Daniel SMITH, Congress, TN (1748-1818)

SMITH, Daniel, a Senator from Tennessee; born in Stafford County, Va., October 29, 1748; attended William and Mary College, Williamsburg, Va.; became a surveyor; moved to Augusta County, Va.; deputy surveyor of Augusta County in 1773; fought in the Indian wars 1774; major of the Washington County militia; high sheriff of Augusta County in 1780; commissioned colonel in the Second Battalion and fought in several battles of the Revolution; moved to Sumner County, Tenn., at the close of the war; laid out the town of Nashville; member of the North Carolina convention which ratified the United States Constitution 1789; appointed by President George Washington secretary of the territory south of the Ohio River in 1790; member of the constitutional convention of 1796 to draw up a constitution for the new State of Tennessee; made the first map of Tennessee; general of State militia; appointed as a Democratic Republican to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Andrew Jackson and served from October 6, 1798, to March 3, 1799; elected as a Democratic Republican to the United States Senate and served from March 4, 1805, to March 31, 1809, when he resigned; engaged in agricultural pursuits; died at his home, ‘Rock Castle,’ near Hendersonville, Sumner County, Tenn., June 16, 1818; interment in the family burial ground near his home.

Bibliography

Durham, Walter. Daniel Smith: Frontier Statesman. Gallatin, Tenn.: Sumner County Library Board, 1976; Sioussat, St. George, ed. ”The Journal of Daniel Smith.” Tennessee Historical Magazine (March 1915): 40-65.

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