Representative Louis Evans Atkinson

Louis Evans Atkinson (April 16, 1841 – February 5, 1910) was a physician, attorney, and Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania. He was born in Delaware Township, Juniata County, Pennsylvania, where he attended the local common schools before pursuing further studies at Airy View Academy and Milnwood Academy. These early educational experiences in rural Pennsylvania prepared him for professional training and public service in the tumultuous years surrounding the American Civil War.

Atkinson studied medicine and enrolled in the medical department of the College of the City of New York, from which he was graduated in 1861. His medical education coincided with the outbreak of the Civil War, and he quickly placed his professional skills at the service of the Union cause. On September 5, 1861, in the early days of the conflict, he entered the medical department of the Union Army. He first served as assistant surgeon in the First Pennsylvania Reserve Cavalry, and later as surgeon of the 188th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry. He remained in military service until he was mustered out in December 1865. During his time in the Army he became disabled, and this impairment left him unable to continue the active practice of medicine after the war.

Forced by circumstance to change professions, Atkinson turned to the study of law. He read law following his return to Pennsylvania and was admitted to the bar in September 1870. He then commenced the practice of law in Mifflintown, Pennsylvania, the county seat of Juniata County. Establishing himself as a lawyer in this small but important regional center, he built a professional reputation that would later support his entry into elective office. His dual background in medicine and law, combined with his Civil War service, positioned him as a respected figure in his community and within the Republican Party.

Atkinson was elected as a Republican to the Forty-eighth Congress and to the four succeeding Congresses, serving as a Representative from Pennsylvania in the United States Congress from 1883 to 1893. Over the course of these five consecutive terms, he represented his constituents in the U.S. House of Representatives during a significant period in American history marked by post-Reconstruction politics, industrial expansion, and evolving federal responsibilities. As a member of the House, Louis Evans Atkinson participated actively in the legislative process and the broader democratic system, working to represent the interests of his district and state.

During his congressional service, Atkinson held a notable leadership role as chairman of the United States House Committee on Expenditures in the Department of the Treasury during the Fifty-first Congress (1889–1891). In this capacity, he was involved in overseeing federal spending practices within the Treasury Department, reflecting both his party’s priorities and the growing concern with fiscal management in the late nineteenth century. Although he initially became a candidate for renomination in 1892, he ultimately withdrew from the race, bringing his decade-long tenure in Congress to a close at the end of the Fifty-second Congress.

After leaving Congress, Atkinson resumed the practice of law in Mifflintown, returning to the profession that had first brought him to public prominence. His legal career continued to advance, and he was appointed president judge of the Forty-first Pennsylvania Judicial District. He served on the bench for one year, further extending his record of public service from the battlefield to the bar, the legislature, and the judiciary. His work as a judge added a final dimension to his long engagement with the legal and governmental institutions of Pennsylvania.

Louis Evans Atkinson died in Mifflintown, Pennsylvania, on February 5, 1910. He was interred in the Presbyterian Cemetery there, closing a life that spanned from the antebellum era through the Civil War and into the modernizing United States of the early twentieth century. Throughout his varied career as physician, soldier, attorney, legislator, and judge, he remained closely tied to Juniata County and to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, leaving a record of service that reflected both local commitment and national responsibility.