Joseph H. Acklen
Encyclopedia
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...
from Louisiana
Louisiana
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
.
Biography
Joseph Hayes Acklen was born in Nashville, TennesseeNashville, Tennessee
Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...
, to Adelicia
Adelicia Acklen
Adelicia Acklen was the widow of a plantation owner from Nashville, Tennessee and then an owner in her own right.-Biography:Adelicia Hayes Franklin Acklen Cheatham was born on March 15, 1817, in Nashville, Tennessee....
and Joseph Alexander Smith Acklen, a wealthy couple whose summer home
Belmont Mansion (Tennessee)
Belmont Mansion, also known as Acklen Hall, and originally known as Belle Monte, Belle Mont or Belmont, is a historic mansion located in Nashville, Tennessee on the campus of Belmont University that today functions as a museum....
was located in Nashville, while he also grew up on plantations in Louisiana. During the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
Joseph Hayes Acklen's parents sided with the Confederacy
Confederate States of America
The Confederate States of America was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by 11 Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S...
, and the father fled to the family's Louisiana plantation, where he died in 1863. Joseph Hayes Acklen was educated by private tutors. He attended Burlington Military College, near Burlington, New Jersey
Burlington, New Jersey
Burlington is a city in Burlington County, New Jersey, United States and a suburb of Philadelphia. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city population was 9,920....
, in 1864 and 1865, and graduated from two foreign institutions (École de Neuilly, Paris, and Swiss University, Vevey
Vevey
Vevey is a town in Switzerland in the canton Vaud, on the north shore of Lake Geneva, near Lausanne.It was the seat of the district of the same name until 2006, and is now part of the Riviera-Pays-d'Enhaut District...
). Joseph Hayes Acklen returned to the United States and graduated from Cumberland School of Law
Cumberland School of Law
Cumberland School of Law is an ABA accredited law school at Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama. The 11th oldest law school in the United States, it is 160 years old and has more than 11,000 graduates. Its alumni include two United States Supreme Court Justices; Nobel Peace Prize recipient...
, Lebanon, Tennessee
Lebanon, Tennessee
Lebanon is a city in Wilson County, Tennessee, in the United States. The population was 20,235 at the 2000 census. It serves as the county seat of Wilson County. Lebanon is located in middle Tennessee, approximately 25 miles east of downtown Nashville. Local residents have also called it...
, in 1871.
Acklen commenced practicing law in Nashville and later practiced in Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis is a city in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Shelby County. The city is located on the 4th Chickasaw Bluff, south of the confluence of the Wolf and Mississippi rivers....
, but abandoned the practice of law and moved to Louisiana to superintend the family's sugar plantations near Pattersonville (now Patterson
Patterson, Louisiana
Patterson is a small city in St. Mary Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 6,530 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Morgan City Micropolitan Statistical Area.-History:...
) in Saint Mary Parish
St. Mary Parish, Louisiana
St. Mary Parish is a parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana. The parish seat is Franklin. As of 2000, the population was 53,500.The Morgan City Micropolitan Statistical Area includes all of St. Mary Parish.-Geography:...
. He served as colonel
Colonel
Colonel , abbreviated Col or COL, is a military rank of a senior commissioned officer. It or a corresponding rank exists in most armies and in many air forces; the naval equivalent rank is generally "Captain". It is also used in some police forces and other paramilitary rank structures...
in the Louisiana Militia in 1876. In November of that year, claiming voting fraud
Electoral fraud
Electoral fraud is illegal interference with the process of an election. Acts of fraud affect vote counts to bring about an election result, whether by increasing the vote share of the favored candidate, depressing the vote share of the rival candidates or both...
, Acklen and other Democrats
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
objected to the reelection of Republican
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
Chester Bidwell Darrall
Chester Bidwell Darrall
Chester Bidwell Darrall was a Republican Congressman from Louisiana in the latter 19th Century.-Early life and military service:...
to represent Louisiana's 3rd congressional district
Louisiana's 3rd congressional district
Louisiana's 3rd congressional district is a congressional district in the U.S. state of Louisiana. The district surrounds the southern tier of the Greater New Orleans Area. The district contains large portions of southeastern and south central Louisiana, including River Parishes and East Acadiana...
