William Tecumsah AVERY, Congress, TN (1819-1880)

AVERY, William Tecumsah, a Representative from Tennessee; born in Hardeman County, Tenn., November 11, 1819; attended the common schools and was graduated from old Jackson College near Columbia, Maury County, Tenn.; studied law; was admitted to the bar; moved to Memphis, Tenn., in 1840 and engaged in the practice of law; member of the State house of representatives in 1843; elected as a Democrat to the Thirty-fifth and Thirty-sixth Congresses (March 4, 1857-March 3, 1861); was not a candidate for renomination in 1860; during the Civil War served as lieutenant colonel in the Confederate Army; clerk of the criminal court of Shelby County 1870-1874; resumed the practice of law in Memphis, Tenn.; accidentally drowned in Ten Mile Bayou, Crittenden County, Ark., opposite Memphis, Tenn., May 22, 1880; interment in Elmwood Cemetery, Memphis, Tenn.

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