Augustus Summerfield Merrimon

Augustus Summerfield Merrimon

Augustus Summerfield Merrimon (born September 15, 1830 in Asheville , Buncombe County , North Carolina , † November 14, 1892 in Raleigh , Wake County , North Carolina) was an American politician . Between 1873 and 1879 he represented the state of North Carolina in the US Senate .

Career

Augustus Merrimon was born on the Cherryfields estate near Asheville. At first he only received a limited education. After a subsequent law degree and his admission as a lawyer in 1852, he began to work in Asheville in his new profession. He soon became a district attorney for Buncombe County and several other counties in western North Carolina. Politically, he joined the Democratic Party . In 1860 and 1861 he sat in the State House of Representatives .

At the beginning of the American Civil War , Merrimon served in the Confederation Army, from which he left in the fall of 1861. He was then until 1865 public prosecutor in the eighth judicial district of his state. He was a Superior Court judge in 1866 and 1867 . In 1872 he ran unsuccessfully for the office of governor of his state. In the elections of 1872 Augustus Merrimon was elected by the state legislature and as a candidate of his party in the US Senate, where he succeeded John Pool on January 3, 1873 as a Class 3 category Senator . He exercised this mandate between March 4, 1873 and March 3, 1879. During this time he was a member of a committee of inquiry aimed at uncovering irregularities in South Carolina in the 1876 election. In 1878 he could no longer find a majority in the state legislature for re-election in the US Senate.

After leaving Congress, Merrimon initially practiced as a lawyer again. Between 1883 and 1892 he was a judge on the Supreme Court of North Carolina . From 1892 he was Chief Justice of the Court its presiding judge. He held this office until his death on November 14, 1892 in Raleigh.

Merrimon was the father-in-law of Lee Slater Overman (1854-1930), who held the same Senate seat as his father-in-law between 1903 and 1930.

Web links

• Augustus Summerfield Merrimon in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)