Alexander H. Coffroth was born in
Somerset, Pennsylvania. He had at least two brothers, John B. Coffroth and C.A.B. Coffroth. He attended the public schools and Somerset Academy. For five years, he produced a Democratic newspaper in Somerset. He pursued legal education with the Hon.
Jeremiah S. Black, and was admitted to the bar in February 1851 at Somerset, where he practiced his profession. He was a delegate to several Democratic State conventions, as well as a delegate to the
1860 Democratic National Conventions which assembled in
Charleston, South Carolina, and
Baltimore, Maryland. He served as an assessor of internal revenue in 1867, and was a delegate to the
1872 Democratic National Convention. Coffroth was elected as a Democrat to the
Thirty-eighth Congress. During his term, he supported the passage of the
Thirteenth Amendment, along with some other Democrats, such as
Archibald McAllister. He claimed reelection to the
Thirty-ninth Congress, was seated on February 19, 1866, and served until July 18, 1866, when he was succeeded by
William H. Koontz, who contested the election. He was again elected to the
Forty-sixth Congress. He served as chairman of the
United States House Committee on Invalid Pensions during the Forty-sixth Congress. He was not a candidate for renomination in 1880, and he resumed the practice of law in Somerset. Coffroth died at the sanitarium in
Markleton, Pennsylvania, on September 2, 1906. He was interred in Union Cemetery in Somerset. Coffroth was the last surviving pallbearer who had served at the funeral of President
Abraham Lincoln. During Coffroth's tenure as its Representative, Pennsylvania's 16th district took in
Adams County, which includes
Gettysburg, site in 1863 of the
Battle of Gettysburg and the
Gettysburg Address. ==Fictional portrayals==