John Jordan Crittenden

U. S. Senator, Kentucky, 1817-1819; 1835-1841; 1842-1848; 1855-1861
U. S. Attorney General, 1841; 1850-1853
Governor, Kentucky, 1848-1850
U. S. House of Representatives (Unionist), Kentucky, 1861-1863

Born: September 10, 1787, Versailles, Woodford County, Kentucky.

• Completed preparatory studies.
  
• Attended Pisgah Academy, Woodford County, Kentucky, Washington College (now Washington and Lee University), Lexington, Virginia
  
• William and Mary College, Williamsburg, Virginia, graduate, 1806.
  
• Studied law, was admitted to the bar, and commenced practice in Woodford County, Kentucky, 1807.
  
• Attorney General of Illinois Territory, 1809 and 1810.
  
• Served in the War of 1812 as aide to Kentucky Governor Shelby.
  
• Resumed the practice of law in Russellville, Kentucky.
  
• Kentucky State House of Representatives, 1811-1817, serving as Speaker the last term.
  
• Elected to the U. S. Senate, serving from March 4, 1817 - March 3, 1819, when he resigned.
  
• Moved to Frankfort, Kentucky, 1819.
  
• Again a member of the Kentucky State House of Representatives, 1825 and 1829-1832.
  
• Appointed U. S. District Attorney, 1827, confirmed February 8, 1827, but was removed by President Jackson, 1829.
  
• Nominated in 1828 by President John Quincy Adams as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, but was not confirmed by the Senate.
  
• Again elected to the U. S. Senate, serving from March 4, 1835 - March 3, 1841.
  
• Appointed U. S. Attorney General by U. S. President Harrison, serving from March 5 - September 13, 1841.
  
• Appointed and subsequently elected to the U. S. Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Henry Clay, serving from March 31, 1842 - June 12, 1848, when he resigned.
  
• Elected Governor of Kentucky, 1848, serving until July 22, 1850, when he resigned.
  
• Again appointed U. S. Attorney General, this time by U. S. President Fillmore, serving from July 22, 1850 - March 7, 1853.
  
• Again elected to the U. S. Senate, serving from March 4, 1855 - March 3, 1861.
  
• Elected from Kentucky as a Unionist to the Thirty-seventh U. S. House of Representatives, March 4, 1861 - March 3, 1863.
  
• Candidate for re-election at the time of his death.

Died: July 26, 1863, Frankfort, Kentucky.
Buried: State Cemetery, Frankfort, Kentucky.

(Source: U.S. Congress. House. Biographical Directory Of The American Congress 1774-1949, 85th Cong., 2nd sess., H. Doc. 607 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1950), pp. 759-2057.)