George L. Shoup, served from 1890 to 1901

George Laird Shoup was born in Kittanning, Armstrong County, Pennsylvania, on June 15, 1836. He attended the public schools of Freeport and Slate Lick and moved to Illinois in 1852. He was engaged in agricultural pursuits and stock raising near Galesburg, Illinois, until 1858, and then moved to Colorado in 1859.

In Colorado, he was engaged in mining and mercantile pursuits until 1861. During the Civil War, he enlisted in an independent company of scouts and soon thereafter was commissioned a second lieutenant. He scouted throughout New Mexico and Colorado and on the Canadian, Pecos, Arkansas and Red Rivers and was promoted to first lieutenant. He was given leave of absence to attend the convention to prepare a constitution for the proposed State of Colorado in 1864. Afterward, he returned to active duty, was commissioned colonel and mustered out in Denver in 1864.

He was engaged in mercantile pursuits in Virginia City, Montana, in 1866, and later in Salmon City, Idaho. He served as Lemhi County Treasurer and superintendent of schools and was a member of the Territorial House of Representatives in 1874. He was also a member of the Territorial Council in 1878; and a member of the Republican National Committee, 1880-1884, 1888-1892; He served as United States Commissioner for Idaho at the World�s Cotton Centennial Exposition in New Orleans, Louisiana, in 1884 and 1885.

He was appointed Governor of Idaho Territory 1889-1890, and upon the admission of Idaho as a State into the Union was elected its first Governor on October 1, 1890. He resigned in December of that year, having been elected Senator of the new state. He was elected as a Republican to the United States Senate in 1890; re-elected in 1895 and served from December 18, 1890, to March 3, 1901. He was an unsuccessful candidate for re-election to the Senate in 1900.

During his tenure in the Senate, he served as Chairman of the Committee on Education and Labor (Fifty-fourth Congress), Committee on Territories (Fifty-fifth and Fifty-sixth Congresses).

He died in Boise, Idaho, on December 21, 1904, and was buried the Masonic Cemetery.

A statue of Senator Shoup is located in Statuary Hall in the United States Capitol. Senator Shoup and Senator Borah represent Idaho in the Hall.

Bibliography

DAB; Crowder, David L. "Pioneer Sketch: George Laird Shoup." Idaho Yesterdays 33 (Winter 1990): 2-8; U.S. Congress. Memorial Addresses at Erection of Statue. 61st Cong., 2nd sess., 1909-1910. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1910.

Photos provided by the Idaho State Historical Society.  Biographical information compiled by Congressional Research Service.