David Levy Yulee

David Levy Yulee

David Levy Yulee (* 12. June 1810 in Charlotte Amalie , Danish West Indies , now US Virgin Islands ; † 10. October 1886 in New York City , New York ) was an American politician of the Democratic Party . From 1845 to 1851, 1855 to 1861 he sat for the US state of Florida in the US Senate .

Early life and family

Yulee was the son of a Moroccan Jewish father and a Sephardic Jewish mother with Dutch and English ancestry. The family soon emigrated from Yule's birthplace, what is now the US Virgin Islands, to the United States. They settled near Jacksonville , Florida, where Yulee's father bought a farm and ran it from then on. His parents sent him to Norfolk , Virginia to attend school. After returning from Norfolk, Yulee studied law at St. Augustine .

In 1846 the devout Jew married the Christian Nannie C. Wickliffe, the daughter of the governor of Kentucky , Charles A. Wickliffe . They both had three children who were raised in the Christian faith .

Career

After graduating from law school, he opened his own law firm in St. Augustine. In 1841 he then appeared politically. That year he was elected as a delegate from the Florida Territory to the United States Congress. He sat there until 1845 when Florida was incorporated as a state into the United States.

After Florida became a state, Yulee was sent to the US Senate as a senator in 1845. He was the first Jew to sit in the Senate. In the re-election in 1850, he could not prevail against Stephen Russell Mallory senior and left the Senate.

Yulee retired to Florida again. He tried quite successfully in growing sugar cane . His farm was destroyed in the Civil War and is now preserved as the Yulee Sugar Mill Ruins State Historic Site .

While living in Fernandina Beach with his family, Yulee planned to build a railroad through Florida. From 1853 he was CEO of the Florida Railroad . During this time, a railway line from Fernandina Beach to Cedar Key was built on Yulee's initiative . Shortly before the start of the Civil War, the first train rolled on this route.

In 1855 he succeeded in entering the US Senate again. There he represented Florida until 1861, when Florida seceded from the United States and instead joined the Confederate States . Yulee entered the Confederate Congress . After the war ended, Yulee was imprisoned for nine months for serving in the Confederate legislature.

During the reconstruction , Yulee continued to be involved in railway construction. Because of his merits, he is still known today as the father of the Florida railroad.

In 1880 Yulee sold the Florida Railroad and moved with his wife to Washington, DC , where relatives of her lived. He died in 1886 while on a trip to New York City. He was buried in the Oak Hill Cemetery in the capital.

After his death, Levy County and Yulee , Florida, were named after him.

Web links

• David Levy Yulee in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)

• David Levy Yulee in the database of Find a Grave (English)