Erastus D. Culver

Who was Erastus D. Culver?

Erastus Dean Culver was a U.S. Representative from New York.

Born in Champlain in Washington County, New York, Culver was graduated from the University of Vermont at Burlington in 1826.

He studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1831 and commenced practice in Fort Ann, New York. He moved to Greenwich, New York, in 1836.

He was a member of the New York State Assembly in 1838 and 1841.

Culver was elected as a Whig to the Twenty-ninth Congress.

He moved to Brooklyn, New York, in 1850, where he became well known as a lawyer, arguing cases for Brooklyn and New York City abolitionists. Chester Alan Arthur studied law with Culver, and later became a partner in Culver's firm.

Culver became a Republican, and was elected judge of the city court of Brooklyn in 1854, where he served through 1861. In 1857 he ruled in favor of James Stead, a fugitive slave, in a hotly contested case that featured a dramatic "rescue," defeating slave catchers seeking to return Stead to his master.

He was appointed by President Lincoln as Minister Resident to Venezuela and served in that capacity from 1862 to 1866.

He died in Greenwich, New York, October 13, 1889. He was interred in the Culver vault in Greenwich Cemetery.