Dewitt Clinton Senter (1830 - 1898)

Born 26 Mar 1830 in McMinn County, Tennessee, United States

Ancestors

Husband of Harriet Tandy Senter — married 1 Sep 1859 in Grainger County, Tennessee, USA

Died 14 Jun 1898 at age 68 in Morristown, Hamblen, Tennessee, United States

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Preceded by 17th Governor William Gannaway Brownlow

Dewitt Clinton Senter 18th Governor of Tennessee 1869—1871

Succeeded by 19th Governor John C. Brown

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Biography

Dewitt Senter is Notable.

DeWitt Senter was born in McMinn County, Tennessee on March 26, 1830, to Nancy White and William Tandy Senter, a Methodist minister and delegate to Tennessee’s 1834 constitutional convention. DeWitt lived much of his youth on a farm in Grainger County.

He attended the Academy at Strawberry Plains from 1851 to 1852, read law on his own and was admitted to the bar.

From 1855 to 1861 he represented Grainger County in the Tennessee General Assembly.

He married Harriet Senter (a distant cousin) in 1859. They had no children.^[1]

An ardent Unionist, he was arrested and held prisoner by the Confederate government for six months. A member of the Whig Party before the Civil War, he later served as an elector for the Republican ticket in 1864 and 1868.

After the war, he became President of the Cincinnati, Cumberland Gap and Charleston Railroad from 1865 to 1866.

In the 1866-1867 legislative session he was elected Speaker of the Senate. During his second term he became Governor after William G. Brownlow resigned to become a member of the U.S. Senate. He was elected in his own right in a campaign against William B. Stokes in 1869. Senter was instrumental in reversing many of the key Reconstruction programs instituted by Brownlow. He was also responsible for calling for a Constitutional Convention in 1870, which drafted a new constitution which still forms the basis for Tennessee law.

After leaving office, he spent the remainder of his years on a farm near Morristown. He died June 14, 1898 and was buried in Emma Jarnagin Cemetery.^[2]

Sources

1. ↑ Dewitt Clinton Senter on Wikipedia
2. ↑ Find A Grave Memorial# 6842174