U.S. Senator. He was born one of seven children (Annie Jane Ingalls was born in 1835, Robert Morris Ingalls was born in 1837, Betsey Cogswell Ingalls was born in 1839, Francis Theodore Ingalls was born in 1844, Charlotte Eliza Ingalls was born in 1848, and Clara Perley Ingalls was born in 1850), to Elias Theodore Ingalls and Eliza Chase Ingalls in Middleton, Massachusetts. He attended and was educated in the local common public schools of Haverhill, Massachusetts, and then was privately tutored. He then attended the prestigious Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts, where he gave his commencement oration entitled, "Mummy Life," when he graduated from there in 1855. He then studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1857 and moved to the Kansas Territory where he began his practice of law in 1858. He then entered politics and served as a Member of the Wyandotte, Kansas, Constitutional Convention in 1859, and is said to have coined the Arkansas state motto, "Ad Astra per Aspera (To the stars through difficulties)." He then moved to Atchison, Kansas where he became involved in the anti-slavery movement and helped to make Kansas a free state. The State of Kansas then joined the Union in 1861, and he served as a Secretary of the First State in 1861 and 1862 and was a Member of the Kansas State Senate in 1862. He was also a Candidate for the office of Lieutenant Governor of Kansas in 1862 and again in 1864. At the outbreak of the American Civil War, he put his political career on hold and fought for his country. He served as a Judge Advocate in the Kansas Volunteer Militia on the staff of General George W. Deitzler. During the Civil War, he also became a successful newspaper publisher and editor of the Atchison Champion Newspaper or (Freedom's Champion, where he became noted for writing a series of magazine articles), from 1863 to 1865, and also helped in the founding of the publication, the Kansas Magazine. On September 27, 1865, he married Anna Louisa Chesebrough and the couple would have eleven children together (Ellsworth Ingalls was born in 1866, Ethel Ingalls was born in 1868, Ruth Ingalls was born in 1869, Ralph Ingalls was born in 1870, Addison Ingalls was born in 1872, Constance Ingalls was born in 1873, Sheffield Ingalls was born in 1875, Faith Ingalls was born in 1877, Marion Ingalls was born in 1879, Muriel Ingalls was born in 1881, and Louisa Ingalls was born in 1883). A Member of the Republican Party, he was then elected as a replacement for the United States Representative and United States Senator Samuel Clarke Pomeroy in 1872 to a seat in the United States Senate from Kansas and served in that position from March 4, 1873, to March 3, 1891, (alongside Alexander Caldwell, Robert Crozier, James Madison Harvey, and Preston Bierce Plumb, and was twice elected in 1879 and 1885). While in the United States Senate, he supported labor and agriculture against monopolies. He also favored the Interstate Commerce Act and the Pendleton Civil Service Act, but he rejected then-President Grover Cleveland's nomination of the African-American attorney James Campbell Matthews to the post of the Recorder of Deeds for the District of Columbia because he refused to confirm him, claiming that he had attempted to coerce other African-Americans in Albany, New York, to switch their allegiance to the Democratic Party in local elections. He also said he rejected Matthews' because of his non-residency of Washington, D.C., but journalists of the time said that his motives were racially based. Matthews was elected anyways. He also served as President Pro Tempore of the United States Senate representing the Forty-Ninth Congress, the Fiftieth Congress, and the Fifty-Fifth Congress, from February 26, 1887, to March 2, 1891. He was an unsuccessful Candidate for reelection as President Pro Tempore of the United States Senate in 1890, but he had served as Chairman of the Committee on Pensions representing the Forty-Fourth Congress and Forty-Fifth Congress, and Chairman of the Committee on the District of Columbia representing the Forty-Seventh Congress, Forty-Eighth Congress, Forty-Ninth Congress, Fiftieth Congress, and the Fifty-First Congress. After his term in the United States Senate expired on March 3, 1891, he was succeeded in office by William Alfred Peffer. Following his retirement from politics, he spent most of his time in his journalism, literature, and farming pursuits. He wrote essays and sonnets including, "Opportunity," "Catfish Aristocracy," and "Blue Grass." He had become well-known throughout his life for his quick wit and keen sarcasm. He passed away following a long illness on August 16, 1900, at the age of 66, in Las Vegas, New Mexico. His body was returned home and his funeral was held at the Trinity Episcopal Church in Atchison, Kansas, he was buried in the Mount Vernon Cemetery in Atchison, Kansas. His wife Anna passed away on April 15, 1926, at the age of 83, and she was buried with her husband. In 1905, he was honored with a marble statue that was placed in the U.S. Capitol's National Statuary Hall Collection. In 2011, the State of Kansas had plans to replace his statue with one of the famed aviator Amelia Earhart who was born in Atchison, Kansas.