The American politician Andrew Gregg Curtin (1815-1894) was the influential governor of Pennsylvania during the Civil War and one of Abraham Lincoln's most powerful supporters.

Andrew Gregg Curtin's father was an Irish immigrant who settled in Pennsylvania in 1793 and became one of the first manufacturers of iron in that state. Curtin was born on April 23, 1815, at Bellefonte in Center County. Following an excellent tutorial education, he read law and was admitted to the bar in 1839. He promptly formed a partnership with John Blanchard, later a member of Congress. From the beginning, Curtin was a success. Magnetic, honest, and popular, he possessed a congenial manner, ready wit, and extraordinary power of speech.

Curtin entered Pennsylvania politics at the age of 25. As a Whig, he campaigned actively on behalf of the presidential candidacies of William Henry Harrison, Henry Clay, Zachary Taylor, and Winfield Scott. In 1854 he declined the nomination for...