David BARTON, Congress, MO (1783-1837)

BARTON, David, a Senator from Missouri; born near Greeneville, N.C. (now Tennessee), December 14, 1783; read law; admitted to the Tennessee bar; moved to the Territory of Missouri in 1809; elected attorney general of the Territory in 1813; first circuit judge of Howard County in 1815 and presiding judge in 1816; member, Territorial house of representatives 1818 and served as speaker; member and president of the convention which formed the State constitution in 1820; upon the admission of Missouri as a State into the Union was elected as a Democratic Republican (later Adams-Clay Republican) to the United States Senate; reelected in 1825 as an Adams Democrat and served from August 10, 1821, to March 3, 1831; unsuccessful candidate for reelection as an Anti-Jacksonian in 1830; chairman, Committee on Public Lands (Eighteenth through Twenty-first Congresses); member, State senate 1834-1835; died in Boonville, Mo., on September 28, 1837; interment in Walnut Grove Cemetery.

Bibliography

Dictionary of American Biography; Shoemaker, Floyd C. ‘David Barton, John Rice Jones, and Edward Bates: Three Missouri State and Statehood Founders.’ Missouri Historical Review 65 (July 1971): 527-43; Van Ravensway, Charles. ‘The Tragedy of David Barton.’ Missouri Historical Society Bulletin 7 (October 1950): 35-56.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present