Only one person has represented three different states in the United States Senate. James Shields, an Irish immigrant who came to the United States around 1826, was first chosen to represent the state of Illinois in 1849. He became one of the first two senators from Minnesota in 1858, and in 1879, represented Missouri in the U.S. Senate. Shields’ remarkable life also included service as a state legislator and a judge on the Illinois Supreme Court, as well as a distinguished military career as a brigadier general in both the Mexican War and the American Civil War. In 1893, the state of Illinois honored him with a statue in the National Statuary Hall Collection in the U.S. Capitol.
