Luke P. Poland

Poland was born in Westford son of Luther and Nancy Potter Poland. He attended the common schools and Jericho Academy. He worked as a clerk in Waterville, worked in his father's sawmill, taught at Morrisville schools, studied law in the office of Samuel A. Willard and was admitted to the bar in December 1836. He practiced in Morrisville. In 1838 he married Martha Smith Page and they had three children. Martha died in 1853 and he married her sister, Adelia H.

Poland was register of probate from 1839 to 1840 and was a member of the State constitutional convention of 1843. In 1844 and 1845 he was prosecuting attorney of Lamoille County, and was a judge of the Vermont Supreme Court from 1848 to 1860. He served as chief justice from 1860 to 1865.

After resigning from the court; Poland was appointed as a Republican to the U.S. Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Jacob Collamer, and was elected to finish the term October 24, 1866. He served from November 21, 1865 to March 3, 1867. He was then elected to the House of Representatives for the Fortieth and to the three succeeding Congresses, serving from March 4, 1867 to March 3, 1875). While in Congress, he was chairman of the Committee on Revisal and Unfinished Business (Fortieth Congress) and a member of the Committee on Revision of the Laws (Fortieth, Forty-first and Forty-third Congresses). He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection to the Forty-fourth Congress.

A member of the Vermont House of Representatives in 1878, Poland was also a trustee of the University of Vermont at Burlington and of the State Agricultural College. He was president of the First National Bank of St. Johnsbury for twenty years. He was again elected to the House of Representatives, and served during the Forty-eighth Congress from March 4, 1883 to March 3, 1885); he was not a candidate for renomination.

Poland died at his country home near Waterville on July 2, 1887 and is interred at Mount Pleasant Cemetery, St. Johnsbury.