Representative George Plumer

George Plumer (December 5, 1762 – June 8, 1843) was a nineteenth-century American politician and farmer who represented Pennsylvania in the U.S. House of Representatives during the formative years of the Jacksonian era. He was born near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, then a frontier region of the Commonwealth, at a time when western Pennsylvania was only beginning to be settled and developed. Little is recorded about his parents or early family life, but his origins in the Pittsburgh area placed him within the growing agricultural and trading communities along the upper Ohio River.

Details of Plumer’s formal education are not documented in surviving records, which is typical for many public figures of his generation from rural Pennsylvania. It is likely that he received a basic education locally and was trained in the practical skills associated with agriculture and land management. His later career and post-congressional activities indicate that he was closely tied to farming and rural economic life, suggesting that his early years were spent in and around agricultural pursuits near Pittsburgh.

Plumer entered public life as a member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, reflecting the increasing political organization of western Pennsylvania in the early nineteenth century. He served in the state legislature from 1812 to 1815, a period that encompassed the War of 1812 and significant debates over state and national policy, and he returned for an additional term in 1817. His repeated election to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives indicates that he had established himself as a trusted local leader and spokesman for his constituents in the western part of the state.

Building on his state legislative experience, Plumer advanced to national office as the political system evolved in the years following the decline of the Federalist Party. He was elected as a Republican, then commonly referred to as a Democratic-Republican, to the Seventeenth Congress, serving from March 4, 1821, to March 3, 1823. As national party alignments began to shift, he was elected as a Jackson Republican to the Eighteenth Congress, serving from March 4, 1823, to March 3, 1825, aligning himself with the supporters of Andrew Jackson. He was subsequently reelected as a Jacksonian to the Nineteenth Congress, serving from March 4, 1825, to March 3, 1827, during the contentious period that followed the presidential election of 1824 and the emergence of Jacksonian Democracy as a distinct political force.

During his three consecutive terms in the U.S. House of Representatives, Plumer represented the interests of his Pennsylvania constituents at a time when issues such as internal improvements, westward expansion, and the balance of power between the federal government and the states were at the forefront of national debate. His identification first as a Republican, then as a Jackson Republican, and finally as a Jacksonian reflects his political alignment with the movement that favored broader democratic participation and greater attention to the concerns of frontier and agrarian communities.

After completing his service in the Nineteenth Congress, Plumer declined to be a candidate for renomination. Choosing to retire from national politics, he returned to private life and engaged in agricultural pursuits, resuming the farming activities that had long connected him to the land and local economy of western Pennsylvania. His withdrawal from public office was consistent with the pattern of many early nineteenth-century legislators who viewed congressional service as a temporary public duty rather than a permanent career.

George Plumer spent his later years near West Newton, Pennsylvania, a community in Westmoreland County situated southeast of Pittsburgh along the Youghiogheny River. He died there on June 8, 1843. He was interred in the Old Sewickley Presbyterian Church Cemetery, a burial ground associated with one of the region’s early Presbyterian congregations, reflecting the longstanding settlement and religious traditions of western Pennsylvania. His life and career exemplify the trajectory of an early American legislator who rose from a rural background to serve in both state and national government during a formative period in the nation’s political development.