Samuel Pasco | |
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United States Senator from Florida |
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In office May 19, 1887 – April 18, 1899 |
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Preceded by | Charles W. Jones |
Succeeded by | James Taliaferro |
Member of the Florida House of Representatives | |
In office 1886-1887 |
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Personal details | |
Born |
London, England |
June 28, 1834
Died | March 13, 1917 Tampa, Florida |
(aged 82)
Political party | Democratic |
Samuel Pasco (June 28, 1834 – March 13, 1917) was a United States Senator from Florida.
Pasco was born in London, England, to a family of Cornish ancestry. His family moved to Prince Edward Island in 1841 before moving to the United States in 1843 and settling in Charlestown, Massachusetts. Pasco attended Harvard University and then moved to Florida in 1859. He served as principal of the Waukeenah Academy, a school in Monticello, Florida, from 1860 to 1861.
When the American Civil War began, though he had only lived in the South for two years, Pasco joined the army of the Confederate States of America. He fought as a member of the 3rd Florida Infantry Regiment. He was captured in Mississippi and imprisoned by the United States for the rest of the war. He was released in March 1865 and immediately returned to Florida to resume his post as principal of the Waukeenah Academy. He resigned from that position in 1866 but remained in Florida, serving as clerk of Jefferson County from 1866 to 1868. He eventually became a prominent lawyer in the area.
In 1885, he was the president of the convention which wrote a new constitution for Florida. He was a member of the Florida House of Representatives from 1886 to 1887 and briefly served as speaker in 1887.