Absalom Harris Chappell

Absalom Harris Chappell (born December 18, 1801 in Mount Zion , Hancock County , Georgia , †  December 11, 1878 in Columbus , Georgia) was an American politician . Between 1843 and 1845 he represented the state of Georgia in the US House of Representatives .

Career

Absalom Chappell attended elementary school in his hometown of Mount Zion. After a subsequent law degree at the University of Georgia in Athens and his admission as a lawyer in 1821, he began to work in Sandersville in his new profession. In 1824 he moved to Forsyth , where he also practiced as a lawyer.

In the 1830s, Chappell began a political career. In 1832 and 1833 he was a member of the Georgia Senate . He was then from 1834 to 1839 a member of the House of Representatives of the state. It was then that Chappell became a member of the Whig Party . In 1836 he moved his residence and law firm to Macon . During this time, Chappell supported the construction of a railway in his homeland ( Monroe Railroad ). In 1839 he was a member of a commission to reorganize the Georgia State of Finance.

After the resignation of Congressman John Basil Lamar , Chappell was elected as his successor to the US House of Representatives in Washington, DC when the by-election was due for the seventh seat of Georgia . There he took up his new mandate on October 2, 1843. Since he was no longer running in the regular congressional elections of 1844 , he could only end the current legislative period in Congress until March 3, 1845 . This was overshadowed by the discussions about a possible annexation of the Republic of Texas , which had been independent of Mexico since 1836 .

In 1845 Chappell was a member and president of the Georgia Senate. In the following years he worked again as a lawyer. From 1857 he lived in Columbus; there he dealt with literary matters. After the Whigs dissolved, Absalom Chappell became a member of the Democratic Party . In 1865 and 1877 he was a delegate to meetings to revise the Georgia state constitution. In 1867 he also took part in a meeting of the conservative forces in Georgia ( Conservative Convention ). He died in Columbus on December 11, 1878.

Absalom Chappell was married to Loretta Rebecca Lamar, who was a sister of Mirabeau B. Lamar , the second President of the Republic of Texas. The couple had five children who reached adulthood. His son J. Harris Chappel was the first president of the Georgia Normal & Industrial College for Women in Milledgeville . His son LH Chappell in turn held the office of mayor of Columbus for a total of 12 years. His son Thomas J. Chappell practiced as a lawyer and, like his father, was a member of the Georgia General Assembly .

Web links

• Absalom Harris Chappell in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)

• Absalom Harris Chappell in the database of Find a Grave (English)

Individual evidence

1. ^ ^{A b} Lamar-Chappell Collection (MC 1) , Columbus State University Archives
2. ^ Sarah Harriet Butts: The mothers of some distinguished Georgians of the last half of the century (1902)