In 1779, Tod was born in Suffield, Connecticut, and was educated in the common schools and at Yale College. He studied law under his brother George and received his legal certificate around 1799. He moved with his father to Aquasco, Maryland, and began teaching as Assistant Master of Charlotte Hall. In 1802, he moved to Bedford, Pennsylvania, was admitted to the bar in 1803 and commenced the practice of law. In 1805, he worked as postmaster of Bedford and served as a clerk to the county commissioners of Bedford County, Pennsylvania, in 1806 and 1807.[1]
In 1820–1821, he was elected to the Seventeenth and then later into the Eighteenth Congress and served until his resignation from Congress in 1824. He served as chairman of the United States House Committee on Manufactures during the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Congresses.
Tod served as presiding judge of the Pennsylvania Court of Common pleas for the sixteenth judicial district from 1824 from 1827 and as associate judge of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court from 1827 until his death in 1830.
Tod died on March 27, 1830, at about the age of 50 in Bedford, Pennsylvania.
Personal life
In 1810, he married Mary Read Hanna, the daughter of U.S. Representative John A. Hanna,[1] and together they had five children.[2]
