Seargent Smith PRENTISS, Congress, MS (1808-1850)

PRENTISS, Seargent Smith, a Representative from Mississippi; born in Portland, Cumberland County, Maine, September 30, 1808; attended Gorham (Maine) Academy and was graduated from Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine, in 1826; studied law in Gorham, Maine, and in Cincinnati, Ohio; moved to Natchez, Adams County, Miss.; was admitted to the bar in 1829 and commenced practice in Vicksburg, Miss.; member of the state house of representatives 1836-1837; as a Whig, contested the election of John F.H. Claiborne to the Twenty-fifth Congress and the election was set aside by the House; subsequently elected to fill the vacancy caused by this action and served from May 30, 1838, to March 3, 1839; was not a candidate for renomination in 1838; unsuccessful candidate for the United States Senate in 1839-1840; resumed the practice of law at Vicksburg; moved to New Orleans, La, in 1845 and resumed the practice of law; died at “Longwood,” near Natchez, Miss., July 1, 1850; interment in the private burying ground at “Longwood.”

Bibliography

Dickey, Dallas C. Seargent S. Prentiss, Whig Orator of the Old South. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1945; Prentiss, George Lewis. A Memoir of S.S. Prentiss. 2 vols. New York: C. Scribner’s Sons, 1855. Reprint, New York: C. Scribner’s Sons, 1886.

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