Peter Singleton Wilkes

Peter Singleton Wilkes (* 1827 in Maury County , Tennessee , † January 2, 1900 in Stockton , California ) was an American politician . He belonged to the Democratic Party .

Career

Peter Singleton Wilkes, son of Cynthia Hartshorn Houston (1801-1888) and Edmund Wilkes (1797-1869), was born in 1827 in Maury County. His siblings were: Albert Gallatin (1820–1880), Nancy Minerva (1823–1869), Lanceford Bramlett (1824–1901) and Benjamin Franklin (1828–1847). The family moved to Missouri in 1829 and settled in what is now Miller County , which was then part of Cole County . His father studied law and began practicing law after receiving his license. Edward became a judge in Miller County in 1837. Between 1838 and 1840 he was a member of the Missouri House of Representatives .

Peter Singleton Wilkes attended local schools. His youth was overshadowed by the economic crisis of 1837 and the Mexican-American War in the following years . In 1852 he and his older brother Lanceford Bramlett graduated from the University of Missouri at Columbia ( Boone County ). A week after graduation, Peter was elected to the Missouri House of Representatives for Miller County, where he served one term. Wilkes studied law and was admitted to the bar. He moved to Greene County and settled in Springfield , where he worked as a lawyer. In 1860 he took part as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in Baltimore ( Maryland ). During the Civil War he enlisted on January 2, 1862 as a private in the 3rd  Cavalry Regiment of Missouri. He never held an officer degree, but was later addressed as a Colonel .

Probably while still serving in the Confederate Army , he was elected to the second Confederate Congress in May 1864 , where he took his seat on November 8, 1864 and held this seat until the end of the Confederation in 1865. When he was elected to the Confederate Congress , he defeated Thomas W. Freeman (1824-1865). During his time in Congress, he was a strong supporter of President Jefferson Davis (1808-1889). His only reservation was his unexplained refusal to command and arm slaves . After the war ended, he moved to California and settled in Stockton, San Joaquin County . On the way there he is said to have lived in Mazatlán ( Mexico ) for a few years . In California he founded a law firm with David S. Terry (1823-1889), former Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court . Terry, like Wilkes, fought on the Confederate side. He killed a US Senator during the Civil War and was killed a few years later by a bodyguard of Stephen Johnson Field (1816–1899), the judge of the United States Supreme Court . Wilkes died in Stockton in 1900 and was buried there in the Stockton Rural Cemetery .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Cynthia Hartshorn Houston Wilkes in the Find a Grave database . Retrieved January 26, 2015.
2. ^ Edmund Wilkes in the Find a Grave database . Retrieved January 26, 2015.
3. ^ Albert Gallatin Wilkes in the Find a Grave database . Retrieved January 26, 2015.
4. ↑ Nancy Minerva Wilkes Dixon in the Find a Grave database . Retrieved January 26, 2015.
5. ↑ Lance Ford Bramblet Wilkes in the database of Find a Grave . Retrieved January 26, 2015.
6. ↑ ^{a b} Lanceford Bramblet Wilkes on the website of The Restoration Movement ( Memento of the original from June 4, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
7. ^ Biographies from Miller County People
8. ^ Fourteenth annual catalog of the officers and students of Missouri University for the year ending July the 4th, 1856 , University of Missouri, 1856
9. ↑ Missouri General Assembly: Journal of the House of the State of Missouri , 1852, p. 5

Web links

• Peter Singleton Wilkes in the database of Find a Grave (English)
• Peter Singleton Wilkes on The Political Graveyard website
• Peter Singleton Wilkes on the prathergenealogy.com website
• California Digital Newspaper Collection