Luke Potter Poland was a United States Senator and Representative from Vermont.
Background
Poland was born in Westford son of Luther and Nancy Potter Poland. He worked as a clerk in Waterville, worked in his father"s sawmill, taught at Morrisville schools, studied law in the office of Samuel A. Willard and was admitted to the bar in December 1836.
Education
He attended the common schools and Jericho Academy.
Career
He practiced in Morrisville. In 1844 and 1845 he was prosecuting attorney of Lamoille County, and was a judge of the Vermont Supreme Court from 1848 to 1860. He served as chief justice from 1860 to 1865.
After resigning from the court.
Poland was appointed, and subsequently elected, as a Republican to the United States. Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Jacob Collamer, and served from November 21, 1865 to March 3, 1867. He was then elected to the House of Representatives for the Fortieth and to the three succeeding Congresses, serving from March 4, 1867 to March 3, 1875).
He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection to the Forty-fourth Congress. He was president of the First National Bank of Saint Johnsbury for twenty years.
He was again elected to the House of Representatives, and served during the Forty-eighth Congress from March 4, 1883 to March 3, 1885).
He was not a candidate for renomination. Poland died at his country home near Waterville on July 2, 1887 and is interred at Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Saint Johnsbury.
Membership
Poland was register of probate from 1839 to 1840 and was a member of the State constitutional convention of 1843. While in Congress, he was chairman of the Committee on Revisal and Unfinished Business (Fortieth Congress) and a member of the Committee on Revision of the Laws (Fortieth, Forty-first and Forty-third Congresses). A member of the Vermont House of Representatives in 1878, Poland was also a trustee of the University of Vermont at Burlington and of the State Agricultural College.