Introduction
Jasper Packard (February 1, 1832 – December 13, 1899) was a U.S. Representative from Indiana.
Biography
Born in Austintown, Ohio, Packard moved with his parents to Indiana in 1835. He attended the public schools and was graduated from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor in 1855. He taught school. He settled in La Porte, Indiana. He studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1861. During the Civil War enlisted in the Union Army as a private in the Forty-eighth Regiment, Indiana Volunteer Infantry, October 24, 1861. He was promoted to first lieutenant January 1, 1862. He served as captain September 12, 1862. He served as lieutenant colonel of the 128th Indiana Infantry, March 17, 1864, and was promoted to colonel June 26, 1865. Brevetted brigadier general March 13, 1865, "for meritorious services". Mustered out April 10, 1866. Auditor of La Porte County from November 15, 1866, to March 1, 1869, when he resigned.
Packard was elected as a Republican to the Forty-first, Forty-second, and Forty-third Congresses (March 4, 1869 – March 3, 1875). He served as chairman of the Committee on Expenditures in the Department of State (Forty-third Congress), Committee on Private Land Claims (Forty-third Congress). He was not a candidate for renomination in 1874. He engaged in newspaper pursuits. He was appointed July 1, 1899, commandant of the State soldiers' home at Lafayette, Indiana, died there December 13, 1899 and was interred in the Soldiers' Home Cemetery.