David Meriwether biography 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.