Darwin R. James

Who was Darwin R. James?

Darwin Rush James was a U.S. Representative from New York.

Born in Williamsburg, Massachusetts, James pursued an academic course in the Mount Pleasant Boarding School, Amherst, Massachusetts. He moved with his parents to Williamsburg, New York, in 1847. He entered the mercantile business in New York City in 1850, became Secretary of the New York Board of Trade and Transportation, and served as Park commissioner of Brooklyn 1876-1882.

James was elected as a Republican to the Forty-eighth and Forty-ninth Congresses where he became a staunch supporter of free silver. He declined a renomination to Congress. He served as chairman of United States Board of Indian Commissioners in 1890. He served as member of New York Canal Commission in 1898. He resumed mercantile pursuits. He died in Brooklyn, New York, November 19, 1908. He was interred in the City Cemetery, Williamsburg, Massachusetts.