Representative Andrew Beaumont

Andrew Beaumont (January 24, 1790 – September 30, 1853) was a Jacksonian member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania and a long-serving public official in Luzerne County. He was born in Lebanon, Connecticut, the son of Isaiah Beaumont and Fear (Alden) Beaumont, a family line that connected him to early New England settlers through his mother’s Alden ancestry. In 1808 he left Connecticut and settled in Pennsylvania, a move that marked the beginning of a lifetime of public service in his adopted state.

After his arrival in Pennsylvania, Beaumont studied law, although he never entered into formal legal practice. His legal training nonetheless informed his early administrative and judicial-related responsibilities. From 1814 to 1816 he served as Collector of Revenue, an appointment that placed him in a key fiscal role during the closing years of the War of 1812 and its immediate aftermath. He then held the offices of prothonotary and Clerk of the Courts of Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, from 1816 to 1819, positions that involved oversight of court records and civil procedure in a growing county centered on Wilkes-Barre.

Beaumont’s political career in state government began in the early 1820s. He was elected to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in 1821, 1822, and again in 1826, participating in the legislative affairs of the Commonwealth during a period of expanding internal improvements and evolving party alignments. Concurrently, he held federal local office as postmaster of Wilkes-Barre from 1826 to 1832, managing the community’s postal affairs at a time when the postal service was a principal means of communication and a significant instrument of federal presence in local life.

On the national stage, Beaumont was elected as a Jacksonian to the Twenty-third and Twenty-fourth Congresses, representing Pennsylvania in the U.S. House of Representatives. His service in Congress placed him within the broader Jacksonian movement, which emphasized expanded participation in government and skepticism of concentrated financial power. During his tenure he aligned with the policies of President Andrew Jackson and his successors, reflecting the dominant Democratic currents in Pennsylvania politics of the era.

Following his congressional service, Beaumont continued to receive federal appointments. President James K. Polk appointed him Commissioner of Public Buildings in Washington, D.C., a position responsible for oversight of federal structures in the capital. He served in this capacity from November 5, 1846, to March 3, 1847. His tenure was brief because the United States Senate refused to confirm his appointment, bringing his service in that office to an end. Undeterred, he returned to state politics and was again elected to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in 1849, extending his record of legislative service across several decades.

In his personal life, Beaumont married Julia A. Colt in 1813. The couple had ten children, six daughters and four sons, and the family became notable for its extensive military service in subsequent generations. Two of his sons achieved distinction in the United States armed forces: Rear Admiral John Colt Beaumont in the U.S. Navy and Lieutenant Colonel Eugene B. Beaumont in the U.S. Army, the latter a Medal of Honor recipient for his service during the Civil War. His grandson, John Colt Beaumont, rose to the rank of brigadier general in the U.S. Marine Corps, and his cousin, Major William Beaumont, served as a surgeon in the U.S. Army and became a pioneering figure in medical research, later commemorated by the naming of William Beaumont Army Medical Center in El Paso, Texas.

Andrew Beaumont spent his later years in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, where he had long been a central figure in local and state affairs. He died there on September 30, 1853. He was interred in Hollenback Cemetery in Wilkes-Barre, leaving behind a legacy of public service at the county, state, and national levels, as well as a family that continued to serve prominently in the military and public life of the United States.