, 1914, Washington, District of Columbia; interred, Laurel Hill Cemetery, Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania.

Early Career:

Admitted, Philadelphia bar, lawyer, 1870-1914.  

Pennsylvania Politics:

Elected, Republican, Pennsylvania State House of Representatives, 1871, 1874-1876.

Elected, Republican, Pennsylvania State Senate, 5th district, Philadelphia County, 1876-1892, president pro tempore, session of 1883-1884; chair, Municipal Affairs, Judiciary Local, Library; member, Accounts, Appropriations, Canal and Inland Navigation, Congressional Apportionment, Constitutional Reform Judicial General and Judicial Special Committees.

Elected, Republican, Mayor of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1907-1911.

Pennsylvania House of Representatives Biography:

https://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/legis/BiosHistory/MemBio.cfm?ID=7120&body=H

Continued Government Service/National Politics:

Elected, Republican, Pennsylvania 4th district, Fifty-first Congress, vacancy death, William D. Kelley; reelected, Fifty-second, Fifty-third, and Fifty-fourth Congresses, served, 1890-1897; unsuccessful candidate for renomination, 1896; elected, Pennsylvania 2nd district, Fifty-ninth Congress, vacancy death, Robert Adams; reelected, Sixtieth Congress, 1906- resigned, March 31, 1907.

Federal Judiciary Biography:

https://bioguide.congress.gov/search/bio/R000168

Legacy:

Married, Margretta Crozier, Leavenworth, Kansas, 1881, daughter of district judge Robert Crozier, John’s family attorney. His son was, United States Congressman William Stuart Reyburn, elected, Republican, Pennsylvania 2nd Congressional District, vacancy death, Joel Cook, served, 1911-1913.

Cited: 

Smull’s Legislative Hand Book, (1889) Cochran, T.B., Biographical Sketches of Senators, page 645, 670, 676-678.