Sydenham E. Ancona

U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania

Sephardic Jewish family, and his paternal grandmother was a member of the prominent Montefiore family. He moved to Berks County, Pennsylvania, in 1826 with his parents, who settled near Sculls Hill, Pennsylvania. He attended public and private schools, and taught school. He moved in 1856 to Reading, Pennsylvania, where he entered the employ of the Reading Company and served as a member of the Board of Education.^{[citation needed}

Cincinnati, Ohio. During a visit to the Capitol at Washington, D.C., in 1912 he was tendered a reception on the floor of the House of Representatives, because he was at the time the last surviving Member of the Thirty-seventh Congress which had been assembled at the extraordinary session called by Abraham Lincoln on July 4, 1861.^{[citation needed}