William Lilly (congressman)

William Lilly (June 3, 1821 – December 1, 1893) served briefly as a Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania in 1893.

Formative years
Born in Penn Yan, New York, on June 3, 1821, Lilly moved to Carbon County, Pennsylvania, in 1838, and became involved in the mining of anthracite coal.

Military service
He was subsequently elected as colonel of one of the militia regiments of the Lehigh Valley and then was promoted to the rank of brigadier general.

Career
A Democratic member of the Pennsylvania State House of Representatives in 1850 and 1851, he switched to the Republican Party in 1862, and was appointed as a delegate to six Republican National Conventions. He was then appointed as a delegate at large to the convention to revise the constitution of Pennsylvania in 1872 and 1873.

Congress
Lilly was later elected as a Republican to the Fifty-third Congress and served in that capacity until his death in 1893.

Death and interment
Lilly died in Mauch Chunk, Pennsylvania, on December 1, 1893, and was interred in the City Cemetery.