Jonas March Tebbetts (January 5, 1820 – January 16, 1913) was an American salesman, reporter, lawyer, prosecutor, judge, abolitionist, unionist, politician, and judge in the United States.

Early life, education, and career

He was born in

Rochester, New Hampshire Rochester is a city in Strafford County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 32,492 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of municipalities in New Hampshire, 6th most populous city in New Hampshire. In ad ...

. He studied at

Phillips Exeter Academy Phillips Exeter Academy (often called Exeter or PEA) is an Independent school, independent, co-educational, college-preparatory school in Exeter, New Hampshire. Established in 1781, it is America's sixth-oldest boarding school and educates an es ...

, and in 1838, he enrolled at Western University (later the

University of Pittsburgh The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The university is composed of seventeen undergraduate and graduate schools and colle ...

) in

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

, but "his knowledge in various subjects resulted in his becoming an instructor of English, ancient history, and Greek and Latin languages".

Legal and political career

By 1843, Tebbetts had established himself in the legal community of

Crawford County, Arkansas Crawford County is a county located in the Ozarks region of the U.S. state of Arkansas. As of the 2020 census, its population was 60,133. The county seat and largest city is Van Buren. Crawford County was formed on October 18, 1820, from the ...

, well enough to be named secretary of a committee of the county bar association convened to draft a statement on the murder of another lawyer in the county, and of a committee of the county Democratic Party to nominate representatives for the state legislature. In August 1850, Tebbetts was himself elected to the

Arkansas House of Representatives The Arkansas House of Representatives is the lower house of the Arkansas General Assembly, the state legislature of the US state of Arkansas. The House has 100 members elected from an equal number of constituencies across the state. Each distr ...

, serving from November 1850 to January 1851, and "earning a reputation as a pro-Union, antislavery Democrat". During the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

, Tebbetts was pro-Union, which led to threats on his life, causing him and his family to flee from Arkansas, living thereafter for periods in Missouri and Kentucky.

Personal life and death

Tebbetts married Matilda Winlock, a student at Fayetteville Female Seminary, in 1847. They lived in Fayetteville, Arkansas where they built Headquarters House in 1853 and 1854. They had several children. He became a follower of Alexander Campbell's disciples of Christ. Headquarters House became a Confederate headquarters and then a Union headquarters. Also now known as the Tebbetts House, it later became home to the Washington County Historical Society. Tebbetts became a widower in 1892, while his family was living in Kentucky, and moved to the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, home of his daughter, Lily, where he died at the age of 83. A collection of his papers are part of the Arkansas Digital Archives.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tebetts, Jonas March 1820 births 1913 deaths University of Pittsburgh alumni Phillips Exeter Academy alumni Democratic Party members of the Arkansas House of Representatives People from Rochester, New Hampshire 19th-century American judges People from Crawford County, Arkansas Lawyers from Pittsburgh Arkansas lawyers Politicians from Pittsburgh 19th-century American lawyers 19th-century members of the Arkansas General Assembly