Meredith Miles Marmaduke (August 28, 1791 – March 26, 1864) was an American
politician
A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking ...
who served as the
8th governor of Missouri in 1844, to fill out the term of Governor
Thomas Reynolds, who had committed suicide. A member of the
Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to:
*Democratic Party (United States)
Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to:
Active parties Africa
*Botswana Democratic Party
*Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea
*Gabonese Democratic Party
*Demo ...
, he had been elected and served as the 6th
lieutenant governor.
Marmaduke had a large family. He had married well, to Lavinia, a daughter of Dr. John Sappington, a pioneering physician in
Saline County, Missouri
Saline County is located along the Missouri River in the U.S. state of Missouri. As of the 2010 census, the population was 23,370. Its county seat is Marshall. The county was established November 25, 1820, and named for the region's salt spr ...
, and his wife Jane, sister of a Kentucky governor. The two men were affiliated in Sappington's business for a time, working with traders on the
Santa Fe Trail. Marmaduke later acquired and operated a successful plantation in Saline County, becoming a large slaveholder as well. He and his wife reared their ten children here.
Marmaduke changed his opinions and developed Unionist leanings by mid-century, but four of his sons served the
Confederacy during the American Civil War, and two died. His son
John Sappington Marmaduke
John Sappington Marmaduke (March 14, 1833 – December 28, 1887) was an American politician and soldier. He served as the 25th governor of Missouri from 1885 until his death in 1887. During the American Civil War, he was a senior officer ...
was promoted during the
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states ...
to become a senior
officer
An officer is a person who has a position of authority in a hierarchical organization. The term derives from Old French ''oficier'' "officer, official" (early 14c., Modern French ''officier''), from Medieval Latin ''officiarius'' "an officer," f ...
of the
Confederate States Army
The Confederate States Army, also called the Confederate Army or the Southern Army, was the military land force of the Confederate States of America (commonly referred to as the Confederacy) during the American Civil War (1861–1865), fighting ...
. He commanded
cavalry in the
Trans-Mississippi Theater. After the war, the younger Marmaduke became active in the Democratic Party politician. He was elected in 1884 as the 25th Governor of Missouri, serving one term from 1885 to 1887.
Early life
Meredith Miles Marmaduke was born in
Westmoreland County, Virginia
Westmoreland County is a county located in the Northern Neck of the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population sits at 18,477. Its county seat is Montross.
History
As originally established by the Virginia colony's ...
, on August 28, 1791, to Vincent and Sarah (Porter) Marmaduke.
He was educated in a local boys' seminary and worked as a
civil engineer until his career was interrupted by the
War of 1812
The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States, United States of America and its Indigenous peoples of the Americas, indigenous allies against the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom ...
. During the war, although only twenty-two years old, Marmaduke was commissioned as
colonel
Colonel (abbreviated as Col., Col or COL) is a senior military officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations.
In the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, a colonel was typically in charge o ...
of the regiment that was raised in his county. He or his father may have paid to outfit the regiment, which was often the basis of such commissions.
Returning to Virginia after the war, Marmaduke was appointed as
United States Marshal
The United States Marshals Service (USMS) is a federal law enforcement agency in the United States. The USMS is a bureau within the U.S. Department of Justice, operating under the direction of the Attorney General, but serves as the enforc ...
for the Tidewater district of the state by President
James Madison
James Madison Jr. (March 16, 1751June 28, 1836) was an American statesman, diplomat, and Founding Father. He served as the fourth president of the United States from 1809 to 1817. Madison is hailed as the "Father of the Constitution" for h ...
.
[Christensen, Lawrence O., ''Dictionary of Missouri Biography'', University of Missouri Press, 1999.] He served for several years in that office until being elected clerk of the circuit court .
In 1823 he migrated to
Franklin, Missouri
Franklin is a city in Howard County, Missouri, United States. It is located along the Missouri River in the central part of the state. Located in a rural area, the city had a population of 70 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Columbia, Miss ...
, for his health.
Marmaduke held a variety of jobs, including store clerking, managing a large farm, and working as a trader on the
Santa Fe Trail, which became increasingly busy with traders and emigrants to western lands.
