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James Findlay Cincinnati

James Findlay (12 October 1770 – 28 December 1835) was a member of the US House of Representatives (DR-OH 1) from 4 March 1825 to 3 March 1833, succeeding James W. Gazlay and preceding Robert Todd Lytle.

Biography[]

James Findlay was born in Mercersburg, Pennsylvania in 1770, the brother of John Findlay and William Findlay. He moved to the Northwest Territory in 1793, and, with John Smith, he soon became one of the leading merchants and one of the most influential men in the young city of Cincinnati. He served in the Northwestern Territory legislature in 1798, US Marshal for the Northwestern Territory in 1802, and as Mayor of Cincinnati from 1805 to 1806 and from 1810 to 1811. In 1806-1807, he helped crush Aaron Burr's conspiracy to conquer the American West, even though this meant turning on his former ally John Smith. During the War of 1812, he became a Brigadier-General in the militia, and he opposed William Hull's surrender of Detroit. He later built Fort Findlay in Ohio, and he served in the US House of Representatives from 1825 to 1833 as a Jacksonian and later as a Whig; he failed in his 1834 gubernatorial bid, and he died in 1835.

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