David Settle REID, Congress, NC (1813-1891)

REID, David Settle, (nephew of Thomas Settle), a Representative and a Senator from North Carolina; born near Reidsville, Rockingham County, N.C., on April 19, 1813; attended the common schools and an academy; studied law; admitted to the bar in 1833 and commenced practice in Wentworth, N.C., the following year; member, State senate 1835-1842; elected as a Democrat to the Twenty-eighth and Twenty-ninth Congresses (March 4, 1843-March 3, 1847); was not a candidate for renomination; unsuccessful candidate for governor in 1848; elected Governor in 1850 and 1852; elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate to fill a vacancy in the term commencing March 4, 1853, caused by the failure of the legislature to elect, and served from December 6, 1854, until March 3, 1859; unsuccessful candidate for reelection; chairman, Committee on Patents and the Patent Office (Thirty-fifth Congress); delegate to the peace convention held at Washington, D.C., in 1861 in an effort to devise means to prevent the impending war; member of the State constitutional convention in 1875; practiced law at Reidsville, N.C., and died there June 19, 1891; interment in Greenview Cemetery.

Bibliography

American National Biography; Dictionary of American Biography; Reid, David Settle. The Papers of David Settle Reid. Edited by Lindley S. Butler, et al. 2 vols. Raleigh: North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources, Division of Archives and History, 1993.

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