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James B. Reilly

American politician (1845-1924)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 18, 2026
Entity authorityQ6129722
Source-derived summary

James Bernard Reilly (August 12, 1845 – May 14, 1924) was a Democratic member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania.

James B. Reilly was born in Pinedale, Pennsylvania. He attended the public schools and was graduated from the Bunker Hill School in Pottsville, Pennsylvania, in 1862. He studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1869 and commenced practice in Pottsville. He was district attorney of Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, from 1871 to 1875.

Reilly was elected as a Democrat to the Forty-fourth and Forty-fifth Congresses. He resumed the practice of law in Pottsville. He was a delegate to the 1880 Democratic National Convention. He was an unsuccessful candidate for law judge of Schuylkill County in 1881 and again in 1882, and an unsuccessful Democratic candidate for election in 1884 to the Forty-ninth Congress.

Reilly was again elected to the Fifty-first, Fifty-second, and Fifty-third Congresses.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “James B. Reilly” is american politician (1845-1924). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through James, Reilly and American, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA productive starting point for separating a subject’s documented career from later reputation and commemoration. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1845, 1924, 1862, 1869—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1845-08-12. For this dossier, James, Reilly and American is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “american politician (1845-1924)” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 18, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6129722. VIAF identifies the subject as 26898562. The Library of Congress control number is no2009003638. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1845, 1924, 1862 and 1869.

Critical limits

A concise life account rarely captures disputed attribution, private networks or the changing language used to describe a career. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. 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
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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 “James B. Reilly”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow James B. Reilly primary sources, James B. Reilly archive and James 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 “James B. Reilly”?
  2. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
  3. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from James B. Reilly” 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.