Ransom W. Dunham – Illinois Congressman

Ransom Williams Dunham , (1838-1896);-a Representative from Illinois; born in Savoy, Berkshire County, Mass., March 21, 1838; attended the common schools and the high school in Springfield, Mass., engaged as a clerk for a life insurance company 1855-1857; moved to Chicago in 1857; became a grain and provision commission merchant; president of the Board of Trade of Chicago in 1882; elected as a Republican to the Forty-eighth, Forty-ninth, and Fiftieth Congresses (March 4, 1883-March 3, 1889); retired from active business pursuits; died in Springfield, Hampden County, Mass., on August 19, 1896, while en route to attend the centennial celebration of his native town, Savoy; interment in Mount Hope Cemetery, Chicago, Ill.