James William Denny
James William Denny was a U.S. representative from Maryland.Biography
Born in Frederick County, Virginia, Denny attended the academy of the Rev. William Johnson in Berryville, Virginia and graduated from the University of Virginia at Charlottesville. He served as principal of the Osage Seminary of Osceola, Missouri. During the Civil War, he returned to his native state and enlisted in Company A, thirty-ninth Virginia Battalion of Cavalry in the Confederate States Army. He served until 1863 when he was detailed for service at Gen. Robert E. Lee's headquarters, where he continued until the surrender at Appomattox Court House. After the war, he returned to Clarke County, Virginia, and began the study of law in Winchester. He was admitted to the bar in Baltimore, Maryland in 1868, and commenced practice in this city.
Denny was elected to the first branch of the Baltimore city council in 1881, was reelected in 1882, and later became its president. He also served in the Maryland House of Delegates from 1888 to 1890 as colonel on the staff of Gov. Elihu Emory Jackson and as member of the Baltimore School Board for eight years.
Denny was elected as a Democrat to the fifty-sixth congress, but was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1900 to the fifty-seventh congress. He later was elected to the fifty-eighth congress. He engaged in the practice of law until his death in Baltimore, and he is interred in Loudon Park Cemetery.
