Archibald Jerard Weaver

Archibald Jerard Weaver (April 15, 1843 – April 18, 1887) was an American lawyer, jurist, and Republican Party politician who served three terms in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1883 to 1889. He was born in Dundaff, Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, on April 15, 1843, into a region then characterized by small agricultural communities and emerging educational institutions. Little is recorded about his early childhood, but his subsequent academic and professional pursuits indicate an early commitment to scholarship and public service.

Weaver pursued his education at Wyoming Seminary in Kingston, Pennsylvania, a prominent Methodist-affiliated preparatory school and collegiate institute. After completing his studies there, he remained at the institution as a member of the faculty from 1864 to 1867, a role that placed him in the classroom during the closing years of the Civil War and the beginning of Reconstruction. His experience as an educator helped establish his reputation for intellectual rigor and likely influenced his decision to enter the legal profession.

In 1869, Weaver graduated from Harvard Law School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, one of the leading legal institutions in the United States. That same year he was admitted to the bar in Boston, Massachusetts, formally beginning his legal career. Rather than remain in the established legal centers of the East, he chose to move westward in 1869 to Falls City, Richardson County, Nebraska, where he commenced the practice of law. His relocation coincided with Nebraska’s early years of statehood, and he quickly became involved in the legal and political development of the young state.

Weaver’s public career in Nebraska advanced rapidly. He participated as a delegate in the Nebraska state constitutional conventions of 1871 and 1875, contributing to the foundational legal framework of the state. In 1872 he was appointed or elected district attorney for the first judicial district of Nebraska, a position that placed him at the forefront of criminal prosecution and public law in a growing region. Building on this experience, he was elected judge of the first judicial district of Nebraska in 1875 and was reelected in 1879, reflecting the confidence of the legal community and the electorate in his judicial temperament and legal acumen.

In 1883, Weaver resigned from the bench after being elected as a Republican to the Forty-eighth United States Congress. He took his seat in the House of Representatives on March 4, 1883, representing Nebraska at a time when issues of western development, railroad expansion, agricultural policy, and veterans’ affairs were prominent in national debate. He was reelected to the Forty-ninth United States Congress, thereby serving two consecutive terms. Although the existing record notes that he served three terms in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1883 to 1889, it also states that he did not run for reelection in 1886, indicating that his active service in Congress concluded with the expiration of his second term on March 3, 1887. During his congressional service, he aligned with the Republican Party’s emphasis on economic development and support for settlement and infrastructure in the western states.

After declining to seek another term in the House, Weaver sought higher office. In 1887 he ran unsuccessfully for election to the United States Senate from Nebraska. Following this defeat, he returned to Falls City and resumed the practice of law, intending to continue his career in private practice and public affairs. His life and career, however, were cut short soon thereafter.

Archibald Jerard Weaver died in Falls City, Nebraska, on April 18, 1887. He was interred in Steele Cemetery in Falls City, where his grave marks the resting place of one of Nebraska’s early legal and political figures. His legacy in public life extended through his family: he was the father of Arthur J. Weaver, who served as Governor of Nebraska, and the grandfather of Nebraska politicians Arthur J. Weaver Jr. and Phillip Hart Weaver, thereby establishing a multigenerational presence in the state’s political history.