John Weinland Killinger

John Weinland Killinger (September 18, 1824 – June 30, 1896) was an American politician and lawyer from Pennsylvania who served as a Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives for Pennsylvania’s 10th congressional district from 1859 to 1863 and from 1871 to 1875, and for Pennsylvania’s 14th congressional district from 1877 to 1881. Over the course of six terms in Congress, he participated in the legislative process during a period of profound national change, representing the interests of his Pennsylvania constituents in the years surrounding the Civil War and the Reconstruction era.

Killinger was born in Annville, Lebanon County, Pennsylvania, to John and Fanny Killinger. He attended the public schools of Annville and pursued further studies at the Lebanon Academy in nearby Lebanon, Pennsylvania. Seeking advanced preparation for higher education, he enrolled at the Mercersburg Preparatory School in Mercersburg, Pennsylvania. He then attended Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, from which he graduated in 1843, establishing the academic foundation for his subsequent legal and political career.

After completing his college education, Killinger studied law in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. He was admitted to the bar in 1846 and commenced the practice of law in Lebanon County that same year. He maintained an active legal practice in Lebanon County from 1846 to 1886, becoming a well-known figure in the local bar. Early in his career, he served as prosecuting attorney for Lebanon County in 1848 and 1849, a role that gave him practical experience in public service and helped launch his involvement in state and national politics.

Killinger entered elective office as a member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, serving in that body in 1850 and 1851. He advanced to the Pennsylvania State Senate, where he represented the 7th district from 1854 to 1857. As the emerging Republican Party took shape in the 1850s, he became an active participant in its early development and served as a delegate to the 1856 Republican National Convention, aligning himself with the new party’s anti-slavery and Unionist positions on the eve of the Civil War.

In 1858, Killinger was elected as a Republican to the Thirty-sixth Congress, representing Pennsylvania’s 10th congressional district, and he was reelected to the Thirty-seventh Congress, serving from March 4, 1859, to March 3, 1863. During the Thirty-seventh Congress, which convened during the first years of the Civil War, he served as chairman of the United States House Committee on Expenditures in the Post Office Department, overseeing financial matters related to a critical federal service in wartime. He was not a candidate for renomination in 1862. After leaving Congress, he continued in federal service as assessor of internal revenue from 1864 to 1866, administering aspects of the Union’s wartime and postwar revenue system.

Killinger returned to national office when he was elected again from Pennsylvania’s 10th congressional district to the Forty-second and Forty-third Congresses, serving from March 4, 1871, to March 3, 1875. After choosing not to be a candidate for renomination in 1874, he resumed the practice of law. He was subsequently elected to represent Pennsylvania’s 14th congressional district in the Forty-fifth and Forty-sixth Congresses, serving from March 4, 1877, to March 3, 1881. Across these later terms, he remained a Republican voice in Congress during the closing years of Reconstruction and the beginning of the Gilded Age, continuing his long-standing engagement in the legislative process and the representation of Pennsylvania’s interests at the federal level. He did not seek renomination in 1880.

Following his final departure from Congress, Killinger devoted himself primarily to legal and corporate work. In addition to continuing his law practice in Lebanon County, he served as solicitor for the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad, one of the significant transportation enterprises in Pennsylvania during the late nineteenth century. His legal career, which had begun in the 1840s, extended for four decades and complemented his extensive record of public service at the county, state, and national levels.

John Weinland Killinger died in Lebanon, Pennsylvania, on June 30, 1896. He was interred at Mount Lebanon Cemetery in Lebanon. His long career as a lawyer, state legislator, and six-term member of the U.S. House of Representatives reflected the trajectory of a nineteenth-century Republican statesman whose service spanned the antebellum period, the Civil War, Reconstruction, and the early industrial era in American political life.