Edward Lucas (congressman)

Born near Shepherdstown, Virginia (now West Virginia) to Edward Lucas (1738-1809) and his wife the former Elizabeth Edwards (1745-1808), the younger Lucas is sometimes referred to as Edward Lucas IV. His father fought as a patriot during the revolutionary war and his grandmother was from Philadelphia. He shared the name with his father and grandfather, but after two sons having the name died as infants, this baby received the additional letter as a mystical precaution. Young Ed Lucas received a private education suitable to his class, as did his surviving brother. He then traveled to Carlisle, Pennsylvania for further studies and graduated from Dickinson College in 1809. He would marry Anna Maria Ronemous and although their married daughter died in 1844, their three sons all survived the American Civil War not long after this Edward Lucas' death.

During the War of 1812, he served as a first lieutenant, paymaster and acting captain of the 4th Virginia militia (a/k/a Beatty's), hence his sometime honorific as "Captain".[1]

After the conflict, Lucas read law and was admitted to the Virginia bar. He began his legal practice in Shepherdstown, Virginia (now West Virginia) on a major westward route, and continued until 1818, when he decided to concentrate on business pursuits in Jefferson County. Although the National Road bypassed Shepherdstown, it went through Harpers Ferry, as did the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, so internal improvements were very important to the area. Lucas first won election to the Virginia House of Delegates (a part-time position) in 1819 and continued to win re-election until 1822. He again won election in 1830 and 1831.

In 1832 Lucas ran to represent Virginia's 15th congressional district as a Jacksonian. He won re-election to the United States House of Representatives, serving from 1833 to 1837, having announced his plans to retire. He was succeeded by fellow Jacksonian Democrat James Murray Mason for one term, then his brother William won the seat. By that time, Edward Lucas had resumed mercantile pursuits at Harpers Ferry, which was a major Harpers Ferry Armory. Lucas owned and enslaved woman and boy in 1840,[2] and three in 1850.[3] In 1847 Lucas became the military storekeeper of ordnance at the Harpers Ferry Armory and worked there until his death in Harpers Ferry, Virginia on March 4, 1858.

Lucas is interred there in the family cemetery at Elmwood near Harpers Ferry, beside his wife and daughter.[4] His sons Lewis Lucas (who was a boatman on the Potomac River or Chesapeake and Ohio Canal in 1850 and probably hurt economically by the opening of the C&O Railroad just before the war), Edward Lucas and Dr. Robert Armistead Lucas all survived the conflict, although two of his grandsons (sons of Lewis Lucas) enlisted as privates in the First Virginia Cavalry. George R. Lucas was captured late in the war, released during a prisoner exchange and returned to the front only to be killed in action on January 18, 1865, but his brother Pvt. Lewis C. Lucas survived.

• United States Congress. "Edward Lucas (id: L000490)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
• Edward Lucas at Find a Grave

• United States Congress. "Edward Lucas (id: L000490)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.