Daniel C. Trewhitt

Daniel Coffee Trewhitt (January 29, 1823 – January 4, 1891) was an American attorney, judge, and politician. He served one term (1859–1861) in the Tennessee House of Representatives, where he was one of the few state legislators to oppose secession on the eve of the Civil War. He represented Hamilton County at the pro-Union East Tennessee Convention, and afterward fought for the Union Army. He served as judge of the state's second chancery division from 1864 to 1870, and judge of the state's fourth circuit court from 1878 to 1891.

Early life

Trewhitt was born along Daddys Creek in what was then Morgan County, Tennessee, but is now part of Cumberland County. He was one of seventeen children of Levi Trewhitt, a county clerk and attorney, and Harriet (Lavender) Trewhitt. In 1836, he moved with his family to Cleveland, Tennessee, where he attended the Oak Grove Academy from 1837 to 1840. He afterward read law under his father, and was licensed to practice in 1847.

After receiving his law license, Trewhitt commenced practice in Harrison, Tennessee, which at the time was the county seat of Hamilton County. He ran unsuccessfully for the Tennessee Senate in 1857, losing to J.C. Burch.

Running on the pro-Union Opposition Party ticket, Trewhitt was elected to Hamilton County's seat in the Tennessee House of Representatives in 1859. Though Southern Democrats had gained control of the state government, Trewhitt joined William H. Wisener, Roderick R. Butler, and Dewitt Clinton Senter in providing persistent opposition to secession in the state legislature during the months leading up the Civil War. He was a delegate to both the Knoxville and Greeneville sessions of the East Tennessee Convention, and represented Hamilton County on the convention's powerful business committee. The convention sought to create a new state in East Tennessee that would remain in the Union. Trewhitt was elected to Hamilton County's seat in the Tennessee Senate in August 1861, but the state having seceded, he instead fled to Kentucky to join the Union Army. Despite pleas for his release, he died in a Confederate prison in Mobile, Alabama, in 1862. His death sparked considerable outrage among East Tennessee's Unionists. In May 1866, Trewhitt and dozens of other East Tennessee Unionists, frustrated over the state legislature's inability to pass a more restrictive franchise bill, held a convention in Knoxville that once again called for East Tennessee to break away and form a separate state.

In 1864, Johnson appointed Trewhitt chancellor (judge) of the state's second chancery division, which included Chattanooga and surrounding areas of southeastern Tennessee. He held this position until 1870, when the new state constitution restored the voting rights of former Confederates, and he was defeated in his bid for reelection by David M. Key. During this period, Trewhitt staunchly supported prohibition, going so far as to state, "the greatest battle of the age is now being fought, headed on the one side by Satan in the form of intoxicating liquor, on the other hand by Christianity, morality, sobriety, and decency." He was the Republican nominee for the 3rd district seat in Congress in 1882, but was defeated by the Democratic incumbent, George Dibrell. He was, however, reelected to a second term on the fourth circuit court in 1886. He is buried in Chattanooga's Forest Hills Cemetery.

Family

Trewhitt married Mary Melissa Winnee in Gwinnett County, Georgia, in 1841. They had four children: Thomas, Mary Jane, William, and Martha (William and Martha died in childhood). After his first wife died in 1861, he married Mary Melissa Hunter on July 4, 1865. They also had four children: Addison, Alonzo, Paul, and Ellen.