Inge, Samuel Williams

22 Feb. 1817–10 June 1868

Samuel Williams Inge, lawyer and congressman, was born in Warren County, the son of Major Francis and Rebecca Coke Williams Inge. He moved to Alabama as a youth, was educated in the schools of Greene and Tuscaloosa counties, and attended the University of Alabama. After studying law with William M. Murphy and W. G. Vandergraff, he began to practice in Eutaw in 1839.

Moving to Livingston where other members of his family lived, Inge was a member of the legislature in 1844. Two years later he was elected to Congress as a Democrat, serving from 4 Mar. 1847 to 3 Mar. 1851. Inge engaged in a bloodless duel in Bladensburg, Md., near Washington, D.C., with North Carolina Representative Edward Stanly, a notorious hothead. On 1 Apr. 1853 President Franklin Pierce appointed Inge U.S. attorney for the northern district of California. He later surveyed the state of Sonora, Mexico, but returned to San Francisco to form a partnership with A. P. Crittenden and resided there for the rest of his life.

Inge married a Miss Hill in Greene County, Ala., and they were the parents of Samuel W., Jr. (m. Imogene Fanny Inge) and Juliette (m. Dr. Inge). He was buried in Mount Calvary Cemetery, San Francisco.