Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 09.djvu/321

 SETTLE

SEVEltAKCE

system of the state. He was judge of the supe- rior court of North Carolina, 1882-52, and a trustee of the University of North Carolina, 1826- 57. He died in Eockingham county, N.C., Aug. 5, 1857.

SETTLE, Thomas, jurist, was born in Rock- ingham county, N.C., Jan. 23, 1831 ; son of Thomas Settle (1789-1857). He was graduated at the University of North Carolina, A.B., 1850; studied law with Judge Richmund M. Pearson, and was admitted to the bar in 1854. For a short time he was private secretary to Gov. David S. Reid (q.v.). He was a member of the North Carolina house of commons, 1854-59, and speaker, 1859 ; was presidential elector on the Buchanan and Breckinridge ticket, 1856, and was elected delegate to tlie proposed union convention in February, 1861, but the convention never met, owing to the defeat of the purpose by a popular vote. He married. May 26, 1859, Mary, daughter of Tyre and Margaret (Bynum) Glenn, of Yadkin county, N.C. Although opposed to secession he entered the C. S. army as captain in the 13th North Carolina volunteers, enlisting for twelve months, and on his return to Rockingham county, he was elected solicitor of the fourth judicial circuit. He was a delegate to the Republican convention held in Raleigh, Oct. 12, 1865 ; state senator and speaker of the senate. 1865 ; and judge of the state supreme court, 1868-71. He was appointed envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to Peru, Feb. 18, 1871, which position he held but one year, resigning on account of ill-health ; was president of the Republican National conven- tion of 1872 ; was the defeated Republican can- didate for representative from the fifth district of North Carolina in the 43d congress, 1872 ; was again associate justice of the state supreme court, 1872-76, and was the unsuccessful Republican candidate for governor in 1876, Zebulon B. Vance being elected by 10,000 majority, and Settle receiv- ing 5000 more votes than the other candidate on the ticket. He was judge of the U.S. district court for the Northern district of Florida. 1877-88. He died in Greensboro, N.C, Dec. 1, 1888.

SETTLE, Thomas, representative, was born in Rockingham county, N.C, IMarch 10, 1865; son of Thomas Settle, q.v. (1831-1888), and Mary (Glenn) Settle. He was educated in the public schools of North Carolina and of Florida, and at Georgetown college, D.C He studied law under his father, Judge Robert P. Dick and Judge Dillard in Greensboro, N.C, and was admitted to the bar in October, 1885. He was elected by the Republican party solicitor for the ninety-fourth judicial district of North Caro- lina, August, 1886 ; was Republican representa- tive from the fifth district of North Carolina in the 53d and 54th congresses, 1893-97, and was

a defeated candidate for re-election in 1896. He was married, Nov. 18, 1897, to Eliza Augusta, daughter of William and Florence (Wright) Pot- ter of Wilmington, N.C.

SEUTER, De Witt Clinton, governor of Ten- nessee, was born in McMinn county, Tenn., March 26, 1834 ; son of the Rev. William T. and Nancy (White) Seuter, and grandson of the Rev. George White of Virginia. He was educated for the law but did not enter its practice, as he was elected by the Whig party to represent his county in the state legislature in 1857, 1859 and 1861, serving, 1858-63. He was married to Har- riet, daughter of Gen. P. ^M. Seuter of Granger county in 1859. He was one of the Union men of Eastern Tennessee imprisoned by the Confed- erate government and released on parole in 1865, his offence being disloyalty in attending as a delegate the Union conventions at Knoxville and at Greenville. He was a state senator, 1865-69, and speaker of tlie senate, 1867-69 ; took an active part in the campaign for Grant and Colfax in 1868, being an elector on the ticket, and as pres- ident of the senate became (Feb. 25, 1869) gov- ernor of Tennessee to complete the unexpired term of William G. Brown- low, who resigned in 1869 to take his seat in the U.S. sen- ate. Governor Seuter was re-elected in August, 1869, by the Democrats, his elec- tion being due to his having adopted a more liberal civil policy than that carried out by his predecessor. He was instrumental in having the state debt, incurred during the civil war, recognized, a new constitution adopted for the state government, and the Ku Klux disturbances abated. His term as governor expired, Oct. 10, 1871. He was pres- ident of the Cincinnati, Cumberland Gulf and Charleston railroad, 1865-66. He died near Mor- ristown, Tenn., in June, 1898.

SEVERANCE, Luther, diplomatist, was born in Montague, Mass., Oct. 29, 1797 ; son of Elihu and Tryphena (Gunn) Severance ; grandson of Moses and Joanna (French) Severance, and a descendant of John and Abigail (Kimball) Sever- ance, who came from Ipswich, England, to New England in 1634, settling first in Boston, and in 1638 in Salisbury, Mass. His parents removed to Cazenovia, N.Y., in 1799, and he learned the printer's trade in Peterboro, N.Y., 1813-18. He worked in the ofiice of the Aurora, Philadelphia, 1819-20 ; in Washington, D.C, 1821-24, where he wrote editorials for the National Intelligencer, and in 1825 founded the Kennebec Journal at Augusta, Maine, in partnership with Russel Eaton, of which paper he was a proprietor and editor until 1850. He was married, Oct. 12, 1827, to Anna,