Oliver Hart DOCKERY, Congress, NC (1830-1906)

DOCKERY, Oliver Hart, (son of Alfred Dockery), a Representative from North Carolina; born near Rockingham, Richmond County, N.C., August 12, 1830; attended the public schools and Wake Forest (N.C.) College; was graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1848; studied law, but never practiced; engaged in agricultural pursuits; member of the State house of representatives in 1858 and 1859; served for a short time in the Confederate service, but withdrew and advocated sustaining the Federal Government; upon the readmission of North Carolina to representation was elected as a Republican to the Fortieth Congress; reelected to the Forty-first Congress and served from July 13, 1868, to March 3, 1871; chairman, Committee on the Freedmen’s Bureau (Forty-first Congress); unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1870 to the Forty-second Congress; again engaged in agricultural pursuits; member of the State constitutional convention in 1875; unsuccessful candidate for Governor in 1888; appointed United States consul general at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on June 14, 1889, and served until July 1, 1893; resumed agricultural pursuits; died in Baltimore, Md., March 21, 1906; interment in the family cemetery at Mangum, Richmond County, N.C.

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