Joseph McDowell Junior

Joseph McDowell

Joseph McDowell Jr. (born February 15, 1756 in Winchester , Colony of Virginia , †  February 5, 1801 in Morgantown , North Carolina ) was an American politician . Between 1797 and 1799 he represented the state of North Carolina in the US House of Representatives .

Career

Joseph McDowell grew up during the British colonial era. In 1758 he came to North Carolina with his parents, where he attended public schools. He later studied at Washington College , now Washington and Lee University in Lexington . McDowell also took part in some Indian Wars and later the Revolutionary War. During this war rose to colonel.

In 1787 Joseph McDowell was elected to the Continental Congress. However, he did not take up this mandate. In 1789 he was a member of the congregation that ratified the United States Constitution for North Carolina . In 1791 and 1792 he was a member of the House of Representatives from North Carolina ; In 1794 he ran unsuccessfully for Congress . In the 1790s he joined the Democratic Republican Party founded by the later US President Thomas Jefferson .

In the congressional election of 1796 , McDowell was elected to the US House of Representatives in the first constituency of North Carolina, where he succeeded Jesse Franklin on March 4, 1797 . Since he refused to run again in 1798, he was only able to complete one legislative period in Congress until March 3, 1799. This was determined by the tensions with France , which almost led to war.

In 1800, McDowell temporarily moved to Kentucky . Soon after, however, he returned to North Carolina. He died on February 5, 1801 near Morgantown. Joseph McDowell was married to Margaret Moffett (1763-1816), with whom he had eight children, including the son Joseph (1800-1877) who would later represent the state of Ohio in Congress. He was also a cousin of the eponymous Congressman Joseph McDowell (1758-1799). Since the biographies of the two relatives of the same name are very similar, there was often confusion between them. To distinguish the Joseph McDowell described here is given the nickname "Quaker Meadows" in the literature, while his cousin as Joseph "Pleasant Gardens" McDowell in the story went down.

Web links

• Joseph McDowell in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)

• Joseph McDowell junior in the database of Find a Grave (English)