Orville Hickman Browning
U. S. Senator, Illinois, 1861-1863
U. S. Secretary of the Interior, 1866-1869
Born: February 10, 1806, Cynthiana, Harrison County, Kentucky
Died: August 10, 1881, Quincy, Illinois
- Attended Augusta College.
- Studied law, was admitted to the bar, 1831.
- Moved to Quincy, Adams County, Illinois, 1831, and practiced law.
- Served in the Illinois Volunteers through the Black Hawk War, 1832.
- Member of the Illinois State Senate, 1836-1843.
- Unsuccessful candidate for election from Illinois as a Whig in 1850 to the Thirty-second U. S. Congress, and in 1852 to the Thirty-third U. S. Congress.
- Delegate to the anti-Nebraska convention held at Bloomington, Illinois, May 29, 1856, which laid the foundations of the Republican Party.
- Delegate to the Republican National Convention at Chicago, Illinois, 1860.
- Appointed as a Republican from Illinois to the U. S. Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Stephen A. Douglas, serving from June 26, 1861 - January 12, 1863, when a successor was elected.
- Was not a candidate for election in 1863.
- Member of the Union Exectitive Committee, 1866.
- Appointed by U. S. President Johnson as Secretary of the Interior July 27, 1866, to take effect September 1, 1866, serving until March 3, 1869.
- While U. S. Secretary of the Interior also discharged for a time the duties of U. S. Attorney General.
- Delegate to the Illinois State Constitutional Convention, 1869.
- Resumed his practice of law.
Buried: Woodland Cemetery, Quincy, Illinois.
(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.)