VanLeer Polk | |
---|---|
Born | July 9, 1856 |
Died | December 19, 1907 |
Occupation(s) | Politician, diplomat |
Parent(s) | Andrew Jackson Polk Rebecca Van Leer |
Relatives | William Polk (paternal grandfather) Antoinette Polk (sister) |
VanLeer Polk (a.k.a. Van Leer Polk) (July 9, 1856 - December 19, 1907) was an American politician and diplomat from Tennessee. He served in the Tennessee Senate as a representative for Maury County in the 1890s. He was appointed Consul-General in Calcutta, India, and was one of six representatives of the United States at the 1906 Pan-American Conference. He was a member of the influential Van Leer family.
Polk was born at Ashwood Hall in Ashwood, Tennessee, on July 9, 1856. He attended the Silling's School in Vevey, Switzerland and in Rugby, England. [1] His father, Andrew Jackson Polk, was the son of Colonel William Polk. [2] His mother, Rebecca Van Leer, was an heiress from the Van Leer family to an iron fortune from Cumberland Furnace. [2]
Polk was a member of the Democratic Party and represented Maury County in the Tennessee Senate during the 1890s. With Flourney Rivers, a state senator for Giles County, he introduced railroad commission bills. [3]
Polk invested in silver mining operations in Mexico [4] along with Tennessee politicians Duncan Brown Cooper and Henry Cooper. [5]
In 1883, a committee of the Tennessee State Senate discovered a $400,000 (~$11.1 million in 2023) deficit in their accounting with funds being misappropriated by Polk's cousin, M.T. Polk. [4] Polk and his cousin were apprehended by detectives in San Antonio, Texas but were released possibly due to the acceptance of a bribe and headed for Mexico. U.S. Marshals arrested Polk's cousin 18 miles from the Mexico border and he was returned to Tennessee and found guilty of embezzlement. [6]
Polk was appointed as Consul-General to Calcutta, India [7] by President Grover Cleveland. [8] In 1906, he was appointed as one of six United States commissioners to the Pan-American Conference in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil by President Theodore Roosevelt. [1] [9]
He worked as editor of the Weekly News and Scimitar newspaper in Memphis, Tennessee. [1]
He married Dorothy Kitchen Bodine in New York City on February 20, 1907. He died on December 19, 1907, in Memphis, Tennessee. [1]
James Knox Polk was the 11th president of the United States, serving from 1845 to 1849. He also served as the 13th speaker of the House of Representatives from 1835 to 1839 and the ninth governor of Tennessee from 1839 to 1841. A protégé of Andrew Jackson, he was a member of the Democratic Party and an advocate of Jacksonian democracy. Polk is known for extending the territory of the United States through the Mexican–American War during his presidency, annexing the Republic of Texas, the Oregon Territory, and the Mexican Cession after winning the Mexican–American War.
Maury County is a county located in the U.S. state of Tennessee, in the Middle Tennessee region. As of the 2020 census, the population was 100,974. Its county seat is Columbia. Maury County is part of the Nashville-Davidson–Murfreesboro–Franklin, TN metropolitan statistical area.
John Bell was an American politician, attorney, and planter who was a candidate for President of the United States in the election of 1860.
Lieutenant-General Leonidas Polk was an American Confederate military officer, a bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Louisiana and founder of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the Confederate States of America, which separated from the Episcopal Church of the United States of America. He was a planter in Maury County, Tennessee, and a first cousin twice removed of President James K. Polk. He resigned his ecclesiastical position to become a major-general in the Confederate States Army, when he was called "Sewanee's Fighting Bishop". His official portrait at the University of the South depicts him as a bishop with his army uniform hanging nearby. He is often erroneously referred to as "Leonidas K. Polk" but he had no middle name and never signed any documents as such.
William Brimage Bate was a planter and slaveholder, Confederate officer, and politician in Tennessee. After the Reconstruction era, he served as the 23rd governor of Tennessee from 1883 to 1887. He was elected to the United States Senate from Tennessee, serving from 1887 until his death.
