Governor of Ohio, U.S. Congressman, War of 1812 Officer. Born in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, he attended school in Virginia and moved to Jefferson County, Ohio in 1809. During the War of 1812, Bartley organized a company of volunteers and was elected as their Captain. He was later promoted to Adjutant and transferred to the staff of General William Henry Harrison. After the war, he purchased land in Richland County, Ohio and became a farmer. A couple of years later, he was elected to the Ohio State Senate and served from 1816 to 1818. Appointed by the Ohio General Assembly, he became the Register of the Land Office of the Virginia Military District School Lands and served from 1818 to 1823 at an office in Mansfield. He resigned in 1823 to accept election to the United States House of Representatives as an Adams-Clay Party member. He represented Ohio's 14th District and served until 1831. He ran on the Adams Party ticket for reelection in 1824 and as an Anti-Jacksonian in 1828. As a Congressman, he proposed a fund for Ohio's common schools and was instrumental with the development of Lake Erie harbors. Bartley declined to become a candidate for renomination in 1830 and returned to his farm in Ohio. He moved to Mansfield, Ohio in 1834 and was engaged in the mercantile business. When the Whig Party rose to power in the 1840's, Bartley was nominated to run for Governor of Ohio against incumbent and Acting Governor, his son, Thomas W. Bartley. Thomas later declined to become a candidate and Mordecai Bartley won the gubernatorial election and became Ohio's 18th Governor, the only time that a father succeeded his son for a high elected public office. As Governor, he passed laws that affected property and internal revenue taxes. Although opposed to war with Mexico, he helped to organize Ohio volunteers for service in the army. He was also against the Black Laws and was bitterly opposed to the fugitive slave laws. He declined to become a candidate for reelection and retired to his farm where he later died in 1870 when he was 86 years old.