In the Biographical Annals of the Civil Government of the United States published in 1876, appears the following brief notice of a once prominent citizen of Pennsylvania: “Abner Lacock, born in Virginia, in 1770. Without the advantage of much early education, he raised himself by his talents to eminence as a legislator, statesman and civilian. He filled various public stations for a period of nearly forty years; was a Representative in Congress from Pennsylvania from 1811 to 1813, and United States Senator from 1813 to 1819. He died in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, April 12, 1837.” A search for further information concerning one of whom so little is known by the public, but who was honored with the highest offices in the gift of his neighbors and of the whole people of our State, reveals many interesting details and important events in the life of this man. Abner Lacock was popularly known as General Lacock. He was born in Cobs Run, near Alexandria, Virginia, July 9, 1770. His father was a native of England, and his mother a native of France. The father emigrated to Washington County, Pennsylvania, while Abner was quite young, and settled on a farm. In 1796 Abner removed to the town of Beaver, then in Allegheny County, and was one of the first settlers in that neighborhood. His public career commenced almost immediately after his settlement at Beaver. On September 19, 1796, he was commissioned by Governor Thomas Mifflin a justice of the peace for Pitt Township, Allegheny County. This appointment made him the first public official within the present limits of Beaver County, which was formed out of parts of Allegheny and Washington Counties, March 12, 1800. In his first office Lacock evinced such a natural strength of mind and sound intelligence that he was elected in 1801, the first Representative to the State Legislature from Beaver County, which post he filled until 1803, when he was commissioned the first associate judge for the new county, but he resigned at the end of the year to again enter the Legislature. The first session of court was held in Abner Lacock’s house, February 6, 1804. After serving four successive terms in the House, in 1808, he was elected to the Senate, representing Allegheny, Beaver and Butler Counties in the upper body of the Pennsylvania Legislature with marked ability. The War of 1812 with the agitation which preceded it brought him into the larger field of national politics. In 1810 he was elected by the people of his district as the “War Candidate” to Congress, when he showed such qualities of leadership that in 1813 the Legislature of his State with great unanimity elected him a Senator of the United States. He served in the House during the Twelfth Congress and in the Senate in the Thirteenth, Fourteenth and Fifteenth Congresses. General Lacock was a warm friend of Madison and Monroe, and a bitter enemy of Andrew Jackson. In his later years he was an Adams and Henry Clay Whig.