Andrew Pickens Sr.

Andrew Pickens

Andrew Pickens senior (born September 13, 1739 in Paxton , Bucks County , Province of Pennsylvania , †  August 11, 1817 in Tamassee , South Carolina ) was an American politician . Between 1793 and 1795 he represented the state of South Carolina in the US House of Representatives .

Career

Andrew Pickens attended public schools in his home country. In 1752 he moved with his parents to South Carolina, which was then still a British colony. There he founded the Hopewell Plantation. In 1760 he became a member of the local militia. He was used in the fight against the Cherokee Indians. At the outbreak of the War of Independence , he joined the Continental Army . There he rose in the course of the war from captain to brigadier general. He took part in several battles and in the meantime became a prisoner of war. At the end of the war in 1782 he was used again against the Cherokee.

After the war, Pickens began a political career. Between 1781 and 1794 he was a member of the House of Representatives from South Carolina . In 1787, he was on the commission that established the border between South Carolina and Georgia . In 1790 Pickens was a member of a convention to revise the South Carolina constitution. Domestically, he was an opponent of the federal government led by President George Washington and thus a member of the anti-administration faction.

In 1792 he was elected to the US House of Representatives in the newly created sixth constituency of South Carolina. There he took up his new mandate on March 4, 1793. Until March 3, 1795 he could only complete one legislative period in Congress . In 1795 he was promoted to major general in the South Carolina State Militia. In 1797 he tried unsuccessfully to return to Congress. Between 1800 and 1812 Pickens was once again a member of the House of Representatives of his state. In 1812 he rejected the nomination he had been offered for the gubernatorial elections . He died on August 11, 1817 and was buried near Pendleton . Counties were named after him in three states in his honor : Pickens County in Alabama , Pickens County in Georgia and Pickens County in South Carolina . Fort Pickens in Florida is also named after Andrew Pickens.

Andrew Pickens was married to Rebecca Floride Colhoun. The couple had twelve children, including sons Ezekiel (1768-1818), a later lieutenant governor of South Carolina, and Andrew junior (1779-1838), who was governor of South Carolina between 1816 and 1818. His son Francis (1805-1869) was also the governor of South Carolina and a congressman. Through his wife, Andrew Pickens was the uncle of Floride Calhoun and thus related to John C. Calhoun . Pickens was also a direct ancestor of John Edwards , who ran as the Democratic Party's vice- presidential candidate in the 2004 presidential election.

Web links

• Andrew Pickens in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)

• Andrew Pickens in the database of Find a Grave (English)