Robert Looney CARUTHERS, Congress, TN (1800-1882)

CARUTHERS, Robert Looney, a Representative from Tennessee; born in Smith County, Tenn., July 31, 1800; engaged in mercantile pursuits 1817-1819; attended Woodward’s Academy, near Columbia, Tenn., and Greenville College in 1820 and 1821; studied law; was admitted to the bar in 1823; clerk of the State house of representatives in 1824; clerk of the chancery court of Smith County and editor of the Tennessee Republican; moved to Lebanon, Wilson County, Tenn., in 1826; State’s attorney 1827-1832; member of the State house of representatives in 1835; was the founder of Cumberland University, Lebanon, Tenn., in 1842 and of its law department in 1847; elected as a Whig to the Twenty-seventh Congress (March 4, 1841-March 3, 1843); appointed judge of the supreme court of Tennessee in 1852 to fill a vacancy and elected to the position in 1854, which he held until the beginning of the Civil War; member of the peace convention of 1861 held in Washington, D.C., in an effort to devise means to prevent the impending war; elected Governor in 1862, but because of the occupation of the State by Federal forces never assumed the duties of the office; at the close of the Civil War became professor of law in Cumberland University and served in that capacity until his death in Lebanon, Tenn., October 2, 1882; interment in Cedar Grove Cemetery.

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