Franklin Barlow Sexton

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Franklin Barlow Sexton (born April 29, 1828 in New Harmony , Indiana , † May 15, 1900 in El Paso , Texas ) was an American lawyer , plantation owner and politician for both the United States and the Confederate States . He belonged to the Democratic Party . He also served in the Confederate Army .

Career

Franklin Barlow Sexton, son of Emily Hughes Davis and Dr. Samuel Sexton was born in Posey County, Indiana , about nine years before the Great Depression of 1837 . His family moved to Texas in 1831 and settled in San Augustine County . Nothing more is known about his youth. In 1846 he graduated from Wesleyan College . After an apprenticeship as a printer ( printer's devil ), he studied law with the lawyers Oran M. Roberts (1815-1898) and James Pinckney Henderson (1808-1858). As a result of a special arrangement, he was admitted to the bar in 1848 before his 21st birthday. His student days were overshadowed by the Mexican-American War . Sexton started a thriving practice in San Augustine and became a wealthy plantation owner over the years. He also had a political career. He served in the House of Representatives in the 1850s and in the Texas Senate in 1861 . On August 10, 1852 he married Eliza Richardson (1833-1894), daughter of Daniel Long Richardson (1794-1849). The couple had twelve children, including a daughter, Loulie Sharpe (1864-1935), who married Harry Fishburne Estill (1861-1942), who was the fifth president of Sam Houston State University between 1908 and 1937 . In 1860, Sexton presided over the State Democratic Convention.

After the outbreak of the Civil War , he served in the Confederate Army for a period before being elected to the Texas Senate. However, he did not resign from the army to take up his Senate seat. On November 6, 1861 he was elected to the First Confederate Congress for the fourth constituency of Texas , where he took up his post on February 18, 1862. During his time in Congress, he served on the Committee on Commerce, the War Tax Committee, the Committee on Quartermaster and Commissary Departments, and the Transportation, Highways and Military Affairs Committee. Although Sexton supported the Jefferson Davis (1808-1889) administration, he assumed that they, like most Westerners in the Confederation, saw his region as just a pasture where beef and common soldiers were raised. He was opposed to a tax on agricultural products and the evacuation of slaves from the fields for whatever reason. Although he favored conscription, he protested against the transfer of defense forces from Texas across the Mississippi River . On August 3, 1863, he was re-elected to the second Confederate Congress , making him only one of two Texans who served in both Confederate Congresses . During his second term, he sat on the Committee on Ways and Means , the Joint Committee, and the Committee on the Post Office and Post Roads. Most recently, he successfully maintained the flow of mail to and from the Texas Confederate soldiers serving in the east. To curb the uncontrollable inflation he favored a tax increase.

After the war ended in 1865 he resumed his work as a lawyer in his office in San Augustine again, which he pursued until 1872 when he moved to Marshall ( Harrison County moved). He remained active in politics. In 1876 he took part as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention . During this he gave a speech where he supported the nomination of Samuel J. Tilden (1814-1886). After the death of his wife, he moved to El Paso to live with his daughter. There he was appointed a judge at the State Supreme Court , but also served as the United States Commissioner . Sexton died on May 15, 1900 in El Paso. His body was then transferred to Marshall and buried there. Sexton was a Methodist and Freemason who was elected Grand Commander of the Knights Templar of Texas in 1870.

Trivia

Franklin Barlow Sexton's Civil War Diary was published by the Southwestern Historical Quarterly in 1935 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Elizabeth Richardson Sexton in the Find a Grave database . Retrieved January 9, 2015.
  2. ^ Daniel Long Richardson in the Find a Grave database . Retrieved January 9, 2015.
  3. ^ Loulie Sharpe Sexton Estill in the Find a Grave database . Retrieved January 9, 2015.
  4. ↑ Harry Fishburne Estill in the Find a Grave database . Retrieved January 9, 2015.
  5. ^ The Confederate States almanac and repository of useful knowledge: for the year 1863 , Gale Cengage Learning, ISBN 978-1-4328-0493-0 , pp. 33f
personal data
SURNAME Sexton, Franklin Barlow
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American lawyer and Confederate politician and soldier
DATE OF BIRTH April 29, 1828
PLACE OF BIRTH New Harmony , Indiana
DATE OF DEATH May 15, 1900
Place of death El Paso , Texas