John Test (1781 – October 9, 1849)[1] was a U.S. Representative from Indiana.

John Test
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from 's 3rd district
In office
March 4, 1827 – March 3, 1829
Preceded byOliver H. Smith
Succeeded byJohnathan McCarty
In office
March 4, 1823 – March 3, 1825
Preceded byDistrict created
Succeeded byOliver H. Smith
Personal details
Born1781 (1781)
Salem, Salem County, New Jersey, U.S.
DiedOctober 9, 1849(1849-10-09) (aged 67–68)
Wayne County, Indiana, U.S.
Resting placeCapitol Hill Cemetery
Political partyDemocratic-Republican Party
National Republican Party

John Test was born and raised near Salem, New Jersey.[2] He moved to Fayette County, Pennsylvania, and operated Fayette Chance Furnace for several years. He moved to Cincinnati, and then to Brookville, Indiana, and operated a grist mill. He studied law. He was admitted to the bar and began practice in Brookville, Indiana. He held several local offices. He served as judge of the third district circuit 1816–1819.

Test was elected as a Jackson Republican to the Eighteenth Congress and reelected as an Adams candidate to the Nineteenth Congress (March 4, 1823 – March 3, 1827). He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1826 to the Twentieth Congress.

Test was elected as an Anti-Jacksonian to the Twenty-first Congress (March 4, 1829 – March 3, 1831). Presiding judge of the Indiana circuit court. He moved to Mobile, Alabama, and resumed the practice of law. He died near Cambridge City, Indiana, October 9, 1849. He was interred in Cambridge City, Indiana.

Test was the maternal grandfather of author and American Civil War Union Army Major General Lew Wallace, the son of Indiana lawyer and politician David Wallace and Test's daughter Esther. His daughter Mary was the wife of James Rariden, a fellow U.S. Representative from Indiana.

References

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  1. ^ Helen Maria Test Arion, "My Life" reprinted in Charles E. Test, The Test Family in Indiana (Indianapolis, 1991), pp. 53-60. She says her father was 19 or 20 when he married Lydia Dungan. The marriage was in 1801. Marriage reported in Philadelphia Repository and Weekly Register (Philadelphia, Pa, December 12, 1801), p. 39. See also, Pennsylvania Gazette (Philadelphia, Pa, September 16, 1795), p. 3 advertisement for John Test indentured runaway servant age 14. Death recorded in Indiana State Sentinel (Indianapolis, October 18, 1849), p. 2.
  2. ^ In 1790 when John Test was 8 or 9 years of age, his father signed a petition concerning road repair in Salem County. Document: Record Group: Legislature; Series: Petitions and Other Papers relating to Bridges, Canals, Dams, Ferries and Roads, 1765-1835 [New Jersey State Archives]; Call Number: Box 4, Folder 41; Page Number: 1; Family Number: 37. In 1793 John Test 11 or 12 years old, his father is listed in the Salem County, Upper Alloways Creek Tax List. Ancestry.com. New Jersey, Compiled Census and Census Substitutes Index, 1643-1890 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 1999. Original data: Jackson, Ronald V., Accelerated Indexing Systems, comp.. New Jersey Census, 1643-1890. Compiled and digitized by Mr. Jackson and AIS from microfilmed schedules of the U.S. Federal Decennial Census, territorial/state censuses, and/or census substitutes. In 1795 John Test age 14 resident of Salem, N.J. advertised as a runaway servant. Grubb, Farley. Runaway Servants, Convicts, and Apprentices Advertised in the Pennsylvania Gazette, 1728-1796. Baltimore, MD, USA: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1992, p.169.


  • United States Congress. "John Test (id: T000138)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.

  This article incorporates public domain material from the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress

U.S. House of Representatives
Preceded by
District created
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from Indiana's 3rd congressional district

1823-1827
Succeeded by
Preceded by Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from Indiana's 3rd congressional district

1829-1831
Succeeded by
  NODES
Note 1