Hopkins Lacy Turney was a Democratic U.S. Representative

United States House of Representatives

The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...

 and United States Senator from Tennessee

Tennessee

Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. It has a population of 6,346,105, making it the nation's 17th-largest state by population, and covers , making it the 36th-largest by total land area...

.

Biography

Turney was born in the Smith County settlement of Dixon Springs, Tennessee

Dixon Springs, Tennessee

Dixon Springs is an unincorporated community in Smith County, Tennessee, United States.Once a thriving area between Carthage and Hartsville, the community is still quaint with many antebellum homes and significant cemeteries of early settlers in the area, including that of Col. William Martin,...

. As a youth, he was apprenticed to a tailor

Tailor

A tailor is a person who makes, repairs, or alters clothing professionally, especially suits and men's clothing.Although the term dates to the thirteenth century, tailor took on its modern sense in the late eighteenth century, and now refers to makers of men's and women's suits, coats, trousers,...

. He served in the Seminole War in 1818. Subsequent to this he studied law

Law

Law is a system of rules and guidelines which are enforced through social institutions to govern behavior, wherever possible. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus...

, and passed the bar

Bar (law)

Bar in a legal context has three possible meanings: the division of a courtroom between its working and public areas; the process of qualifying to practice law; and the legal profession.-Courtroom division:...

 examination and began a practice in Jasper, Tennessee

Jasper, Tennessee

Jasper is a town in Marion County, Tennessee. The population was 3,214 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Marion County.Jasper is part of the Chattanooga, TN–GA Metropolitan Statistical Area.-History:...

. Later he moved to Winchester, Tennessee

Winchester, Tennessee

Winchester is a city in and the county seat of Franklin County, Tennessee, United States. It is part of the Tullahoma, Tennessee Micropolitan Statistical Area.- History :...

, continuing the practice of law. He was first elected to the Tennessee House of Representatives

Tennessee House of Representatives

The Tennessee House of Representatives is the lower house of the Tennessee General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Tennessee.-Constitutional requirements:...

 in 1828.

He was then elected to the U.S. House, serving three terms in that body from 1837 to 1843, the 25th through 27th Congresses. Subsequent to this he was elected by the Tennessee General Assembly

Tennessee General Assembly

The Tennessee General Assembly is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Tennessee.-Constitutional structure:According to the Tennessee State Constitution of 1870, the General Assembly is a bicameral legislature and consists of a Senate of thirty-three members and a House of Representatives of...

 to the U.S. Senate, returning to Washington, DC after a two-year hiatus and serving one six-year term in that body, where he was chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Retrenchment for four years and the U.S. Senate Committee on Patents and the Patent Office for two before returning to his law practice, which he engaged in until shortly before his death. He is buried in Winchester.

External links

• Hopkins L. Turney at Find A Grave
  Find A Grave
  Find a Grave is a commercial website providing free access and input to an online database of cemetery records. It was founded in 1998 as a DBA and incorporated in 2000.-History:...