speaker the latter year. He was the prosecuting attorney for Wayne County 1843–1846. Buel first ran for the United States House of Representatives in Michigan's 1st congressional district in 1846, but lost in a close election. In 1848, Buel was elected as a Democrat from Michigan's 1st district to the United States Congress for the Thirty-first Congress, succeeding fellow Democrat Robert McClelland who did not run. Buel served from March 4, 1849, to March 3, 1851. He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1850 to the Thirty-second Congress and resumed the practice of law. He was again a member of the Michigan State House of Representatives in 1859 and 1860. He was appointed postmaster of Detroit on September 28, 1860, and served until March 18, 1861. Death Buel died in Detroit, Wayne County, Michigan, on April 19, 1868 (age 54 years, 128 days). He is interred at Elmwood Cemetery, Detroit. Family life Buel was the son of Ezekial and Sally Thompson Buel. He married Mary Ann Ackley of West Rutland, Vermont, in October 1836, and they raised four daughters, one of whom was Julia Maria Buel Trowbridge. On April 8, 1862, she married Gen. Luther Stephen Trowbridge (Buel's law partner). The others were: Mary B., wife of Charles H. Wetmore; Clara B., wife of Col. James Mercur; and Delia W., wife of Gen. Garrett J. Lydecker. References External links Political Portraits with Pen and Pencil. Alexander W. Buel, of Michigan. The United States Democratic review. Volume 27, Issue 150, December 1850 Page(s) 545-56 The Political Graveyard 1813 births 1868 deaths People from Castleton, Vermont Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Michigan Speakers of the Michigan House of Representatives 19th-century American politicians Middlebury College alumni Castleton State College faculty Burials at Elmwood Cemetery (Detroit)