Gilmer, John Adams

GILMER, John Adams, a Representative from North Carolina; born near Greensboro, Guilford County, N.C., November 4, 1805; attended the public schools and an academy in Greensboro, N.C.; taught school; studied law; was admitted to the bar in 1832 and began practice in Greensboro, N.C.; county solicitor; member of the State senate 1846-1856; defeated as the Whig candidate for Governor of North Carolina in 1856; elected as the candidate of the American Party to the Thirty-fifth Congress and reelected as a candidate of the Opposition Party to the Thirty-sixth Congress (March 4, 1857-March 3, 1861); chairman, Committee on Elections (Thirty-sixth Congress); member of the Second Confederate Congress in 1864; delegate to the Union National Convention of Conservatives at Philadelphia in 1866; died in Greensboro, N.C., May 14, 1868; interment in Presbyterian Church Cemetery.