Dargan, Edmund Strother

DARGAN, Edmund Strother, a Representative from Alabama; born near Wadesboro, Montgomery County, N.C., April 15, 1805; pursued preparatory studies at home; studied law; was admitted to the bar in Wadesboro in 1829; moved to Washington, Ala., where he commenced the practice of law and was for several years a justice of the peace; moved to Montgomery in 1833 and to Mobile in 1841; judge of the circuit court, Mobile district, in 1841 and 1842; served in the State senate in 1844; mayor of Mobile in 1844; elected as a Democrat to the Twenty-ninth Congress (March 4, 1845-March 3, 1847); did not seek renomination in 1846; associate justice of the State supreme court in 1847, and in 1849 became chief justice; resigned in December 1852 and resumed the practice of law; delegate to the State convention in 1861 and voted for the ordinance of secession; Member of the first Confederate House of Representatives; resumed the practice of law in Mobile, Ala., and died there on November 22, 1879; interment in Magnolia Cemetery.