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Guy R. Pelton

American politician (1824-1890)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 18, 2026
Entity authorityQ404649 ↗
Source-derived summary

Guy Ray Pelton (August 3, 1824 – July 24, 1890) was an American lawyer and politician from New York. He served as a U.S. Representative to the 34th United States Congress (1855 to 1857).

Biography

Pelton was born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts on August 3, 1824, the second son of Joseph Kneeland Pelton and Harriet Ray. He attended the public schools, the Sedgwick Institution in Great Barrington, and the Connecticut Literary Institute in Suffield, Connecticut. He later attended Oberlin College, after which he studied law in Kinderhook, New York, was admitted to the bar in 1851, and commenced practice in New York City with his older brother, Timothy Dwight Pelton He was a member of the Union League Club and Freemasons, and was active in business ventures including a rubber manufacturing company.

Congress

A Whig, in 1854 Pelton was elected to the Thirty-fourth Congress, March 4, 1855 to March 3, 1857. During his term, Pelton was a member of the Committee on Commerce. He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1856.

Death and burial

Pelton died while climbing Mary Mountain in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming on July 24, 1890; he had visited the park while en route to his home in Massachusetts after a trip to Alaska. He was buried at Mahaiwe Cemetery in Great Barrington, Massachusetts.

Editorial summary

“Guy R. Pelton” enters the record as american politician (1824-1890). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Pelton, American and politician can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA useful biographical orientation record, particularly for establishing names, roles and a first chronology. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1824, 1890, 1855, 1857—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1824-08-03. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Pelton, American and politician.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Guy R. Pelton” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Pelton, American and politician provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 18, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q404649. VIAF identifies the subject as 34273656. The Library of Congress control number is no2008104069. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1824, 1890, 1855 and 1857.

Critical limits

Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Guy R. Pelton”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Guy R. Pelton primary sources, Guy R. Pelton archive and Pelton research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Guy R. Pelton”?
  2. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
  3. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Guy R. Pelton” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.