Stephen Heard Darden

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Stephen Heard Darden

Stephen Heard Darden (born November 19, 1816 in Fayette , Mississippi , † May 16, 1902 in Wharton , Texas ) was an American farmer and politician . He also served as an officer in the Confederate Army .

Career

Stephen Heard Darden, son of Ann Sharkey (1786-1833) and Washington Lee Darden (1781-1830), was born in Jefferson County a year and a half after the end of the British-American War . Nothing is known about his youth. Darden came to Texas in 1836 during the Texan War of Independence . He was serving at the time as a volunteer under Captain David M. Fulton, a wealthy Mississippi farmer. After the end of the war he stayed there. In September 1836 he worked as a clerk in the Office of the Comptroller . He married Mary Matilda Goff (1821–1847) in 1837. In early 1840, he returned shortly to Mississippi and settled in Madison County . Darden moved back to Texas in 1841, where he purchased land on the Guadalupe River in Gonzales County .

He represented the county for two terms in the House of Representatives and one term in the Texas Senate . As a Senator in 1861, he initially opposed the Texas secession, but eventually joined the secessionists. After the outbreak of the civil war , he joined the Confederate Army. He was appointed first lieutenant in A Company in the 4th Texas Infantry Regiment . He served under the following colonels : Robert Thomas Pritchard Allen (1813–1888), John Bell Hood (1831–1879) and John F. Marshall († 1864). In the following years he married his fourth wife Catherine R. Mayes (* 1836) on March 24, 1862. On May 20, 1862, he was appointed captain in his company. After the Battle of Antietam on September 17, 1862, he left the Confederate Army due to his poor health. In 1863 he was made a colonel and given command of the Fifth Texas Infantry Regiment on the Texas Gulf Coast. After the death of Congressman John Allen Wilcox (1819-1864), he was elected to the second Confederate Congress for the remainder of his term . He took his seat on November 21, 1864 and held this until the end of the Confederation in 1865. During his time in Congress he sat on the Naval Affairs Committee. As a staunch advocate of constitutional rights, he was an opponent of a strong central government. Therefore, he usually voted against the administration of Jefferson Davis (1808-1889). He advocated higher taxation, a large army, and a strong commander-in-chief , but opposed centrally controlled taxation in transportation and manufacturing, and the confiscation of slaves for public works.

Darden was financially ruined by the war and is likely to be returning to his Gonzalez County farm. After the end of Reconstruction , he was appointed Comptroller of Public Accounts - a position he held from 1873 to 1879. He recommended investing school fees in government bonds and then increased the proportion of bonds . Although he retired for age in January 1881, he accepted the position of chief clerk in his old ministry. Darden was appointed Superintendent of Public Buildings and Grounds on February 9, 1884 , and Chief Clerk in the Comptroller's Department in January 1887 . In 1871 he helped found the Democratic Party in Texas and was Secretary of the Texas Veterans Association from 1886 until his death . He died in Wharton in 1902 and was then buried in the Texas State Cemetery in Austin .

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Robert Thomas Pritchard Allen on the Texas State Historical Association website
  2. ↑ John Bell Hood on the Texas State Historical Association website
  3. ↑ John F. Marshall on the website of http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fma55

Web links
personal data
SURNAME Darden, Stephen Heard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American farmer and politician and officer in the Confederate Army
DATE OF BIRTH November 19, 1816
PLACE OF BIRTH Fayette , Mississippi
DATE OF DEATH May 16, 1902
Place of death Wharton , Texas