Thomas Biddle (1790 - 1831)

Born 21 Nov 1790 in Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States

Ancestors

Husband of Ann (Mullanphy) Biddle — married 1 Sep 1823 in St. Louis, Missouri

Died 29 Aug 1831 at age 40 in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri, United States

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Biography

Thomas was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1790. He was the son of Charles Biddle and Hannah Shepard.^[1] He served as Captain of Artillery in the War of 1812 and fought at the Battle of Lundy's Lane and the siege of Lake Erie. At the end of the war he was transferred to St. Louis where he became paymaster of the US Army with the rank of Major. He married Ann Mullanphy, who was from a wealthy family, and became a major player in the St. Louis social scene.^[2][3]

Thomas's position required that he spend much of his time traveling throughout the western United States to distribute pay to the Army troops wherever they were stationed. He traveled up the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers and down the Mississippi to New Orleans. He also acted as the St. Louis director of the United States Bank. ^[4]

Thomas's brother, Nicholas Biddle was the president of the United States Bank, in Philadelphia, and was under attack by Pres. Andrew Jackson, who had vowed to close the bank. Spencer Pettis, who was a congressman from Missouri and seeking reelection, joined in the attack on Nicholas Biddle and Thomas Biddle responded. They exchanged vitriolic letters published in local newspapers. On July 9, 1831, Biddle went to Pettis's hotel room in St. Louis and attacked him with a rawhide whip. Pettis waited until after he was reelected then challenged Biddle to a duel. Biddle accepted the challenge and set the weapons to be pistols fired at a range of five feet. The duel was held on August 26, 1831 on Bloody Island in the Mississippi River. Both men died as a result of their wounds, first Pettis and then Biddle, on August 29.^[4][5] Biddle had been shot in the abdomen and the bullet ended up near his right groin area.^[6]

Thomas is buried in the Calvary Cemetery and Mausoleum in St. Louis.^[1]

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1} Find A Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com : accessed 18 July 2019), memorial page for Thomas Biddle (21 Nov 1790–29 Aug 1831), Find A Grave Memorial no. 9349, citing Calvary Cemetery and Mausoleum, Saint Louis, St. Louis City, Missouri, USA ; Maintained by Find A Grave .
2. ↑ Dodd, Jordan. Missouri Marriages to 1850 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 1997.
3. ↑ Dictionary of Missouri Biography, Edited by Lawrence O. Christenson, William E. Foley, Gary R. Kremer, and Kenneth H. Winn, University of Missouri Press, Columbia, Missouri, 1999. pp. 66-67.
4. ↑ ^{4.0 4.1} The Life and Death of Major Thomas Biddle, Nicholas B. Wainwright, The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, vol. 104, No. 3, pp. 326-344, Link
5. ↑ The Barbarous Custom of Dueling, Death and Honor on St. Louis' Bloody Island, Mark Neels, The Lindenwood Confluence, Fall, 2010.
6. ↑ "Bloody Island," St. Louis Post-Dispatch (St. Louis, Missouri), Saturday 17 February 1877, page 3, column 5. Newspapers.com : 2 January 2019.