| Strunk and Chambers Scott Co TN |
| David Chambers |
David Chambers Col. David Chambers was born in the village of Allentown, Northhampton County, Pennsylvania, the 25th of November 1780. His mother’s maiden name was Mary Woolsey. His father, Joseph Gaston Chambers, also a native of Pennsylvania, was an educated man, a graduate of Princeton College, New Jersey, at the commencement of the revolution; and was not only a belle-letter scholar, but also an inventive genius - which was evidenced by the invention of a peculiar species of repeating gunnery, patronized by the naval department of the U.S. Government during the last war with England; which was ready to be developed on Lake Ontario, where a large ship was prepared for action armed with these guns, under the command of Commodore Chauncey. Peace supervened before a battle was fought or a gun fired in action, and the invention fell dormant. As to the utility and destructive character of the invention, it is sufficient to state that it met the entire approval and warm commendation of Major General Jacob Brown, and Commodore Rodgers. In addition to this J.G.C. invented a new alphabet, or an attempt to form a complete system of letters, with a view to the more easy and perfect spelling and pronunciation of the English language. After much expense in founding type to print, that invention also became a nullity. Col. David Chambers received his entire education at the hands of his father, who adopted teaching as a pursuit. That education was thorough in English and its various branches together with a fair course in the latin and Greek languages and the German. At a very early age he was placed in adventurous and responsible situations and employments. In the year 1794, at the age of 14 he was employed as a confidential express, at Williamsport in Maryland to carry dispatches from Gen. Henry Lee of Virginia (commandant of the Army detailed to quell the whiskey insurrection in Western Pennsylvania) to President Washington, then at Carlysle in Penna. He there had private conversation with the President, General Alexander Hamilton, then Acting Secretary of War; and received other dispatches from Gen. Hamilton to be delivered to Gen. Lee at Cumberland in Maryland - at the same time the Genl. conferring pointed commendation and encouragement of the youthful agent, to carry the dispatches with speed and safety, accompanying the compliment with a donieur from his purse. In 1796, after serving a term as clerk in a small retail store, he was placed in Aurora daily newspaper office in Philadelphia, then conducted by Benjamin Franklin Bache (grandson of Dr. Franklin) to learn the art of printing. His father’s fortunes induced him in the fall of the same year to remove west, and as there was no binding agreement, the son was recalled from the handling of type, in which he had promptly become proficient, and placed at the plow tail in Washington County, Western Pennsylvania, where the inhabitants then lived in a very primitive state, enjoying but little of convenience, and none of the luxuries of life. Mr. Bache in a letter that he should continue with him; alleging that “the business was respectable, and would increase in usefulness, and no doubt would thrive in it.” In 1801, he made a perilous trading voyage in a flat boat loaded with flour, down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers to New Orleans, then under spanish Government. From New Orleans he returned by ship to New York, occupying fifty-six days in the passage, and suffering much privation from want of provisions and water. At the age of 21 he married Susannah Glass, and settled on a fertile farm in Brooke County, Virginia, a short distance from the present seat of Bethany College; his wife being foster sister of Miss Brown, the first wife of Rev. Alexander Campbell, President and founder of that Institution. After pursuing agriculture in a laborious way for thirteen years, he sold his possessions in Virginia and removed to Zanesville, Ohio in October 1810 - that place having been made the seat of the State Government which it retained only two years. He bought one half of a newspaper establishment then a year in operation, entitled the “Muskingum Messenger” - became its chief Editor, and was appointed State printer by the Legislature, during the two years they remained. On the return of the legislature temporarily to Chillicothe, he sought and obtained the office of Secretary of the Senate of the State; and obtained the same appointment at the first and second sessions of the Legislature at Columbus, the permanent seat of the government. In 1812-1813 he acted as aid to Major General Lewis Cass, and executed various orders of that officer, in detailing and organizing militia companies for the seat of war. In 1816, at the organization of the Bank of the United States, he was appointed by the President of the United States one of the Commissioners to received subscriptions to that institution in Ohio. Having occupied at different times the offices of Mayor of the town and clerk of the court of common pleas and Supreme Courts; in 1821 he was elected one of the six representatives to which Ohio was then entitled in the 17th congress; his competitor being the Hon. John C. Wright, afterwards a representative from a different district, and also a Supreme Court Judge. He never was absent from his seat in Congress more than a single day during the entire term. He voted for the resolution declaring the slave trade piracy; and also the resolutions acknowledging the independence of the South American Republics. Failing in a re-election from causes not worthy of detail, in the Spring of 1823, he retired to an extensive farm he had improved five miles above Zanesville, on the west bank of Muskingum river, where he continued an agricultural life, being a constant operative up to the year 1856. During this period he was elected by his fellow citizens of Muskingum County to represent them in the State legislature nine different terms; seven sessions in the house and two sessions in the Senate; and at last term in 1844 was elected Speaker of that body, which closed his legislative career. In 1850 a convention was called to frame a new constitution for the State , and he was elected a delegate in conjunction with Judge Richard Stillwell to represent the old County of Muskingum in that body; who perfected a constitution at an adjourned session in the City of Cincinnati in March 1851, which closed Col. C’s public official labors. He then in 1856 became again a resident of Zanesville, the seat of his early labors, nearly half a century past - a man of leisure, in good health, 78 years old, having eleven living children and one dead - eight sons and four daughters, with a numerous posterity, some of the third generation. His stature is 5 feet 10 inches, tolerably robust make - dark complexion and eyes and aquiline prominent Roman nose, having a strong voice and fluent in speech. His present wife was Mrs. Triphenia M’Gowan, a second marriage at the age of 66. In early life he adopted Democratic Republican principles, and was a zealous political disciple of the school of Thomas Jefferson. Supported the War of 1812, together with the administration, editorially in his newspaper. Voted for Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, J.Q. Adams, Wm. H. Harrison and Z. Taylor for Presidents. Followed in the wake of H. Niles of the Baltimore Register, James Madison and Henry Clay, as men he esteemed of incorruptible virtue, and ever worthy of honor. Belonged to the old Whig Party - then a Republican as of old and sworn opponent to the extension of slavery, and the aggressive schemes of Southern Oligarchs. FROM THE BIOGRAPHICAL DIRECTORY OF THE UNITED STATES CONGRESS -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- CHAMBERS, David, 1780-1864 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- CHAMBERS, David, a Representative from Ohio; born in Allentown, Pa., November 25, 1780; tutored by his father; was a confidential express rider for President Washington during the Whisky Insurrection in 1794; learned the art of printing; moved to Zanesville, Ohio, in 1810, where he established a newspaper and was elected State printer; volunteer aide-de-camp to General Cass in the War of 1812; served as recorder and mayor of Zanesville; member of the State house of representatives in 1814, 1828, 1836-1838, 1841, and 1842; clerk of the Ohio State senate in 1817; clerk of the court of common pleas of Muskingum County 1817-1821; unsuccessful candidate for election in 1820 to the Seventeenth Congress; subsequently elected to the Seventeenth Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Representative-elect John C. Wright and served from October 9, 1821, to March 3, 1823; was not a candidate for renomination; affiliated with the Whig Party after its formation; member of the State senate in 1843 and 1844; president of the senate in 1844; delegate to the State constitutional convention of 1850; engaged in agricultural pursuits until 1856; died in Zanesville, Muskingum County, Ohio, August 8, 1864; interment in Greenwood Cemetery. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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