Francis B. Spinola
Francis Barretto Spinola was the first Italian American to be elected to the United States House of Representatives, serving as a representative from New York from 1887 to 1891. He also served as a general in the Union Army during the American Civil War.
Spinola was born in Old Field, near Stony Brook, Brookhaven, Suffolk County, Long Island, New York. He attended Quaker Hill Academy in Dutchess County and then passed the bar exam before establishing a law practice in Brooklyn. He was elected alderman of the Second Ward in Brooklyn in 1846 and 1847, and was reelected in 1849 and served for four years. By 1854, when he joined a special force known as Special Police to keep order in the streets of New York, he was already one of the most respected and influential citizens of the city. Politically a Democrat, he was a member of the New York State Assembly in 1856. He was a member of the New York State Senate from 1858 to 1861, sitting in the 81st, 82nd, 83rd and 84th New York State Legislatures. He was a delegate to the 1860 Democratic National Convention.
Source: Wikipedia