13 Handwritten Letters to Representative William Ward

1880. Near Fine. 13 handwritten letters to Pennsylvania Representative William Ward. There are two topics addressed by these letters. One topic is who Ward will recommend for a position with the Internal Revenue under James Ashworth (1836-1882), a Philadelphian who had been a captain during the Civil War and as an Internal Revenue official favored appointing an ex-soldier from his district for the position. The other topic is local support for Ward running for the Republican nomination for Senate in 1881. John I. Mitchell was the ultimate Republican candidate; he won against the sitting Democrat, William A. Wallace. William Ward (1837-1895) was born in Philadelphia and attended Girard College, the boarding school established by Stephen Girard (1750-1831) for poor, white, male orphans. Ward learned printing while working at the Delaware County Republican in Chester, Pa., and then studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1859. He later served on the Chester City Council and represented Pennsylvania's 6th District in Congress from 1877 to 1883. He married Clara Ecker Ulrich (1837-1916) and they had six children, including son William Ward, Jr., (1865-1949), who served in the Pennslvania House from 1901 to 1911 and as mayor of Chester from 1911 to 1915 and again in the 1930s. The letters are signed by Thomas N. Cooper, James Ashworth, and Henry C. Snowden, among others. In Near Fine Condition: minimal soiling; light creasing.