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David Hillis (politician)

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David Hillis
7th Lieutenant Governor of Indiana
In office
December 6, 1837 – December 9, 1840
GovernorDavid Wallace
Preceded byDavid Wallace
Succeeded bySamuel Hall
Personal details
Born1785
Washington County, Pennsylvania
DiedJuly 8, 1845(1845-07-08) (aged 59–60)
Madison, Indiana
Political partyWhig

David Hillis (1785 – July 8, 1845) was an American politician who served as the seventh Lieutenant Governor of Indiana from 1837 to 1840.[1]

Hillis was born in Washington County, Pennsylvania. He settled in Indiana and served in the War of 1812 as a lieutenant in a mounted ranger company under Captain Williamson Dunn. A Whig, Hillis was a representative for Jefferson County in the Indiana House of Representatives beginning in 1823. In 1832, Hillis ran for a seat in the Indiana Senate, defeating Williamson Dunn, the former captain of the ranger company Hillis served in. In 1837, Indiana Democrats tried to encourage Hillis to run against David Wallace for the Whig nomination in the race. Hillis declined to contest the Whig nomination and later became the Whig candidate for Lieutenant Governor that same year. After being elected to the office of Lieutenant Governor, Hillis resigned his seat in the Senate and was succeeded by Dunn. Hillis served as Lieutenant Governor under Wallace from 1837 to 1840, serving during the Panic of 1837 and amid a controversy within state politics over internal improvements.[2][3][4][5]

David Hillis was the father of David Burke Hillis, born in Jefferson County in 1835. David Burke Hillis was a medical doctor and merchant who settled in Keokuk, Iowa and served in the Civil War first as aide-de-camp to Iowa Governor Samuel J. Kirkwood and then as second colonel of the 17th Iowa Infantry Regiment.[6]

References

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  1. ^ "Lt. Governor: Previous Lt. Governors". In.gov. Retrieved 2016-12-11.
  2. ^ "Muster Roll of Capt. Williamson Dunn's Company of Mounted Rangers". INGenWeb.
  3. ^ Messages and papers relating to the administration of David Wallace, Governor of Indiana, 1837-1840. Indianapolis. 1963.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  4. ^ Lemmon, D. F. (1901). Ancient Capital of the State of Indiana: Corydon, Harrison County (PDF).
  5. ^ Woollen, William Wesley (1883). Biographical and historical sketches of early Indiana.
  6. ^ Stuart, Addison (1865). Iowa colonels and regiments: being a history of Iowa regiments in the war of the rebellion.