Archibald J. Weaver

Who was Archibald J. Weaver?

Archibald Jerard Weaver was a Nebraska Republican politician, best known for being the father of Governor of Nebraska Arthur J. Weaver and grandfather of Nebraska politicians Arthur J. Weaver, Jr. and Phillip Hart Weaver.

He was born in Dundaff, Pennsylvania on April 15, 1843 and graduated from Wyoming Seminary, Kingston, Pennsylvania. He became a faculty member of the school from 1864 to 1867. In 1869, he graduated from Harvard Law School and was admitted to the bar in Boston, Massachusetts. He moved to Falls City, Nebraska in 1869 to practice law.

He attended the State constitutional conventions in 1871 and 1875 and became the district attorney for the first district of Nebraska in 1872. In 1875 and 1879 he was elected judge of the first judicial district of Nebraska. He resigned in 1883 having been elected as a Republican to the Forty-eighth United States Congress. He was then reelected to the Forty-ninth United States Congress, but did not run for reelection in 1886. He ran unsuccessfully in 1887 for the United States Senate, lost and resumed his practice of law. He died in Falls City on April 18, 1887 and is buried in Steele Cemetery in Falls City.