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David Dickson, future lieutenant governor, begins political career
On this day in 1845, David Catchings Dickson was elected justice of the
peace of Precinct Two in Montgomery County. He had graduated from
medical school in Kentucky and moved to Texas in 1841. Throughout his
political career he practiced medicine intermittently. After his small
beginning, he was elected to the Texas House of Representatives (1849).
He ran successfully for lieutenant governor with gubernatorial candidate
Elisha M. Pease in 1853, but lost in his attempt to unseat Pease in
1855. In the latter election, though he was a Democrat, he was supported
by the American (Know-Nothing) party. After another stint in the House,
he commanded a local militia company during the Civil War. In 1866
Governor James W. Throckmorton appointed Dickson financial agent of the
state penitentiary at Huntsville, where, in addition to his primary
duty, he cared for the inmates during a yellow fever epidemic. When
Throckmorton was removed from office as an "impediment to
Reconstruction," Dickson retired to Grimes County. He had become quite
wealthy over the years.
- Links to Related Handbook of Texas Online Articles
- DICKSON, DAVID CATCHINGS
- JUSTICE OF THE PEACE
- LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR
- PEASE, ELISHA MARSHALL
- THROCKMORTON, JAMES WEBB
- AMERICAN PARTY
- TEXAS STATE PENITENTIARY AT HUNTSVILLE
- Other Texas Day by Day Articles for This Date
- Booker T. Washington speaks at first Prairie View graduation (1897)
- Border photographer documents Mexican Revolution (1913)
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