De Alva Stanwood Alexander

Born in Maine in 1846, he moved to Ohio as a boy and enlisted in the Union Army at fifteen, serving through the end of the Civil War. After the war he worked in journalism, studied law, and built a career that blended reporting, public service, and historical writing.

He later settled in New York, where he served as United States Attorney for the Northern District of New York and then represented the state in the U.S. House of Representatives for seven terms, from 1897 to 1911. Alongside his legal and political work, he wrote history and political commentary with the perspective of someone who had taken part in public life himself.

He is best remembered as the author of detailed works on New York political history, including multi-volume studies that remain useful to readers interested in the state's parties, elections, and public figures. He died in Buffalo, New York, in 1925.