Big man in congress, part 3

Dixon Lewis was an influential member of the U.S. Senate when he died in October 1848 at the relatively young age of 46. Having married into the politically powerful Elmore family, Lewis had a very successful legislative career.

As we saw previously, the patriarch of the Elmore clan, Revolutionary War General John Archer Elmore, served several years in the Alabama state house of representatives. Another Elmore in-law, Benjamin Fitzpatrick, was governor of the state and then a U.S. senator.

One of General Elmore’s numerous sons, Franklin Harper Elmore, was both a U.S. House and Senate member fr...