Edward McPherson

Edward McPherson (July 31, 1830 – December 14, 1895) was a Pennsylvania newspaper editor and politician who served 2 terms as a United States Congressman. As a director of the Gettysburg Battlefield Memorial Association, he effected efforts to protect and mark portions of the Gettysburg Battlefield.

Born near Gettysburg, McPherson studied law and botany to graduate as 1848 Pennsylvania College valedictorian. In Thaddeus Stevens' firm in Lancaster, McPherson became a Whig. McPherson left the law practice due to illness and moved to Harrisburg, editing the Harrisburg American in 1851, and the Lancaster Independent Whig (1851-1854). In 1855, he started and edited an American Party paper, the Pittsburgh Evening Times. He moved back to Gettysburg the next year and resumed his legal career. He inherited his father's farm west of town along the Chambersburg Turnpike in 1858. and was elected to the 36th and 37th United States Congresses (1859-March 1863, Republican). He was a member of the Republican National Committee in 1860.

McPherson organized Company K of the First Pennsylvania Reserves at the beginning of the American Civil War, and was defeated in the 1862 reelection when his House of Representatives district (Adams, Franklin, Fulton, Bedford, and Juniata counties) was expanded to include opposing Radical Republicans in Somerset County (substituted for Juniata). President Abraham Lincoln appointed McPherson as Deputy Commissioner of Revenue in 1863. After the Battle of Gettysburg, McPherson became an officer of the Gettysburg Battlefield Memorial Association with an office on the corner of Baltimore and Middle streets and after Congressman Morehead nominated him, Thaddeus Stevens had him appointed as Clerk of the House of Representatives (December 8, 1863 – December 5, 1875).