Biography

05/05/1824 - 03/25/1893

Doctor Thomas St. Clair (R22) Cambria, Indiana and Jefferson Counties 1865 (R37) Indiana and Jefferson Counties 1877-1880 

Early Life:

Doctor Thomas St. Clair, born May 5, 1824, White Township, Indiana County, Pennsylvania; son of James and Jennie Slemmons St. Clair; common school education; Indiana Academy; studied medicine with Doctor John Jenks, 1843; Jefferson Medical College, 1847; entered private practice, 1849; member, Indiana borough council; president, Indiana Agricultural Society; Surgeon General’s Volunteer Surgical Corps, Civil War, 1862- 1863; elected, Republican, Pennsylvania State Senate, 1864-1865; married Charlotte D. Patton, 1848 (d. 1868), children, John Patton St. Clair, James H. St. Clair, Doctor Charles M. St. Clair, Charlotte St. Clair Hazlett, Jennie Slemmons St. Clair, Mary St. Clair Ellis and Sarah Josephine St. Clair; married Sarah Walker, 1869; elected, Republican, Pennsylvania State Senate, 1877-1880; died, March 25, 1893, Latrobe, Indiana County, Pennsylvania; interment, Oakland Cemetery and Mausoleum, Indiana, Indiana County, Pennsylvania. 

Early Career:

Practiced, medicine; Civil War, Surgeon General’s Volunteer Surgical Corps, battles participation, Seven Days Campaign, Richmond, Virginia, 1862; Gettysburg, 1863.

Professional titles; business ownership; board memberships; local government; club memberships:

Member, Indiana borough council; president, Indiana Agricultural Society. 

Pennsylvania Politics: 

Member, Indiana borough council. 

Elected, Republican, Pennsylvania State Senate, 22nd district, Cambria, Indiana and Jefferson Counties, vacancy, Senator and prisoner of war Major Harry White, 1865; election, broke the Pennsylvania State Senate deadlocked at 32, was able to organize, elect a Speaker of the Senate John P Clymer.

Elected, Republican, Pennsylvania State Senate, 37th district, Indiana and Jefferson Counties, 1877-1880; committee assignments, Agriculture, Banks Centennial Affairs and Pensions and Gratuities. 

Legacy:

First surgeon, west of the Alleghenies to successfully remove an ovarian tumor.

Cited: 

Cox, Harold. "Senate Members S". Wilkes University Election Statistics Project. Wilkes University.

Smull’s Legislative Handbook, (1879). Smull, J.A., (Editor) Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, pages 705, 710-712, Biographical Sketches of Senators, page 668.

The Philadelphia Inquirer (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) · Tuesday January 2, 1872, · Page 3.

Samuel T. Wiley, Biographical and Historical Cyclopedia of Indiana and Armstrong Counties (Philadelphia: Gresham and Co., 1891); Indiana Messenger, March 29, 1893.

Thomas St. Clair (1824-1893) - Find a Grave Memorial