Mike Crounse

Capt. Lorenzo Crounse – 1^st N.Y. Lt.Arty. Btty. K

   Lorenzo was born in Sharon, Schoharie County, New York, on January 27,1834. He attended common schools, supplemented by two terms at the New York Conference Seminary at Charlotte,N.Y. He emerged from this institution to become a teacher in the public schools, at an early age of seventeen.

   He studied for the law profession for two years, from 1855 to 1857, in Fort Plain,  N Y., where he was admitted, in due time to the bar and began his practice.

    On September 15, 1861, he enlisted in the 1^st N.Y. Lt. Arty. Btty. K, as a Captain at Fort Plain. He left his company in January 1862 for two reasons: 1.) he was chief of a recruiting party and 2.) he was appointed and served as a judge advocate of a court martial. For his meritorious service he was offered a promotion, but he declined it from a sentiment of duty to the sons of his friends and neighbors, to whom he had promised care and protection when they enlisted under his command. It should also be noted as a characteristic that through his life he steadfastly declined to receive or apply for a dollar of the pension  to which he was entitled. He returned to his unit April 22, 1862.

    He is listed in the Order Of Battle for  Charlestown, Harper’s Ferry and   Cedar Mountain. On August 22, 1862, Jeb Stuart’s Calvary set out on a raid across the Rappahannock River, which succeeded in capturing General Pope’s dispatch book with copies of all his orders. Lorenzo was severely wounded during this action, (ball in the thigh), at Beverly Ford, VA. His wife Mary, was mortified that the doctor planned to amputate Lorenzo’s leg. She rushed to the hospital where she refused to let the doctor amputate.

     On September 9, 1862, Lorenzo sent a letter to President Lincoln resigning his commission . After a partial recovery, he returned home and went back to his law practice until 1864.                        

    In that year, he moved to Nebraska Territory , and located in  Rulo,  Richard Co.  In 1866, he was a  member of the Territorial House of Representatives. At this time he was a delegate to  the State Constitutional Convention and was a member of the committee to prepare a draft of a constitution for statehood., to be submitted to the electors. He moved to Fort Calhoun, Washington County, NB., in 1867, at the time of his appointment as an Associate Justice to the State Supreme Court. The six year term for which he was elected, began admission of the state on March  1867. Notable among his decisions was  in  Brittle vs. The People (2 Nebr. 198), in  which he upheld the right of a colored man to sit on a jury.

    He served  in the United States House of Representatives (43^rd and 44^th  Congresses), from March 4,1873 to March 3,1877. Lorenzo was an influential and active member of congress. He declined to be a candidate for re-election in 1876.  He was appointed Collector of Internal Revenue from March 15,1879 until March 30,1883. He held this position for the Nebraska District. On April 27,1891, was appointed Assistant Secretary of The Treasury, in the Benjamin Harris administration. In 1892 he was nominated and elected Governor of Nebraska on the Republican ticket. In 1894 he refused the re-nomination and from then on was out of politics. From the time of his wife’s death he remained a widower – dignified, serious, but possessed of an unfulfilled  tranquility. He lived quietly on his farm in Fort Calhoun until shortly before his death on  May 13,1909, when he moved to Omaha, to be with his younger daughter, Marie.