David Meriwether biography 6841
David Meriwether [TMSI #6841]

David Meriwether, senator, was born in Louisa county, Va., Oct. 30, 1800. He removed to Kentucky with his parents in childhood, entered the employ of the American Fur company in 1818, and in 1819 was sent with a party of Pawnee Indians to open trade with New Mexico. The party was attacked by Mexican troops, most of the Indians were killed and he was captured and taken to Santa Fe, where he was accused of being an American spy and imprisoned in the Governor’s Palace for a month. In 1821 he resigned his position with the American Fur company, worked on his father’s farm, was admitted to the bar and practiced law in Kentucky; was a Democratic representative in the Kentucky legislature thirteen terms; a member of the Kentucky constitutional convention of 1849, and was appointed by Governor Powell U.S. Senator to fill the vacancy cause by the death of Henry Clay, and served from July 15 to Dec. 20, 1852. He was appointed Governor of New Mexico in 1853 by President Pierce, and occupied the palace where he had been imprisoned. At the close of Pierce’s administration, he returned to Kentucky and was a representative in the Kentucky legislature, 1858-85, and speaker of the house in 1859. He died near Louisville, Ky., April 4, 1893.


       
        Source: "The Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans" by Rossiter Johnson, John Howard Brown, Boston, 1904.


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