Biography

12/10/1784 - 12/14/1868

Walter Lowrie (Democratic-Republican19) Allegheny, Beaver and Butler Counties 1812-1815 (Democratic-Republican19) Allegheny, Armstrong, Beaver and Butler Counties 1815-1819

Early Life:

Walter Lowrie, born December 10, 1784, Edinburgh, City of Edinburgh, Scotland; son of John and Catherine Cameron Lowrie; family arrived, United States, settling, Huntingdon County, 1791, before moving permanently, Allegheny Township, Butler County 1792; subscription schools education; surveyor; studied, Presbyterian ministry under, Reverend John McPherrin; teacher, Butler County, Pennsylvania, 1807; married, Amelia McPherrin, (d.1832); children, John Cameron Lowrie, Mary Lowrie Baird, Eliza Lowrie, Walter Macon Lowrie, Jonathan Roberts Lowrie; married, Mary K. Childs; elected, Commissioner, Butler County, Pennsylvania 1810; justice of the peace; engaged, mercantile business, Butler, 1809; elected, Democratic-Republican, Pennsylvania State Senate, 1812-1819; Speaker, 1813-1814 session; elected, Democratic Republican, United States Senate, 1819-1825, not a candidate for reelection, 1825; unsuccessful campaign, Pennsylvania Governor, Republican Nomination, 1823; Secretary, United States Senate, 1825-1836; secretary, Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions, 1825-1868; died, December 14, 1868, New York, New York County (Manhattan), New York; interment, First Presbyterian Church, Manhattan, New York County (Manhattan), New York.

Pennsylvania Politics: 

Elected, Commissioner, Butler County, Pennsylvania 1810; justice of the peace.

Elected, Democratic-Republican, Pennsylvania State Senate, Francis McClure resigned his seat prior to the beginning of the session, replaced by Walter Lowrie, 19th district, Allegheny, Beaver and Butler Counties, 1812-1813; Elected, Democratic-Republican, Pennsylvania State Senate, Allegheny, Beaver and Butler Counties, 1813-1815; elected, Speaker Pennsylvania Senate, 1813-1814 session.

Elected, Democratic-Republican, Pennsylvania State Senate, 19th district, Allegheny, Armstrong, Beaver and Butler Counties, 1815-1819; unsuccessful, Speaker, Pennsylvania Senate, 1816.

Unsuccessful campaign, United States House of Representatives, Pennsylvania District 14, 1816.

Unsuccessful campaign, Pennsylvania Governor, Republican Nomination, 1823.

Continued Government Service/National Politics:

Elected, Democratic Republican, United States Senate, 16th, 17th, 18th,Congresses, 1819-1825; on December 10, 1818, at 12, o'clock, members of both branches of the Pennsylvania legislature met in the chamber of the House of Representatives, for the purpose of electing a Senator to represent this state in the Senate of the United States, in place of Mr. Abner Lacock, who declines a re-election, whose term in service expires on the 4th of March next." The Democratic Press (Philadelphia, PA). December 11, 1818. Chaired, Committee on Finance, 2nd session, 17th Congress.

Legacy:

Nephew, Walter H. Lowrie, chief justice of Pennsylvania Supreme Court, 1857–1863.

Cited:

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

Portrait and Bio: History of Butler County, Pennsylvania (Evansville, Indiana: Unigraphich, Incorporated, 1977), pages 674-676.  

Annals of Southwestern Pennsylvania, editor Lewis Clark Walkenshaw (New York: Lewis Historical Publishers, Incorporated, 1939). 

Senate Journal, December 20, 1816, page 54. 

A New Nation Votes (tufts.edu)

Walter Lowrie (1784-1868) - Find a Grave Memorial