Isaac McKim

McKim was born in Baltimore in the Province of Maryland. He attended the public schools, and later engaged in mercantile pursuits. He served in the War of 1812 as aide-de-camp to General Samuel Smith.^[2]

After the war, McKim served as a member of the Maryland Senate from December 4, 1821, until January 8, 1823, when he resigned.

McKim was elected as a Democrat to the Seventeenth Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Samuel Smith. On the same day, McKim was elected as a Jackson Republican to the Eighteenth Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Representative-elect Smith and served from January 4, 1823, to March 3, 1825. After Congress, McKim served as one of the original directors of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Co.^[3] from 1827 until 1831.

McKim returned to Congress, elected as a Jacksonian to the Twenty-third and Twenty-fourth Congresses and reelected as a Democrat to the Twenty-fifth Congress.^[2] He served from March 4, 1833, until his death in Baltimore, Maryland, on April 1, 1838. He was interred in the burying ground of St. Paul's Church.

McKim was a "wealthy sea-dog and merchant"^[4] and a leader in the commercial and industrial life of Baltimore. He owned a fleet of merchant ships.

Among other businesses he had a copper warehouse on Gay street in Baltimore,^[5] and operated a steam flour mill.^[3]

In 1832, he contracted the Baltimore-based shipbuilding firm of Kennard & Williamson to build the ship of his dreams, the clipper ship Ann McKim, which he named in honor of his wife. It served to refine the design of many of clippers built over the next 25 years.

Isaac McKim finished the building of the first free school in the U.S., McKim Free School, started by his father John McKim.^[6]

In 1837, Kennard & Williamson built the 163-ton brig Isaac McKim, that was named after McKim.^[3]

There is a cenotaph in his memory at Congressional Cemetery.

• List of members of the United States Congress who died in office (1790–1899)