M. S. QUAY |
MATTHEW
S. QUAY,
a celebrated public an and senator, was born
at Dillsburgh, York county, Pennsylvania, Sept. 30, 1833, of
an old Scotch-Irish family, some of whom had settled in the
Keystone state in 1715. Matthew received a good
education, graduating from the Jefferson College at
Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, at the age of seventeen. He
then traveled, taught school, lectured, and studied law
under Judge Sterrett. He was admitted to
the bar in 1854, was appointed a prothonotary in 1855 and
elected to the same office in 1856 and 1859. Later he
was made lieutenant of the Pennsylvania Reserve,
lieutenant-colonel and assistant commissary-general of the
state, private secretary of the famous war governor of
Pennsylvania, Andrew G. Curtin, colonel of the One
Hundred and Thirty-fourth Pennsylvania Infantry (nine months
men), military state agent and held other offices at
different times.
Mr. Quay was a member of the house of
representatives of the state of Pennsylvania from 1865 to
1868. He filled the office of secretary of the
commonwealth from 1872 to 1878, and the position of
delegate-at-large to (he Republican national conventions of
1872, 1876, 1880 and 1888. He was the editor of the
"Beaver Radical" and the "Philadelphia Record" for a time,
and held many offices in the state conventions and on their
committees. He was elected secretary of the
commonwealth of Pennsylvania, 1869, and served three years,
and in 1885 was chosen state treasurer. In 1886 his
great abilities pointed him out as the natural candidate for
United States senator, and he was accordingly elected to
that position and re-elected thereto in 1892. He was
always noted for a genius for organization, and as a
political leader had but few peers. Cool, serene,
far-seeing, resourceful, holding his impulses and forces in
hand, he never quailed from any policy he adopted, and
carried to success most, if not all, of the political
campaigns in which he took part.
 Source:
Genealogical & Biographical Record of Miami Co., Ohio -
Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company - 1900 - Page 171 |
