Solomon Robert Dresser

Who was Solomon Robert Dresser?

Solomon Robert Dresser was an inventor and a Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania.

Solomon R. Dresser was born in Litchfield, Michigan. He attended the common schools and Hillsdale College. He engaged in agricultural pursuits until 1865. He became an inventor of oil and gas well equipment, and moved to Pennsylvania in 1872 to work in the production of oil and gas. He was the founder and president of the S.R. Dresser Manufacturing Co.

Dresser was elected as a Republican to the Fifty-eighth and Fifty-ninth Congresses. He was not a candidate for renomination in 1906. He resumed former business pursuits and died in Bradford, Pennsylvania in 1911; he was originally interred in Oak Hill Cemetery, but his son had the 20 foot obelisk and the families graves moved to Willowdale Cemetery.