[Glassman, Steve, ''It Happened on the Santa Fe Trail'', Globe Pequot Press, 2008, pg. 67]
In 1826 Marmaduke married Lavinia Sappington, the daughter of Dr. John and Jane Sappington. Her father became a prominent pioneer physician of
Saline County, who was later known for his development of a patent medicine, a
quinine
Quinine is a medication used to treat malaria and babesiosis. This includes the treatment of malaria due to '' Plasmodium falciparum'' that is resistant to chloroquine when artesunate is not available. While sometimes used for nocturnal le ...
pill used to treat
malaria
Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects humans and other animals. Malaria causes symptoms that typically include fever, tiredness, vomiting, and headaches. In severe cases, it can cause jaundice, seizures, coma, or death. S ...
and other fevers. He manufactured "fever pills" that incorporated quinine and sold them, eventually nationally. They were also distributed through trade on the
Santa Fe Trail.
For a brief time Marmaduke became a partner in his father-in-law's family enterprises, which included stores in
Jonesborough (now Napton) and
Arrow Rock, Missouri
Arrow Rock is a village in Saline County, Missouri, United States, located near the Missouri River. The entire village is part of the National Historic Landmark Arrow Rock Historic District, designated by the Department of the Interior, Nationa ...
. He worked for a period with his father-in-law and his brother-in-law Erasmus Sappington, and Marmaduke earned a good income from their business together.
While serving as surveyor for Saline County, Marmaduke platted the village of Arrow Rock in 1829. By around 1835, Marmaduke had acquired a large plantation not far from Arrow Rock, where he and his wife Lavinia raised their ten children. A successful planter, he held numerous enslaved African Americans as workers on the plantation.
Saline County is within the region known as "
Little Dixie", which was settled by numerous migrants from the Upper South, who developed plantations and held slaves in higher numbers than in most areas of the state.
Political career
Marmaduke was a
Jacksonian Democrat
Jacksonian democracy was a 19th-century political philosophy in the United States that expanded suffrage to most white men over the age of 21, and restructured a number of federal institutions. Originating with the seventh U.S. president, An ...
and a friend and supporter of Missouri Senator
Thomas Hart Benton, whom he met through his father-in-law Sappington. Marmaduke served as Saline County
surveyor and county judge before being elected Lieutenant Governor of Missouri in 1840.
His time in that role was relatively uneventful. But on February 9, 1844, Governor
Thomas Reynolds committed
suicide.
Marmaduke assumed office as governor, acting in what was considered a largely caretaker role for the final ten months of the governor's two-year term. But Marmaduke encouraged better treatment by the state of the mentally ill. In one of his final messages to the state legislature, he strongly urged the establishment of what was then known as a "lunatic asylum," to house and treat those with mental illness.
Marmaduke was a slaveholder and benefited from the institution. He refused to pardon three
abolitionists
Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the movement to end slavery. In Western Europe and the Americas, abolitionism was a historic movement that sought to end the Atlantic slave trade and liberate the enslaved people.
The Britis ...
who had helped refugee slaves. Angered by his refusal,
Democratic leaders bypassed Marmaduke as their candidate in the 1844 gubernatorial election and chose
John C. Edwards, who won the office.
Marmaduke continued to be active in politics, serving as Saline County delegate to the Missouri Constitutional Convention. He ran unsuccessfully for governor again in 1848. In 1854, he was appointed as president of the State Agricultural Society and of the district fair association. This group organized the first State Fair in Missouri.
[Denslow, Wm. R. and Truman, Harry S. ''10,000 Famous Freemasons from K to Z'', Vol. 3, Kessinger Publishing, 1959. pp. 135-136]
American Civil War
![Meridith Marmaduke tombstone](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4e/Meridith_Marmaduke_tombstone.jpg)
Even before the first shots were fired at
Fort Sumter
Fort Sumter is a sea fort built on an artificial island protecting Charleston, South Carolina from naval invasion. Its origin dates to the War of 1812 when the British invaded Washington by sea. It was still incomplete in 1861 when the Battle ...
, Marmaduke found himself at odds with friends and family. Much like his friend Senator Benton, Marmaduke's views on slavery had begun to change in the late 1840s.
As a result, Marmaduke became estranged from his father-in-law Dr. Sappington, and brother-in-law
Claiborne Fox Jackson
Claiborne Fox Jackson (April 4, 1806 – December 6, 1862) was an American politician of the Democratic Party in Missouri. He was elected as the 15th Governor of Missouri, serving from January 3, 1861, until July 31, 1861, when he was for ...
