Joshua Barton (July 28, 1792 – June 30, 1823) was the first

Missouri Secretary of State The people below have served as the Secretary of State of the U.S. state of Missouri. List Gallery File:Warren E. Hearnes.jpg, Warren E. Hearnes File:James C. Kirkpatrick.jpg, James C. Kirkpatrick File:Rep Roy Blunt.jpg, Roy Blunt File:Mattb ...

. He was involved in three duels with prominent Missouri politicians before being killed in a duel. Barton, a younger brother of Senator David Barton, was born in

Jefferson County, Tennessee Jefferson County is an exurban county located in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 census, the population was 54,683. Its county seat is Dandridge. Jefferson County is part of the Morristown Metropolitan Statistical Area with neigh ...

. He moved to

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

in 1809. He studied law under

Rufus Easton Rufus Easton (May 4, 1774 – July 5, 1834) was an American attorney, politician, and postmaster. He served as a non-voting delegate to the United States House of Representatives from the Missouri Territory prior to statehood. After statehood he b ...

, who was Missouri Territory's second representative to Congress. After being admitted to the bar, he and

Edward Bates Edward Bates (September 4, 1793 – March 25, 1869) was a lawyer and politician. He represented Missouri in the US House of Representatives and served as the U.S. Attorney General under President Abraham Lincoln. A member of the influential ...

, Missouri's first attorney general, formed a law firm. Barton was the first Secretary of State, but resigned to become district attorney of St. Louis, Missouri.

Duelist

In 1816, he fought a duel with Thomas Hempstead, brother of

Edward Hempstead Edward Hempstead (June 3, 1780 – August 10, 1817) was an American lawyer, pioneer, and one of the early settlers in the new Louisiana Purchase in 1805. Born in New London, Connecticut, Hempstead was the delegate in the U.S. House for the Mi ...

, Missouri's first representative to Congress. Bates was his second. Thomas Hart Benton was Hempstead's second. The duel ended in no bloodshed. In 1817, he was second to

Charles Lucas Sir Charles Lucas, 1613 to 28 August 1648, was a professional soldier from Essex, who served as a Royalist cavalry leader during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. Taken prisoner at the end of the First English Civil War in March 1646, he was rel ...

in two duels with Benton. After having been wounded the first time, Lucas was killed during the second duel. In 1823, David Barton opposed the reappointment of William Rector as Surveyor General for Missouri, Illinois and Arkansas, saying that Rector was hiring his relatives as surveyors and overpaying his surveyors. Rector had overseen the surveying the

Louisiana Purchase The Louisiana Purchase (french: Vente de la Louisiane, translation=Sale of Louisiana) was the acquisition of the territory of Louisiana by the United States from the French First Republic in 1803. In return for fifteen million dollars, or app ...

, including the establishment of the Beginning Point of the Louisiana Purchase Survey. William Rector had previously been hired to survey the location route of the Buffalo Trace before an Indian treaty line was established. Joshua Barton made the charges in a letter signed "Philo" to the weekly newspaper the ''St. Louis Republican''. Rector's brother, Thomas Rector, contacted the paper and found out that Barton had written the letter and challenged him to a duel. They met at 6 p.m. on June 30, 1823, on Bloody Island (where the previous duels had occurred). Barton was killed instantly, while Thomas Rector was not hurt. Rector died in 1825 in a knife fight in St. Louis. President

James Monroe James Monroe ( ; April 28, 1758July 4, 1831) was an American statesman, lawyer, diplomat, and Founding Father who served as the fifth president of the United States from 1817 to 1825. A member of the Democratic-Republican Party, Monroe was ...

did not reappoint William Rector.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Barton, Joshua 1792 births 1823 deaths Secretaries of State of Missouri Politicians from St. Louis Deaths by firearm in Missouri Duelling fatalities American politicians killed in duels 19th-century American politicians