Mordecai Oliver

Who was Mordecai Oliver?

Mordecai Oliver was an attorney and two-term U.S. Representative from Missouri.

Born in Anderson County, Kentucky, Oliver attended the common schools and then studied law. He was admitted to the bar in 1842 and commenced practice in Richmond, Missouri. He served as a prosecuting attorney for the Fifth Judicial Circuit in 1848.

Oliver was elected as a Whig to the Thirty-third Congress and reelected as an Opposition Party candidate to the Thirty-fourth Congress.

Oliver was elected as a Unionist Secretary of State of Missouri in 1861.

He resumed the practice of law in St. Louis, Missouri, and served as judge of the criminal court 1889-1893. He moved to Springfield, Missouri, where he died April 25, 1898. He was interred in Hazelwood Cemetery.