
Owen Lovejoy (6 January 1811 – 25 March 1864) was a member of the US House of Representatives (R-IL 3) from 4 March 1857 to 3 March 1863 (succeeding Jesse O. Norton and preceding Elihu B. Washburne) and from IL-5 from 4 March 1863 to 25 March 1864 (succeeding William A. Richardson and preceding Ebon C. Ingersoll).
Biography[]
Owen Lovejoy was born in Albion, Maine in 1811, the younger brother of Elijah Parish Lovejoy, and he was educated at Bowdoin College before migrating to Alton, Illinois in 1836 after his abolitionist politics forced him to leave St. Louis. His brother was murdered for his abolitionist views, and Lovejoy became a Congregationalist pastor before being elected to the State Senate in 1854, befriending Abraham Lincoln, and helping to organize the Republican Party in the state. He served as a "conductor" on the Underground Railroad before serving in the US House of Representatives from 1857 to 1864, when he died in Brooklyn.