Rutherford B. Hayes was a lawyer, Congressman, Civil War veteran, and the 19th President of the United States.

He was born on Oct. 4, 1822, in Delaware, Ohio. His parents had been in Ohio for five years, having moved from Vermont. His father, also named Rutherford, died two months before he was born, so young Rutherford grew up under the watchful eye of his mother, Sophia, and her brother, Sardis. The boy attended school in Connecticut and Ohio and graduated from Kenyon College in 1842 and then Harvard Law School in 1845.

Hayes set up a practice in Lower Sandusky, Ohio, and then moved to Cincinnati, where he found success. It was also there that he married Lucy Webb; they had eight children together.

Hayes volunteered to serve in the Union Army when the Civil War began, and he found himself a major in the 23rd Ohio Volunteer Infantry. He saw combat and was wounded at the Battle of South Mountain in 1862. He saw in the Shenandoah Valley Campaign in 1864 and rose to the rank of major general.

He won election to Congress in 1864, to represent Ohio's 2nd District in the House of Representatives, but did not take his seat until the war ended the following year. He won re-election in 1866 and then ran successfully for governor the following year. As a Congressman, he voted for the 14th Amendment, the Civil Rights Act of 1866, and the Tenure of Office Act. The violation of the latter led to the impeachment of President Andrew Johnson, which Hayes supported as well (although he was Governor of Ohio at the time). He won election as governor three terms in all, although he left his third term to run for President, as a member of the Republican Party.

The results of the Election of 1876 made it, up to that time, the most controversial in history. When the votes were counted, Samuel J. Tilden, the Democratic Party candidate, had won the popular vote, 4.2 million to 4 million. This should have meant that Tilden was President. Even in previous elections in which the popular vote was close, the winner of the popular vote total was the winner in the Electoral College. Of the votes counted, Tilden had won 184 electoral votes, to 165 for Hayes. That wasn't enough because the total was 369 and the winner needed 185. A total of 20 electoral votes had not been cast because of election disputes in Florida, Louisiana, Oregon, and South Carolina.

After some serious back-door wrangling, representatives in those states cast all of their electoral votes for Hayes, giving him the needed 185. This came to be known as the Compromise of 1877 because it resulted in the end of Reconstruction and the withdrawal of federal troops from the South. The Democratic Party had given up a short-term gain, the presidency, in exchange for a long-term gain. Tilden supporters were especially stung by Hayes' winning in Colorado, statehood for which they had pushed through in hopes of winning.

Hayes took the Oath of Office inside the White House. Hayes had agreed to order Union troops out of the South, thereby ending Reconstruction. He did so, exacting from Southern leaders a promise that they would protect the rights of African-Americans (a promise on which many Southerners reneged).

A champion of civil service reform, he made progress in this area but did not get a relevant bill to his desk while he was in the Oval Office. He also ordered federal troops to disperse riots that ensued in the midst of a nationwide railroad workers strike in 1877. As President, he had only one veto overridden: He had opposed the Bland-Allison Act, which required Congress to buy silver and put it into circulation as silver dollars, but Congress had the votes to make the bill law despite his objection.

Another well-known series of events that occurred while Hayes was President was a conflict between Nez Percé and American settlers. The famous Chief Joseph and Olikut, his younger brother, led their people in a forced march nearly 1,200 miles, with a group of American soldiers stalking them. The Americans had the numbers and the ammunition: 2,000 soldiers bearing arms and horses. The Nez Percé had no such numbers: 700 people, only 200 of whom were warriors. Yet in four major battles and a large handful of other smaller skirmishes, Joseph and his people succeeded in escaping time and again. Ultimately, their efforts were unsuccessful, even with Joseph's being granted a personal meeting with Hayes.

Hayes had promised not to seek re-election. He kept that promise, retiring to his home in Fremont, Ohio, where he died on Jan. 17, 1893.