; after protracted settlement of the various controversies surrounding the 1876 presidential election, on 1878 February 20 Darrall left the seat and was replaced by Acklen, for the remaining half of the Forty-fifth Congress. Acklen was reelected, to the Forty-sixth Congress, and served from 1878 February 20 to 1881 March 3. He was not a candidate for renomination in 1880, and Darrall regained the seat for one term (the Forty-seventh Congress
47th United States Congress
The Forty-seventh United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, consisting of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, D.C. from March 4, 1881 to March 4, 1883, during the administration...
). On leaving Congress, Acklen declined an appointment by President Rutherford B. Hayes
Rutherford B. Hayes
Rutherford Birchard Hayes was the 19th President of the United States . As president, he oversaw the end of Reconstruction and the United States' entry into the Second Industrial Revolution...
to be a judge on the Federal district court of Louisiana
United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana
The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana is a federal trial court based in New Orleans. Like all U.S...
and instead resumed the practice of law, in Franklin, Louisiana
Franklin, Louisiana
Franklin is a city in and the parish seat of St. Mary Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 8,354 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Morgan City Micropolitan Statistical Area.-History:...
. He was an unsuccessful candidate for election in 1882 to the Forty-eighth Congress.
He returned to Nashville, in 1885 and continued the practice of law.
He served as chairman of the Davidson County, Tennessee
Davidson County, Tennessee
Davidson County is a county located in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of 2010, the population was 626,681. Its county seat is Nashville.In 1963, the City of Nashville and the Davidson County government merged, so the county government is now known as the "Metropolitan Government of Nashville and...
, Democratic executive committee from 1886 to 1894. He served as member of the Nashville City Council from 1900 to 1904. He served as president of the Tennessee State bar association in 1901 and 1902. He served as general insurance counsel of Tennessee from 1903 to 1907. He was State warden of the Tennessee department of game, fish, and forestry from 1903 to 1913. He served as general counsel of the National Association of Game and Fish Commissioners of the United States from 1905 to 1912, when he was elected president of the Association. He was Middle Tennessee
Middle Tennessee
Middle Tennessee is a distinct portion of the state of Tennessee, delineated according to state law as the 41 counties in the Middle Grand Division of Tennessee....
counsel for the St. Louis & San Francisco Railroad from 1907 to 1911. From 1913 to 1914, he served under Democrat U.S. President Woodrow Wilson
Woodrow Wilson
Thomas Woodrow Wilson was the 28th President of the United States, from 1913 to 1921. A leader of the Progressive Movement, he served as President of Princeton University from 1902 to 1910, and then as the Governor of New Jersey from 1911 to 1913...
as chief game warden of the United States. Acklen was author of numerous articles on ornithology
Ornithology
Ornithology is a branch of zoology that concerns the study of birds. Several aspects of ornithology differ from related disciplines, due partly to the high visibility and the aesthetic appeal of birds...
, fish culture, forestry
Forestry
Forestry is the interdisciplinary profession embracing the science, art, and craft of creating, managing, using, and conserving forests and associated resources in a sustainable manner to meet desired goals, needs, and values for human benefit. Forestry is practiced in plantations and natural stands...
, and field sports. He served as chairman of the State central committee on the Tennessee constitutional convention from 1923 to 1927.
Acklen died in Nashville on 1938 September 28. He is interred there in Mount Olivet Cemetery
Mount Olivet Cemetery (Nashville)
Mount Olivet Cemetery is a 250-acre cemetery located in Nashville, Tennessee.Mount Olivet has been continuously operated since its establishment in 1856. It serves as the final resting place for many of Middle Tennessee's political and business leaders, including several former governors of...
. His family's Nashville property, the Belmont Mansion
Belmont Mansion (Tennessee)
Belmont Mansion, also known as Acklen Hall, and originally known as Belle Monte, Belle Mont or Belmont, is a historic mansion located in Nashville, Tennessee on the campus of Belmont University that today functions as a museum....
and its grounds,now forms a large part of the campus of Belmont University
Belmont University
Belmont University is a private, coeducational, liberal arts university located in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. It is the largest Christian university in Tennessee and the second largest private university in the state, behind nearby Vanderbilt University.-Belmont Mansion:Belmont Mansion...
, where the home continues as a museum. It is on the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
.