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Senate Years of Service: 1820-1823; 1823-1825 Party: Republican; Jackson Republican
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Library of Congress |
HOLMES, David, a Representative from Virginia and a Senator from Mississippi; born at Mary
Ann Furnace, near Hanover, York County, Pa., March 10, 1769; moved to Virginia as a child;
attended Winchester Academy, Winchester, Va.; studied law; was admitted to the bar in 1791
and commenced practice in Harrisonburg, Va.; held several local offices; elected to the Fifth
and to the five succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1797-March 3, 1809); was not a candidate for
renomination in 1808; chairman, Committee on Claims (Ninth and Tenth Congresses); moved
to the Mississippi Territory; Governor of the Territory of Mississippi 1809-1817; Governor of
the State of Mississippi 1817-1820; appointed to the United States Senate from Mississippi as a
Republican to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Walter Leake; subsequently elected
and served from August 30, 1820, to September 25, 1825, when he resigned; chairman,
Committee on Indian Affairs (Sixteenth Congress); again Governor of Mississippi, but stepped
down due to ill health 1826; returned to Winchester, Va., in 1827; died at Jordans Sulphur
Springs, near Winchester, Va., on August 20, 1832; interment in Mount Hebron Cemetery,
Winchester, Va.
BibliographyDictionary of American Biography; Conrad, D.H. David Holmes: First Governor of Mississippi. Publications of the
Mississippi Historical Society 4 (1921): 234-57; Hildreth, Howard P. David Holmes. Virginia Cavalcade 16 (Spring 1967): 38-40.
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