Napoleon Bonaparte Thistlewood (March 30, 1837 – September 15, 1915) was a veteran of the American Civil War who served as a U.S. Representative from the state of Illinois from 1908 to 1913.
Thistlewood served in the Union Army during the American Civil War.
After the war he returned to Mason and resumed business pursuits. He later moved to Cairo, Illinois, where he served two terms as that city's mayor, 1879-1883 and 1897-1901.
At the conclusion of his second mayoral term in Cairo, Thistlewood was named Department Commander of the Grand Army of the Republic for Illinois (1901).
Congress
Thistlewood was elected as a Republican to the Sixtieth Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the 1907 death of George W. Smith. He was elected to the Sixty-first and Sixty-second Congresses and served from February 1908 to March 1913. He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1912 to the Sixty-third Congress.
In April 1909, Thistlewood made a lengthy speech in Congress about tariffs which no one could hear.[1]
Retirement and death.
He retired and was a resident of Cairo, Illinois, where he died on September 15, 1915. He was interred in Beech Grove Cemetery, Mounds, Illinois.
