Leonidas Houk
| Leonidas C. Houk | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| |||
| Former U.S. Representative from Tennessee's 2nd Congressional District From: March 4, 1879 – May 25, 1891 | |||
| Predecessor | Jacob M. Thornbugh | ||
| Successor | John C. Houk | ||
| Former State Representative from Tennessee From: 1873–1875 | |||
| Predecessor | ??? | ||
| Successor | ??? | ||
| Information | |||
| Party | Republican | ||
| Spouse(s) | Mary Bella Von Rosen[1] | ||
| Religion | Methodist[2] | ||
| Military Service | |||
| Allegiance | United States | ||
| Service Years | 1861–1863 | ||
| Rank | • Private • Lieutenant • Quartermaster | ||
| Unit | Third Regiment Tennessee Volunteer Infantry | ||
| Battles/wars | American Civil War | ||
Leonidas Campbell Houk (June 8, 1836 – May 25, 1891) (pron. HOWK) was an Eastern Tennessee Unionist and Republican nationalist[2] who fought against Southern Confederates during the American Civil War and later represented the state's 2nd congressional district from 1879 until his death in 1891.
Contents
Background
Houk was born in Boyds Creek, Sevier County, Tennessee. His father John died when he was young, leaving the family under impoverished circumstances.[2] He managed to survive and make a living as a Methodist preacher and cabinetmaker while studying law at night.
In 1859, Houk was admitted to the bar and proceeded to open an office in Clinton, Tennessee (located in Anderson County).[2]
Civil War, Eastern Tennessee resists secession and Confederacy
The Eastern portion of Tennessee, located within the Appalachian Mountains, were unsuitable for plantation farming and were a stronghold for anti-slavery forces in the South. Residents in the area maintained a strong sense of Unionism when the Civil War broke out, and Houk participated in the 1891 Union Convention.[2]
Organizing the First Tennessee Infantry, Houk served under several different ranks on the side of the Union.[2] He later left the military in 1863 due to poor health, and wrote articles for the press expressing pro-Union statements.
Political career
Although he served in the Union and fought to defeat the Confederacy, Houk refused to hear cases of treason against Confederates as a circuit judge after the war on the grounds that Tennessee's status as a U.S. state ceased upon secession in 1861.[2] However, he backed the Radical Republican faction of the GOP and gave support to staunch abolitionist and civil rights advocate Ulysses S. Grant in the 1868 and 1872 presidential elections.[2]
Houk was a delegate to almost all Republican National Conventions in the post-war era and also belonged to the Southern Claims Commission.[2] He served for a term in the Tennessee state House of Representatives from 1873 to 1875, where he chaired a committee and sponsored statewide school law.
U.S. House of Representatives
After running as a Democrat in the 1868 elections for the House of Representatives against incumbent Radical Republican Horace Maynard and losing by a landslide,[3] Houk was victorious when running for the same seat a decade later in the 1878 midterms as a Republican,[4] and re-elected six times.[5]
A member of the Stalwart faction in the House, Houk supported Grant in his run for a third non-consecutive presidential term in 1880 election.[2] He also expressed sympathy for the struggles of poor farmers, reflecting a populist bent in his district due to the mountainous geographic nature stifling development and thus contributing to poverty.
In late May 1891, Houk visited a drug store and mistook a bottle of toxic arsenic for a glass of ice water, which he drank.[6] He died in pain the next day, which came as a shock to the district's constituents.[7] Houk is interred at the Old Gray Cemetery.
References
- ↑ September 24, 1937. MRS. LEONIDAS C. HOUKK; Widow and Mother of Congressmen From Tennessee Is Dead. The New York Times. Retrieved August 25, 2021.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8 2.9 Schlup, Leonard (October 8, 2017). Leonidas Campbell Houk. Tennessee Encyclopedia. Retrieved August 25, 2021.
- ↑ TN - District 02 Race - Nov 03, 1868. Our Campaigns. Retrieved August 25, 2021.
- ↑ TN - District 02 Race - Nov 05, 1878. Our Campaigns. Retrieved August 25, 2021.
- ↑ Candidate - Leonidas C. Houk. Our Campaigns. Retrieved August 25, 2021.
- ↑ Hill, Ray (October 6, 2013). Congressman Leonidas Campbell Houk. The Knoxville Focus. Retrieved August 25, 2021.
- ↑ May 26, 1891. DEATH OF CONGRESSMAN HOUK.; TOOK ARSENIC BY MISTAKE FOR A GLASS OF ICE WATER.. The New York Times. Archived version available here. Retrieved August 25, 2021.
