William Tecumsah Avery

William Tecumsah Avery

William Tecumsah Avery (born November 11, 1819 in Hardeman County , Tennessee , †  May 22, 1880 in Crittenden County , Arkansas ) was an American politician . Between 1857 and 1861 he represented the state of Tennessee in the US House of Representatives .

Career

William Avery attended his home public schools and Jackson College near Columbia . He later moved to Memphis . After studying law and being admitted to the bar in 1840, he began to work in his new profession. At the same time he embarked on a political career as a member of the Democratic Party . In 1843 he was elected to the Tennessee House of Representatives.

In the congressional election of 1856 Avery was elected to the US House of Representatives in Washington, DC , in the tenth constituency of Tennessee , where he succeeded Thomas Rivers on March 4, 1857 . After a re-election in 1858, he was able to complete two terms in Congress until March 3, 1861 . These were shaped by the events in the immediate run-up to the civil war . In 1860, Avery declined to run again.

During the Civil War, William Avery was a lieutenant colonel in the Confederate Army . Between 1870 and 1874 he served as a bailiff at the Criminal Court in Shelby County . He also practiced as a lawyer in Memphis. He died on May 22, 1880 when he drowned in an accident in Ten Mile Bayoo, a river near Memphis.

Web links

• William Tecumsah Avery in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)

• William Avery Tecumsah in the database of Find a Grave (English)