Biography

POWERS, Gershom, a Representative from New York; born in Croydon, Sullivan County, N.H., July 11, 1789; attended the common schools and was largely self-taught; taught school in the town of Sempronius, Cayuga County, N.Y., while attending the local law school, from which he graduated in 1810; was admitted to the bar the same year and commenced practice in Auburn, Cayuga County, N.Y.; appointed superintendent of Auburn prison in 1820; first judge of the court of common pleas of Cayuga County 1823-1828; elected as a Jacksonian to the Twenty-first Congress (March 4, 1829-March 3, 1831); chairman, Committee on District of Columbia (Twenty-first Congress); declined to be a candidate for renomination in 1830; appointed inspector of Auburn prison on April 2, 1830, and served until his death; died in Auburn, N.Y., June 25, 1831; interment in North Street Cemetery.