Theaker was a native of
York, Pennsylvania, but moved to
Bridgeport, Ohio, in 1830, where he became a
wheelwright and
machinist. Elected as a
Republican to represent the
Seventeenth Congressional District of Ohio in the
Thirty-Sixth Congress, he failed to win re-election in 1860, but was appointed to a seat on the U.S. Patent Office's Board of Appeals. On August 15, 1865, he was appointed commissioner of the Patent Office, a post he held until his resignation in January 1868. ==Sources==