James Hervey Otey, Christian educator, author, and the first Episcopal Bishop of Tennessee, having established the Anglican church in the state, including its first parish churches and what became the University of the South.
Mount Olivet Cemetery is a 206-acre (83 ha) cemetery located in Nashville, Tennessee. It is located approximately two miles East of downtown Nashville, and adjacent to the Catholic Calvary Cemetery. It is open to the public during daylight hours.
George Washington Gordon was a general in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. After the war, he practiced law in Pulaski, Tennessee, where the Ku Klux Klan was formed. He became one of the Klan's first members. In 1867, Gordon became the Klan's first Grand Dragon for the Realm of Tennessee, and wrote its "Precept," a book describing its organization, purpose, and principles. He was also a member of the United States House of Representatives for the 10th congressional district of Tennessee.
Abram Poindexter Maury was an American politician, who represented Tennessee's eighth district in the United States House of Representatives. He was a slaveholder.
William Hawkins Polk was an American politician and a member of the United States House of Representatives for Tennessee's 6th congressional district from 1851 to 1853. He was the younger brother of President James K. Polk. Prior to his election to Congress, he had been a member of the Tennessee House of Representatives (1841–1845), served as U.S. Minister to the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies (1845–1847), and fought as a major in the Mexican–American War.
Rattle and Snap is a plantation estate at 1522 North Main Street in Mount Pleasant, Tennessee. The centerpiece of the estate is a mid-1840s mansion that is one of grandest expressions of the Greek Revival in Tennessee. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1971 for its architecture, and for its association with the Polk family, once one of eastern Tennessee's largest landowners. The house is privately owned, but may be viewed by appointment.
Richard Houston Dudley was an American Democratic politician, Confederate soldier and businessman. He served as the Mayor of Nashville, Tennessee from 1897 to 1900.
Ashwood Hall was a Southern plantation in Maury County, Tennessee.
Lucius Junius Polk (1802–1870) was an American politician and planter from Tennessee.
Antoinette Van Leer Polk, Baroness de Charette was an American Southern belle in the Antebellum South and French aristocrat in the Gilded Age. She was born into the planter elite, the great-niece of the 11th President of the United States James K. Polk and a member of the influential Van Leer family through her mother. She was an heiress to plantations in Tennessee and a "Southern heroine" who warned Confederate soldiers of advancing Union troops during the American Civil War. After the war, she moved to Europe, where she took to foxhunting in the Roman Campagna of Italy and the English countryside, and later became a baroness and socialite in Paris and Brittany.
Judge Robert J. Morgan (1826–1899) was an American lawyer, planter and Confederate veteran. Born and educated in Georgia, he became a lawyer in Memphis, Tennessee, and planter in adjacent Mississippi. During the American Civil War, he served as a colonel in the infantry of the Confederate States Army from 1861 to 1863, and as Adjutant-General to Lieutenant-General Leonidas Polk in 1863–1864. He served as Chancellor on the Chancery Court of Shelby County, Tennessee, from 1870 to 1878.
Jay Guy Cisco was an American Confederate veteran, journalist, diplomat and businessman. He was the owner of a bookstore and the editor of the Forked Deer Blade newspaper in Jackson, Tennessee. He was a U.S. consul to Mexico, and an agent for the Louisville and Nashville Railroad.
Anthony Wayne Van Leer was an American ironmaster and owner of the Cumberland Furnace in Dickson County, Tennessee. He was a member of the influential Van Leer family, the son of Samuel Van Leer, captain in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War and nephew of General Anthony Wayne. The town of Vanleer, Tennessee is named after him.
The Van Leer family, originally spelled Von Lohr, is an influential German–American family that emigrated to the Province of Pennsylvania in the 17th century from the Electorate of Hesse near Isenberg, Germany. The family made their fortune in the United States through the ironworks business. The family includes American business owners, academics, civil rights activists, women's rights activists, university founders, inventors, politicians, and military officers. Earlier spellings include Von Leer, Von Lohr, and the ancient surname Valär.