, who supported secession.
Jackson had successively married three Sappington daughters; Jane died of illness a few months after their marriage, and Louisa in 1838, likely of complications from childbirth, as her infant died, too. Jackson married Elizabeth Sappington, known as Eliza, that year. He was also in business with his and Marmaduke's father-in-law in his patent medicines. Jackson became involved in Democratic Party politics, serving 12 years in the State House, and was elected as Governor of Missouri in 1860, serving into 1861.
Once the war began, Marmaduke was a fierce
Union
Union commonly refers to:
* Trade union, an organization of workers
* Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets
Union may also refer to:
Arts and entertainment
Music
* Union (band), an American rock group
** ''Un ...
supporter, but his in-laws supported the Confederacy. (Jackson was deposed from the governorship by the legislature during the first year of the war, and Union forces occupied much of the state.)
Going against their father's wishes, four of Marmaduke's sons would fight for the South during the Civil War. Two of them died in the war.
Son Henry Hungerford Marmaduke served as a
gunner in the
Confederate Navy
The Confederate States Navy (CSN) was the naval branch of the Confederate States Armed Forces, established by an act of the Confederate States Congress on February 21, 1861. It was responsible for Confederate naval operations during the American ...
aboard the
ironclad CSS ''Virginia'' in its historic clash with the
USS ''Monitor''.
Son
John Sappington Marmaduke
John Sappington Marmaduke (March 14, 1833 – December 28, 1887) was an American politician and soldier. He served as the 25th governor of Missouri from 1885 until his death in 1887. During the American Civil War, he was a senior officer ...
, was promoted to the rank of general in the
Confederate States Army
The Confederate States Army, also called the Confederate Army or the Southern Army, was the military land force of the Confederate States of America (commonly referred to as the Confederacy) during the American Civil War (1861–1865), fighting ...
. He survived the war and, after the Reconstruction era, was active in Democratic Party politics. He was elected in 1884 as Missouri's 25th governor (serving 1885–1887).
Death
Marmaduke did not live to see the end of the Civil War. He died at his home on March 26, 1864. Despite his differences with his in-laws, his wife Lavinia, a Sappington daughter, ensured that he was buried at her father's family
Sappington Cemetery, in Saline County, Missouri.
His brother-in-law
Claiborne Jackson
Claiborne Fox Jackson (April 4, 1806 – December 6, 1862) was an American politician of the Democratic Party in Missouri. He was elected as the 15th Governor of Missouri, serving from January 3, 1861, until July 31, 1861, when he was forc ...
also died during the war, while in Little Rock, Arkansas, and was buried there. After the war, his family arranged to have his remains exhumed, and he was reinterred at the Sappington Cemetery.
Since 1967, the cemetery has been preserved as a State Historic Site as part of a program to recognize burial places of governors. Recognizing contributions of the many enslaved African Americans he held, Dr. Sappington had established separate land for their use as a burial ground. It became known as "Sappington Negro Cemetery." In 2014 the Sappington Cemetery State Historic Site was enlarged by authorization of the legislature to include this historic cemetery, located about one-quarter mile from the original family plot.
See also
*
List of governors of Missouri
The governor of Missouri is the head of government of the U.S. state of Missouri and the commander-in-chief of the Missouri National Guard. The governor has a duty to enforce state laws and the power to either approve or veto bills passed by ...
References
External links
Meredith Miles Marmaduke National Governors Association
The National Governors Association (NGA) is an American political organization founded in 1908. The association's members are the governors of the 55 states, territories and commonwealths. Members come to the association from across the politica ...
Meredith Miles Marmaduke The Political Graveyard
The Political Graveyard is a website and database that catalogues information on more than 277,000 American political figures and political families, along with other information. The name comes from the website's inclusion of burial locations o ...
Sappington-Marmaduke Family Papers, 1810-1941 Missouri Historical Society
The Missouri Historical Society was founded in St. Louis on August 11, 1866. Founding members created the historical society "for the purpose of saving from oblivion the early history of the city and state".
Organization
The Missouri Historica ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Marmaduke, Meredith Miles
1791 births
1864 deaths
19th-century American politicians
United States Army personnel of the War of 1812
Burials in Missouri
Democratic Party governors of Missouri
Lieutenant Governors of Missouri
People from Westmoreland County, Virginia
United States Army colonels
United States Marshals