Martin was born in Estillville (now
Gate City),
Scott County, Virginia, the son of John S. Martin and Melinda Morison. His father's second wife was Nancy Brownlow, making him a step-nephew of radical Tennessee governor
William "Parson" Brownlow. He attended the common schools and Emory and Henry College in
Emory, Virginia. He moved to
Salem, Illinois, in 1846. He served during the
Mexican–American War in Company C of the 1st Regiment of Illinois Volunteers. Afterwards he studied law, was
admitted to the bar in 1861 and commenced practice in
Salem, Illinois; becoming a clerk of the Marion County Court. During the
Civil War Martin served in the
Union Army and was commissioned
colonel of the
111th Illinois Volunteer Infantry Regiment on September 18, 1862. He was
brevetted brigadier general on February 26, 1865 and then honorably mustered out on June 7. After the war Martin served as judge of Marion County Court. He was appointed as United States pension agent by President Grant on April 13, 1869. Martin was elected as a
Republican to the
Forty-third Congress (March 4, 1873 – March 3, 1875), defeating Silas L. Bryan, the father of
William Jennings Bryan, by a vote of 12,266 to 12,016. He was an unsuccessful candidate for re-election and then became commissioner of the Southern Illinois Penitentiary at Menard in 1879. Martin died in
Salem, Illinois on November 20, 1907. He was interred in East Lawn Cemetery. ==References==