journalist military politician
He was born on October 12, 1837 at Berkshire, Delaware County, Ohio, United States, the eldest child of David and Hannah Maria (Bierce) Plumb. Named simply Preston Plumb, he adopted the middle initial to improve the appearance of his signature. An ancestor, John Plume, settled at Wethersfield, Connecticut, in 1635, and another, Ichabod Plumb, grandfather of Preston, migrated to Ohio in 1804.
Preston attended a preparatory school for three years, learned the printer's trade.
He acquired experience on the Marysville Tribune, and in 1854, with a partner, established the Xenia News. In the summer of 1856 he visited Kansas and the following autumn he formed a company and escorted arms and ammunition into the Territory. He soon disposed of his interest in the Xenia News and found employment on the Lawrence Herald of Freedom.
In June 1857 he established the Kanzas News at Emporia. Although he was only twenty, his paper immediately became a vigorous advocate of the Free-State cause, and residents of Emporia constantly looked to him for leadership. He attended numerous Free-State meetings and served in the Leavenworth constitutional convention.
During the winter of 1858 he acquired his first military experience in southern Kansas as aide-de-camp to Gen. James H. Lane. Near the close of the territorial period he studied law at Cleveland, Ohio, and in 1861 was admitted to the bar. He was the first reporter of the Kansas supreme court, and in 1862 served in the lower house of the second state legislature. On September 25, 1862, Plumb was mustered into the Federal service as major of the 11th Kansas Cavalry which operated as part of the Army of the Frontier in northwestern Arkansas. He was appointed chief-of-staff and provost marshal by Gen. Thomas Ewing in 1863, and partially cleared the District of the Border of guerrillas, although he failed to capture Quantrill after the Lawrence massacre. Plumb was promoted lieutenant-colonel, May 17, 1864, and early in 1865 his regiment was assigned the duty of guarding three hundred miles of the Oregon Trail.
He returned to Kansas in September 1865, resumed the practice of law, established the Emporia National Bank, and invested in Texas cattle and Colorado mines.
Plumb served in the state House of Representatives in 1867-68, the first year as speaker. He was elected to the United States Senate in 1877, and reelected in 1883 and 1889, the third time unanimously. In 1880 and again in 1884 he headed the Kansas delegation to the Republican National Convention. In the latter year he placed John A. Logan in nomination for vice-president. In the Senate, Plumb was assigned to the committee on public lands and became its chairman in 1881.
He died in Washington during his third senatorial term.
Preston B. Plumb was one of the founders of Emporia, Kansas, where he established the Kansas News. He helped to fight pro-Confederacy Missouri partisans and raiders under William Quantrill, as well as served in Nebraska against Indians in the result he was promoted to lieutenant colonel. Besides, he served in the Senate and his greatest contribution was the land law of 1891 which repealed the timberculture and preemption acts and inaugurated reclamation and conservation projects.
Always independent in politics, he supported Greeley for the presidency in 1872. He favored free coinage of silver, advocated a moderate tariff, and opposed the McKinley bill. In the civil service he preferred rotation to permanency; in foreign affairs he wished to emphasize the consular rather than the diplomatic service.
He was marked by strenuous effort, untiring industry, and wholesome enthusiasm.
On March 8, 1867, he married Caroline A. Southwick of Ashtabula, Ohio, and to them six children were born.
