John Thomas Spriggs (April 5, 1825 – December 23, 1888) was an American lawyer and politician who served two terms as a U.S. representative from New York from 1883 to 1887.
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Biography
Born in Peterborough, England, Spriggs immigrated to the United States with his parents, who settled in Whitesboro, New York, in 1836.
He attended Hamilton College, and graduated from Union College in 1848.
He studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1848 and began practice in Whitesboro. He became prosecuting attorney of Oneida County in 1853, and county treasurer in 1854. He served two non-consecutive terms as mayor of Utica, New York, in 1868 and 1880, and as delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1860, 1872 and 1880.
Congress
Spriggs was elected as a Democrat to the Forty-eighth and Forty-ninth Congresses (March 4, 1883 – March 3, 1887).
He served as chairman of the Committee on Accounts (Forty-ninth Congress).
He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1886 to the Fiftieth Congress.
Later career and death
After leaving Congress, he resumed the practice of law.
He died in Utica on December 23, 1888, and was buried in Whitesboro Cemetery in Whitesboro.